DTOMaker.CLI 2.0.13-dev

DTOMaker

Warning: This is pre-release software under active development. Breaking changes may occur.

This project contains model-driven compile-time source generators for quickly creating and maintaining polymorphic, immutable DTOs (Data Transport Objects) supporting various serialization protocols.

Open Source Maintenance Fee Introduction

To ensure the long-term sustainability of this project, we are introducing an Open Source Maintenance Fee. This fee is required to be paid by all users of this project who generate revenue above defined thresholds. Non-revenue-generating use of the project, such as by hobbyists, charities and other non-profit organisations, and any organisation with revenue below the minimum threshold, are not required to pay the fee.

You can pay via GitHub Sponsors.

We plan to enforce the maintenance fee starting with the next release, V2.0, which is currently in development and pre-released. At that time, a EULA on binary releases requires payment of the Maintenance Fee. The last version not affected by the Maintenance will be V1.10.

Please see the Open Source Maintenance Fee section below for more information.

Features

• Models defined via C# interfaces with attributes.
  • Source generators create implementations at compile time.
• Properties can be basic .NET types such as integers, floats, strings, Guid, etc.
  • Raw byte arrays are supported using the built-in Octets type.
  • Other common types such as DateTime, DateTimeOffset, TimeSpan are supported by built-in converters.
  • User-defined value types can be supported via user-defined converters to built-in types.
• Nullable value types.
• Polymorphic types.
• Freezable types: Instances are mutable until frozen.
• Serialization protocols:
  • JSON (System.Text.Json)
  • JSON (Newtonsoft.Json)
  • MessagePack 2.x
  • MemBlocks
• Collections. Collections based on balanced binary trees are supported.

Example

using DTOMaker.Models;
namespace MyModels;
[Entity(1)] public interface INode : IEntityBase
{
    [Member(1)] String Key { get; set; } 
}
[Entity(2)] public interface IStringNode : INode
{
    [Member(1)] String Value { get; set; } 
}
[Entity(3)] public interface INumberNode : INode
{
    [Member(1)] Int64 Value  { get; set; } 
}
[Entity(4)] public interface ITree : IEntityBase
{
    [Member(1)] ITree? Left  { get; set; }
    [Member(2)] ITree? Right { get; set; }
    [Member(3)] INode? Node  { get; set; }
}

Workflow

flowchart TB
    def(Define models e.g. IMyDTO.cs)
    ref1(Reference DTOMaker.Models)
    ref2(Reference runtime e.g. DTOMaker.Runtime.JsonSystemText)
    ref3(Reference source generator e.g. DTOMaker.SrcGen.JsonSystemText)
    bld(Build/Run)
    ref1-->def
    def-->ref2
    ref2-->ref3
    ref3-->bld

Ongoing Development

Coming next in V2.0

• common interface support across all serializers
• BitSet type

Coming later in V2.1+

• ref type converters
• incremental serialization
• MessagePack 3.x serialization
• Orleans serialization
• Protobuf.Net serialization
• model.json generation
• command-line alternative
• variant native type support
• variable length arrays
• logical value equality
• common pattern extensions

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Open Source Maintenance Fee

This project participates in the Open Source Maintenance Fee.

The source code is freely available under the terms of the LICENSE. To support sustainable maintenance, use of the project’s official releases in revenue-generating activities requires adherence to the Open Source Maintenance Fee.

In short: if you use this project as part of generating revenue, the Maintenance Fee applies. The fee directly supports the people maintaining the project and helps ensure its long-term health.

To pay the Maintenance Fee, become a Sponsor.

Miscellaneous

• This readme was last updated 27th Feb 2026.