IOC Container use in MVC and a sample project on codeproject - asp.net-mvc

Question

I was wondering if there is a more ellegant pattern for using IOC containers than the way suggested in the codeproject example below.
Surely it is is possible to use an IOC container so that controller constructors are parameterless when you have a solid IOC process in place.
It also means when your application has more than MVC eg WEB-API and whatever else , you are building the same type of solution for that technology.
That doesnt look DRY to me.
Is there a nice pattern someone uses to "register" the Container eg as IMyMagicControllerHat and get singleton using some nice .net System library?
Clearly if you have a UI Depends on Core depends on Model type of application, you are concerned about build dependencies and static calls.
The static calls back to MVCApplication concern me. I was looking for a better approach.
The CODEProject link....
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/99361/How-To-Use-Unity-Container-In-ASP-NET-MVC-Framewor
In short the relevant code....
public interface IContainerAccessor
{
IUnityContainer Container { get; }
}
public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication, IContainerAccessor
{
private static IUnityContainer _container;
public static IUnityContainer Container
{
get { return _container; }
}
public static IUnityContainer Container
{
get { return _container; }
}
Also there are examples like This from MS that shows a custom static as a solution. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/hh323691%28v=vs.100%29.aspx I was expecting there might be a well established adapter pattern or similar. Im going to have 100s of accesses to the unity container, so getting the pattern right looks important.
Even blogs that make perfect sense like this, dont show how deep in the application you should get a reference to the original container instance.
http://blog.ploeh.dk/2010/09/29/TheRegisterResolveReleasePattern.aspx
I Appreciate any tips on good ways to solve.

Answer 1

That codeproject article was published in 2010 based on MVC1. MVC3 now contains an IDependencyResolver implementation for better integration with IoC. And for MVC3 with Unity you might look at Unity.MVC3
And if you want to avoid constructor injection you could always register Unity as the default IServiceLocator:
ServiceLocator.SetLocatorProvider(() => new UnityServiceLocator(Container));

Answer 2

In case anyone is interested, during a google search:
I ended using a custom Global Class. 1 Static Call to start things off.
The rest as Interface/adapter pattern. The example register Unity and Enterprise Library.
And records important details from authenticated request for logging.
... this is a partial extract only... For illustration purposes
Call from MVC Application Global.asax
public class BosMasterWebApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
private bool IsBootStraped;
protected void Application_Start()
{
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
AuthConfig.RegisterAuth();
IsBootStraped = false;
}
public override void Init()
{
base.Init();
// handlers managed by ASP.Net during Forms authentication
AuthenticateRequest += new EventHandler(AuthHandler);
PostAuthenticateRequest += new EventHandler(PostAuthHandler);
}
public void AuthHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// if you need to setup anything
}
public void PostAuthHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// called several times during the authentication process
if (!IsBootStraped)
BosGlobal.HttpBootStrap(this);
if (Request.IsAuthenticated)
{
// did FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie was executed if we get here, so set username
BosGlobal.BGA.IBosCurrentState.CurrentUser.SetFromEnvironment();
}
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Central adapter management. Dont abuse this class
/// </summary>
public static class BosGlobal
{
public static IBosGlobalAdpater BGA { get; private set; }
// set up the adapter
static BosGlobal()
{
BGA = new BosGlobalAdapter( );
}
public static void HttpBootStrap(HttpApplication httpApplication)
{
BGA.BootStrap(httpApplication);
}
public static void LocalBootStrap(string machineName)
{ // the LOCAL WPF bootstrap alternative... no http request exists.
BGA.BootStrap(machineName);
}
}
public class BosGlobalAdapter : IBosGlobalAdpater
{
public static bool IsBootStrapped { get; private set; }
/// Unity Container with key dependencies registered
public IUnityContainer IUnityContainer { get; private set; } //IOC Container
//Adapters
public IBosLogAdapter ILogAdapter { get; private set; }
public IBosExceptionManagerAdapter ExceptionManagerAdapter { get; private set; }
public BosGlobalAdapter()
{
IsBootStrapped = false;
IUnityContainer = new UnityContainer();// one container per work process. managing and resolving dependencies
}
public void BootStrap(HttpApplication httpApplication )
{
IBosCurrentState = new BosCurrentState(httpApplication);
BootStrapEnterpriseLibrary();
BootStrapAdapters();
IsBootStrapped = true;
}
private void BootStrapAdapters()
{
ILogAdapter = new BosLogAdapter(IUnityContainer.Resolve<LogWriter>());
ExceptionManagerAdapter = new BosExceptionManagerAdapter(IUnityContainer.Resolve<ExceptionManager>());
}
private void BootStrapEnterpriseLibrary()
{ // now we tell unity about the container manager inside EntLib.
// we dont want 2 containers, so we tell UNity look after EntLib as well please
IUnityContainer.AddNewExtension<EnterpriseLibraryCoreExtension>();
}