Using Simple Injector

This section will walk you through the basics of Simple Injector. After reading this section, you will have a good idea how to use Simple Injector.

Good practice is to minimize the dependency between your application and the DI library. This increases the testability and the flexibility of your application, results in cleaner code, and makes it easier to migrate to another DI library (if ever required). The technique for keeping this dependency to a minimum can be achieved by designing the types in your application around the constructor injection pattern: Define all dependencies of a class in the single public constructor of that type; do this for all service types that need to be resolved and resolve only the top most types in the application directly (i.e. let the container build up the complete graph of dependent objects for you).

Simple Injector’s main type is the Container class. An instance of Container is used to register mappings between each abstraction (service) and its corresponding implementation (component). Your application code should depend on abstractions and it is the role of the Container to supply the application with the right implementation. The easiest way to view the Container is as a big dictionary where the type of the abstraction is used as key, and each key’s related value is the definition of how to create that particular implementation. Each time the application requests a service, a look up is made within the dictionary and the correct implementation is returned.

Tip: You should typically create a single Container instance for the whole application (one instance per app domain); Container instances are thread-safe.

Warning: Registering types in a Container instance should be done from one single thread. Requesting instances from the Container is thread-safe but registration of types is not.

Warning: Do not create an infinite number of Container instances (such as one instance per request). Doing so will drain the performance of your application. The library is optimized for using a very limited number of Container instances. Creating and initializing Container instances has a large overhead, but resolving from the Container is extremely fast once initialized.

Creating and configuring a Container is done by newing up an instance and calling the Register overloads to register each of your services:

var container = new SimpleInjector.Container();

// Registrations here
container.Register<ILogger, FileLogger>();

Ideally, the only place in an application that should directly reference and use Simple Injector is the startup path. For an ASP.NET Web Forms or MVC application this will usually be the {“Application_OnStart”} event in the Global.asax page of the web application project. For a Windows Forms or console application this will be the Main method in the application assembly.

Tip: For more information about usage of Simple Injector for a specific technology, please see the Integration Guide.

The usage of Simple Injector consists of four to six steps:

1. Create a new container
2. Configure the container (Register)
3. [Optionally] verify the container
4. Store the container for use by the application
5. Retrieve instances from the container (Resolve)
6. [Optionally] Dispose the container instance when the application ends.

The first four steps are performed only once at application startup. The fifth step is usually performed multiple times (usually once per request) for the majority of applications. The first three steps are platform agnostic but the last three steps depend on a mix of personal preference and which presentation framework is being used. Below is an example for the configuration of an ASP.NET MVC application:

using System.Web.Mvc;
using SimpleInjector;
using SimpleInjector.Integration.Web.Mvc;

public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication {

    protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        // 1. Create a new Simple Injector container
        var container = new Container();

        // 2. Configure the container (register)
        // See below for more configuration examples
        container.Register<IUserService, UserService>(Lifestyle.Transient);
        container.Register<IUserRepository, SqlUserRepository>(Lifestyle.Singleton);

        // 3. Optionally verify the container's configuration.
        container.Verify();

        // 4. Store the container for use by the application
        DependencyResolver.SetResolver(
            new SimpleInjectorDependencyResolver(container));
    }
}

In the case of MVC, the fifth step is the responsibility of the MVC framework. For each received web requests, the MVC framework will map that request to a Controller type and ask the application’s IDependencyResolver to create an instance of that controller type. The registration of the SimpleInjectorDependencyResolver (part of the SimpleInjector.Integration.Web.Mvc.dll) will ensure that the request for creating an instance is forwarded on to Simple Injector. Simple Injector will create that controller with all of its nested dependencies.

