Castle Windsor as component container for DotNetNuke

by Remco Ros 10. March 2009 14:48

In my previous post I discussed some ideas I have for a DotNetNuke module development framework on top of the standard DotNetNuke library. It should provide clear guidance in writing custom DNN modules using the Model View Presenter pattern and supports transparent use of NHibernate and Fluent NHibernate as an alternative to DNN’s DAL+.

One of the requirements where that it should automatically register basic services, repositories, views and presenters in a dependency container using Convention over Configuration and that the framework itself should be container independent (using ie. CommonServiceLocator).

While scanning trough DotNetNuke’s source I noticed it provides a clean abstraction for a component (DI) container: DotNetNuke.ComponentModel.IContainer and DotNetNuke.ComponentModel.AbstractContainer.

The default implementation DNN provides (SimpleContainer) is not sufficient for the things I wanted to do with it (auto registration, custom lifetime management, etc.). So instead of using CommonServiceLocator in my framework, I went with writing a custom implementation of IContainer utilizing the Castle Windsor container.

Following is an example implementation, feel free to use the code in your own project:

You should know how to change the default container DotNetNuke uses. If not, then you probably won’t need it and can continue reading just for fun ?

As you can see this is called CastleSimpleContainer. In DotNetNukeMVP a more extended implementation is provided to allow a common way for more flexible registration of components.

    1 // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
    2 // <copyright file="CastleSimpleContainer.cs" company="RawSoft">
    3 //   Copyright (c) RawSoft.  All rights reserved.
    4 // </copyright>
    5 // <summary>
    6 //   Defines the CastleSimpleContainer type.
    7 // </summary>
    8 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    9 namespace DotNetNukeMVP.Castle
   10 {
   11     using System;
   12     using System.Collections;
   13     using System.Collections.Generic;
   14 
   15     using DotNetNuke.ComponentModel;
   16 
   17     using global::Castle.Core;
   18     using global::Castle.Windsor;
   19 
   20     public class CastleSimpleContainer : AbstractContainer
   21     {
   22         private readonly string containerName;
   23 
   24         private readonly IWindsorContainer container;
   25 
   26         private readonly IDictionary<string, IDictionary> componentDependencies = new Dictionary<string, IDictionary>();
   27 
   28         public CastleSimpleContainer()
   29             : this(new WindsorContainer())
   30         {
   31         }
   32 
   33         public CastleSimpleContainer(IWindsorContainer container)
   34             : this(string.Format("Container_{0}", Guid.NewGuid()), container)
   35         {
   36         }
   37 
   38         public CastleSimpleContainer(string name, IWindsorContainer container)
   39         {
   40             this.containerName = name;
   41             this.container = container;
   42         }
   43 
   44         public IWindsorContainer InnerContainer
   45         {
   46             get
   47             {
   48                 return this.container;
   49             }
   50         }
   51 
   52         public override string Name
   53         {
   54             get
   55             {
   56                 return this.containerName;
   57             }
   58         }
   59 
   60         public override void RegisterComponentSettings(string name, IDictionary dependencies)
   61         {
   62             componentDependencies[name] = dependencies;
   63         }
   64 
   65         public override object GetComponent(string name)
   66         {
   67             if (!this.container.Kernel.HasComponent(name))
   68             {
   69                 return null;
   70             }
   71 
   72             try
   73             {
   74                 return this.container.Resolve(name);
   75             }
   76             catch
   77             {
   78             }
   79 
   80             return null;
   81         }
   82 
   83         public override object GetComponent(string name, Type contractType)
   84         {
   85             if (!this.container.Kernel.HasComponent(contractType))
   86             {
   87                 return null;
   88             }
   89 
   90             try
   91             {
   92                 return this.container.Resolve(name, contractType);
   93             }
   94             catch
   95             {
   96             }
   97 
   98             return null;
   99         }
  100 
  101         public override IDictionary GetComponentSettings(string name)
  102         {
  103             if (componentDependencies.ContainsKey(name))
  104             {
  105                 return componentDependencies[name];
  106             }
  107 
  108             return null;
  109         }
  110 
  111         public override void RegisterComponent(string name, Type contractType, Type componentType, ComponentLifeStyleType lifestyle)
  112         {
  113             this.container.AddComponentLifeStyle(name, contractType, componentType, GetLifeStyleType(lifestyle));
  114         }
  115 
  116         public override void RegisterComponentInstance(string name, Type contractType, object instance)
  117         {
  118             this.container.Kernel.AddComponentInstance(name, contractType, instance);
  119         }
  120 
  121         public override object GetComponent(Type contractType)
  122         {
  123             try
  124             {
  125                 return this.container.Resolve(contractType);
  126             }
  127             catch
  128             {
  129             }
  130 
  131             return null;
  132         }
  133 
  134         private static LifestyleType GetLifeStyleType(ComponentLifeStyleType lifeStyleType)
  135         {
  136             LifestyleType scope = lifeStyleType == ComponentLifeStyleType.Singleton
  137                                         ? LifestyleType.Singleton
  138                                         : LifestyleType.Transient;
  139             return scope;
  140         }
  141     }
  142 }

