I pushed out version 14.0 (!) of AutoMapper over the weekend:Release notesNuGetThis release targets .NET 8 (up from .NET 6 from the previous release). It's mainly a bug fix release, with some quality-of-life improvements in configuration validation where we gather up all the possible validation errors before reporting them in an aggregate exception.Enjoy!

Training Featured Upcoming Training on Modern .NET with Vertical Slice Architecture in Frankfurt Jimmy Bogard Mar 4, 2025 • 1 min read It's training time again! I've got another training event coming up focusing on Modern .NET with Vertical Slice Architecture in Frankfurt on June 25th-26th.Also similar to last year's edition of the course is an option for either a 2-day or 3-day version. The optional 3rd day covers larger-scale design concepts such as bounded contexts, messaging, integration patterns, microservices, and modular monoliths. We look at encapsulation and cohesion at larger and larger scopes. We'll cover:Refactoring an existing system to leverage Vertical Slice ArchitectureApplying Domain-Driven Design techniques to model complex business needsCommunication between slicesExploring Validation and Testing (and other cross-cutting concerns) using Vertical Slice ArchitectureExamining various design patterns, code smells, and refactoring techniquesImplementing the Vertical Slice Architectural pattern in various enterprise application scenarios (minimal APIs, Blazor, Web APIs, etc.)And on the final day:Service boundaries and bounded contextsCommunication between bounded contextsMicroservices and modular monolithsStudying distributed systems patterns, tools, and libraries such as NServiceBusThe course pulls together my experiences building such systems for nearly 20 years now. I hope to see you there!Register Now

I pushed out MediatR 12.5 today:Release NotesNuGetThis is mainly a regular minor release with a couple extra interesting features:Adding convenience method to register open behaviorsBetter cancellation token support (it's passed now everywhere including behaviors)And some other cleanup items as well. Enjoy!

AutoMapper Featured AutoMapper and MediatR Going Commercial Jimmy Bogard Apr 2, 2025 • 3 min read Yes, another one of "those posts". But tl;dr:In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of my OSS projects, I will be commercializing AutoMapper and MediatR.I did not post this on April 1st for obvious reasons. But first a little background on how I got to this point.How I Got HereThese two projects originated at my time at Headspring, a consulting company I worked at for over 12 years. About 5 years ago, in January 2020, I decided to strike off on my own and give solo consulting a try. Although it was a scary leap, it's been more rewarding than I could have possibly hoped for, in almost every area.The area that it didn't work out well, and not at all intentionally, was OSS work:You can see exactly where my contributions cratered and flat-lined. And that's just commits—issues, PRs, discussions, all my time dried up. This wasn't the intention but was a natural side effect of me focusing on my consulting business.At Headspring, my time on OSS was directly encouraged and sponsored by them. I could use time between projects to invest back in existing OSS or new OSS, because it benefited the client, the company, and the employees (me and my coworkers).With me leaving that company, and that company then selling to Accenture later that year, I had no direct major sponsor of my OSS work anymore. My free time was being spent growing and ensuring the success of my consulting company, which being solo, is...kinda important.Taking time to see how things have been going on all fronts, I had a bit of a shock looking at my OSS work. I realized that model is not sustainable for the long-term success of these projects, which I still endorse and believe in. I need to be able to pay for my time to work on these projects, and get direct feedback from paying clients, like I had earlier at Headspring.What Will This Look Like?The short answer is "I don't know exactly". I'm working out those details now and will share them when I figure it out. I have lots of examples of what does and doesn't work well, at least from my perspective, as well as what I consider will work well for these projects.Short term, nothing will change. I'll still be as (un)responsive on GitHub issues, and I just pushed out a couple releases of any existing work.My goal is to be able to pay for the time to spend actually improving these projects, building out communities, helping more users, and in general, doing the things that people have asked me MANY times over the years that I should do, but I didn't, because it was not my job. OSS was/is/never will be a hobby for me. I want to change it to at least be part of my job and to fund real work.I can’t rely on donations, I don't want to make developers pay anything or do anything to punish/annoy them, and I certainly don't think it's Microsoft's job to "pay me the money." Past that, I'm still figuring it out.When Will This Happen?I don't know, it's still just me that owns everything. It's still using my free time to sort it out, as my day job is still a consultant. But I plan to be open with this whole process. I'm sure I'll surprise someone but the goal here is to be transparent.Personally, I'm both filled with excitement and dread—doing these projects for so long has been incredibly rewarding, especially as this is code that came directly out of many, many long-lived production-deployed projects at Headspring. But I don't want these projects to wither and die on the vine, I want them to grow and evolve and thrive. But not just these projects—I want ALL my OSS projects (Respawn etc.) to thrive. This is how it needs to happen.Final ThanksThanks to all that have contributed over the years, and especially to Lucian Bargaoanu who really helped pick up the torch with AutoMapper after I more or less fell off the map. Also thanks to my GitHub sponsors, as many a pint has been purchased with your generous support. And finally thanks to the community, I never hoped anything I built would help anyone beyond my clients, coworkers, and company, but it's always nice to hear that it has.

