Automapper configuration setup - entity-framework

Question

I am using entity framework for my DAL and want to convert entities objects to business objects and vice versa. This is taking place in my BLL project. I am hoping to setup automapper in my BLL project to take... let say Customer.cs auto generated by EF and convert it to CustomerWithDifferentDetail.cs (my business obj)
I attempted to create an AutoMapperBLLConfig.cs under BLL project with the following code:
public static void Configure()
{
Mapper.Initialize(cfg =>
{
cfg.AddProfile(new CustomerProfile());
});
}
public class CustomerProfile : Profile
{
protected override void Configure()
{
var config = new MapperConfiguration(cfg =>
{
cfg.CreateMap<Customer, CustomerWithDifferentDetail>();
cfg.CreateMap<CustomerWithDifferentDetail, Customer>();
});
}
}
Then I created CustermerService.cs under BLL project with the following code to test if it's working:
public void CustomerToCustomerWithDifferentDetail()
{
AutoMapperBLLConfiguration.Configure();
Customer source = new Customer
{
Account = 1234,
Purchase_Quantity = 100,
Date = "05/05/2016",
Total = 500
};
Models.CustomerWithDifferentDetail testCustomerDTO = Mapper.Map<Customer, Models.CustomerWithDifferentDetail>(source)
}
I get this Error:
Missing type map configuration or unsupported mapping.
I am not sure what I did wrong. I don't have a start_up or global.aspx. This is a class library. I'm not sure what I'm missing or did wrong.
I have a separate project calls Models which hold all the business objects including CustomerWithDifferentDetail.cs. In this case, CustomerWithDifferentDetail only has two properties: Account and Total. If mapped, it should give me Account = 1234 and Total = 500 - basically the same data as entity object just in different shape.
======================= UPDATE=================================
AutoMapperBLLConfig.cs - stay the same as noted above
CustomerProfile.cs
public class CustomerProfile : Profile
{
protected override void Configure()
{
var config = new MapperConfiguration(cfg =>
{
cfg.CreateMap<Customer, CustomerWithDifferentDetail>().ReverseMap(); //cut it down to one line with ReverseMap
});
}
CreateMap<Customer, CustomerWithDifferentDetail>().ReverseMap(); //missed this one line before; hence, the error
}
CustomerService.cs
static CustomerService()
{
AutoMapperBLLConfiguration.Configure(); //per #Erik Philips suggestion, move this call to a static constructor
}
public void CustomerToCustomerWithDifferentDetail()
{
Customer source = new Customer
{
Account = 1234,
Purchase_Quantity = 100,
Date = "05/05/2016",
Total = 500
};
Models.CustomerWithDifferentDetail testCustomerDTO = Mapper.Map<Customer, Models.CustomerWithDifferentDetail>(source);
}
Result: my testCustomerDTO returns exactly what I expected.

Answer 1

Since you are using the instance method of AutoMapper:
var config = new MapperConfiguration(cfg =>
{
cfg.CreateMap<Customer, CustomerWithDifferentDetail>();
cfg.CreateMap<CustomerWithDifferentDetail, Customer>();
});
Then you need to use the instance for mapping:
Models.CustomerWithDifferentDetail testCustomerDTO =
config.Map<Customer, Models.CustomerWithDifferentDetail>(source)
I personally haven't really thought this through in my applications (I need to move to the instance method instead of the static method). (Migrating from status API).
Off the cuff, based on your code, I'd probably do something like:
public class PersonDataObject
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class PersonBusinessObject
{
private readonly MapperConfiguration _mapper;
public string Name { get; set; }
PersonBusinessObject()
{
_mapper = new MapperConfiguration(cfg =>
{
cfg.CreateMap<PersonDataObject,PersonBusinessObject>();
});
}
public static PersonBusinessObject MapFrom(PersonDataObject data)
{
return _mapper.Map<PersonBusinessObject>(data);
}
}
Then you can simply:
PersonDataObject data = new PersonDataObject();
PersonBusinessObject business = PersonBusinessObject.MapFrom(data);