UnityContainer can't resolve type - silverlight

I have a problem with resolving a type which is registered in UnityContainer. In my bootstraper I overrode ConfigureContainer method. Now this method looks like this
protected override void ConfigureContainer()
{
base.ConfigureContainer();
RegisterTypeIfMissing(typeof(IView<ShellViewModel>), typeof(Shell), false);
RegisterTypeIfMissing(typeof(CommandReaderWriter), typeof(CommandReaderWriter), true);
}
Then in function CreateShell (also in bootstraper) I want to get the instance of type CommandReaderWriter so I did this
var raeder = Container.TryResolve<CommandReaderWriter>();
unfortunatelly this returns null value. I also tried
var anotherReader = Container.TryResolve(typeof (CommandReaderWriter));
but it didn't do a trick. However, interesting is the fact that
var isRegistered = Container.IsTypeRegistered(typeof (CommandReaderWriter));
returns true.
so what is approperiate way to register singletone in UnityContainer ?

The two ways I use to register a singleton in Unity are:
_container.RegisterInstance<CommandReaderWriter>(new CommandReaderWriter);
and
_container.RegisterType<CommandReaderWriter,CommandReaderWriter>(new ContainerControlledLifetimeManager());
Both these methods set the Unity LifeTimeManager to be a ContainerControlledLifeTimeManager, which is Unity-speak for a singleton.
If you want to control exactly how the object is constructed use RegisterInstance. The second option is my preferred one because Unity then does all the dependency management for me.

Related

Why use Func<> in controller constructor parameters in MVVM applications

I'm seeing, more and more code like the code below in an MVVM application (WPF and Prism). Controllers have the following code fragments:
public class DispenseOptionController : IDispenseOptionController
{
protected readonly Func<IPharmacyCdmServiceSimpleClient> CdmClient;
protected readonly Func<IPatientServiceSimpleClient> PatientClient;
public DispenseOptionController(Func<IPharmacyCdmServiceSimpleClient> cdmClient, Func<IPatientServiceSimpleClient> patientClient)
{
CdmClient = cdmClient;
PatientClient = patientClient;
}...
I'm trying to understand the role that Func<> plays here. It seems that this delegate is used as parameters to the constructor. Can someone explain to me why anyone would use Func<> in this particular case? And can Func<> be replaced with anything else?
A Func<> is nothing but the Encapsulation of a method that one or more parameter and returns a value of the type specified by the TResult parameter.
You could see some use cases here

Ninject does not resolve dependency correctly in silverlight project

I have a silverlight 4 project with mvvmlight and ninject 3.x.
I've setup the container like this
kernel = new StandardKernel(new ViewModelModule(), new ClientSessionModule());
And the modules like this
public class ViewModelModule : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
((StandardKernel)Kernel)
.Bind(scanner => scanner.FromThisAssembly()
.Select(x => x.IsSubclassOf(typeof(ViewModelBase)))
.BindDefaultInterface());
}
}
and
public class ClientSessionModule : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Kernel.Bind<IClientContext>().To<ClientContext>().InSingletonScope();
}
}
Now the problem is the latter one. At one point in the application this dependency is resolved explictly and updated like this:
var context = App.Ioc.Get<IClientContext>();
context.Username = "just a sample name";
Now when a ViewModel is loaded it get the IClientContext injected like
public MainViewModel(IClientContext clientContext)
The problem is that the instance does not have the name set earlier.
But if I inside the same ViewModel resolves explictly again I get the expected instance with the name set.
What am I missing since the sigleton does not get injected as I expected it to be automatically?
Just found a duplicate kernel in my solution. And that explains why I was not able so resolve as expected as I had 2 kernels running

Can I implement my own view resolution service and have RequestNavigate use it?

