Context:
I am using DI in my Web application. (I am using NInject, but hopefully this should not matter)
Some places constructor injection is not possible, for example in my custom log4net database logger (that's not me, who instantiates my custom logger instead the log4net framework). So I am using my DI container there in service locator DP mode, and asking an instance resolve explicitly in the logger code.
Note this is just a sample, in many other cases I had to use NInject as service locator DP instead of constructor injection.
Now the problem:
I have an IAuditContextProvider which serves current request's audit data, like IP etc. The question arises how I configure my DI container to instantiate a concrete provider. So far I've used a request scope (singleton by request) what is supported out of box by NInject.
However recently I faced the fact I had to start a background processing initiated by a request. This is done by
// This is 'outside' it's actually a request serving method running in the request context, btw it is an MVC action method,
// Pseudo code:
var auditProvider = Locator.Resolve<IAuditProvider>()
Task.Run(() =>
{
// I would like to get the very same resolved auditProvider instance here as outside.
// Please note: outer local variables are not solution, because of implicit calls here inside, for example if there is a logging statement here, then the service locator in the custom logger must resolve the very same instance as outside
// Some how I must 'stamp' this thread to be the 'same' as the outside
// request thread in point of view of my custom scope resolver (see below)
}
Note: Configuring the DI container a wide scoped singleton are not solution because of multiple requests are server parallel, and they can not use a common auditProvider.
OK, I thought this is what for custom (resolving) scopes are for. Here is the pseudo code how I am configuring my DI container:
kernel
.Bind(typeof(IAuditContextProvider))
.To(typeof(WebAuditContextProvider)).InScope(dummy =>
{
// Here I have to return a very same object/number/id when in
// 'outside' the request thread, and inside the worker thread.
// This way I hopefully get the very same instance when resolving.
// To be short: I have no idea how?
});
I don't think there is a good answer for your question within the current bounds.
I do have an alternative suggestion - just perform the work synchronously in another process. This would require a form of inter-process communication (IPC) but shouldn't be too difficult.
A simple but effective form of IPC is just writing a record to a database table (acting like a queue) and having a windows service/daemon polling for new records to "process". In this example, you would put a record in the table with the contextual information (user id, etc) and the service would utilize this context to perform the work synchronously, but the workflow would be asynchronous to the Web UI.
This also has a nice side benefit: You can start to build monitoring, retry logic, etc into the service. These things are much harder to do reliably within an ASP.NET model.
You could forgo the database queue completely by using something like message queues/buses/events, but the basic concept is the same.
Update:
Did you try to use closures in C#? Like this:
var auditProvider = Locator.Resolve<IAuditProvider>()
Task.Run(() =>
{
// with closure you'll get that very variable you need:
auditProvider.SomeMethod();
}
You should read whole article about closures by John Skeet and how they can help you together with TPL.
Other useful information:
Such DI is being called as Ambient Context in famous book Dependency Injection by M. Seeman:
A truly universal CROSS-CUTTING CONCERN can potentially pollute a large part of the API for an application if you have to pass an instance around to every collaborator. An alternative is to define a context that’s available to anyone who needs it and that can be ignored by everyone else.
The AMBIENT CONTEXT is available to any consumer via a static property
or method. A consuming class might use it like this:
public string GetMessage() { return SomeContext.Current.SomeValue; }
In this case, the context has a static Current property that a consumer can access. This property may be truly static, or may be associated with the currently executing thread. To be useful in DI scenarios, the context itself must be an ABSTRACTION and it must be possible to modify the context from the outside—in the previous example, this means that the Current property must be writable. The context itself might be implemented as shown in the following listing.
The context is an abstract class, which allows us to replace one context with another implementation at runtime.
public abstract class SomeContext
{
public static SomeContext Current
{
get
{
// Get current context from TLS
var ctx = Thread.GetData(Thread.GetNamedDataSlot("SomeContext")) as SomeContext;
if (ctx == null)
{
ctx = SomeContext.Default;
Thread.SetData(Thread.GetNamedDataSlot("SomeContext"), ctx);
}
return ctx;
}
set
{
Thread.SetData(Thread.GetNamedDataSlot("SomeContext"), value);
}
}
public static SomeContext Default = new DefaultContext();
public abstract string SomeValue { get; }
}
TLS here stands for Thread Local Storage, which can be useful idea for you here.
