Configuring DI container for global filters with services in their constructors - asp.net-mvc-4

I have a site using SimpleInjector and MVC, and I'm trying to determine where I'm going wrong architecturally.
I have my DI container being set up:
public static class DependencyConfig
{
private static Container Container { get; set; }
public static void RegisterDependencies(HttpConfiguration configuration)
{
*snip*
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters, Container);
}
}
And my RegisterGlobalFilters looks like this:
public static class FilterConfig
{
public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters, Container container)
{
filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
filters.Add(container.GetInstance<OrderItemCountActionFilterAttribute>());
if (container.GetInstance<ISiteConfiguration>().ConfiguredForExternalOrders)
{
filters.Add(container.GetInstance<StoreGeolocationActionFilterAttribute>());
}
filters.Add(container.GetInstance<StoreNameActionFilterAttribute>());
}
}
The store can take orders (through this website) at in-store kiosks or online from home. External orders would need to geolocate to display information to the customer regarding their closest store. But this means I have to use the container as a service locator in my global filters, which means I have to hide the call to the global filters in my DI container. This all seems to me like an anti-pattern or that there should be a better way to do this.

There is no real issue with the way you are configuring the container and calling the container to resolve the Filter instances, as long as all of this work is being done in the composition root.
The underlying problem as I see it is using Attributes in manner they were not intended to be used. Useful reads on this subject are Steven's post on Dependency Injection in Attributes: don’t do it! and Mark Seemann's post on Passive Attributes. If you were to follow the suggestion in these posts I think you'd find you end up with code you are much happier with.
Also see this recent question raised by Steven here regarding the singleton nature of MVC attributes.

After a bit of discussion with a system architect, we came to the (embarrassingly simple) conclusion that the best answer for our architecture would be to create two Register functions in our DI container - one called RegisterCorporateWebSiteDependencies() and another RegisterStoreWebsiteDependencies().
The natural extension of that is to also have 2 global filter configs called after dependency composition, (again) one for RegisterCorporateGlobalFilters() and one for RegisterStoreGlobalFilters().
This results in one overall if statement running the registers ex:
if (Convert.ToBoolean(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["IsCorporate"]))
{
DependencyConfig.RegisterCorporateWebSiteDependencies(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
}
else
{
DependencyConfig.RegisterStoreWebSiteDependencies(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
}
Which is much more straightforward, and removes the logic from the other locations where it can be confusing.