I 'm fairly new to Prism and I 'm currently re-writing one of our existing applications using Prism as a proof of concept project.
The application uses MVVM with a ViewModel first approach: our ViewModel is resolved by the container, and an IViewResolver service figures out what view it should be wired up to (using name conventions amongst other things).
The code (to add a view to a tab control) at the moment looks something like this:
var vm = (get ViewModel from somewhere)
IRegion reg = _regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"];
var vw = _viewResolver.FromViewModel(vm); // Spins up a view and sets its DataContext
reg.Add(vw);
reg.Activate(vw);
This all works fine, however I 'd really like to use the Prism navigation framework to do all this stuff for me so that I can do something like this:
_regionManager.RequestNavigate(
"MainRegion",
new Uri("NameOfMyViewModel", UriKind.Relative)
);
and have Prism spin up the ViewModel + View, set up the DataContext and insert the view into the region.
I 've had some success by creating DataTemplates referencing the ViewModel types, e.g.:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Module01">
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:TestViewModel}">
<local:TestView />
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
...and have the module add the relevant resource dictionary into the applications resources when the module is initialized, but that seems a bit rubbish.
Is there a way to effectively take over view creation from Prism, so that when RequestNavigate is called I can look at the supplied Uri and spin up the view / viewmodel based on that? There’s an overload of RegionManager.RegisterViewWithRegion that takes a delegate that allows you to supply a view yourself, and I guess I’m after something like that.
I think I might need to supply my own IRegionBehaviorFactory, but am unsure what's involved (or even if I am on the right path!).
Any help appreciated!
--
note: Originally posted over at the prism codeplex site
Sure you can do that. I 've found that Prism v4 is really extensible, if only you know where to plug in.
In this case, you want your own custom implementation of IRegionNavigationContentLoader.
Here's how to set things up in your bootstrapper (the example is from a subclass of UnityBootstrapper from one of my own projects):
protected override void ConfigureContainer()
{
// IMPORTANT: Due to the inner workings of UnityBootstrapper, accessing
// ServiceLocator.Current here will throw an exception!
// If you want access to IServiceLocator, resolve it from the container directly.
base.ConfigureContainer();
// Set up our own content loader, passing it a reference to the service locator
// (it will need this to resolve ViewModels from the container automatically)
this.Container.RegisterInstance<IRegionNavigationContentLoader>(
new ViewModelContentLoader(this.Container.Resolve<IServiceLocator>()));
}
The ViewModelContentLoader itself derives from RegionNavigationContentLoader to reuse code, and will look something like this:
public class ViewModelContentLoader : RegionNavigationContentLoader
{
private readonly IServiceLocator serviceLocator;
public ViewModelContentLoader(IServiceLocator serviceLocator)
: base(serviceLocator)
{
this.serviceLocator = serviceLocator;
}
// THIS IS CALLED WHEN A NEW VIEW NEEDS TO BE CREATED
// TO SATISFY A NAVIGATION REQUEST
protected override object CreateNewRegionItem(string candidateTargetContract)
{
// candidateTargetContract is e.g. "NameOfMyViewModel"
// Just a suggestion, plug in your own resolution code as you see fit
var viewModelType = this.GetTypeFromName(candidateTargetContract);
var viewModel = this.serviceLocator.GetInstance(viewModelType);
// get ref to viewResolver somehow -- perhaps from the container?
var view = _viewResolver.FromViewModel(vm);
return view;
}
// THIS IS CALLED TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS ANY EXISTING VIEW
// THAT CAN SATISFY A NAVIGATION REQUEST
protected override IEnumerable<object>
GetCandidatesFromRegion(IRegion region, string candidateNavigationContract)
{
if (region == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("region");
}
// Just a suggestion, plug in your own resolution code as you see fit
var viewModelType = this.GetTypeFromName(candidateNavigationContract);
return region.Views.Where(v =>
ViewHasDataContract((FrameworkElement)v, viewModelType) ||
string.Equals(v.GetType().Name, candidateNavigationContract, StringComparison.Ordinal) ||
string.Equals(v.GetType().FullName, candidateNavigationContract, StringComparison.Ordinal));
}
// USED IN MY IMPLEMENTATION OF GetCandidatesFromRegion
private static bool
ViewHasDataContract(FrameworkElement view, Type viewModelType)
{
var dataContextType = view.DataContext.GetType();
return viewModelType.IsInterface
? dataContextType.Implements(viewModelType)
: dataContextType == viewModelType
|| dataContextType.GetAncestors().Any(t => t == viewModelType);
}
// USED TO MAP STRINGS OF VIEWMODEL TYPE NAMES TO ACTUAL TYPES
private Type GetTypeFromName(string typeName)
{
// here you need to map the string type to a Type object, e.g.
// "NameOfMyViewModel" => typeof(NameOfMyViewModel)
return typeof(NameOfMyViewModel); // hardcoded for simplicity
}
}
To stop some confusion about "ViewModel first approach":
You use more a "controller approach", but no "ViewModel first approach". A "ViewModel first approach" is, when you inject your View in your ViewModel, but you wire up both, your ViewModel and View, through a third party component (a controller), what by the way is the (I dont want to say "best", but) most loosely coupled approach.
But to answer your Question:
A possible solution is to write an Extension for the Prism RegionManager that does exactly what you have described above:
public static class RegionManagerExtensions
{
public static void AddToRegion<TViewModel>(
this IRegionManager regionManager, string region)
{
var viewModel = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<TViewModel>();
FrameworkElement view;
// Get View depending on your conventions
if (view == null) throw new NullReferenceException("View not found.");
view.DataContext = viewModel;
regionManager.AddToRegion(region, view);
regionManager.Regions[region].Activate(view);
}
}
then you can call this method like this:
regionManager.AddToRegion<IMyViewModel>("MyRegion");