The example below is a very basic MVC Controller:

using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;

public class UserController : Controller {
    private readonly IUserRepository repository;
    private readonly ILogger logger;

    public UserController(IUserRepository repository, ILogger logger) {
        this.repository = repository;
        this.logger = logger;
    }

    [HttpGet]
    public ActionResult Index(Guid id) {
        this.logger.Log("Index called.");
        User user = this.repository.GetById(id);
        return this.View(user);
    }
}

Resolving instances

Simple Injector supports two scenarios for retrieving component instances:

1. Getting an object by a specified type

var repository = container.GetInstance<IUserRepository>();

// Alternatively, you can use the weakly typed version
var repository = (IUserRepository)container.GetInstance(typeof(IUserRepository));

2. Getting a collection of objects by their type

IEnumerable<ICommand> commands = container.GetAllInstances<ICommand>();

// Alternatively, you can use the weakly typed version
IEnumerable<object> commands = container.GetAllInstances(typeof(ICommand));

Configuring Simple Injector

The Container class consists of several methods that enable registering instances for retrieval when requested by the application. These methods enable most common scenarios. Here are many of these common scenarios with a code example for each:

Configuring an automatically constructed single instance (Singleton) to always be returned:

The following example configures a single instance of type RealUserService to always be returned when an instance of IUserService is requested. The RealUserService will be constructed using automatic constructor injection.

// Configuration
container.Register<IUserService, RealUserService>(Lifestyle.Singleton);

// Usage
IUserService service = container.GetInstance<IUserService>();

Note: instances that are declared as Singleton should be thread-safe in a multi-threaded environment.

Configuring a single - manually created - instance (Singleton) to always be returned:

The following example configures a single instance of a manually created object SqlUserRepository to always be returned when a type of IUserRepository is requested.

// Configuration
container.RegisterSingleton<IUserRepository>(new SqlUserRepository());

// Usage
IUserRepository repository = container.GetInstance<IUserRepository>();

Note: Registering types using automatic constructor injection (auto-wiring) is the preferred method of registering types. Only new up instances manually when automatic constructor injection is not possible.

Configuring a single instance using a delegate:

This example configures a single instance as a delegate. The Container will ensure that the delegate is only called once.

// Configuration
container.Register<IUserRepository>(() => new SqlUserRepository("some constr"),
    Lifestyle.Singleton);

// Usage
IUserRepository repository = container.GetInstance<IUserRepository>();

Note: Registering types using automatic constructor injection (auto-wiring) is the recommended method of registering types. Only new up instances manually when automatic constructor injection is not possible.

Configuring an automatically constructed new instance to be returned:

By supplying the service type and the created implementation as generic types, the container can create new instances of the implementation (MoveCustomerHandler in this case) by automatic constructor injection.

// Configuration
container.Register<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>, MoveCustomerHandler>();

// Alternatively you can supply the transient Lifestyle with the same effect.
container.Register<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>, MoveCustomerHandler>(
    Lifestyle.Transient);

// Usage
var handler = container.GetInstance<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>>();

Configuring a new instance to be returned on each call using a delegate:

By supplying a delegate, types can be registered that cannot be created by using automatic constructor injection.

By referencing the Container instance within the delegate, the Container can still manage as much of the object creation work as possible:

// Configuration
container.Register<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>>(() => {
    // Get a new instance of the concrete MoveCustomerHandler class:
    var handler = container.GetInstance<MoveCustomerHandler>();

    // Configure the handler:
    handler.ExecuteAsynchronously = true;

    return handler;
});

container.Register<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>>(() => { ... }, Lifestyle.Transient);
// Alternatively you can supply the transient Lifestyle with the same effect.
// Usage
var handler = container.GetInstance<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>>();

Initializing auto-wired instances:

For types that need to be injected we recommend that you define a single public constructor that contains all dependencies. In scenarios where its impossible to fully configure a type using constructor injection, the RegisterInitializer method can be used to add additional initialization for such type. The previous example showed an example of property injection but a more preferred approach is to use the RegisterInitializer method:

// Configuration
container.Register<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>>, MoveCustomerHandler>();
container.Register<IHandler<ShipOrderCommand>>, ShipOrderHandler>();

