Someone told me that before dependency injection frameworks came around there developers would use a factory to implement DI. Can anyone provide an example how a factory pattern can be used for DI. I mean just by thinking about it a factory is a depenendency injector but i cant find any examples on the web.
This off the top of my head, untested code (with C#)
public class CarFactory : ICarFactory{
private static CarFactory instance = null;
public static ICarFactory SingletonInstance {
get {
if (this.instance == null){
this.instance = new CarFactory();
return this.instance;
}
},
set {
this.instance = value;
}
}
public ICar CreateCar(string make){
switch(make)
{
case "Toyota": return new Toyota();
case "Honda" : return new Honda();
default: throw new Exception();
}
}
}
public interface ICarFactory {
ICar CreateCar(string make);
}
public class Toyota : ICar
{
}
public class Honda : ICar
{
}
And usage would be something like :
ICar car = CarFactory.SingletonInstance.CreateCar("Toyota");
Exposing the singleton instance of the CarFactory publically enables you to mock the CarFactory for your unit tests and you can have your mocked CarFactory return mocked ICars when calling CreateCar.
Now replace the Cars in the factory by actual dependencies such as classes that implement services. And voila, you have a Factory that contains all your dependencies. You can now use the Factory to "resolve" your dependencies. You can take the example and push it further by using generic types and a dictionary (hashtable) where the key is the type name and the value the implementation instance such as:
public T Create<T>(){
return mydictionary.get(typeof(T).Name);
}
Something like that... You get the drift...
Hope it helps!
Related
Recently I have worked with asp.net mvc and I have seen in sample project is using Database Factory class. How can you explain for me why use it ?
IDatabaseFactory class
public interface IDatabaseFactory : IDisposable
{
EFMVCDataContex Get();
}
DatabaseFactory class
public class DatabaseFactory : Disposable, IDatabaseFactory
{
private EFMVCDataContex dataContext;
public EFMVCDataContex Get()
{
return dataContext ?? (dataContext = new EFMVCDataContex());
}
protected override void DisposeCore()
{
if (dataContext != null)
dataContext.Dispose();
}
}
This is an example of an Abstract Factory design pattern. The idea is to create a seam to provide loose coupling between the classes so another type of context could be swapped, either for testing purposes or to extend the application.
Generally speaking, a factory is a way to manage short-lived dependencies, such as database connections. Typically, a framework exposes a way to inject an instance of the factory and then the framework can work with it based on an interface (in this case IDatabaseFactory) as a contract between the framework, and the framework user. The framework will have code that looks something like this:
public interface ISomeService
{
void DoSomething();
}
public class SomeService()
{
private readonly IDatabaseFactory factory;
// The factory is injected through the constructor
public SomeService(IDatabaseFactory factory)
{
this.factory = factory;
}
public void DoSomething()
{
using (EFMVCDataContex context = this.factory.Get())
{
// Run a LINQ query here using the context
} // This bracket disposes the context
}
}
The service can then be instantiated for a much longer lifetime than the context that is created by the factory. What's more is that the context is always properly disposed in this scenario.
Now, the main benefit from doing this is that you can swap the DatabaseFactory with an alternate implementation (commonly referred to as the Liskov Substitution Principle):
public class MyDatabaseFactory : Disposable, IDatabaseFactory
{
private EFMVCDataContex dataContext;
public EFMVCDataContex Get()
{
return dataContext ?? (dataContext = new AlternateDataContext());
}
protected override void DisposeCore()
{
if (dataContext != null)
dataContext.Dispose();
}
}
Assuming that AlternateDataContext inherits (or implements) EFMVCDataContex, MyDatabaseFactory can be swapped apples-for-apples with DatabaseFactory without making any changes to SomeService.
MyDatabaseFactory could be coded with a connection string in the constructor, giving you a way to connect to alternate databases, for example.
Of course, another great benefit of doing this is to create a mock implementation of IDatabaseFactory that can be used to test the DoSomething method. In a unit test, SomeService (the class under test) should be the only real class being used, IDatabaseFactory should be a mock (which could either be done by hand coding a class, or using a mocking framework).
