Is there any .NET 6 DI equivalent to Ninject.Extensions.Factory? - dependency-injection

Ninject factory automatically implements the factory class and returns a factory object based on matched type given all the dependencies are resolved. Therefore it is very useful to use ninject.extentions.factory so that we can avoid writing all those if/else cases in the factory class. Now the question is, how do I get the same behavior in .net 6 DI? Thanks!

Related

What advantages of factory constructor over standalone factory class or function?

I've just started learning Dart and I wonder what advantages of factory constructor over standalone factory class or function?
When we add new derived class then we need to change factory method inside of our abstract class, it is fine if we have its code, but if it comes with library - factory constructor becomes useless?
Or there is some mechanism to update factory method with info about derived classes? If it so, please share an example.
factory lets you return subtypes, which is very useful.
For instance, you could have factory MyClass.empty => const _EmpytMyClass() and return a trivial implementation with no storage.
You can also use it to returned cached values if you want to have canonical instances of your class.
You can also use factory to call methods to create your instances. See here: https://github.com/dart-lang/json_serializable/blob/4033f6ad4e3c96bc2ed16d93c0995e11fcfe42df/example/lib/example.dart#L29

How to specify constructor when registrating class in asp.net 5 with default Dependecy Injection

Is there are possibility to instantiate class using ASP.NET 5 default Dependency Injection when that class have constructor with parameters?
I would like to register Repository with constructor that accepts connection_string.
UPDATE
I think that I can rephrase the question. I would like to specify which constructor will be called when the class is being registered. Something similar that Autofac have. Is that possible?
builder.RegisterType<ConfigReader>()
.As<IConfigReader>()
.WithParameter("configSectionName", "sectionName");
Unfortunately, the out of the box DI container does not support parameter constraints. It is all or nothing.
If you want advanced features, you can switch to another DI container, like Autofac, that you already mentioned and that is supported in ASP.NET 5.

What is the best strategy for Dependency Injection of User Input?

I've used a fair amount of dependency injection, but I'd like to get input on how to handle information from the user at runtime.
I have a class that connects to a com port. I allow the user to select the com port number. Right now, I have that com port parameter as a constructor argument. The reasoning being that the class cannot function without that information, and it's implementation specific (a mock version of this class wouldn't need a com port).
The alternative is to have a "Start" method that takes in the com port, or have a property that sets the com port. This makes it very compatible with an IoC container, but it doesn't necessarily make sense from the perspective of the class.
It seems like the logical route conflicts with the dependency injection design, but it's because my UI is getting information for a specific type of class.
Other alternatives would include using an IoC container that lets me pass in additional constructor parameters, or just constructing the classes I need at the top level without using dependency injection.
Is there a generally accepted standard pattern for this type of problem?
There are two routes you can take, depending on your needs.
1. Wire the UI directly to your concrete classes
This is the simplest option, but many times perfectly acceptable. While you may have a Domain Model with lots of interfaces and use of DI, the UI constitutes the Composition Root of the object graphs, and you could simply wire up your concrete class here, including your required port number parameter.
The upside is that this approach is simple and easy to understand and implement.
The downside is that you get less flexibility. You will not be able to arbitrarily replace one implementation with another (but then again, you may not need that flexibility).
Even with the UI locked to a concrete implementation, this doesn't mean that the Domain Model itself wouldn't be reusable in other applications.
2. Add an Abstract Factory
The other option is to add another layer of indirection. Instead of having your UI create the class directly, it could use an Abstract Factory to create the instance.
The factory's Create method could take the port number as an input, so this abstraction belongs best in a UI sub-layer.
public abstract class MyFactory
{
public abstract IMyInterface Create(int portNumber);
}
You could then have your DI container wire up an implementation of this factory that uses the port number and passes it as a constructor argument to your real implementation. Other factory implementations may simply ignore the parameter.
The advantage of this approach is that you don't pollute your API (or your concrete implementations), and you still have the flexibility that programming to interfaces give you.
The disadvantage is that it adds yet another layer of indirection.
Most IoC containers have some form of Constructor Injection that would allow your IoC container to pass a mocked COM port into your class for unit testing. That seems like the most clean solution.
I would avoid adding a "Start" method, etc. Its much better practice to (when possible) always have your classes in a valid state, and switching to a parameterless constructor with a start method leaves your class invalid between those calls. Doing this to enable testing is just making your class more difficult in order to test (which should make it nicer).

