Should foreign Id properties be mapped from Model to Dto?

Question

If I have the following model:

public class Customer
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public int CustomerTypeId {get; set;}
    public virtual CustomerType {get; set;}
}

Should the Dto exclude foreign Id's to look like this:

public class CustomerDto
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public virtual CustomerType {get; set;}
}

And when using Graphdiff to update the object graph, will EF know that CustomerType maps to CustomerTypeId?

Answer 1

Yes, you need to use it but you can avoid virtual member declaration. If you use AutoMapper , then the mapping will be done automatically. So, your Dto will look like this:

public class CustomerDto
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public int CustomerTypeId {get; set;}
}

And the mapping:

Mapper.CreateMap<Customer, CustomerDto>();
Mapper.CreateMap<CustomerDto, Customer>();