Also I suggest you to read about OperationContext class, which can be helpful for you if you want to pass some context for your Task, something like this:
// save current context before task start
var operationContext = OperationContext.Current;
Task.Run(() =>
{
// set current operation context inside your Task with closure
OperationContext.Current = operationContext;
// Your work here
}
Related
I'm having a huge problem with the configuration/dependency injection of an application.
I have a singleton class added through DI with AddSingleton, that has in its constructor a IRequestClient, that is scoped because
busConfigurator.AddRequestClient()
which among other things, has the same effect as AddScoped.
When I start the app, it says
"Cannot consume scoped service 'MassTransit.IRequestClient`1[...]' from singleton '...'.)"
Which absolutely makes sense.
The weirdest thing is that I have another app set up the exact same way, but it just works and I would really like for that class to remain singleton.
My colleague and I spent an entire day trying to find the differences between the two applications, but they are virtually the same in their configurations, so we are having trouble in understanding why one works while the other doesn't.
I'm not entirely sure on what details could be important to better define the problem, so feel free to ask.
We've looked all around the internet trying to find a solution, but it was always "Change singleton to transient", but that's not an option, first because it HAS to be a singleton, otherwise it wouldn't make sense in our app, as that thing is what caches lots of date from our db so we can't just go around keeping on collecting heaps of data, second because the first app works with singleton, not with transient and we'd like to keep it that way
// This method is called in Main()
private static void ConfigureMassTransit(IServiceCollection services)
{
services.AddMassTransit(busConfigurators =>
{
busConfigurators.AddRequestClient<ICacheRepository>();
busConfigurators.AddConsumers(typeof(Program).GetTypeInfo().Assembly);
busConfigurators.UsingRabbitMq((context, cfg) =>
{
cfg.Host(new Uri($"rabbitmq://{Config.Settings.RabbitMq_Host}"), hostConfigurator =>
{
hostConfigurator.Username(Config.Settings.RabbitMq_User);
hostConfigurator.Password(Config.Settings.RabbitMq_Password);
});
cfg.ReceiveEndpoint("myApp", e =>
{
e.ConfigureConsumers(context);
});
});
});
// CacheRepository
public class CacheRepository : ICacheRepository
{
private readonly IClient Client;
public CacheRepository(ICacheRepository client, ILogger<CacheRepository> logger)
{
this.client = client;
this.logger = logger;
}
}
When a dependency is scoped, the implication is that a new instance is needed for each scope (which is usually an incoming HTTP request or message.) It implies that the instance should not be re-used for multiple requests.
If you have a singleton that depends on that scoped dependency, that singleton will be created using an instance of that dependency (the request client.) Because that singleton "lives forever," so does the instance of the request client it contains.
The result is that the request client is not supposed to be re-used across different scopes, but now it is. One instance is used forever.
A likely solution is to modify the class that depends on that client so that it doesn't need to be a singleton. You mentioned that it has to be a singleton because it caches data.
How does it cache data? Does it do so by storing data in a private field? If so, perhaps you could make that field static. Now the class instance isn't re-used, but those fields are shared between instances. (Verify that interaction with those fields is thread safe if they may be accessed concurrently.)
Or if there's some other cache mechanism, you could move that into its own dependency and make that a singleton.
Then your class can be scoped. It will depend on the singleton cache, always using the same instance. It will also depend on the scoped request client, using a new instance for each scope.
You could inject IServiceProvider instead, and create a scope when the singleton needs to perform a request. That way, you're sticking to the expected use of the request client.
await using var scope = provider.CreateAsyncScope();
var client = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<IRequestClient<T>>();
await client.GetResponse(...);
Problem Statement: I have a custom IConfigurationProvider that requires a complex service to function properly. This complex service would, naturally be registered to the applications IServiceProvider. I want to use IServiceCollection/IServiceProvider facilities in conjunction with IConfigurationProvider to avoid manual new of this complex service, and to re-use registration code that would otherwise be written in the normal part of the DI container building portion of the app.
I've found plenty of documentation describing the troubles of needing an IServiceProvider in an IConfigurationProvider. This is the closest thing that felt ok to me, and is the inspiration for this post.
Here's my approach at a high level
Build the configuration up enough to construct the intermediate IServiceProvider
Build the intermediate IServiceProvider
Build the rest of the configuration via custom IConfigurationProvider's that require special services, retrieved via intermediateServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<T>();
Transfer the registrations and, specifically, singleton objects, from the intermediate IServiceCollection/IServiceProvider to the final IServiceCollection/IServiceProvider. This will help avoid re-registering things in step #5 and will help avoid second instances of singletons in the final IServiceProvider.
