How to use Dependency Injection with ASP.NET Web Forms

UPDATE 2019: With the introduction of Web Forms 4.7.2, there is now better support for DI. This invalidates the below. See: Wiring up Simple Injector in WebForms in .NET 4.7.2

You can use automatic constructor injection by replacing the default PageHandlerFactory with a custom one. This way you can use an overloaded constructor to load the dependencies. Your page might look like this:

public partial class HomePage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    private readonly IDependency dependency;

    public HomePage(IDependency dependency)
    {
        this.dependency = dependency;
    }

    // Do note this protected ctor. You need it for this to work.
    protected HomePage () { }
}

Configuring that custom PageHandlerFactory can be done in the web.config as follows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <httpHandlers>
      <add verb="*" path="*.aspx"
        type="YourApp.CustomPageHandlerFactory, YourApp"/>
    </httpHandlers>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Your CustomPageHandlerFactory can look like this:

public class CustomPageHandlerFactory : PageHandlerFactory
{
    private static object GetInstance(Type type)
    {
        // TODO: Get instance using your favorite DI library.
        // for instance using the Common Service Locator:
        return Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation
            .ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance(type);
    }

    public override IHttpHandler GetHandler(HttpContext cxt, 
        string type, string vPath, string path)
    {
        var page = base.GetHandler(cxt, type, vPath, path);

        if (page != null)
        {
            // Magic happens here ;-)
            InjectDependencies(page);
        }

        return page;
    }

    private static void InjectDependencies(object page)
    {
        Type pageType = page.GetType().BaseType;

        var ctor = GetInjectableCtor(pageType);

        if (ctor != null)
        {
            object[] arguments = (
                from parameter in ctor.GetParameters()
                select GetInstance(parameter.ParameterType)
                .ToArray();

            ctor.Invoke(page, arguments);
        }
    }

    private static ConstructorInfo GetInjectableCtor(
        Type type)
    {
        var overloadedPublicConstructors = (
            from constructor in type.GetConstructors()
            where constructor.GetParameters().Length > 0
            select constructor).ToArray();

        if (overloadedPublicConstructors.Length == 0)
        {
            return null;
        }

        if (overloadedPublicConstructors.Length == 1)
        {
            return overloadedPublicConstructors[0];
        }

        throw new Exception(string.Format(
            "The type {0} has multiple public " +
            "ctors and can't be initialized.", type));
    }
}

Downside is that this only works when running your side in Full Trust. You can read more about it here. But do note that developing ASP.NET applications in partial trust seems a lost cause.

Starting from .NET 4.7.2 (what's new), it is now easy for developers to use Dependency Injection in WebForms applications. With the UnityAdapter, you can add it to your existing WebForms application in 4 simple steps. See this blog.

Autofac supports fairly unobtrusive dependency injection in ASP.NET WebForms. My understanding is it just hooks into the ASP.NET page lifecycle using an http module and does property injection. The only catch is that for controls I don't think this happens until after the Init event.