How do I get the current Castle Windsor container?

Question

I am a Castle Winsor Noob. I have a WebForm project that is a hot mess. I am trying to resolve a dependency to test user registration. How do I get to the current WindsorContainer?

IWindsorContainer container = ???;
IRegistrationLogic registrationLogic = container.Resolve<IRegistrationLogic>();
_registrationLogic.Register();

Here is my Bootstrapper:

public class WindsorConfigTask : ICastleBootstrapperTask
{

    public void Execute()
    {
        Container.AddFacility<WcfFacility>();
        Container.Register(
            Component.For<IProcessMessageRequest>()
                .ActAs(
                    new DefaultClientModel
                    {
                        Endpoint =
                            WcfEndpoint.ForContract<IProcessMessageRequest>().FromConfiguration("surveyClient2")
                    }
                ),
            Component.For<ILocalMembershipService>()
                .ActAs(
                    new DefaultClientModel
                    {
                        Endpoint =
                            WcfEndpoint.ForContract<ILocalMembershipService>().FromConfiguration(
                                "localMembershipClient")
                    })


            );

        Container.Register(Component.For<IRegistrationLogic>()
            .ImplementedBy<RegistrationLogic>()
            .LifeStyle.Is(LifeStyleType));
    }

    public IWindsorContainer Container { get; set; }


    #region ICastleBootstrapperTask Members


    public Castle.Core.LifestyleType LifeStyleType
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    #endregion
}

Publicspirited

Answer 1

There are many ways to solve this problem but I think the most common is to create a singleton helper class to hold the reference. Keep in mind you want to app to use DI to get everything from the container automatically. Perhaps only a few calls from the app will be to the container. Look at the controller factories for Windsor.

Something like this...

public static class ContainerManager
{
    public static IWindsorContainer Container = null;
}

Now I have been known to take it a step further and you could include some utilities with a get...

    public static class ContainerManager
    {
        private static IWindsorContainer _container = null;
        public static IWindsorContainer Container
        {
             get {
                 if (_container == null) {
                      // run installers, set _container = new container
                 }
                 return _container;
             }

        }
    }

I also realize you might be asking how do I get the container from a downstream dependent object... you can register the container with its self. By default it will register IKernel, but you can register IWindsorContainer for injection later. I would highly discourage using the container directly. As in you code above... do you do a Release when you are done???

Debauchee

Answer 2

There is interface in Windsor for this purpose. It is called IContainerAccessor. Best place to implement it is the Global.asax file:

public class WebApplication : HttpApplication, IContainerAccessor {
  static IWindsorContainer container;

  public IWindsorContainer Container {
    get { return container; }
  }

  protected void Application_Start() {
    var bootstrapper = new WindsorConfigTask();
    bootstrapper.Execute();
    container = bootstrapper.Container; 
  }

  protected void Application_End() {
    container.Dispose();
  }
}

The usage in your web form is as following:

var containerAccessor = Context.ApplicationInstance as IContainerAccessor;
var container = containerAccessor.Container;

Indigoid

That does the same thing I suggested but it is not obvious that you need to create a static of the container. The static is really the key, not the property the interface suggests. – Debauchee

I does not, beacause here is well defined, when the container will be created and when it will be cleaned up. Your solution can bring some troubles. – Angloindian

Thats great.. so how do I access this context in WebAPI? – Shaylashaylah

You don't have to. WebAPI has extension points, where you can use container as a factory for your controllers. This solution is for WebForms and ASMX. They don't have this kind of extension points. – Angloindian

I really like your answer. Upvoted. Just in case someone doesn't know how to do this in MVC, the var containerAccessor should be equal to HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance as IContainerAccessor; – Doctrinaire

In MVC you have many interception points for much cleaner IoC container integration. See github.com/rarous/Castle.Windsor.Web.Mvc – Angloindian

For those wondering: WebApi has the same entry point as MVC: Global.asax, and you get it in the same way: HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance as IContainerAccessor. Thanks @YiannisP. – Eratosthenes