ORM = Object Relational Mapping Put as simply as I can put it, it's an abstraction layer in front of SQL. The general logic (which I object to, though I still

ORM = Object Relational Mapping Put as simply as I can put it, it's an abstraction layer in front of SQL. The general logic (which I object to, though I still prefer ORM-based development) is that most of your class Objects relate to how you would store them in a database. Your 'User' object has a first name, a last name, a password, etc., which all map neatly to database records. So, instead of doing "INSERT INTO users firstname, lastname, password) VALUES ('foo', 'bar', 'baz');", you create a user object: User.firstname = 'foo' User.lastname = 'bar' User.password = 'baz' User.save()