How to Pass an object when navigating to a new view in PRISM 4

I am working on a PRISM application where we drill down into the data (to get more details).
In my implementation I have a nested MVVM and when I navigate down the tree I would like to pass a model to a my newly created view.
As far as I know, currently PRISM allows to pass strings, but doesn't allow to pass objects. I would like to know what are the ways of overcoming this issue.
i usually use a service where i register the objects i want to be passed with a guid. these get stored in a hashtable and when navigating in prism i pass the guid as a parameter which can then be used to retrieve the object.
hope this makes sense to you!
I would use the OnNavigatedTo and OnNavigatedFrom methods to pass on the objects using the NavigationContext.
First derive the viewmodel from INavigationAware interface -
public class MyViewModel : INavigationAware
{ ...
You can then implement OnNavigatedFrom and set the object you want to pass as navigation context as follows -
void INavigationAware.OnNavigatedFrom(NavigationContext navigationContext)
{
SharedData data = new SharedData();
...
navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context = data;
}
and when you want to receive the data, add the following piece of code in the second view model -
void INavigationAware.OnNavigatedTo(NavigationContext navigationContext)
{
if (navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context != null)
{
if (navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context is SharedData)
{
SharedData data = (SharedData)navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context;
...
}
}
}
ps. mark this as answer if this helps.
PRISM supports supplying parameters:
var para = new NavigationParameters { { "SearchResult", result } };
_regionManager.RequestNavigate(ShellRegions.DockedRight, typeof(UI.SearchResultView).FullName, OnNavigationCompleted, para);
and implement the INavigationAware interface on your View, ViewModel or both.
you can also find details here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg430861%28v=pandp.40%29.aspx

Can someone explain the magic going on in Prism's resolve<> method?

I've got a CustomersModule.cs with the following Initialize() method:
public void Initialize()
{
container.RegisterType<ICustomersRepository, CustomersRepository>(new ContainerControlledLifetimeManager());
CustomersPresenter customersPresenter = this.container.Resolve<CustomersPresenter>();
}
The class I resolve from the container looks like this:
class CustomersPresenter
{
private CustomersView view;
private ICustomersRepository customersRespository;
public CustomersPresenter(CustomersView view,
ICustomersRepository customersRepository,
TestWhatever testWhatever)
{
this.view = view;
this.customersRespository = customersRepository;
}
}
The TestWhatever class is just a dummy class I created:
public class TestWhatever
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public TestWhatever()
{
Title = "this is the title";
}
}
Yet the container happily resolves CustomersPresenter even though I never registered it, and also the container somehow finds TestWhatever, instantiates it, and injects it into CustomersPresenter.
I was quite surprised to realize this since I couldn't find anywhere in the Prism documentation which explicitly stated that the container was so automatic.
So this is great, but it what else is the container doing that I don't know about i.e. what else can it do that I don't know about? For example, can I inject classes from other modules and if the modules happen to be loaded the container will inject them, and if not, it will inject a null?
There is nothing magical going on. You are specifying concrete types, so naturally they are resolvable, because if we have the Type object, we can call a constructor on it.
class Fred { };
Fred f1 = new Fred();
Type t = typeof(Fred);
Fred f2 = (Fred)t.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes).Invoke(null);
The last line above is effectively what happens, the type t having been found by using typeof on the type parameter you give to Resolve.
If the type cannot be constructed by new (because it's in some unknown separate codebase) then you wouldn't be able to give it as a type parameter to Resolve.
In the second case, it is constructor injection, but it's still a known concrete constructable type. Via reflection, the Unity framework can get an array of all the Types of the parameters to the constructor. The type TestWhatever is constructable, so there is no ambiguity or difficulty over what to construct.
As to your concern about separate modules (assemblies), if you move TestWhatever to another assembly, that will not change the lines of code you've written; it will just mean that you have to add a reference to the other assembly to get this one to build. And then TestWhatever is still an unambiguously refeferenced constructable type, so it can be constructed by Unity.
In other words, if you can refer to the type in code, you can get a Type object, and so at runtime it will be directly constructable.
Response to comment:
If you delete the class TestWhatever, you will get a compile-time error, because you refer to that type in your code. So it won't be possible to get a runtime by doing that.
The decoupling is still in effect in this arrangement, because you could register a specific instance of TestWhatever, so every call to Resolve<TestWhatever>() will get the same instance, rather than constructing a new one.
The reason this works is because Unity is designed for it. When you Resolve with a concrete type, Unity looks to see if it can resolve from the container. If it cannot, then it just goes and instantiates the type resolving it's dependencies. It's really quite simple.

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