Related

Autofac Multitenant Database Configuration

I have a base abstract context which has a couple hundred shared objects, and then 2 "implementation" contexts which both inherit from the base and are designed to be used by different tenants in a .net core application. A tenant object is injected into the constructor for OnConfiguring to pick up which connection string to use.
public abstract class BaseContext : DbContext
{
protected readonly AppTenant Tenant;
protected BaseContext (AppTenant tenant)
{
Tenant = tenant;
}
}
public TenantOneContext : BaseContext
{
public TenantOneContext(AppTenant tenant)
: base(tenant)
{
}
}
In startup.cs, I register the DbContexts like this:
services.AddDbContext<TenantOneContext>();
services.AddDbContext<TenantTwoContext>();
Then using the autofac container and th Multitenant package, I register tenant specific contexts like this:
IContainer container = builder.Build();
MultitenantContainer mtc = new MultitenantContainer(container.Resolve<ITenantIdentificationStrategy>(), container);
mtc.ConfigureTenant("1", config =>
{
config.RegisterType<TenantOneContext>().AsSelf().As<BaseContext>();
});
mtc.ConfigureTenant("2", config =>
{
config.RegisterType<TenantTwoContext>().AsSelf().As<BaseContext>();
});
Startup.ApplicationContainer = mtc;
return new AutofacServiceProvider(mtc);
My service layers are designed around the BaseContext being injected for reuse where possible, and then services which require specific functionality use the TenantContexts.
public BusinessService
{
private readonly BaseContext _baseContext;
public BusinessService(BaseContext context)
{
_baseContext = context;
}
}
In the above service at runtime, I get an exception "No constructors on type 'BaseContext' can be found with the constructor finder 'Autofac.Core.Activators.Reflection.DefaultConstructorFinder'". I'm not sure why this is broken....the AppTenant is definitely created as I can inject it other places successfully. I can make it work if I add an extra registration:
builder.RegisterType<TenantOneContext>().AsSelf().As<BaseContext>();
I don't understand why the above registration is required for the tenant container registrations to work. This seems broken to me; in structuremap (Saaskit) I was able to do this without adding an extra registration, and I assumed using the built in AddDbContext registrations would take care of creating a default registration for the containers to overwrite. Am I missing something here or is this possibly a bug in the multitenat functionality of autofac?
UPDATE:
Here is fully runable repo of the question: https://github.com/danjohnso/testapp
Why is line 66 of Startup.cs needed if I have lines 53/54 and lines 82-90?
As I expected your problem has nothing to do with multitenancy as such. You've implemented it almost entirely correctly, and you're right, you do not need that additional registration, and, btw, these two (below) too because you register them in tenant's scopes a bit later:
services.AddDbContext<TenantOneContext>();
services.AddDbContext<TenantTwoContext>();
So, you've made only one very small but very important mistake in TenantIdentitifcationStrategy implementation. Let's walk through how you create container - this is mainly for other people who may run into this problem as well. I'll mention only relevant parts.
First, TenantIdentitifcationStrategy gets registered in a container along with other stuff. Since there's no explicit specification of lifetime scope it is registered as InstancePerDependency() by default - but that does not really matter as you'll see. Next, "standard" IContainer gets created by autofac's buider.Build(). Next step in this process is to create MultitenantContainer, which takes an instance of ITenantIdentitifcationStrategy. This means that MultitenantContainer and its captive dependency - ITenantIdentitifcationStrategy - will be singletons regardless of how ITenantIdentitifcationStrategy is registered in container. In your case it gets resolved from that standard "root" container in order to manage its dependencies - well, this is what autofac is for anyways. Everything is fine with this approach in general, but this is where your problem actually begins. When autofac resolves this instance it does exactly what it is expected to do - injects all the dependencies into TenantIdentitifcationStrategy's constructor including IHttpContextAccessor. So, right there in the constructor you grab an instance of IHttpContext from that context accessor and store it for using in tenant resolution process - and this is a fatal mistake: there's no http request at this time, and since TenantIdentitifcationStrategy is a singleton it means that there will not ever be one for it! So, it gets null request context for the whole application lifespan. This effectively means that TenantIdentitifcationStrategy will not be able to resolve tenant identifier based on http requests - because it does not actually analyze them. Consequently, MultitenantContainer will not be able to resolve any tenant-specific services.
Now when the problem is clear, its solution is obvious and trivial - just move fetching of request context context = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext to TryIdentifyTenant() method. It gets called in the proper context and will be able to access request context and analyze it.
PS. This digging has been highly educational for me since I had absolutely no idea about autofac's multi-tenant concept, so thank you very much for such an interesting question! :)
PPS. And one more thing: this question is just a perfect example of how important well prepared example is. You provided very good example. Without it no one would be able to figure out what the problem is since the most important part of it was not presented in the question - and sometimes you just don't know where this part actually is...

