SignalR 2 Dependency Injection with Ninject - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have an existing MVC application that is using Dependency Injection with Ninject. I installed the Ninject.MVC3 nuget package and it creates a class called NinjectWebCommon in my App_Start, which completely isolates the kernel and registers all of my bindings:
public static void Start()
{
DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule(typeof(OnePerRequestHttpModule));
DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule(typeof(NinjectHttpModule));
bootstrapper.Initialize(CreateKernel);
}
private static IKernel CreateKernel()
{
var kernel = new StandardKernel();
kernel.Bind<Func<IKernel>>().ToMethod(ctx => () => new Bootstrapper().Kernel);
kernel.Bind<IHttpModule>().To<HttpApplicationInitializationHttpModule>();
RegisterServices(kernel);
return kernel;
}
private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
{
kernel.Bind<IFoo>().To<Foo>();
}
We have a new requirement that we thought SignalR would be able to satisfy, so we installed SignalR 2 nuget package into the project. I created a Hub and did some searching on how to implement Dependency Injection into the project and found an article that suggests creating a SignalRDependencyResolver. http://www.asp.net/signalr/overview/signalr-20/extensibility/dependency-injection
The article has you creating a kernel in the Startup.cs file that is used for registering SignalR in OWIN:
public class Startup
{
public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
{
var kernel = new StandardKernel();
var resolver = new NinjectSignalRDependencyResolver(kernel);
kernel.Bind<IStockTicker>()
.To<Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.StockTicker.StockTicker>() // Bind to StockTicker.
.InSingletonScope(); // Make it a singleton object.
kernel.Bind<IHubConnectionContext>().ToMethod(context =>
resolver.Resolve<IConnectionManager>().GetHubContext<StockTickerHub>().Clients
).WhenInjectedInto<IStockTicker>();
var config = new HubConfiguration()
{
Resolver = resolver
};
app.MapSignalR(config);
}
}
The problem is that this approach has me creating two different kernels and they seem to have their own set of dependencies that they know how to resolve. If I have a dependency defined in NinjectWebCommon, the Hub doesn't know how to resolve that dependency. Without exposing my kernel in NinjectWebCommon, what is the proper way to add DI into SignalR using the Ninject.MVC3 package?

Answer 1

None of the current answers directly answer your question. Also achieving the result you are after is very straightforward once you know exactly what to do. The "proper" way to do this is to set SignalR's dependency resolver in the CreateKernel method of the NinjectWebCommon class.
Assuming you have created a NinjectSignalRDependencyResolver class as you mention, no other code needs to be added anywhere except for the line highlighted in the code snippet below:
private static IKernel CreateKernel()
{
var kernel = new StandardKernel();
kernel.Bind<Func<IKernel>>().ToMethod(ctx => () => new Bootstrapper().Kernel);
kernel.Bind<IHttpModule>().To<HttpApplicationInitializationHttpModule>();
// THIS LINE DOES IT!!! Set our Ninject-based SignalRDependencyResolver as the SignalR resolver
GlobalHost.DependencyResolver = new NinjectSignalRDependencyResolver(kernel);
RegisterServices(kernel);
return kernel;
}
Apart from the above, nothing more needs to be done except declaring your bindings in the RegisterServices method of NinjectWebCommon. In your example this would look like:
private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
{
kernel.Bind<IStockTicker>()
.To<Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.StockTicker.StockTicker>() // Bind to StockTicker.
.InSingletonScope(); // Make it a singleton object.
kernel.Bind<IHubConnectionContext>().ToMethod(context =>
resolver.Resolve<IConnectionManager>().GetHubContext<StockTickerHub>().Clients
).WhenInjectedInto<IStockTicker>();
}
Except for the NinjectSignalRDependencyResolver class you created, no other code needs to be added. Importanly, the OwinStartup class remains unmodified, as follows:
public class Startup
{
public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
{
app.MapSignalR();
}
}
The above example achieves the following important outcomes which were what you asked in your question:
You only have a single Ninject Kernel created
The kernel and all binding configurations remain confined to NinjectWebCommon
The default SignalR resolver is your NinjectSignalRDependencyResolver
Dependency Injection into all SignalR hubs is achieved
Hopefully this helps people out.

Answer 2

Have you tried adding the StockTickerHub itself to your kernel?
By default, SignalR uses Activator.CreateInstance to construct Hubs without any constructor arguments. If you want to inject your own dependencies into a Hub, you can do so by registering the Hub with SignalR's dependency resolver.
https://github.com/SignalR/SignalR/blob/2.0.1/src/Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.Core/Hubs/DefaultHubActivator.cs#L28
If you want to get really creative, you can register your own IHubActivator instead of registering all of Hubs individually.
I go into more detail in how Hubs are created by default in this answer: SignalR with IoC (Castle Windsor) - which lifetime for hubs?

Answer 3

There is a problem with the singleton scope. I don´t know who should get the blame here (Ninject, SignalR, MVC, etc...), but it works if you use ToConstant:
var binding = Bind<IMustBeSingleton>().ToConstant(new MustBeSingleton());
I had the same problem, and I found the solution: SignalR, WebAPI and MVC sharing the same dependency resolver kernel
I shared a complete solution with MVC, WebAPI and SignalR using the same Ninject kernel: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B52OsuSSsroNX0I5aWFFb1VrRm8/edit?usp=sharing
That example web app, contains a single page that shows the AppDomain and GetHashCode of an object that is supposed to be unique across the three frameworks, giving a result similar to:
Dependency Test
Framework IMySingletonService instance
MVC AppDomainId:2 / HashCode:5109846
WebAPI AppDomainId:2 / HashCode:5109846
SignalR AppDomainId:2 / HashCode:5109846
I hope this helps.