Register the final set of services to complete the final IServiceProvider, using configuration that was injected in step #4.
#1,#2,#3,#5 are simple enough. #4 is where I'm hitting roadblocks. My first attempt at #4 was the following
foreach (var sd in intermediateServiceCollection)
{
if (sd.Lifetime == ServiceLifetime.Singleton)
{
// Externally owned
if (sd.ImplementationInstance != null)
{
finalServiceCollection.AddSingleton(sd.ServiceType, sd.ImplementationInstance);
}
// Provide a factory function to delegate to intermediate service provider
else
{
finalServiceCollection.AddSingleton(sd.ServiceType,
s => intermediateServiceProvider.GetRequiredService(sd.ServiceType));
}
}
// Transient/scoped service descriptors can be forwarded along without issue
else
{
finalServiceCollection.Add(sd);
}
}
As documented here, registering open-generic types with a factory function is not supported.
After stumbling upon this limitation, my latest approach looks like:
foreach (var sd in intermediateServiceCollection)
{
if (sd.Lifetime == ServiceLifetime.Singleton)
{
// Externally owned
if (sd.ImplementationInstance != null)
{
finalServiceCollection.AddSingleton(sd.ServiceType, sd.ImplementationInstance);
}
// Provide a factory function to delegate to intermediate service provider
else if (!sd.ServiceType.IsGenericType)
{
finalServiceCollection.AddSingleton(sd.ServiceType,
s => intermediateServiceProvider.GetRequiredService(sd.ServiceType));
}
else
{
// Simply adding the service descriptor to the final service collection
// opens the door for singleton instances to be created again
//
// In reality, this may be configurable to raise an exception to signal
// to our developers they need to avoid registering open-generics in the
// bootstrapping portion of the app. But, this may serve it's purpose
// if you can live with multiple instances of a singleton.
finalServiceCollection.Add(sd);
}
}
// Transient/scoped service descriptors can be forwarded along without issue
else
{
finalServiceCollection.Add(sd);
}
}
Obviously, my current implementation is not perfect as it allows for multiple singleton instances if that singleton is registered as an open-generic. But, with an understood limitation of bootstrap registration being non open-generic types, I can "successfully" create an intermediate IServiceProvider for use within IConfigurationProvider's and transfer it to the final IServiceProvider.
Can anyone provide inspiration that can lead to a complete implementation for #4, specifically around transferring open-generic registrations?
Is the assumption that this approach is reasonable total nonsense and I should opt for a different pattern to configure my application?
If you use the same configuration provider for intermediate and final service provider and you need the same services in the final service provider as within the intermediate one, why don't you put your whole setup logic of the intermediate provider into a method that gets the target builder as parameter? Then you can first call it to setup your intermediate one and later another time to setup your final provider.
In that case you don't need any kind of reflection and you can use all available extension helper class or own logic to setup the configuration provider.
I use AutoFac. I have to resolve a type with an explicit instance which I get from another service.
For example: I have an instance of type Client which I get from somewhere (not from the container).
I want to configure the Autofac container so that always when an object of type Client should be resolved, it should return my instance.
Problem is that I don't have this instance at the time, when I configure the container with the Containerbuilder - so I cannot use for example LambdaRegistration.
Is there another solution for solving my problem?
You can do the following:
MyService service = null;
builder.Register(c => service).As<IMyService>();
// Later on
service = new MyService();
Depending on your needs there are quite some variations of this approach possible, such as:
Send a 'setter' delegate to some initialization code that will call the delegate after the service gets created, e.g. MyServiceInitializer.AfterInitialization(s => service = s);
Promote the service variable to a class property and provide that new wrapper to the initialization
Hide access to the service behind specific read and write abstractions, e.g. interface IMyServiceContext { IMyService Current { get; } } and interface IMyServiceSetter { void SetCurrent(IMyService service); }.
Prevent Autofac from accidentally resolving the service before it is initialized by throwing an exception instead of throwing null, e.g. Register(c => service ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("..."))
It's important to note, however, that in general, the creation of components should be fast and reliable. The fact that your component isn't available at startup is likely because it requires I/O to setup. This is a situation should should try to prevent, for instance by hiding it behind an abstraction completely. This allows you to implement a Proxy that allows the real service to be lazy loaded.
Hopefully this gives you some clues on how to solve this.
So I have a website written in .NET Core C# and I would like to run a process in the background that would make API calls to other website and save the data in database.