I am about to switch from Windsor to Structuremap for an existing project with ~100 registered components (mostly singletons).
All components inherit from a common base class that provides logging and health tracking and for this reason, contains a "Name" property used to identify component instances.
With Windsor, it was possible to set the component's Name property to the name that was used to register the component in the IOC container (We used a Facility for this).
My question: Is something like this possible with Structuremap?
(I dream of a call to c.For<IFoo>.Use<Bar>.Named("Doe") that magically results in instanceOfBar.Name = "Doe" somewhere.)
Here is what I tried:
using System;
using StructureMap;
using StructureMap.Interceptors;
using System.Diagnostics;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
interface IServiceA { }
interface IServiceB { }
class Base
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
class ComponentA : Base, IServiceA { }
class ComponentB : Base, IServiceB
{
public ComponentB(IServiceA serviceA)
{
this.ServiceA = serviceA;
}
public IServiceA ServiceA { get; private set; }
}
class SetNameInterceptor : TypeInterceptor
{
public bool MatchesType(Type type) { return true; }
public object Process(object target, IContext context)
{
// *** Any other way? This does not work...
string name = context.BuildStack.Current != null ? context.BuildStack.Current.Name : context.RequestedName;
((Base)target).Name = name;
return target;
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Container container = new Container(c =>
{
c.RegisterInterceptor(new SetNameInterceptor());
c.For<IServiceA>().Use<ComponentA>().Named("A");
c.For<IServiceB>().Use<ComponentB>().Named("B");
});
var b = container.GetInstance<IServiceB>();
// both Fail:
Debug.Assert(((ComponentB)b).Name == "B");
Debug.Assert(((ComponentA)((ComponentB)b).ServiceA).Name == "A");
}
}
}
The above obviously does not work, I tried several variations but had no luck. The registered name of the target object does not seem to be consistently reachable via IContext.
My second best approach would be to define a new "NamedComponent(...)" extension method that resolves to Named(name).WithProperty(x => x.Name).EqualTo(name), but I wonder if this can be avoided to keep component registration as "structuremap-like" as possible?
Am I missing something?
I've never used WithProperty before but if it works the way I'd expect it should do the trick for you.
I think I would favor using EnrichWith though. Something like:
c.For<IFoo>().Use<Foo>().Named(name).EnrichWith(f => f.Name = name);
EnrichWith is a bit more explicit about what it's doing IMO, and lets you call any code on your instance before returning it to the caller. I like that this lets you do a straightforward assignment as well.
There is also a more complex handler you can use with EnrichWith that gives access to the context of the request - this would allow you to do something like this:
c.For<IFoo>().Use<Foo>().Named(name)
.EnrichWith((c, i) => {
i.Name = c.RequestedName;
return i;
});
This may be overkill for your situation but the contextual awareness can be pretty useful.
Preliminaries
I'm using Ninject.MVC3 2.2.2.0 Nuget Package for injecting into my controller an implementation of a IDomain Interface that separates my Business Logic (BL) using an Factory approach.
I'm registering my Ninject Modules in the preconfigured NinjectMVC3.cs using:
private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
{
var modules = new INinjectModule[]
{
new DomainBLModule(),
new ADOModule()
};
kernel.Load(modules);
}
I'm trying to avoid the fatal curse of the diabolic Service Locator anti-pattern.
The Domain Class uses a DBContext that i'm trying to inject an interface implementation too, via an IDBContext, with the following scenario:
IDomainBLFactory:
public interface IDomainBLFactory
{
DomainBL CreateNew();
}
DomainBLFactory:
public class DomainBLFactory : IDomainBLFactory
{
public DomainBL CreateNew()
{
return new DomainBL();
}
}
In the controller's namespace:
public class DomainBLModule : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Bind<IDomainBLFactory>().To<DomainBLFactory>().InRequestScope();
}
}
At this point i can inject the IDomainBLFactory implementation into my controller using Ninject Constructor Injection without any problem:
public class MyController : Controller
{
private readonly IDomainBLFactory DomainBLFactory;
// Default Injected Constructor
public MyController(IDomainBLFactory DomainBLFactory)
{
this.DomainBLFactory = DomainBLFactory;
}
... (use the Domain for performing tasks/commands with the Database Context)
}
Now my central problem.