Differences between Proxy and Decorator Pattern

Can you give any good explanation what is the difference between Proxy and Decorator?
The main difference I see is that when we assume that Proxy uses composition and Decorator uses aggregation then it seems to be clear that by using multiple (one or more) Decorators you can modify/ add functionalities to pre-existing instance (decorate), whereas Proxy has own inner instance of proxied class and delegates to it adding some additional features (proxy behaviour).
The question is - Does Proxy created with aggregation is still Proxy or rather Decorator? Is it allowed (by definition in GoF patterns) to create Proxy with aggregation?
The real difference is not ownership (composition versus aggregation), but rather type-information.
A Decorator is always passed its delegatee. A Proxy might create it himself, or he might have it injected.
But a Proxy always knows the (more) specific type of the delegatee. In other words, the Proxy and its delegatee will have the same base type, but the Proxy points to some derived type. A Decorator points to its own base type. Thus, the difference is in compile-time information about the type of the delegatee.
In a dynamic language, if the delegatee is injected and happens to have the same interface, then there is no difference.
The answer to your question is "Yes".
Decorator Pattern focuses on dynamically adding functions to an object, while Proxy Pattern focuses on controlling access to an object.
EDIT:-
Relationship between a Proxy and the real subject is typically set at compile time, Proxy instantiates it in some way, whereas Decorator is assigned to the subject at runtime, knowing only subject's interface.
Here is the direct quote from the GoF (page 216).
Although decorators can have similar implementations as proxies, decorators have a different purpose. A decorator adds one or more responsibilities to an object, whereas a proxy controls access to an object.
Proxies vary in the degree to which they are implemented like a decorator. A
protection proxy might be implemented exactly like a decorator. On the other
hand, a remote proxy will not contain a direct reference to its real subject but only
an indirect reference, such as "host ID and local address on host." A virtual proxy
will start off with an indirect reference such as a file name but will eventually
obtain and use a direct reference.
Popular answers indicate that a Proxy knows the concrete type of its delegate. From this quote we can see that is not always true.
The difference between Proxy and Decorator according to the GoF is that Proxy restricts the client. Decorator does not. Proxy may restrict what a client does by controlling access to functionality; or it may restrict what a client knows by performing actions that are invisible and unknown to the client. Decorator does the opposite: it enhances what its delegate does in a way that is visible to clients.
We might say that Proxy is a black box while Decorator is a white box.
The composition relationship between wrapper and delegate is the wrong relationship to focus on when contrasting Proxy with Decorator, because composition is the feature these two patterns have in common. The relationship between wrapper and client is what differentiates these two patterns.
Decorator informs and empowers its client.
Proxy restricts and disempowers its client.
Decorator get reference for decorated object (usually through constructor) while Proxy responsible to do that by himself.
Proxy may not instantiate wrapping object at all (like this do ORMs to prevent unnecessary access to DB if object fields/getters are not used) while Decorator always hold link to actual wrapped instance.
Proxy usually used by frameworks to add security or caching/lazing and constructed by framework (not by regular developer itself).
Decorator usually used to add new behavior to old or legacy classes by developer itself based on interface rather then actual class (so it work on wide range of interface instances, Proxy is around concrete class).
Key differences:
Proxy provides the same interface. Decorator provides an enhanced interface.
Decorator and Proxy have different purposes but similar structures. Both describe how to provide a level of indirection to another object, and the implementations keep a reference to the object to which they forward requests.
Decorator can be viewed as a degenerate Composite with only one component. However, a Decorator adds additional responsibilities - it isn't intended for object aggregation.
Decorator supports recursive composition
The Decorator class declares a composition relationship to the LCD (Lowest Class Denominator) interface, and this data member is initialized in its constructor.
Use Proxy for lazy initialization, performance improvement by caching the object and controlling access to the client/caller
Sourcemaking article quotes the similarities and differences in excellent way.
Related SE questions/links:
When to Use the Decorator Pattern?
What is the exact difference between Adapter and Proxy patterns?
Proxy and Decorator differ in purpose and where they focus on the internal implementation. Proxy is for using a remote, cross process, or cross-network object as if it were a local object. Decorator is for adding new behavior to the original interface.
While both patterns are similar in structure, the bulk of the complexity of Proxy lies in ensuring proper communications with the source object. Decorator, on the other hand, focuses on the implementation of the added behavior.
Took a while to figure out this answer and what it really means. A few examples should make it more clear.
Proxy first:
public interface Authorization {
String getToken();
}
And :
// goes to the DB and gets a token for example
public class DBAuthorization implements Authorization {
#Override
public String getToken() {
return "DB-Token";
}
}
And there is a caller of this Authorization, a pretty dumb one:
class Caller {
void authenticatedUserAction(Authorization authorization) {
System.out.println("doing some action with : " + authorization.getToken());
}
}
Nothing un-usual so far, right? Obtain a token from a certain service, use that token. Now comes one more requirement to the picture, add logging: meaning log the token every time. It's simple for this case, just create a Proxy:
public class LoggingDBAuthorization implements Authorization {
private final DBAuthorization dbAuthorization = new DBAuthorization();
#Override
public String getToken() {
String token = dbAuthorization.getToken();
System.out.println("Got token : " + token);
return token;
}
}
How would we use that?
public static void main(String[] args) {
LoggingDBAuthorization loggingDBAuthorization = new LoggingDBAuthorization();
Caller caller = new Caller();
caller.authenticatedUserAction(loggingDBAuthorization);
}
Notice that LoggingDBAuthorization holds an instance of DBAuthorization. Both LoggingDBAuthorization and DBAuthorization implement Authorization.