AutoMapper AutoMapper and MediatR Licensing Update Jimmy Bogard Apr 16, 2025 • 3 min read In my last post, I shared the news that I've decided to take a commercialization route for AutoMapper and MediatR to ensure their long-term success. While that post was heavy on the motivation, it was intentionally light on the details. I did share that I wanted to be transparent on that process, and this post is part of that transparency.There is a TON of information out there on possible models for sustainable open source, such as:Consulting servicesOpen coreHosted servicesDual licensea dozen othersOf course besides my previous situation, "be fortunate enough to work at a place that values and directly sponsors your work." This is the easiest place to be, but for projects that reach some threshold of users/downloads/complexity, maintainers must rely on sponsorship in some form or fashion. And when that sponsorship goes away for whatever reason, well, here we are.Of the many options available, the most viable option is to move AutoMapper and MediatR to a dual license model.Dual Licensing ModelWhen I first started thinking about how I might go about this, I asked myself, "who bears the most responsibility in ensuring the sustainability of the OSS projects on which they depend?" which is a long winded way of saying "who should pay?" But another way of thinking of this is "who should NOT pay?" Looking at how others do this as well as how I want to approach it, I want to make these libraries free for:Developers using it in an OSS settingIndividuals/students/hobbyists (using AutoMapper for fun not profit)Non-profit/charities (maybe not for fun but also not for profit)Startups or small companies (below some revenue/funding threshold)Non-commercial setting (this I'm not sure is absolutely necessary with the other categories)Non-production environments (instead of any trial period etc.)I don't know if this exact verbiage is what will be the end result, but this is my overall goal.Then for who I'm targeting for paid for-licenses, it's for-profit businesses using these libraries for commercial activities. Looking at my clients over the years who've used my libraries, it's a mix of these free/commercial categories.In terms of a model for commercial licensing, I want to ensure that paid licenses add value beyond "I can download the license." This is the more fun part of this exercise for me, where I can try the things I never really could before without a more direct form of sponsorship/funding. I have a lot of ideas here, but nothing ready to share yet. If you have an idea of "if my company paid for a license, what else would I want to have included?" I would love to hear about it!I am looking at a tiered license model but no per-seat licenses. I don't want to charge individual developers anything—that seems like a pain for everyone involved and I'm trying to keep things simple. "A new developer gets onboarded and now we need a new license" is too much for me to deal with and goes against the spirit of these libraries—the benefit is to the entire team, regardless of the number of developers.I don't know what those tiers will be exactly, I'm figuring that out next. I do expect some blanket enterprise, site-wide licenses that hopefully makes everything simpler for everyone. I've been on the other side of the table, getting licenses approved internally with clients, and I understand predictability and simplicity go a long way.Thoughts on PricingAs for pricing, I don't have details yet, and probably won't until launch in the next couple months. Range-wise, it's hard to compare to other commercial or dual-licensed products out there, since I don't want to do any individual or per-seat license and that seems to be the norm. I am however keenly aware of how much tooling and library products cost as I have to pay for many of these myself.But if I were to compare to the cost for a team of 10 or 50 or 100 for their IDEs, I would expect my commercial license price to be a fraction of that.Thanks again to everyone that's reached out with kind words and support, and to the community for their patience while I figure things out.