In the DomainBL implementation, i will inject the dependency to a particular DBContext, in this case ADO DBContext from Entity Framework, again, using a IDBContextFactory:
IDbDataContextFactory
public interface IDbDataContextFactory
{
myADOEntities CreateNew();
}
DbDataContextFactory
public class DbDataContextFactory : IDbDataContextFactory
{
public myADOEntities CreateNew()
{
return new myADOEntities ();
}
}
ADOModule
public class ADOModule : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Bind<IDbDataContextFactory>().To<DbDataContextFactory>().InRequestScope();
}
}
Now in the DomainBL implementation I faced the problem of injecting the necessary interface for the DBContext Object Factory:
public class DomainBL
{
private readonly IDbDataContextFactory contextFactory;
**** OPS, i tried to understand about 10+ Stackoverflow articles ***
...
}
What have I tried?
To Use the constructor Injection. But I don't know what to inject in the call for the Factory CreateNew() in the IDBContextFactory. For clear:
public class DomainBLFactory: IDomainBLFactory
{
// Here the constructor requires one argument for passing the factory impl.
public DomainBL CreateNew()
{
return new DomainBL(?????) // I need a IDBContextFactory impl to resolve.
//It's not like in the MVC Controller where injection takes place internally
//for the controller constructor. I'm outside a controller
}
}
In this Useful Post, our unique true friend Remo Gloor describes in a comment a possible solution for me, citing: "Create an interface that has a CreateSomething method that takes everything you need to create the instance and have it return the instance. Then in your configuration you implement this interface and add an IResolutionRoot to its constructor and use this instace to Get the required object."
Questions: How do I implement this in a proper way using Ninject.MVC3 and my modest Domain Class approach? How do I Resolve the IResolutionRoot without be punished for relaying in the Service Locator anti-pattern?
To Use the property injection for an IDBContexFactory. In the course of learning and reading all the contradictory points of view plus the theoretical explanations about it, I can deduce it's not a proper way of doing the injection for my DBContexFactory class code. Nevermind. It doesn't work anyway.
public class DomainBL
{
[Inject]
public IDbDataContextFactory contextFactory
{
get;
set;
}
//Doesn't works, contextFactory is null with or without parameterless constructor
.... (methods that uses contextFactory.CreateNew()....
}
Question: What am I missing? Even if this approach is wrong the property is not injecting.
Be cursed. Use a DependencyResolver and live with the stigmata. This works and I will remain in this approach until a proper solution appears for me. And this is really frustrating because the lack of knowledge in my last 10 days effort trying to understand and do things right.
public class DomainBL
{
private readonly IDbDataContextFactory contextFactory;
this.contextFactory = DependencyResolver.Current.GetService<IDbDataContextFactory>();
//So sweet, it works.. but i'm a sinner.
}
Question: Is there a big mistake in my understanding of the Factory Approach for the injection of interfaced implementations and using a Domain Driven Approach for taking apart the Business Logic? In the case I'm wrong, what stack of patterns should I implement with confidence?
I saw before a really big quantity of articles and blogs that does not ask this important question in a open a clear way.
Remo Gloor introduces the Ninject.Extensions.Factory for the Ninject 3.0.0 RC in www.planetgeek.ch/2011/12/31/ninject-extensions-factory-introduction.
Question: Will this extension work coupled with Ninject.MVC3 for general porpouse?. In such case it should be my hope for the near future.
Thank you all in advance for your guidance and remember we appreciate your kind help. I think a lot of people will find this scenario useful too.