A proxy will hold some concrete implementation (DBAuthorization) of the base interface (Authorization). In other words a Proxy knows exactly what is being proxied.
Decorator:
It starts pretty much the same as Proxy, with an interface:
public interface JobSeeker {
int interviewScore();
}
and an implementation of it:
class Newbie implements JobSeeker {
#Override
public int interviewScore() {
return 10;
}
}
And now we want to add a more experienced candidate, that adds it's interview score plus the one from another JobSeeker:
#RequiredArgsConstructor
public class TwoYearsInTheIndustry implements JobSeeker {
private final JobSeeker jobSeeker;
#Override
public int interviewScore() {
return jobSeeker.interviewScore() + 20;
}
}
Notice how I said that plus the one from another JobSeeker, not Newbie. A Decorator does not know exactly what it is decorating, it knows just the contract of that decorated instance (it knows about JobSeeker). Take note here that this is unlike a Proxy; that, in contrast, knows exactly what it is decorating.
You might question if there is actually any difference between the two design patterns in this case? What if we tried to write the Decorator as a Proxy?
public class TwoYearsInTheIndustry implements JobSeeker {
private final Newbie newbie = new Newbie();
#Override
public int interviewScore() {
return newbie.interviewScore() + 20;
}
}
This is definitely an option and highlights how close these patterns are; they are still intended for different scenarios as explained in the other answers.
A Decorator adds extra responsibility to an object, while a proxy controls access to an object, they both use composition. If your wrapper class messes with the subject, it is obviously a proxy. Let me explain by a code example in PHP:
Code Example
Given is the following CarRepository:
interface CarRepositoryInterface
{
public function getById(int $id) : Car
}
class CarRepository implements CarRepositoryInterface
{
public function getById(int $id) : Car
{
sleep(3); //... fake some heavy db call
$car = new Car;
$car->setId($id);
$car->setName("Mercedes Benz");
return $car;
}
}
CarRepository-Proxy
A Proxy is often used as lazy loading or a cache proxy:
class CarRepositoryCacheProxy implements CarRepositoryInterface
{
private $carRepository;
private function getSubject() : CarRepositoryInterface
{
if($this->carRepository == null) {
$this->carRepository = new CarRepository();
}
return $this->carRepository;
}
/**
* This method controls the access to the subject
* based on if there is cache available
*/
public function getById(int $id) : Car
{
if($this->hasCache(__METHOD__)) {
return unserialize($this->getCache(__METHOD__));
}
$response = $this->getSubject()->getById($id);
$this->writeCache(__METHOD__, serialize($response));
return $response;
}
private function hasCache(string $key) : bool
{
//... implementation
}
private function getCache(string $key) : string
{
//... implementation
}
private function writeCache(string $key, string $result) : string
{
//... implementation
}
}
CarRepository-Decorator
A Decorator can be used as long as the added behavior does not "control" the subject:
class CarRepositoryEventManagerDecorator implements CarRepositoryInterface
{
private $subject, $eventManager;
/**
* Subjects in decorators are often passed in the constructor,
* where a proxy often takes control over the invocation behavior
* somewhere else
*/
public function __construct(CarRepositoryInterface $subject, EventManager $eventManager)
{
$this->subject = $subject;
$this->eventManager = $eventManager;
}
public function getById(int $id) : Car
{
$this->eventManager->trigger("pre.getById");
//this method takes no control over the subject
$result = $this->subject->getById($id);
$this->eventManager->trigger("post.getById");
return $result;
}
}
Proxy provides the same interface to the wrapped object, Decorator provides it with an enhanced interface, and Proxy usually manages the life cycle of its service object on its own, whereas the composition of Decorators is always controlled by the client.
Let me explain the patterns first and then come to you questions.
From the class diagram and meanings, they are very similar:
Both have the same interface as its delegatee has.
Both add/enhance the behavior of its delegatee.
Both ask the delegatee to perform operations(Should not work with null delegatee).
But they have some difference:
Different intents:
Proxy enhances the behavior of delegatee(passed object) with quite different domain knowledge from its delegatee. Eg, a security proxy adds security control of the delegatee. A proxy to send remote message needs to serialize/deserialize data and has knowlege on network interfacing, but has nothing to do with how to prepare source data.
Decorator helps on the same problem domain the delegatee works on. Eg, BufferedInputStreaman(an IO decorator) works on input, which is the same problem domain(IO) as its delegatee, but it cannot perform without a delegatee which provides IO data.
Dependency is strong or not:
Decorator relies on delegate to finish the behavior, and it cannot finish the behavior without delegatee(Strong). Thus we always use aggration over composition.
Proxy can perform faked behavior even it does not need a delegatee(Weak). Eg, mockito(unit test framework) could mock/spy a behavior just with its interface. Thus we use composition to indicate there's no strong dependency on real object.
Enhance multipletimes(as mentioned in question):
Proxy: we could utilize proxy to wrap real object once not several times.
Decorator: A decorator can wrap the real object several times or can wrap the object which is already wrapped by a decorator(which could be both a different decorator or the same decorator). Eg, for an order system, you can do discount with decorators.
PercentageDiscountDecorator is to cut 50% off, and DeductionAmountDiscountDecorator is to deduct 5$ directly if the amount is greater than 10$(). So,
1). When you want to cut 50% off and deduct 5$, you can do: new DeductionAmountDiscountDecorator(new PercentageDiscountDecorator(delegatee))
2). When you want to deduct 10$, you can do new DeductionAmountDiscountDecorator(new DeductionAmountDiscountDecorator(delegatee)).
The answer to the question has nothing to do with the difference between Proxy and Decorator. Why?
Design patterns just patterns for people who are not good at OO skills to make use of OO solutions. If you are familiar with OO, you don't need to know how many design patterns there(Before design patterns invented, with the same prolbem skilled people could figure out the same solution).
No two leaves are exactly the same, so as the problems you encount. People will always find their problems are different from the problems given by design patterns.
If your specified problem is really different from both problems that Proxy and Decorator work on, and really needs an aggregation, why not to use? I think to apply OO to your problem is much more important than you label it a Proxy or Decorator.

