Custom lifetime management in DI containers (wcf proxy: Unity vs Castle Windsor)

Question

Hello,

I've found nice post: Singleton WCF Proxy.

It is about the implementation of WCF proxy life scope using Castle Windsor DI container.

Implementation of the abstract class AbstractLifestyleManager from Castle.MicroKernel.Lifestyle namespace overrides 3 methods: Resolve, Dispose and Release. In the Release method we have access to the context, from which we can resolve service instance.

I've copied the code from that post (with a small change) below:

public class SingletonWCFProxyLifestyleManager : AbstractLifestyleManager
{
    private object instance;

    public override object Resolve(Castle.MicroKernel.CreationContext context)
    {
        lock (base.ComponentActivator)
        {
            if (this.instance == null)
            {
                this.instance = base.Resolve(context);
            }
            else
            {
                ICommunicationObject communicationObject = this.instance as ICommunicationObject;
                if (communicationObject != null &&
                    communicationObject.State == CommunicationState.Faulted)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        communicationObject.Abort();
                    }
                    catch { }

                    this.instance = base.Resolve(context);
                }
            }
        }
        return this.instance;
    }

    public override void Dispose()
    {
        if (this.instance != null)
        {
            base.Release(this.instance);
        }
    }

    public override void Release(object instance)
    {

    }
}

I would like to provide the same functionality using Unity container. It looks like the LifetimeManager class from Microsoft.Practices.Unity namespace (and optionally IRequiresRecovery interface) is dedicated for that.

All methods that class is providing are shown below:

public class SingletonWCFProxyLifestyleManager : LifetimeManager, IRequiresRecovery  
{
   public override object GetValue()
   {
      throw new NotImplementedException();
   }

   public override void RemoveValue()
   {
      throw new NotImplementedException();
   }

   public override void SetValue(object newValue)
   {
      throw new NotImplementedException();
   }

   #region IRequiresRecovery Members   
   public void Recover()
   {
      throw new NotImplementedException();
   }    
   #endregion
}

And here is the question:

How to provide the same functionality in the second example (using Unity), as it was done in the first example (using Castle Windsor) ?

(PS: There is no access to the context of the container, so how I can resolve the object ?).

Regards

Answer 1

Hello,

I'll try to answer my question (I hope that correctly..).

I've found this post Writing Custom Lifetime Managers. I've been trying to implement solution I've described previously in details, based on that post and the previous one: Singleton WCF Proxy.

Below is what I have created. Of course I have to test that code. For the first look, it is rather ok, but I'll see later.

public class SingletonWCFProxyLifestyleManager : LifetimeManager, IRequiresRecovery, IDisposable
   {
      private static readonly object _locker = new object();
      private Guid _key;

      public SingletonWCFProxyLifestyleManager()
      {
         _key = Guid.NewGuid(); 
      }

      public override object GetValue()
      {
         Monitor.Enter(_locker);
         object result = Storage.Instance.Get(_key);
         if (result != null)
         {
            ICommunicationObject communicationObject = result
                                                       as ICommunicationObject;
            //If the proxy is in faulted state, it's aborted and a new proxy is created
            if (communicationObject != null &&
                communicationObject.State == CommunicationState.Faulted)
            {
               try
               {
                  communicationObject.Abort();
               }
               catch
               {
               }

               Dispose();
               return null;   //Return before releasing monitor
            }
            Monitor.Exit(_locker);
         }
         return result;
      }

      public override void RemoveValue()
      {

      }

      public override void SetValue(object newValue)
      {
         Storage.Instance.Set(_key, newValue);
         TryToReleaseMonitor(); 
      }

      #region IRequiresRecovery Members

      public void Recover()
      {
         TryToReleaseMonitor();
      }

      #endregion

      private void TryToReleaseMonitor()
      {
         try
         {
            Monitor.Exit(_locker);
         }
         catch(SynchronizationLockException)
         {
         } // This is ok, just means we don't hold the lock
      }

      #region IDisposable Members

      public void Dispose()
      {
         object result = Storage.Instance.Get(_key);
         if (result != null)
         {
            try
            {
               Storage.Instance.RemoveAndDispose(_key);
            }
            catch
            {
               ICommunicationObject communicationObject = result as ICommunicationObject;
               if (communicationObject != null)
               {
                  communicationObject.Abort();
               }
            }
         }
      }

      #endregion
   }

Storage utility class has been created for caching instances of services (it contains hashtable ans a few utility methods, like Get or RemoveAndDispose), but it is too simple for pasting it here.