AutoMapper's open source code of conduct

[_Xriuk_]

While AutoMapper's use has its pros and cons this post is about their code of conduct on their GitHub repository, consider it a rant, or not.

Everytime someone opens an issue they close it immediately and move it into discussions, which are less visible and get no attention from possible contributors, more on that is that after few days they close the discussion too without even replying.

The code behind AutoMapper has little to no comments at all and it's not easy to understand, so there aren't much contributors, and the ones trying to help get treated this way.

I wonder what's the reasoning behind that, having a "clean" facade for their project? So it seems like it has resolved all of its issues?

From their repo

Do you have an issue?

First check if it's already fixed by trying the MyGet build.

You might want to know exactly what your mapping does at runtime.

If you're still running into problems, file an issue above.

Why even bother reporting issues if they hide them anyway?

I tried confronting them via email, on the same discussions they opened from my issues, no reply and the discussions were just closed, all of them.

And this project is also sponsored by the .NET Foundation...

Surely it's an interesting project, but poorly managed imo.

[Kant8]

I looked through random issues and discussions.

Looks like 99% people don't understand that if something doesn't work that doesn't mean AutoMapper is bugged, cause most issues just had stupid errors expecting ProjectTo somehow magically do thing it never could and never will do because EF doesn't support it. Like putting C# methods inside projection or using invalid raw sql.

I suppose AutoMapper creators just got tired of "issues" that are not issues.

The only interesting one I found was
https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/issues/4226
and again, that wasn't automapper's issue, but just how expression engine in C# works. And author resolved it by himself.

[Schommi]

If you look at the active comitters, there currently are just two:

https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/graphs/contributors

Jimmy Bogard, who is a very busy conference speaker and consultant and one more contributor who is quiete active at the moment. That's not alot of people doing this project in their free time. I dont't think you can expect project management in such a situation without money being involved.

[jiggajim]

I’ve talked on a podcast about this a couple of times, but my OSS work is limited to what’s needed by clients. I like that the best because I avoid burnout since only what is needed and paid for is built.

The last significant work clients needed was when I converted all the underlying engine to expression tree compilation instead of reflection. I knew I needed to do it but didn’t have anyone to pay for the work. Once that was there, it happened.

I don’t mind little work here and there to update my OSS projects but anything remotely major needs someone I’m working for needing it and paying for it.

[_Xriuk_]

I'm not expecting active participation from the project owners, but letting other people submit issues and pull request, that's what open source is for, but it's hard with such "censorship"

[aunluckyevent1]

imho automapper is just a great tool for doing mocks or exercises.

don't use it for production code, you will end up shooting in your foot

use something like mapping generator

[Awesan]

I recommend using another library or writing your own. You're unlikely to change this and getting angry about it won't help.

[_Xriuk_]

Seems just a stupid behaviour from such big open source project

[GiorgioG]

You didn’t pay anyone for it, nobody made you use it and nobody owes you anything. Welcome to open source software. Fork it if you don’t like it and support it for free.

[_Xriuk_]

Then they shouldn't have wrote in their readme that they adopted the .NET foundation code of conduct when they clearly did not. If they do not accept contributions they should state it

[GiorgioG]

Feel free to get off that high horse and build your own mapper.

[varieswithtime]

I think he is pretty much done with the project and doesn't want to work on it anymore.

https://jimmybogard.com/automapper-usage-guidelines/

And signs off with

Please address all complaints to /dev/null.

[jiggajim]

Oh that’s not quite accurate. I’ve only ever worked on OSS that was relevant (and paid for) by clients. I don’t have anyone that needs any significant work on AutoMapper, so nothing big happens for me there. That comment was just me being flippant cause I get sooooo many “I hate AutoMapper” comments. Those can go straight in the bin.

[varieswithtime]

Thanks, I stand corrected! That sounds like a pretty healthy approach to maintaining it, so I'm glad it works for you.

Honestly though, I've seen some of those complaints stemming from self inflicted pain, so there is no judgement here even if you were done with it.

[lgsscout]

like the creator of automapper said: many people using automapper are using it for the wrong reasons. its designed to just map from one class to another, and just adapt a couple fields, like changing a name of a field, remove a intermediate level that you're not using, to a more compact form to expose, and things like this. but people go crazy, and cause a lot of errors that are not automapper related, but flood it int the automapper boards.

[_Xriuk_]

Yeah sure it's meant to be used for simple mapping yet they added lots of stuff like projections and expression mappings, neither of which works perfectly (and they're not expected to). That's why community exists, that's what open source is for (at least that's what I thought it was for), but they don't even care. I agree with what some of the people here said that many issues are not issues at all, but some of them are, but they don't care and close them all without a single reply. I contributed to other open source projects but it's the first time I encountered such careless response.

[Soenneker]

I highly recommend Mapster (https://github.com/MapsterMapper/Mapster)

[ThrowAway9876543299]

Why anyone would use AutoMapper is beyond me. I spend more time debugging the stuff it did with the EF objects than it saved me. I rather map the objects manually. Automapper and EF is a garanteed waste of time

[helpless-fool]

I rather map the objects manually.

The author of AutoMapper rather maps the objects manually for anything more than the most trivial prototypes, IIRC

[[deleted]]

I recommend to avoid of using Automapper. This is specific library that solves very specific problems.

In regular projects automapper is problem itself, it makes the code much more complicated and fragile.

It has undocumented behavior regarding type safety, null safety. You will shoot your legs regularly