Named binding - MVC3

I'm trying to register to implementations of same interface using named instances
kernel.Bind<IRepository>().To<CachedRepository>().InSingletonScope();
kernel.Bind<IRepository>().To<DbRepository>().InSingletonScope().Named("db");
the idea, is that if I not specify the name then the CachedRepository gets created, if I need a DB oriented one then I'd use the Named attribute, but this miserable fails when a simple object would get created
public class TripManagerController : Controller
{
[Inject]
public IRepository Repository { get; set; } // default Cached repo must be created
public TripManagerController()
{
ViewBag.LogedEmail = "test#test.com";
}
}
the error is
Error activating IRepository More than one matching bindings are
available. Activation path: 2) Injection of dependency IRepository
into parameter repository of constructor of type TripManagerController
1) Request for TripManagerController
Suggestions: 1) Ensure that you have defined a binding for
IRepository only once.
Is there a way to achieve what I want without creating a new interface for BD oriented repositories?
Thx
The [Named] attribute as shown in the wiki should work.
BTW stay away from anything other than ctor injection!
It would seem you cannot do what you're trying, I've just come across the same issue and as well as finding your question I also found this one where the author of Ninject Remo Gloor replied.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/4051391/495964
While Remo didn't explicitly say it couldn't be done his answer was to name both bindings (or use custom attribute binding, amounting the same thing).

How to properly construct dependent objects manually?

I'm using Ninject.Web.Common and I really like Ninject so far. I'm not used to dependency injection yet so I've got a pretty lame question I can't however google and answer to so far.
Suppose I have a Message Handler which depends on my IUnitOfWork implementation. I need to construct an instance of my handler to add it to Web API config. I've managed to achieve this using the following code:
var resolver = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.DependencyResolver;
config.MessageHandlers.Add((myproject.Filters.ApiAuthHandler)resolver.GetService(typeof(myproject.Filters.ApiAuthHandler)));
I really dislike typing this kind of stuff so I'm wondering if I'm doing it right. What's the common way of constructing dependent objects manually?
Well I use dependency injection in real world projects only half a year ago, so I'm a pretty new to this stuff. I would really recommend the Dependency Injection in .NET book, where all the concepts are described pretty well and I learned a lot from it.
So far for me what worked the best is overwriting the default controller factory like this:
public class NinjectControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory
{
private IKernel _kernel;
public NinjectControllerFactory()
{
_kernel= new StandardKernel();
ConfigureBindings();
}
protected override IController GetControllerInstance(RequestContext requestContext,
Type controllerType)
{
return controllerType == null
? null
: (IController)_kernel.Get(controllerType);
}
private void ConfigureBindings()
{
_kernel.Bind<IUnitOfWork>().To<MessageHandler>();
}
}
And in the Global.asax in the Application_Start function you just have to add this line:
ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(new NinjectControllerFactory());
This approach is called the composition root pattern and considered the "good" way for dependency injection.
What I would recommend as well that if you have multiple endpoints like services and other workers as well you should create an Application.CompositionRoot project and handle there the different binding configuration for the different endpoints for your application.

IQueryable Repository with StructureMap (IoC) - How do i Implement IDisposable?

