Ninject Inject Common DbContext Into Numerous Repositories - ninject

Question

There’s something which I am doing that is working, but I think it can probably be done a lot better (and therefore, with more maintainability).
I am using Ninject to inject various things into a controller. The problem which I needed to solve is that the DbContext for each repository needed to be the same. That is, the same object in memory.
Whilst, the following code does achieve that, my Ninject common config file has started to get quite messy as I have to write similar code for each controller:
kernel.Bind<OrderController>().ToMethod(ctx =>
{
var sharedContext = ctx.Kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>();
var userAccountService = kernel.Get<UserAccountService>();
ILogger logger = new Log4NetLogger(typeof(Nml.OrderController));
ILogger loggerForOrderManagementService = new Log4NetLogger(typeof(OrderManagementService));
var orderManagementService = new OrderManagementService(
new AffiliateRepository(sharedContext),
new RegTypeRepository(sharedContext),
new OrderRepository(sharedContext),
new RefDataRepository(),
new WebUserRepository(sharedContext),
new WebinarRepository(sharedContext),
loggerForOrderManagementService,
ttsConfig
);
var membershipService = new MembershipService(
new InstitutionRepository(sharedContext),
new RefDataRepository(),
new SamAuthenticationService(userAccountService),
userAccountService,
new WebUserRepository(sharedContext)
);
return new OrderController(membershipService, orderManagementService, kernel.Get<IStateService>(), logger);
}).InRequestScope();
Is there a neater way of doing this?
Edit
Tried the following code. As soon as I make a second request, an exception is chucked that the DbContext has already been disposed.
kernel.Bind<TTSWebinarsContext>().ToSelf().InRequestScope();
string baseUrl = HttpRuntime.AppDomainAppPath;
kernel.Bind<IStateService>().To<StateService>().InRequestScope();
kernel.Bind<IRefDataRepository>().To<RefDataRepository>().InRequestScope().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
var config = MembershipRebootConfig.Create(baseUrl, kernel.Get<IStateService>(), kernel.Get<IRefDataRepository>());
var ttsConfig = TtsConfig.Create(baseUrl);
kernel.Bind<MembershipRebootConfiguration>().ToConstant(config);
kernel.Bind<TtsConfiguration>().ToConstant(ttsConfig);
kernel.Bind<IAffiliateRepository>().To<AffiliateRepository>().InRequestScope().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
kernel.Bind<IWebinarRepository>().To<WebinarRepository>().InRequestScope().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
kernel.Bind<IWebUserRepository>().To<WebUserRepository>().InRequestScope().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
kernel.Bind<IOrderRepository>().To<OrderRepository>().InRequestScope().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
kernel.Bind<IInstitutionRepository>().To<InstitutionRepository>().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
kernel.Bind<IUserAccountRepository>().To<DefaultUserAccountRepository>().InRequestScope();
kernel.Bind<IRegTypeRepository>().To<RegTypeRepository>().InRequestScope().WithConstructorArgument("context", kernel.Get<TTSWebinarsContext>());
kernel.Bind<UserAccountService>().ToMethod(ctx =>
{
var userAccountService = new UserAccountService(config, ctx.Kernel.Get<IUserAccountRepository>());
return userAccountService;
});
kernel.Bind<IOrderManagementService>().To<OrderManagementService>().InRequestScope();
//RegisterControllers(kernel, ttsConfig);
kernel.Bind<AuthenticationService>().To<SamAuthenticationService>().InRequestScope();
kernel.Bind<IMembershipService>().To<MembershipService>().InRequestScope();
There's something about InRequestScope I'm misunderstanding.

Answer 1

Edit:
.InRequestScope() will ensure everything which gets injected that binding will receive exactly the same instance when during injection (creation) the HttpContext.Current is the same. That means when a client makes a request and the kernel is asked to provide instances with .InRequestScope(), it will return the same instance for the exact same request. Now when a client makes another request, another unique instance will be created.
When the request ends, ninject will dispose the instance in case it implements IDisposable.
However consider the following scenario:
public class A
{
private readonly DbContext dbContext;
public A(DbContext dbContext)
{
this.dbContext = dbContext;
}
}
and binding:
IBindingRoot.Bind<DbContext>().ToSelf().InRequestScope();
IBindingRoot.Bind<A>().ToSelf().InSingletonScope();
You got yourself a major problem. There's two scenarios how this can pan out:
You are trying to create an A outside of a request. It will fail. Instantiating the DbContext, ninject will look for HttpContext.Current - which is null at the time - and throw an Exception.
You are trying to create an A during a request. Instantiating will succeed. However, When you try to use some functionality of A (which is accessing DbContext in turn) after the request or during a new request, it will throw an ObjectDisposedException
To sum it up, an ObjectDisposedException when you access the DbContext can only be caused by two scenarios:
-you ar disposing the DbContext (or some component which in turn disposes the DbContext) before the request is over.
-you are keeping a reference to the DbContext (again, or to some component which in turn references the DbContext) across request boundaries.
That's it. Nothing complicated about this, but your object graph.
So what would help is drawing an object graph. Start from the root / request root. Then when you're done, start from the DbContext and check who's calling Dispose() on it. If there is no usage inside your code, it must be Ninject who's cleaning up when the request ends. That means, you need to check all references to the DbContext. Someone is keeping a reference across requests.
Original Answer:
You should look into scopes: https://github.com/ninject/ninject/wiki/Object-Scopes
Specifically, .InRequestScope() - or in case that is not appliccable to your problem - .InCallScope() should be interesting to you.
As you are already using .InRequestScope() for the original binding, i suggest that binding the shared context type also .InRequestScope() should be sufficient. It means every dependency of the OrderController will receive the same webinar context instance. Furthermore, if someone else in the same request wants to get a webinar context injected, he will also get the same instance.
You should look into scopes: https://github.com/ninject/ninject/wiki/Object-Scopes
Specifically, .InRequestScope() - or in case that is not appliccable to your problem - .InCallScope() should be interesting to you.
As you are already using .InRequestScope() for the original binding, i suggest that binding the shared context type also .InRequestScope() should be sufficient. It means every dependency of the OrderController will receive the same webinar context instance. Furthermore, if someone else in the same request wants to get a webinar context injected, he will also get the same instance.