// IHandler<T> implements IHandler
container.RegisterInitializer<IHandler>(handlerToInitialize => {
    handlerToInitialize.ExecuteAsynchronously = true;
});

// Usage
var handler1 = container.GetInstance<IHandler<MoveCustomerCommand>>();
Assert.IsTrue(handler1.ExecuteAsynchronously);

var handler2 = container.GetInstance<IHandler<ShipOrderCommand>>();
Assert.IsTrue(handler2.ExecuteAsynchronously);

The Action<T> delegate that is registered by the RegisterInitializer method is called once the Container has created a new instance of T (or any instance that inherits from or implements T depending on exactly how you have configured your registrations). In the example MoveCustomerHandler implements IHandler and because of this the Action<IHandler> delegate will be called with a reference to the newly created instance.

Note: The Container will not be able to call an initializer delegate on a type that is manually constructed using the new operator. Use automatic constructor injection whenever possible.

Tip: Multiple initializers can be applied to a concrete type and the Container will call all initializers that apply. They are guaranteed to run in the same order that they are registered.

Automatic/Batch-registration

When an application starts to grow, so does the number of types to register in the container. This can cause a lot of maintenance on part of your application that holds your container registration. When working with a team, you’ll start to experience many merge conflicts which increases the chance of errors.

To minimize these problems, Simple Injector allows groups of types to be registered with a few lines of code. Especially when registering a family of types that are defined using the same (generic) interface. For instance, the previous example with the IHandler<T> registrations can be reduced to the following code:

// Configuration
Assembly[] assemblies = // determine list of assemblies to search in
container.Register(typeof(IHandler<>), assemblies);

When supplying a list of assemblies to the Register method, Simple Injector will go through the assemblies and will register all types that implement the given interface. In this example, an open-generic type (IHandler<T>) is supplied. Simple Injector will automatically find all implementations of this interface.

Note: For more information about batch registration, please see the Batch-registration section.

Collections

Simple Injector contains several methods for registering and resolving collections of types. Here are some examples:

// Configuration
// Registering a list of instances that will be created by the container.
// Supplying a collection of types is the preferred way of registering collections.
container.RegisterCollection<ILogger>(new[] { typeof(MailLogger), typeof(SqlLogger) });

// Register a fixed list (these instances should be thread-safe).
container.RegisterCollection<ILogger>(new[] { new MailLogger(), new SqlLogger() });

// Using a collection from another subsystem
container.RegisterCollection<ILogger>(Logger.Providers);

// Usage
var loggers = container.GetAllInstances<ILogger>();

Note: When zero instances are registered using RegisterCollection, each call to Container.GetAllInstances will return an empty list.

Warning: Simple Injector requires a call to RegsterCollection to be made, even in the absence of any instances. Without a call to RegisterCollection, Simple Injector will throw an exception.

Just as with normal types, Simple Injector can inject collections of instances into constructors:

// Definition
public class Service : IService {
    private readonly IEnumerable<ILogger> loggers;

    public Service(IEnumerable<ILogger> loggers) {
        this.loggers = loggers;
    }

    void IService.DoStuff() {
        // Log to all loggers
        foreach (var logger in this.loggers) {
            logger.Log("Some message");
        }
    }
}

// Configuration
container.RegisterCollection<ILogger>(new[] { typeof(MailLogger), typeof(SqlLogger) });
container.Register<IService, Service>(Lifestyle.Singleton);

// Usage
var service = container.GetInstance<IService>();
service.DoStuff();

The RegisterCollection overloads that take a collection of Type instances rely on the Container to create an instance of each type just as it would for individual registrations. This means that the same rules we have seen above apply to each item in the collection. Take a look at the following configuration:

// Configuration
container.Register<MailLogger>(Lifestyle.Singleton);
container.Register<ILogger, FileLogger>();

container.RegisterCollection<ILogger>(new[] {
    typeof(MailLogger),
    typeof(SqlLogger),
    typeof(ILogger)
});

When the registered collection of ILogger instances are resolved, the Container will resolve each of them applying the specific rules of their configuration. When no registration exists, the type is created with the default Transient lifestyle (transient means that a new instance is created every time the returned collection is iterated). In the example, the MailLogger type is registered as Singleton, and so each resolved ILogger collection will always have the same instance of MailLogger in their collection.