Access to Entity Manager in ASP .NET MVC

Greetings,
Trying to sort through the best way to provide access to my Entity Manager while keeping the context open through the request to permit late loading. I am seeing a lot of examples like the following:
public class SomeController
{
MyEntities entities = new MyEntities();
}
The problem I see with this setup is that if you have a layer of business classes that you want to make calls into, you end up having to pass the manager as a parameter to these methods, like so:
public static GetEntity(MyEntities entityManager, int id)
{
return entityManager.Series.FirstOrDefault(s => s.SeriesId == id);
}
Obviously I am looking for a good, thread safe way, to provide the entityManager to the method without passing it. The way also needs to be unit testable, my previous attempts with putting it in Session did not work for unit tests.
I am actually looking for the recommended way of dealing with the Entity Framework in ASP .NET MVC for an enterprise level application.
Thanks in advance
Entity Framework v1.0 excels in Windows Forms applications where you can use the object context for as long as you like. In asp.net and mvc in particular it's a bit harder. My solution to this was to make the repositories or entity managers more like services that MVC could communicate with. I created a sort of generic all purpose base repository I could use whenever I felt like it and just stopped bothering too much about doing it right. I would try to avoid leaving the object context open for even a ms longer than is absolutely needed in a web application.
Have a look at EF4. I started using EF in production environment when that was in beta 0.75 or something similar and had no real issues with it except for it being "hard work" sometimes.
You might want to look at the Repository pattern (here's a write up of Repository with Linq to SQL).
The basic idea would be that instead of creating a static class, you instantiate a version of the Repository. You can pass in your EntityManager as a parameter to the class in the constructor -- or better yet, a factory that can create your EntityManager for the class so that it can do unit of work instantiation of the manager.
For MVC I use a base controller class. In this class you could create your entity manager factory and make it a property of the class so deriving classes have access to it. Allow it to be injected from a constructor but created with the proper default if the instance passed in is null. Whenever a controller method needs to create a repository, it can use this instance to pass into the Repository so that it can create the manager required.
In this way, you get rid of the static methods and allow mock instances to be used in your unit tests. By passing in a factory -- which ought to create instances that implement interfaces, btw -- you decouple your repository from the actual manager class.
Don't lazy load entities in the view. Don't make business layer calls in the view. Load all the entities the view will need up front in the controller, compute all the sums and averages the view will need up front in the controller, etc. After all, that's what the controller is for.

Practical Singleton & Dependency Injection question

Say I have a class called PermissionManager which should only exist once for my system and basically fulfills the function of managing various permissions for various actions in my application. Now I have some class in my application which needs to be able to check a certain permission in one of its methods. This class's constructor is currently public, i.e. used by API users.
Until a couple of weeks ago, I would have simply had my class call the following pseudo-code somewhere:
PermissionManager.getInstance().isReadPermissionEnabled(this)
But since I have noticed everyone here hating singletons + this kind of coupling, I was wondering what the better solution would be, since the arguments I have read against singletons seem to make sense (not testable, high coupling, etc.).
So should I actually require API users to pass in a PermissionManager instance in the constructor of the class? Even though I only want a single PermissionManager instance to exist for my application?
Or am I going about this all wrong and should have a non-public constructor and a factory somewhere which passes in the instance of PermissionManager for me?
Additional info Note that when I say "Dependency Injection", I'm talking about the DI Pattern...I am not using any DI framework like Guice or Spring. (...yet)
If you are using a dependency-injection framework, then the common way to handle this is to either pass in a PermissionsManager object in the constructor or to have a property of type PermissionsManager that the framework sets for you.
If this is not feasible, then having users get an instance of this class via factory is a good choice. In this case, the factory passes the PermissionManager in to the constructor when it creates the class. In your application start-up, you would create the single PermissionManager first, then create your factory, passing in the PermissionManager.
You are correct that it is normally unwieldy for the clients of a class to know where to find the correct PermissionManager instance and pass it in (or even to care about the fact that your class uses a PermissionManager).
One compromise solution I've seen is to give your class a property of type PermissionManager. If the property has been set (say, in a unit test), you use that instance, otherwise you use the singleton. Something like:
PermissionManager mManager = null;
public PermissionManager Permissions
{
if (mManager == null)
{
return mManager;
}
return PermissionManager.getInstance();
}
Of course, strictly speaking, your PermissionManager should implement some kind of IPermissionManager interface, and that's what your other class should reference so a dummy implementation can be substituted more easily during testing.
You can indeed start by injecting the PermissionManager. This will make your class more testable.
If this causes problems for the users of that class you can have them use a factory method or an abstract factory. Or you can add a parameterless constructor that for them to call that injects the PermissionManager while your tests use another constructor that you can use to mock the PermissionManager.
Decoupling your classes more makes your classes more flexible but it can also make them harder to use. It depends on the situation what you'll need. If you only have one PermissionManager and have no problem testing the classes that use it then there's no reason to use DI. If you want people to be able to add their own PermissionManager implementation then DI is the way to go.
If you are subscribing to the dependency injection way of doing things, whatever classes need your PermissionManager should have it injected as an object instance. The mechanism that controls its instantiation (to enforce the singleton nature) works at a higher level. If you use a dependency injection framework like Guice, it can do the enforcement work. If you are doing your object wiring by hand, dependency injection favors grouping code that does instantiation (new operator work) away from your business logic.
Either way, though, the classic "capital-S" Singleton is generally seen as an anti-pattern in the context of dependency injection.
These posts have been insightful for me in the past:
Using Dependency Injection to Avoid Singletons
How to Think About the "new" Operator with Respect to Unit Testing
So should I actually require API users to pass in a PermissionManager instance in the constructor of the class? Even though I only want a single PermissionManager instance to exist for my application?
Yes, this is all you need to do. Whether a dependency is a singleton / per request / per thread or a factory method is the responsibility of your container and configuration. In the .net world we would ideally have the dependency on an IPermissionsManager interface to further reduce coupling, I assume this is best practice in Java too.
The singleton pattern is not bad by itself, what makes it ugly is the way it's commonly used, as being the requirement of only wanting a single instance of a certain class, which I think it's a big mistake.
In this case I'd make PermissionManager a static class unless for any reason you need it to be an instanciable type.

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