Unity with ASP.NET Core and MVC6 (Core)

So after some research I came up with the following solutions to my problems:

Use Unity with ASP
To be able to use Unity with ASP I needed a custom IServiceProvider (ASP Documentation) so I wrote a wrapper for the IUnityContainer which looks like this

public class UnityServiceProvider : IServiceProvider
{
    private IUnityContainer _container;

    public IUnityContainer UnityContainer => _container;

    public UnityServiceProvider()
    {
        _container = new UnityContainer();
    }

    #region Implementation of IServiceProvider

    /// <summary>Gets the service object of the specified type.</summary>
    /// <returns>A service object of type <paramref name="serviceType" />.-or- null if there is no service object of type <paramref name="serviceType" />.</returns>
    /// <param name="serviceType">An object that specifies the type of service object to get. </param>
    public object GetService(Type serviceType)
    {
        //Delegates the GetService to the Containers Resolve method
        return _container.Resolve(serviceType);
    }

    #endregion
}

Also I had to change the Signature of the ConfigureServices method in my Startup class from this:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

to this:

public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

Now I can return my custom IServiceProvider and it will be used instead of the default one.
The full ConfigureServices Method is shown in the Wire up section at the bottom.

Resolving Controllers
I found this blog post. From it I learned that MVC uses an IControllerActivator interface to handle Controller instantiation. So I wrote my own which looks like this:

public class UnityControllerActivator : IControllerActivator
{
    private IUnityContainer _unityContainer;

    public UnityControllerActivator(IUnityContainer container)
    {
        _unityContainer = container;
    }

    #region Implementation of IControllerActivator

    public object Create(ControllerContext context)
    {
        return _unityContainer.Resolve(context.ActionDescriptor.ControllerTypeInfo.AsType());
    }


    public void Release(ControllerContext context, object controller)
    {
        //ignored
    }

    #endregion
}

Now if a Controller class is activated it will be instatiated with my UnityContainer. Therefore my UnityContainer must know how to Resolve any Controller!

Next Problem: Use the default IServiceProvider
Now if I register services such as Mvc in ASP.NET I normally would do it like this:

services.AddMvc();

Now if I use a UnityContainer all the MVC Dependencies could not be Resolved because they aren't Registered. So I can either Register them (like AutoFac) or I can create a UnityContainerExtension. I opted for the Extension and came up with following two clases :
UnityFallbackProviderExtension

public class UnityFallbackProviderExtension : UnityContainerExtension
{
    #region Const

    ///Used for Resolving the Default Container inside the UnityFallbackProviderStrategy class
    public const string FALLBACK_PROVIDER_NAME = "UnityFallbackProvider";

    #endregion

    #region Vars

    // The default Service Provider so I can Register it to the IUnityContainer
    private IServiceProvider _defaultServiceProvider;

    #endregion

    #region Constructors

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a new instance of the UnityFallbackProviderExtension class
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="defaultServiceProvider">The default Provider used to fall back to</param>
    public UnityFallbackProviderExtension(IServiceProvider defaultServiceProvider)
    {
        _defaultServiceProvider = defaultServiceProvider;
    }

    #endregion

    #region Overrides of UnityContainerExtension

    /// <summary>
    /// Initializes the container with this extension's functionality.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// When overridden in a derived class, this method will modify the given
    /// <see cref="T:Microsoft.Practices.Unity.ExtensionContext" /> by adding strategies, policies, etc. to
    /// install it's functions into the container.</remarks>
    protected override void Initialize()
    {
        // Register the default IServiceProvider with a name.
        // Now the UnityFallbackProviderStrategy can Resolve the default Provider if needed
        Context.Container.RegisterInstance(FALLBACK_PROVIDER_NAME, _defaultServiceProvider);

        // Create the UnityFallbackProviderStrategy with our UnityContainer
        var strategy = new UnityFallbackProviderStrategy(Context.Container);

        // Adding the UnityFallbackProviderStrategy to be executed with the PreCreation LifeCycleHook
        // PreCreation because if it isnt registerd with the IUnityContainer there will be an Exception
        // Now if the IUnityContainer "magically" gets a Instance of a Type it will accept it and move on
        Context.Strategies.Add(strategy, UnityBuildStage.PreCreation);
    }