I have created ApiAccessor class and would like to invoke the method from the controller (which uses dependency injections for it's database connection), but if I pass them to the ApiAccessor (it would be async) the connection is already disposed of. I've tried injecting it from the get go, but it will still say that the interfaces are disposed, by the time it finishes. I can only do await on it, but this would cause user to wait for too long. What approach should I take with this one? I am a newbie at DI. Maybe some Singleton class? I would still don't know how to pass dependency injections to singleton
ApiAccessor:
IUserAccount _userAccounts;
public ApiAccessor(IConfiguration configuration, IUserAccount userAccounts)
{
_configuration = configuration;
_userAccounts = userAccounts;
}
//...
MethodToPollApi(){
var newUserIdToAdd = // just some kind of new data from api
_userAccounts.Add(newUserIdToAdd) // accessing DB, that causes errors
}
Controller:
void Index(){
MethodToPollApi();
return View();
}
I would consider an idea of using as called background jobs. There are a few popular frameworks for this type of solutions. Within them: custom implementation based on IHostedService, Quartz.NET, Hangfire, and many more available.
I used to play with many of them, personally prefer Hangfire as it self bootstrapped, provide nice UI for jobs dashboard, and really easy to use - for instance, that is how triggering jobs light look like with it:
Run once immediately:
var jobId = BackgroundJob.Enqueue(() => Console.WriteLine("Fire-and-forget!"));
Run delayed:
BackgroundJob.Schedule(() => Console.WriteLine("Delayed!"), TimeSpan.FromDays(7));
Run repeating:
var jobId = RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate(() => Console.WriteLine("Recurring!"), Cron.Daily);
Pick up completed job and continue:
BackgroundJob.ContinueWith(jobId, () => Console.WriteLine("Continuation!"));
Continuing the answer from #Dmitry. With Hangfire you can do something like this.
services.AddHangfire(x => x.UseSqlServerStorage("<Your connection string>"));
Hope this helps.
tl;dr How can I use Entity Framework in a multithreaded .NET Core API application even though DbContext is not threadsafe?
Context
I am working on a .NET Core API app exposing several RESTful interfaces that access the database and read data from it, while at the same time running several TimedHostedServices as background working threads that poll data regularly from other webservices and store them into the database.
I am aware of the fact that DbContext is not threadsafe. I read a lot of docs, blog Posts and answers here on Stackoverflow, and I could find a lot of (partly contradictory) answers for this but no real "best practice" when also working with DI.
Things I tried
Using the default ServiceLifetime.Scoped via the AddDbContext extension method results in exceptions due to race conditions.
I don't want to work with locks (e.g. Semaphore), as the obvious downsides are:
the code is polluted with locks and try/catch/finally for safely releasing the locks
it doesn't really seem 'robust', i.e. when I forget to lock a region that accesses the DbContext.
it seems redundant and 'unnatural' to artificially syncronize db access in the app when working with a database that also handles concurrent connections and access
Not injecting MyDbContext but DbContextOptions<MyDbContext> instead, building the context only when I need to access the db, using a using statement to immediatelly dispose it after the read/write seems like a lot of resource usage overhead and unnecessarily many connection opening/closings.
Question
I am really puzzled: how can this be achived?
I don't think my usecase is super special - populating the db from a Background worker and querying it from the web API layer - so there should be a meaningful way of doing this with ef core.
Thanks a lot!
You should create a scope whenever your TimedHostedServices triggers.
Inject the service provider in your constructor:
public MyServiceService(IServiceProvider services)
{
_services = services;
}
and then create a scope whenever the task triggers
using (var scope = _services.CreateScope())
{
var anotherService = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<AnotherService>();
anotherService.Something();
}
A more complete example is available in the doc
Another approach to create own DbContextFactory and instantiate new instance for every query.
public class DbContextFactory
{
public YourDbContext Create()
{
var options = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<YourDbContext>()
.UseSqlServer(_connectionString)
.Options;
return new YourDbContext(options);
}
}
Usage
public class Service
{
private readonly DbContextFactory _dbContextFactory;
public Service(DbContextFactory dbContextFactory)
=> _dbContextFactory = dbContextFactory;
public void Execute()
{
using (var context = _dbContextFactory.Create())
{
// use context
}
}
}
With factory you don't need to worry about scopes anymore, and make your code free of ASP.NET Core dependencies.
You will be able to execute queries asynchronously, which not possible with scoped DbContext without workarounds.
You always be confident about what data saved when calling .SaveChanges(), where with scoped DbContext there are possibilities that some entity were changed in other class.