Automapper in WebAPI Controller

Question

I have a Car WebAPI controller method as below - note _carService.GetCarData returns a collection of CarDataDTO objects

[HttpGet]
[Route("api/Car/Retrieve/{carManufacturerID}/{year}")]
public IEnumerable<CarData> RetrieveTest(int carManufacturerID, int year)
{
    //Mapper.Map<>
    var cars = _carService.GetCarData(carManufacturerID, year);
    //var returnData = Mapper.Map<CarData, CarDataDTO>();
    return cars;
}

CarData is a WebAPI model I have created.

public class CarData
{
    public string Model { get; set; }
    public string Colour { get; set; }
    //other properties removed from brevity
}

CarDataDTO is a class I have created that models the DB Table - I retrieve the Data via a stored proc called with dapper.

public class CarDataDTO
{
    public int CarID { get; set; }
    public int CarManufacturerID { get; set; }
    public int Year { get; set; }
    public string Model { get; set; }
    public string Colour { get; set; }
    //other properties removed from brevity
}

If I have a breakpoint on the var cars line in my API controller I can see everything returned as expected and I have a collection of CarDTO objects. However, I don't require the WebAPI to return the CarDataID, CarID or Year which is why I created the CarData API model.

How can I easily use Automapper to only map the properties I am concerned with?

Do I need something set up in my WebApiConfig class?

Your base model and DTO model are backwards - the DTO class should be what you transfer over the wire, and the non-DTO class should represent the actual DB object — Mark Z.
– Mark Z., Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 15:59

Jinish · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-15 14:51:54Z

46

You could install the AutoMapper nuget package from: AutoMapper And then declare a class like:

public class AutoMapperConfig
{
    public static void Initialize()
    {
        Mapper.Initialize((config) =>
        {
            config.CreateMap<Source, Destination>().ReverseMap();
        });
    }
}

And then call this in your Global.asax like this:

public class WebApiApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        AutoMapperConfig.Initialize();
        GlobalConfiguration.Configure(WebApiConfig.Register);
    }
}

And if you would like to ignore certain properties then you could do something like this:

Mapper.CreateMap<Source, Destination>()
  .ForMember(dest => dest.SomePropToIgnore, opt => opt.Ignore())

And the way you use this for mapping is:

DestinationType obj = Mapper.Map<SourceType, DestinationType>(sourceValueObject);
List<DestinationType> listObj = Mapper.Map<List<SourceType>, List<DestinationType>>(enumarableSourceValueObject);

edited Mar 15, 2017 at 14:51

answered Mar 15, 2017 at 14:23

Jinish

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2 Comments

Ctrl_Alt_Defeat Over a year ago

Hi Jinish - how would this then be used in the actual API Method?

SamuraiJack Over a year ago

Finally, an answer that helped me get it working! Thanks!

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