If i have the following Repository:
public IQueryable<User> Users()
{
var db = new SqlDataContext();
return db.Users;
}
I understand that the connection is opened only when the query is fired:
public class ServiceLayer
{
public IRepository repo;
public ServiceLayer(IRepository injectedRepo)
{
this.repo = injectedRepo;
}
public List<User> GetUsers()
{
return repo.Users().ToList(); // connection opened, query fired, connection closed. (or is it??)
}
}
If this is the case, do i still need to make my Repository implement IDisposable?
The Visual Studio Code Metrics certainly think i should.
I'm using IQueryable because i give control of the queries to my service layer (filters, paging, etc), so please no architectural discussions over the fact that im using it.
BTW - SqlDataContext is my custom class which extends Entity Framework's ObjectContext class (so i can have POCO parties).
So the question - do i really HAVE to implement IDisposable?
If so, i have no idea how this is possible, as each method shares the same repository instance.
EDIT
I'm using Depedency Injection (StructureMap) to inject the concrete repository into the service layer. This pattern is followed down the app stack - i'm using ASP.NET MVC and the concrete service is injected into the Controllers.
In other words:
User requests URL
Controller instance is created, which receives a new ServiceLayer instance, which is created with a new Repository instance.
Controller calls methods on service (all calls use same Repository instance)
Once request is served, controller is gone.
I am using Hybrid mode to inject dependencies into my controllers, which according to the StructureMap documentation cause the instances to be stored in the HttpContext.Current.Items.
So, i can't do this:
using (var repo = new Repository())
{
return repo.Users().ToList();
}
As this defeats the whole point of DI.
A common approach used with nhibernate is to create your session (ObjectContext) in begin_request (or some other similar lifecycle event) and then dispose it in end_request. You can put that code in an HttpModule.
You would need to change your Repository so that it has the ObjectContext injected. Your Repository should get out of the business of managing the ObjectContext lifecycle.
I would say you definitely should. Unless Entity Framework handles connections very differently than LinqToSql (which is what I've been using), you should implement IDisposable whenever you are working with connections. It might be true that the connection automatically closes after your transaction successfully completes. But what happens if it doesn't complete successfully? Implementing IDisposable is a good safeguard for making sure you don't have any connections left open after your done with them. A simpler reason is that it's a best practice to implement IDisposable.
Implementation could be as simple as putting this in your repository class:
public void Dispose()
{
SqlDataContext.Dispose();
}
Then, whenever you do anything with your repository (e.g., with your service layer), you just need to wrap everything in a using clause. You could do several "CRUD" operations within a single using clause, too, so you only dispose when you're all done.
Update
In my service layer (which I designed to work with LinqToSql, but hopefully this would apply to your situation), I do new up a new repository each time. To allow for testability, I have the dependency injector pass in a repository provider (instead of a repository instance). Each time I need a new repository, I wrap the call in a using statement, like this.
using (var repository = GetNewRepository())
{
...
}
public Repository<TDataContext, TEntity> GetNewRepository()
{
return _repositoryProvider.GetNew<TDataContext, TEntity>();
}
If you do it this way, you can mock everything (so you can test your service layer in isolation), yet still make sure you are disposing of your connections properly.
If you really need to do multiple operations with a single repository, you can put something like this in your base service class:
public void ExecuteAndSave(Action<Repository<TDataContext, TEntity>> action)
{
using (var repository = GetNewRepository())
{
action(repository);
repository.Save();
}
}
action can be a series of CRUD actions or a complex query, but you know if you call ExecuteAndSave(), when it's all done, you're repository will be disposed properly.
EDIT - Advice Received From Ayende Rahien
Got an email reply from Ayende Rahien (of Rhino Mocks, Raven, Hibernating Rhinos fame).
This is what he said:
You problem is that you initialize
your context like this:
_genericSqlServerContext = new GenericSqlServerContext(new
EntityConnection("name=EFProfDemoEntities"));
That means that the context doesn't
own the entity connection, which means
that it doesn't dispose it. In
general, it is vastly preferable to
have the context create the
connection. You can do that by using:
_genericSqlServerContext = new GenericSqlServerContext("name=EFProfDemoEntities");
Which definetely makes sense - however i would have thought that Disposing of a SqlServerContext would also dispose of the underlying connection, guess i was wrong.
Anyway, that is the solution - now everything is getting disposed of properly.
So i no longer need to do using on the repository:
public ICollection<T> FindAll<T>(Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate, int maxRows) where T : Foo
{
// dont need this anymore
//using (var cr = ObjectFactory.GetInstance<IContentRepository>())
return _fooRepository.Find().OfType<T>().Where(predicate).Take(maxRows).ToList();
And in my base repository, i implement IDisposable and simply do this:
Context.Dispose(); // Context is an instance of my custom sql context.
Hope that helps others out.