Since the creation is forwarded, abstract types can also be registered using RegisterCollection. In the above example the ILogger type itself is registered using RegisterCollection. This seems like a recursive definition, but it will work nonetheless. In this particular case you could imagine this to be a registration with a default ILogger registration which is also included in the collection of ILogger instances as well. A more usual scenario however is the use of a composite as shown next.

While resolving collections is useful and also works with automatic constructor injection, the registration of Composites is preferred over the use of collections as constructor arguments in application code. Register a composite whenever possible, as shown in the example below:

// Definition
public class CompositeLogger : ILogger {
    private readonly IEnumerable<ILogger> loggers;

    public CompositeLogger(IEnumerable<ILogger> loggers) {
        this.loggers = loggers;
    }

    public void Log(string message) {
        foreach (var logger in this.loggers) {
            logger.Log(message);
        }
    }
}

// Configuration
container.Register<IService, Service>(Lifestyle.Singleton);
container.Register<ILogger, CompositeLogger>(Lifestyle.Singleton);
container.RegisterCollection<ILogger>(new[] { typeof(MailLogger), typeof(SqlLogger) });

// Usage
var service = container.GetInstance<IService>();
service.DoStuff();

When using this approach none of your services (except CompositeLogger) need a dependency on IEnumerable<ILogger> - they can all simply have a dependency on the ILogger interface itself.

Collection types

Besides IEnumerable<ILogger>, Simple Injector natively supports some other collection types as well. The following types are supported:

• IEnumerable<T>
• ICollection<T>
• IList<T>
• IReadOnlyCollection<T>
• IReadOnlyList<T>
• T[] (array)

Note: The IReadOnlyCollection<T> and IReadOnlyList<T> interfaces are new in .NET 4.5. Only the .NET 4.5 and .NET Core build of Simple Injector will be able to automatically inject these abstractions into your components. These interfaces are not supported by the PCL and .NET 4.0 versions of Simple Injector.

Simple Injector preserves the lifestyle of instances that are returned from an injected IEnumerable<T>, ICollection<T>, IList<T>, IReadOnlyCollection<T> and IReadOnlyList<T> instance. In reality you should not see the the injected IEnumerable<T> as a collection of instances; you should consider it a stream of instances. Simple Injector will always inject a reference to the same stream (the IEnumerable<T> or ICollection<T> itself is a singleton) and each time you iterate the IEnumerable<T>, for each individual component, the container is asked to resolve the instance based on the lifestyle of that component.

Warning: In contrast to the collection abstractions, an array is registered as transient. An array is a mutable type; a consumer can change the contents of an array. Sharing the array (by making it singleton) might cause unrelated parts of your applications to fail because of changes to the array. Since an array is a concrete type, it can not function as a stream, causing the elements in the array to get the lifetime of the consuming component. This could cause lifestyle mismatches when the array wasn’t registered as transient.

Batch-registering collections

Just as with one-to-one mappings, Simple Injector allows collections of types to be batch-registered. There are overloads of the RegisterCollection method that accept a list of Assembly instances. Simple Injector will go through those assemblies to look for implementations of the supplied type:

Assembly[] assemblies = // determine list of assemblies to search in
container.RegisterCollection(typeof(ILogger), assemblies);

The previous code snippet will register all ILogger implementations that can be found in the supplied assemblies as part of the collection.

Warning: This RegisterCollection overload will request all the types from the supplied Assembly instances. The CLR however does not give any guarantees what so ever about the order in which these types are returned. Don’t be surprised if the order of these types in the collection change after a recompile or an application restart.

Note: For more information about batch registration, please see the Batch-registration section.