I don't really get the purpose of your factories. Normally, you have exactly one ObjectContext instance for one request. This means you don't need the factory and can simply bind myADOEntities in Request scope and inject it into your DomainBL without adding the factories:
Bind<myADOEntities>().ToSelf().InRequestScope();
Bind<DomainBL>().ToSelf().InRequestScope();
And Yes the factory and mvc extrensions work together.
Here's an implementation of a generic IFactory to solve the problem without resorting to the ServiceLocator anti-pattern.
First you define a nice generic factory interface
public interface IFactory<T>
{
T CreateNew();
}
And define the implementation which uses ninject kernel to create the objects requested
class NinjectFactory<T> : IFactory<T>
{
private IKernel Kernel;
public NinjectFactory( IKernel Kernel )
{
this.Kernel = Kernel;
}
public T CreateNew()
{
return Kernel.Get<T>();
}
}
Binding to your factory using the following
private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
{
kernel.Bind<myADOEntities>().ToSelf();
kernel.Bind<DomainBL>().ToSelf();
kernel.Bind(typeof(IFactory<>)).To(typeof(NinjectFactory<>));
}
You can now do the following in your controller.
public class MyController : Controller
{
private readonly IFactory<DomainBL> DomainBLFactory;
public MyController( IFactory<DomainBL> DomainBLFactory )
{
this.DomainBLFactory = DomainBLFactory;
}
// ... (use the Domain for performing tasks/commands with the Database Context)
}
And in your DomainBL
public class DomainBL
{
IFactory<myADOEntities> EntitiesFactory;
public DomainBL( IFactory<myADOEntities> EntitiesFactory )
{
this.EntitiesFactory = EntitiesFactory;
}
// ... (use the Entities factory whenever you need to create a Domain Context)
}
I am using EF4 with POCO and trying to make it testable architecture.
So I create IObjectContext interface as follow :
public interface IObjectContext
{
IObjectSet<Employee> Employees { get; }
IObjectSet<Team> Teams { get; }
void Commit();
}
Then I changed type of properties to IObjectSet in my real ObjectContext class as follow :
public partial class HRManagementEntities : ObjectContext, IUnitOfWork
{
// skip some codes here...........
public IObjectSet<Employee> Employees
{
get { return _employees ?? (_employees = CreateObjectSet<Employee>("Employees"));
}
private IObjectSet<Employee> _employees;
public IObjectSet<Team> Teams
{
get { return _teams ?? (_teams = CreateObjectSet<Team>("Teams")); }
}
private IObjectSet<Team> _teams;
public void Commit()
{
SaveChanges();
}
}
In my service layer, consume EF like this :
public class Service
{
private IObjectContext ctx;
public HRService(IObjectContext ctx)
{
this.ctx = ctx;
}
public List<Team> GetAllTeams()
{
return ctx.Teams.ToList();
}
}
Here is my problem, How to call methods in ObjectContext for example, ApplyCurrentValues(), ExecuteStoreCommand(), and so on... ?
Do I need to implement those methods in the IObjectContext to use?
EDIT
As RPM's advice, I created following extension method for ApplyCurrentValues() method, another methods could be extended in same way.
public static T UpdateModel<T>(this IObjectSet<T> iObjectSet, T currentEntity) where T : class
{
ObjectSet<T> objectSet = iObjectSet as ObjectSet<T>;
if (objectSet == null || currentEntity == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException();
return objectSet.ApplyCurrentValues(currentEntity);
}
You need to create extension methods for the methods you need, and cast the IObjectSet to ObjectSet.
For instance, if you need to do .Include (eager loading), use this extension method:
public static IQueryable<TSource> Include<TSource>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, string path)
{
var objectQuery = source as ObjectQuery<TSource>;
if (objectQuery != null)
{
objectQuery.Include(path);
}
return source;
}
You could probably do the same thing for IObjectContext, but not sure why you are even mocking this out. You should not expose the OC to outside the repository, only the repository should know about the OC.
In your example, your service is calling ctx.Teams on the entities/repository.
IMO your service should be calling ctx.Find, which would be strongly-typed (via generics) to the Teams object context. (IRepository)
A common trap is to over-mock things. Don't mock everything just for the sake of it, mock the functionality which you require for unit testing.
