Options for wiring dependencies with NInject

Question

With NInject (preferably 2.0), what options do we have wrt wiring up our object dependencies in a web application?

Can they be defined in an XML configuration file?

Or does it have to be done via code?

Answer 1

Ninject doesn't have XML configuration, sorry but I can't provide a direct link (cos their site has flash elements), but here is a quotation from ninject.org:

Free yourself from XML

Most other .NET dependency injection frameworks are designed around the use of XML to declare type bindings. Rather than forcing you to write cumbersome and error-prone text, Ninject arms you with a fluent interface, which lets you connect the pieces of your application using full-fledged code. This means you can take advantage of the features of the IDE and compiler, like code completion and type-safety.

Answer 2

What are you looking to achieve? What sort of stuff are you looking to configure? Dynamically selecting a Strategy ? Passing in Port numbers? You could offer a lot more information as to what you're thinking in order to get a better answer [that you can acccept :P].

You need to split the concerns of:

1. known object wiring (DI)
2. configuration - generally you'll want to split those into small focused subsets e.g. Strongly Typed config elements vs having a global pool of settings in a big pile mishmashed together a la appSettings
3. plugins / unknown object wiring (MEF?)

In the first pool, doing it in Code is just the right way and I cant think of any advantage XML would give, esp. in the context of strong names etc.

Answer 3

There is an extension for xml based configuration: http://github.com/enkari/ninject.extensions.xml

You can do a lot more powerful binding in code though.