Does DXA support extended RichText Models? Is this by design?

Question

I already reported/asked about a similar issue with extended Keyword Models here:

Does DXA support Extended Keyword Models?

The same problem occurs if we try to extend from Sdl.Web.Common.Models.RichTextand use that sub class in our own models, the DefaultModelBuilder mapping fails.

Answer 1

This is how I see a possible solution and will be what I will add to my pull request. These methods are the ones causing issues:

protected virtual object MapString(string stringValue, Type targetType, string pageContextId, Localization localization) 
...
if (targetType == typeof(RichText))
{
    return new RichText(stringValue);
}

and

protected virtual object MapRichText(RichTextData richTextData, Type targetType, Localization localization)
...
if (targetType == typeof(RichText))
{
    return new RichText(fragments);
}

After looking deeper at the code, a potential solution would be to replace those if's with these respectively:

On the MapString method:

if (typeof(RichText).IsAssignableFrom(targetType))
{
    var richText = targetType.CreateInstance(stringValue);
    return richText;
}

On the MapRichText method:

if (typeof(RichText).IsAssignableFrom(targetType))
{
    var customRichText = targetType.CreateInstance(fragments);
    return customRichText;
}
RichText richText = new RichText(fragments);
return richText.ToString();

So unless anybody has a reason for this not to be feasible, i.e. extending RichText models, I will go ahead and create a new (issue) and Pull Request to try to get my code in place.

Let me know your thoughts.

**Update: Issue has been reported and pull request submitted: ** https://github.com/sdl/dxa-web-application-dotnet/issues/78