If you want to abstract out the Object Context then use the Unit of Work pattern.
How do I handle classes with static methods with Ninject?
That is, in C# one can not have static methods in an interface, and Ninject works on the basis of using interfaces?
My use case is a class that I would like it to have a static method to create an
unpopulated instance of itself.
EDIT 1
Just to add an example in the TopologyImp class, in the GetRootNodes() method, how would I create some iNode classes to return? Would I construct these with normal code practice or would I somehow use Ninject? But if I use the container to create then haven't I given this library knowledge of the IOC then?
public interface ITopology
{
List<INode> GetRootNodes();
}
public class TopologyImp : ITopology
{
public List<INode> GetRootNodes()
{
List<INode> result = new List<INode>();
// Need code here to create some instances, but how to without knowledge of the container?
// e.g. want to create a few INode instances and add them to the list and then return the list
}
}
public interface INode
{
// Parameters
long Id { get; set; }
string Name { get; set; }
}
class NodeImp : INode
{
public long Id
{
get { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
set { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
public string Name
{
get { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
set { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
}
// Just background to highlight the fact I'm using Ninject fine to inject ITopology
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private ITopology _top;
public Form1()
{
IKernel kernal = new StandardKernel(new TopologyModule());
_top = kernal.Get<ITopology>();
InitializeComponent();
}
}
If you're building a singleton or something of that nature and trying to inject dependencies, typically you instead write your code as a normal class, without trying to put in lots of (probably incorrect) code managing the singleton and instead register the object InSingletonScope (v2 - you didnt mention your Ninject version). Each time you do that, you have one less class that doesnt surface its dependencies.
If you're feeling especially bloody-minded and are certain that you want to go against that general flow, the main tools Ninject gives you is Kernel.Inject, which one can use after you (or someone else) has newd up an instance to inject the dependencies. But then to locate one's Kernelm you're typically going to be using a Service Locator, which is likely to cause as much of a mess as it is likely to solve.
EDIT: Thanks for following up - I see what you're after. Here's a hacky way to approximate the autofac automatic factory mechanism :-
/// <summary>
/// Ugly example of a not-very-automatic factory in Ninject
/// </summary>
class AutomaticFactoriesInNinject
{
class Node
{
}
class NodeFactory
{
public NodeFactory( Func<Node> createNode )
{
_createNode = createNode;
}
Func<Node> _createNode;
public Node GenerateTree()
{
return _createNode();
}
}
internal class Module : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Bind<Func<Node>>().ToMethod( context => () => Kernel.Get<Node>() );
}
}
[Fact]
public void CanGenerate()
{
var kernel = new StandardKernel( new Module() );
var result = kernel.Get<NodeFactory>().GenerateTree();
Assert.IsType<Node>( result );
}
}
The ToMethod stuff is a specific application of the ToProvider pattern -- here's how you'd do the same thing via that route:-
...
class NodeProvider : IProvider
{
public Type Type
{
get { return typeof(Node); }
}
public object Create( IContext context )
{
return context.Kernel.Get<Node>();
}
}
internal class Module : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Bind<Func<Node>>().ToProvider<NodeProvider>();
}
}
...
I have not thought this through though and am not recommending this as A Good Idea - there may be far better ways of structuring something like this. #Mark Seemann? :P
I believe Unity and MEF also support things in this direction (keywords: automatic factory, Func)
EDIT 2: Shorter syntax if you're willing to use container-specific attributes and drop to property injection (even if Ninject allows you to override the specific attributes, I much prefer constructor injection):
class NodeFactory
{
[Inject]
public Func<Node> NodeFactory { private get; set; }
public Node GenerateTree()
{
return NodeFactory();
}
}
EDIT 3: You also need to be aware of this Ninject Module by #Remo Gloor which is slated to be in the 2.4 release
EDIT 4: Also overlapping, but not directly relevant is the fact that in Ninject, you can request an IKernel in your ctor/properties and have that injected (but that doesn't work directly in a static method).