Product p = new Product {
ProductName = Console.ReadLine()
};

I like this feature, but I prefer to initialize each member on a separate line so it’s easier to see what’s happening.

I wouldn’t do that initialization simply because a console application should also be able to get the parameters from the command line as well.

I think mixing class initialization in Data Binding doesn’t feel “dirty” because it is completely abstracted away from the user. There’s no way to abstract a Console.ReadLine in such a way.

Ah! Mixing user interaction with class initialization, but isn’t that what Data Binding is essentially doing for us in other technologies like WPF? This is simply Data Binding for Console programs I suppose… Hmm… Okay, I reverse my thinking. I like it if it’s being used as a form of Data Binding for Console programs on the primary console interaction code path and it’s strictly apparent for this reason. But, if I were to find that floating deep in the guts of a program, you can bet there will be a conversation!

With this, your implementation would look something like…

public class ClientServerTypeTransformer : IBusinessEntityTransformer
{
public ClientType ToContract(ServerType entity)
{
return new ClientType()
{
Id = entity.ProductId
};
}

public ServerType ToEntity(ClientType contract)
{
return new ServerType()
{
ProductId = entity.Id
};
}
}

Then, the LINQ statement becomes:

var converter = new ClientServerTypeTransformer();
var serverTypes = clientTypes.Select(contract => converter.ToEntity(contract));
// .ToList() is optional

*Seems like overkill for a 1-property class mapping, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a 1-property class for these types of transforms.

**It’s interesting to note that the VS2008 Samples from Microsoft had an implementation of this mapper class as “static” and called it “Translator”. I can agree with “static”, but I disagree with their naming convention, since “Transform” is an industry naming convention for this type of mapping (see: Extract-Transform-Load “ETL” or eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations “XSLT”)

var serverTypes =
clientTypes.ConvertAll(delegate(ClientType c) { return new ServerType{ ProductId = c.Id });