Typelite: Why is Dictionary mapped to KeyValuePair and not to any or [index:string]:any

Question

I have a class,

public class Instance : IResource
{
   public Dictionary Value { get; set; }

and it is mapped to

<

Answer 1

Collection types (any type implementing IEnumerable) is converted to arrays. Dictionary<> implements IEnumerable> and thus is converted to an array. The item-type is then expanded to its fully qualified name (FQN): System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair.

Using Type Converters will let you change the type-name, but not the FQN. So it is only applicable to local types. In the case of dictionaries, you can't change the item type by inheritance.

You could either create a new dictionary type, without inheriting from Dictionary<>. Another way around this problem, is to also use Type Formatters:

ts.WithConvertor>(t => {
    // Embed the real type in $
    // "System.Collections.Generic.${ [key: string]: any }$[]"
    return "${ [key: string]: any }$";
});
ts.WithFormatter((string memberTypeName, bool isMemberCollection) => {
    // Extract the content inside $
    string[] pieces = memberTypeName.Split('$');
    if (pieces.Length == 3) return pieces[1];
    // Default behaviour
    return memberTypeName + (isMemberCollection ? "[]" : "");
});