Many people have asked over the last few years if it was possible to use SubSonic without Active Record. They didn't like the idea that every object could interact with the database and wanted a more "locked-down" approach. I offered some interim templates to get around this, but with version 2.1 we've advanced this idea further and included the ability to override the object base class entirely.
Services, Managers, Helpers, Repositories
There just really isn't a good word for this class but I think people have come to embrace the word "Repository" to refer to your database/data store. Hopefully we can agree on the concept here rather than the wording - if not let me know and I'll do my best to duck responsibility...
If you like ActiveRecord - no worries, it's still our default. If you are curious and want to know more about this Repository thing and how it works - you can watch this screencast.
