Question about ASP.NET MVC 2 Custom ViewModels

In my project I have my Linq To SQL dbml file, A Repository Layer for each DB Table and a Service 开发者_如何学运维Layer for each Repository.

In my service I have some MetaData for Validation as well as I extend each (table) Class to add some custom information to the object (you'll see this in the code below).

My question is, Should I consider building a Custom ViewModal for each (table) Class instead of using the extended Class in the service layer?

Below is an example of what I have now.

Repository

Namespace Domain 
#Region "Interface" 
    Public Interface IUserRepository 
        Sub AddUser(ByVal openid As OpenID) 
        Function GetUsers() As IQueryable(Of User) 
        Sub UpdateUser(ByVal user As User) 
        Sub SubmitChanges() 
    End Interface 
#End Region 
#Region "Repository" 
    Public Class UserRepository : Implements IUserRepository 
        Private dc As MyDatabaseDataContext 
        Public Sub New() 
            dc = New MyDatabaseDataContext 
        End Sub 

        Public Sub AddUser(ByVal openid As OpenID) Implements IUserRepository.AddUser 
            Dim user As New User 
            user.MemberSince = DateTime.Now 
            openid.User = user 

            dc.OpenIDs.InsertOnSubmit(openid) 
        End Sub 

        Public Function GetUsers() As IQueryable(Of User) Implements IUserRepository.GetUsers 
            Dim users = (From u In dc.Users 
                        Select u) 
            Return users.AsQueryable 
        End Function 

        Public Sub UpdateUser(ByVal user As User) Implements IUserRepository.UpdateUser 
            Dim _user = (From u In dc.Users 
                Where u.ID = user.ID 
                Select u).Single 

            With _user 
                .About = user.About 
                .BirthDate = user.BirthDate 
                .Email = user.Email 
                .isClosed = user.isClosed 
                .isProfileComplete = user.isProfileComplete 
                .RegionID = user.RegionID 
                .Reputation = user.Reputation 
                .UserName = user.UserName 
                .WebSite = user.WebSite 
            End With 

        End Sub 

        Public Sub SubmitChanges() Implements IUserRepository.SubmitChanges 
            dc.SubmitChanges() 
        End Sub 
    End Class 
#End Region 
End Namespace 

Service

Imports System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations 

Namespace Domain 
#Region "Validation" 
    <MetadataType(GetType(UserMetaData))> _ 
    Partial Public Class User 
        Public Property UserRegion As String 
        Public Property LastSeen As DateTime 
        Public ReadOnly Property Slug(ByVal user As User) As String
           Get
              Return Replace(user.UserName, " ", "-")
           End Get
        End Property
    End Class 


    ''' <summary> 
    ''' Validation for all User data. 
    ''' </summary> 
    ''' <remarks>All validation is done at the Service Layer</remarks> 
    Public Class UserMetaData 

        <DisplayName("name")> _ 
        <Required(ErrorMessage:="Username is required.")> _ 
        <StringLength(30, ErrorMessage:="Username cannot exceed 30 characters.")> _ 
        <RegularExpression("^\w{3,30}$", ErrorMessage:="Not a valid username.")> _ 
        Public Property UserName As String 

        <DisplayName("email")> _ 
        <StringLength(50, ErrorMessage:="Email Address cannot exceed 50 characters.")> _ 
        <RegularExpression("^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})$", ErrorMessage:="Not a valid email address.")> _ 
        Public Property Email As String 

        <DisplayName("website")> _ 
        <StringLength(256, ErrorMessage:="Web Address cannot exceed 256 characters.")> _ 
        <RegularExpression("^http(s?)\://[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(/\S*)?$", ErrorMessage:="Not a valid website address.")> _ 
        Public Property WebSite As String 

        <DisplayName("about")> _ 
        <StringLength(2000, ErrorMessage:="Profile cannot exceed 2000 characters.")> _ 
        Public Property About As String 

        <DisplayName("region")> _ 
        <Required(ErrorMessage:="Region is required.")> _ 
        Public Property UserRegion As Integer 

        <DisplayName("birthdate")> _ 
        <DisplayFormat(ApplyFormatInEditMode:=True, ConvertEmptyStringToNull:=True, DataFormatString:="{0:MM/dd/yyyy}")> _ 
        Public Property BirthDate As DateTime 

    End Class 
#End Region 
#Region "Interface" 
    Public Interface IUserService 
        Sub AddUser(ByVal claimedidentifier As String, ByVal notes As String) 
        Function GetAllUsers() As IList(Of User) 
        Function GetUserByID(ByVal id As Integer) As User 
        Sub UpdateUser(ByVal user As User) 
        Sub SubmitChanges() 
    End Interface 
#End Region 
#Region "Service" 
    Public Class UserService : Implements IUserService 
        Private _UserRepository As IUserRepository 
        Public Sub New(ByVal UserRepository As IUserRepository) 
            _UserRepository = UserRepository 
        End Sub 

        Public Sub AddUser(ByVal claimedidentifier As String, ByVal notes As String) Implements IUserService.AddUser 
            Dim openid As New OpenID 
            openid.ClaimedIdentifier = claimedidentifier 
            openid.UserNotes = notes 
            _UserRepository.AddUser(openid) 
        End Sub 

        Public Function GetAllUsers() As System.Collections.Generic.IList(Of User) Implements IUserService.GetAllUsers 
            Return _UserRepository.GetUsers().Where(Function(u) (Not u.isClosed)).ToList 
        End Function 

        Public Function GetUserByID(ByVal id As Integer) As User Implements IUserService.GetUserByID 
            Return _UserRepository.GetUsers().Where(Function(u) (Not u.isClosed And u.ID = id)).SingleOrDefault 
        End Function 

        Public Sub UpdateUser(ByVal user As User) Implements IUserService.UpdateUser 
            _UserRepository.UpdateUser(user) 
        End Sub 

        Public Sub SubmitChanges() Implements IUserService.SubmitChanges 
            _UserRepository.SubmitChanges() 
        End Sub 

    End Class 
#End Region 

End Namespace 

And currently in my Controller I send Modal Data to my View like this

    Dim user As Domain.User = UserService.GetUserByID(id) 
    Return View(user) 

Now one thing I have run into is the need send the user object to the Slug property whenever I need to use the Slug

    Dim user As Domain.User = UserService.GetUserByID(id) 
    user.Slug = user.Slug(user)  ''# this seems like a bit of a pain in the ass
    Return View(user) 

So because of this, is it better for me to create a custom ViewModal for each (table) Class and simply do the following

    Dim user As Domain.UserViewModal = New Domain.UserViewModal(UserService.GetUserByID(id))
    ''# The UserViewModal will automatically do all the work to create the 
    ''# Slug as well as other pertinent information
    Return View(user) 

It seems to me like the separation is a good thing, but still requires a butt load of time to build. Just wondering about the trade off benefit or if there is a better way to accomplish the same thing?

---

You're likely going to find that your model classes don't always correspond 1:1 with views. For this reason alone it makes sense to create ViewModel objects and use them to interact with your views as a viewmodel object can be a composite of various model information.

Doing so has the added benefit of ensuring that your viewmodel objects are specifically suited to the user interface and may contain screen-specific lists or other properties that have no business in a normal model object. This allows you to realize benefits conversely as well because your viewmodel objects need not be cluttered/bloated with anything except their purpose in life. (Linq to SQL objects must track state and accomplish a whole host of things completely unrelated to the UI.)

While the separation is good practice it can be a "pain in the butt" as you say. To make things easier in transferring information between your class instances look into Automapper which does just that very nicely and allows you to eliminate countless lines of tedious but necessary code.

Happy coding!