    #endregion
}

UnityFallbackProviderStrategy:

public class UnityFallbackProviderStrategy : BuilderStrategy
{
    private IUnityContainer _container;

    public UnityFallbackProviderStrategy(IUnityContainer container)
    {
        _container = container;
    }

    #region Overrides of BuilderStrategy

    /// <summary>
    /// Called during the chain of responsibility for a build operation. The
    /// PreBuildUp method is called when the chain is being executed in the
    /// forward direction.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context">Context of the build operation.</param>
    public override void PreBuildUp(IBuilderContext context)
    {
        NamedTypeBuildKey key = context.OriginalBuildKey;

        // Checking if the Type we are resolving is registered with the Container
        if (!_container.IsRegistered(key.Type))
        {
            // If not we first get our default IServiceProvider and then try to resolve the type with it
            // Then we save the Type in the Existing Property of IBuilderContext to tell Unity
            // that it doesnt need to resolve the Type
            context.Existing = _container.Resolve<IServiceProvider>(UnityFallbackProviderExtension.FALLBACK_PROVIDER_NAME).GetService(key.Type);
        }

        // Otherwise we do the default stuff
        base.PreBuildUp(context);
    }

    #endregion
}

Now if my UnityContainer has no Registration for something it just ask the default Provider for it.
I learned all of this from several different articles

MSDN Unity article
Auto-Mocking Unity Container Extension
Custom Object Factory Unity Extension

The nice thing about this approach is that I can also "mix" Dependencies now. If I need any of my Services AND an IOptions Interface from ASP my UnityContainer will resolve all of these Dependencies and Inject them into my Controller !!!
The only thing to remember is that if I use any of my own Dependencies I have to register my Controller class with Unity because the default IServiceProvider can no longer Resolve my Controllers Dependencies.

Finally: Wire up
Now in my project I use different services (ASP Options, MVC with options). To make it all work my ConfigureServices Method looks like this now:

public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        // Add all the ASP services here
        // #region ASP
        services.AddOptions();
        services.Configure<WcfOptions>(Configuration.GetSection("wcfOptions"));

        var globalAuthFilter = new AuthorizationPolicyBuilder()
            .RequireAuthenticatedUser()
            .Build();

        services.AddMvc(options => { options.Filters.Add(new AuthorizeFilter(globalAuthFilter)); })
                .AddJsonOptions
            (
                options => options.SerializerSettings.ContractResolver = new DefaultContractResolver()
            );
        // #endregion ASP

        // Creating the UnityServiceProvider
        var unityServiceProvider = new UnityServiceProvider();

        IUnityContainer container = unityServiceProvider.UnityContainer;

        // Adding the Controller Activator
        // Caution!!! Do this before you Build the ServiceProvider !!!
        services.AddSingleton<IControllerActivator>(new UnityControllerActivator(container));

        //Now build the Service Provider
        var defaultProvider = services.BuildServiceProvider();

        // Configure UnityContainer
        // #region Unity

        //Add the Fallback extension with the default provider
        container.AddExtension(new UnityFallbackProviderExtension(defaultProvider));

        // Register custom Types here

        container.RegisterType<ITest, Test>();

        container.RegisterType<HomeController>();
        container.RegisterType<AuthController>();

        // #endregion Unity

        return unityServiceProvider;
    }

Since I learned most of what I know about DI in the past week I hope I didnt break any big Pricipal/Pattern if so please tell me!

For ASP.Net Core 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and Unity there is official solution available from Unity authors as NuGet package here: NuGetPackage

Here is Git repository with samples: Git repo

Usage is very simple (from Git repo homepage):

public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args) =>
WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
       .UseUnityServiceProvider()   <---- Add this line
       .UseStartup<Startup>()
       .Build();

And here is example with Unity DI for ASP.Net Core.

I am using this solution in my ASP.Net Core application and works good.

Unity with ASP.NET Core and MVC6 (Core)

Tags:

C#

Unity Container

Asp.Net Core Mvc

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