Adding registrations to an existing collection

In most cases you would register a collection with a single line of code. There are cases where you need to append registrations to an already registered collection. Common use cases for this are integration scenarios where you need to interact with some framework that made its own registrations on your behalf, or in cases where you want to add extra types based on configuration settings. In these cases it might be benifecial to append registrations to an existing collection.

To be able to do this, Simple Injector contains the AppendToCollection extension method in the SimpleInjector.Advanced namespace.

Note: This extension method will not show up using IntelliSense, unless you include the SimpleInjector.Advanced namespace to your code file. This extension method is deliberately hidden to prevent polluting the main API; appending to existing collections is not a common use case.

Assembly[] assemblies = // determine list of assemblies to search in
container.RegisterCollection(typeof(ILogger), assemblies);

container.AppendToCollection(typeof(ILogger), typeof(ExtraLogger));

Verifying the container’s configuration

You can call the Verify method of the Container. The Verify method provides a fail-fast mechanism to prevent your application from starting when the Container has been accidentally misconfigured. The Verify method checks the entire configuration by creating an instance of each registered type.

Tip: Calling Verify is not required, but is highly encouraged.

For more information about creating an application and container configuration that can be successfully verified, please read the How To Verify the container’s configuration.

Automatic constructor injection / auto-wiring

Simple Injector uses the public constructor of a registered type and analyzes each constructor argument. The Container will resolve an instance for each argument type and then invoke the constructor using those instances. This mechanism is called Automatic Constructor Injection or auto-wiring and is one of the fundamental features that separates a DI Container from applying DI by hand.

Simple Injector has the following prerequisites to be able to provide auto-wiring:

1. Each type to be created must be concrete (not abstract, an interface or an open generic type). Types may be internal, although this can be limited if you’re running in a sandbox (e.g. Silverlight or Windows Phone).
2. The type should have one public constructor (this may be a default constructor).
3. All the types of the arguments in that constructor must be resolvable by the Container; optional arguments are not supported.

Simple Injector can create a concrete type even if it hasn’t been registered explicitly in the container by using constructor injection.

The following code shows an example of the use of automatic constructor injection. The example shows an IUserRepository interface with a concrete SqlUserRepository implementation and a concrete UserService class. The UserService class has one public constructor with an IUserRepository argument. Because the dependencies of the UserService are registered, Simple Injector is able to create a new UserService instance.

// Definitions
public interface IUserRepository { }
public class SqlUserRepository : IUserRepository { }
public class UserService : IUserService {
    private readonly IUserRepository repository;
    public UserService(IUserRepository repository) {
        this.repository = repository;
    }
}

// Configuration
var container = new Container();

container.Register<IUserRepository, SqlUserRepository>(Lifestyle.Singleton);
container.Register<IUserService, UserService>(Lifestyle.Singleton);

// Usage
var service = container.GetInstance<IUserService>();

Note: Because UserService is a concrete type, calling container.GetInstance<UserService>() without registering it explicitly will work. This feature can simplify the Container‘s configuration for some scenarios. Always keep in mind that best practice is to program to an interface not a concrete type. Prevent using and depending on concrete types as much possible.

Warning: Even though registration of concrete types is not required, it is adviced to register all root types explicitly. For instance, register all ASP.NET MVC Controller instances explicitly in the container (Controller instances are requested directly and are therefore called ‘root objects’). This way the container can check the complete dependency graph starting from the root object when you call Verify().

More information

For more information about Simple Injector please visit the following links:

• The Object Lifetime Management page explains how to configure lifestyles such as transient, singleton, and many others.
• See the Integration Guide for more information about how to integrate Simple Injector into your specific application framework.
• For more information about dependency injection in general, please visit this page on Stackoverflow.
• If you have any questions about how to use Simple Injector or about dependency injection in general, the experts at Stackoverflow.com are waiting for you.
• For all other Simple Injector related question and discussions, such as bug reports and feature requests, the Simple Injector discussion forum will be the place to start.