AutoMapper configuration of List

Question

I have an entity and a corresponding DTO

public class PersonEntity {
    public int personId;
    public List<Contact> contacts;
}
public class PersonDto {
   public int personId;
   public List<int> contacts;
}

Using the following map with AutoMapper

Mapper.Map<PersonDto, Person>();

I'm using AutoMapper to get the DTO, which isn't a problem.

I'm parsing the DTO back to the Entity, to update fields in the Entity for a save operation and I'm not really interested in the list of contacts anymore. Automapper throws an exception with this as it doesn't like mapping the list of int's to a list of objects.

any suggestions or better ways to do this please.

Edit

solution used is

Mapper.CreateMap<PersonDto, Person>()
            .ForMember(x => x.contacts, y => y.Ignore());

Answer 1

Can you use the ignore method in configuration?

http://automapper.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Configuration%20Validation

opt => opt.Ignore()

But. Do you really need to update the entity just to save? Why don't you send a command which contains the changed data.

Answer 2

AutoMapper as you may know, looks for properties in objects with the same name & type, therefore you will most likely need to alter your DTO or Entity so they match.