How do I use automapper for objects with multiple XmlElementAttributes?

Question

I'm having problems setting up automapper for objects generated in a .cs file from a .xsd.

Not really sure how to go about solving the issue when an object has multiple attributes as shown below:

Been looking at TypeConverters etc, but not really sure how to properly set it up. Been using automapper for a while now and having no issues as long as there's not multiple attributes connected to one member.

public partial class customerInfo {

    private object itemField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("customerInfoBasic", typeof(customerInfoBasic))]
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("customerInfoSimple", typeof(customerInfoSimple))]
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("customerInfoEnhanced", typeof(customerInfoEnhanced))]
    public object Item {
        get {
            return this.itemField;
        }
        set {
            this.itemField = value;
        }
    }
}

public partial class customerInfoBasic{

    private string nameField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public string name {
        get {
            return this.nameField;
        }
        set {
            this.nameField= value;
        }
    }
}

public partial class customerInfoSimple{

    private string nameField;
    private string idField;


    /// <remarks/>
    public string name {
        get {
            return this.nameField;
        }
        set {
            this.nameField= value;
        }
    }

    public string id {
        get {
            return this.idField;
        }
        set {
            this.idField= value;
        }
    }
}

public partial class customerInfoEnhanced{

    private string nameField;
    private string idField;
    private string ageField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public string name {
        get {
            return this.nameField;
        }
        set {
            this.nameField= value;
        }
    }

    public string id {
        get {
            return this.idField;
        }
        set {
            this.idField= value;
        }
    }

    public string age {
        get {
            return this.ageField;
        }
        set {
            this.ageField= value;
        }
    }
}

The issue I have is that I don't know how to set it up so customerInfo gets correctly mapped depending on some value in "Info".

For example, if "Info" contains "age" and "id" it should be mapped to customerInfoEnhanced etc.

public static void AddSessionTransformationMappings(IMapperConfiguration cfg)
{
    cfg.AllowNullCollections = true;

    cfg.CreateMap<IEnumerable<Info>, customerInfoList>()
        .ForMember(x => x.customerInfo, x => x.MapFrom(y => y));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfo>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Item, x => x.MapFrom(y => y));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfoBasic>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Name, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.name));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfoSimple>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Name, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.name))
        .ForMember(x => x.Id, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.id));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfoEnhanced>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Name, x => x.MapFrom(y => y))
        .ForMember(x => x.Id, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.id))
        .ForMember(x => x.Age, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.age));
}

Here's the code for the serializer aswell:

var output = provider.Transform(new List<Info> { input });

customerInfoList actual = null;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(customerInfoList));
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
    serializer.Serialize(ms, output);
    ms.Position = 0;
    actual = (customerInfoList)serializer.Deserialize(ms);
}

If I set .ForMember(x => x.customerInfo, x => x.MapFrom(y => (Object)null)); the code works and "actual" gives me a list with item = null as expected, so I know the issue is with mapping "Item" in customerInfo.

I expect the mapper to map to the correct class, right now I get either Missing type map or "Info was not expected. Use the XmlInclude or SoapInclude attribute to specify types that are not known statically.

Would really appreciate some pointers on how to solve the issue!

Answer 1

Solved it for my own needs, solution down below if someone else encounters the same issue.

The solution for me was to use the ResolveUsing instead of MapFrom for the specific properties that had multiple tag names and using Mapper.Map with the correct classes for the different cases.

Full code looks like this:

public static void AddSessionTransformationMappings(IMapperConfiguration cfg)
{
    cfg.AllowNullCollections = true;

    cfg.CreateMap<IEnumerable<Info>, customerInfoList>()
        .ForMember(x => x.customerInfo, x => x.MapFrom(y => y));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfo>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Item, x => x.ResolveUsing(y => CustomerInfoLevel(y)));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfoBasic>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Name, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.name));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfoSimple>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Name, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.name))
        .ForMember(x => x.Id, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.id));

    cfg.CreateMap<Info, customerInfoEnhanced>()
        .ForMember(x => x.Name, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.name))
        .ForMember(x => x.Id, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.id))
        .ForMember(x => x.Age, x => x.MapFrom(y => y.age));
}

private static Object CustomerInfoLevel(Info info)
{
    if (info.age != null)
    {
        return Mapper.Map<customerInfoEnhanced>(info);
    }
    else if (info.id != null)
    {
        return Mapper.Map<customerInfoSimple>(info);
    }
    else
    {
        return Mapper.Map<customerInfoBasic>(info);
    }
}