Tags: , ,

DotNetNuke

DotNetNukeMVP: Model View Presenter framework for DotNetNuke (part 1)

by Remco Ros 13. February 2009 00:55

I recently dived into DotNetNuke for some clients, to integrate an E-Commerce platform and develop some custom modules. One major downside to developing modules in DotNetNuke is that you cannot Unit Test them (due to the design of ASP.Net Webforms). This, of course, can be overcome with patterns like ‘Model View Controller’ and (for WebForms more appropriate) ‘Model View Presenter’.

I used the MVP pattern before in projects that use the Composite Web Guidance from Microsoft Pattern&Practices, so I was already familiar with the do’s and don’ts. 

Btw: Phil Haack has a nice article on MVP in ASP.Net here, google if you need more information.

For my first custom DNN module I wanted to try to apply MVP with to the module. I can say it works pretty well, thanks to the transparent developing experience with DotNetNuke.

Because I will be developing a lot more DotNetNuke modules in the near future, I needed some kind of standard stack of frameworks and tools for developing these modules.

Here are some of the requirements:

  • Auto registration of all views and presenters using an DI container (using Convention over Configuration)
  • Container independent (trough CommonServiceLocator).
  • Passive views: views don’t call the presenter directly. A presenter subscribes for events on the view.
  • As less code as possible in the view. (automatic presenter instantiation. Again, using Convention over Configuration and auto registration)
  • As less code as possible to setup the framework. We really don’t want to alter DotNetNuke core code too much. Configuring and initializing should be a matter of 1 or 2 lines (in globals.asax).
  • I want to provide an alternative Data Access Layer than DotNetNuke does. There are a lot of good ORM solutions, I want one. I thought a moment about making the framework independent of this DAL implementation. But that is something I cannot do at the moment (deliver fast, code less).

    I’m going to use NHibernate. I really like it and using FluentNHibernate you can do really neat stuff: Mapping your entities in code for easy refactoring / Auto mapping using Convention over Configuration / etc.

    For NHibernate / FluentNH, I’ll let me inspire by the SharpArchitecture project. It’s a really nice base arhictecture for ASP.Net MVC applications (tough it can be used for other presentation frameworks too).
  • I also want to provide some NUnit base fixtures and helper classes to aid in easy testing your views and presenters.

Now some code:

I have a very basic ASPX file:

    1 <%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="SampleModule.ascx.cs" Inherits="DotNetNukeMVP.SampleModule.SampleModule" %>
    2 What is your name? <asp:TextBox runat="server" ID="tbName"></asp:TextBox>
    3 <asp:Button runat="server" ID="btnSubmit" Text="Submit" /><br />
    4 <asp:Literal runat="server" ID="ltMessage"></asp:Literal>

And the corresponding view:

   24 public partial class SampleModule : PortalModuleView<SampleModulePresenter, ISampleModuleView>, ISampleModuleView
   25 {
   26     public event EventHandler<EventArgs> SampleButtonClick;
   27 
   28     public string Name
   29     {
   30         get { return tbName.Text; }
   31         set { tbName.Text = value; }
   32     }
   33 
   34     public string Message
   35     {
   36         get { return ltMessage.Text; }
   37         set { ltMessage.Text = value; }
   38     }
   39 
   40     protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
   41     {
   42         base.OnInit(e);
   43         btnSubmit.Click += new EventHandler(SampleButtonClick);
   44     }
   45 }

This view, inherits from PortalModuleView (DotNetNuke modules inherit from PortalModuleBase, that’s where the name comes from). Basically, what PortalModuleView does, is create the presenter, initialize it, setting some properties, etc.

Now the Unit test:

   32 [Test]
   33 public void Can_instantiate_view()
   34 {
   35     var view = new SampleModule();
   36 
   37     Assert.That(view, Is.InstanceOfType(typeof(ISampleModuleView)));
   38     Assert.That(view.Presenter, Is.Not.Null);
   39     Assert.That(view.Presenter.View, Is.SameAs(view));
   40 }

As you can see, the view is pretty minimalistic. It contains only the properties and events defining the view and an override of OnInit to bind the button event handler to the SampleButtonClick event.

The presenter (view.Presenter) gets automagically instantiated and initialized by PortalModuleView.

On to the presenter’s unit tests:

   45 [Test] 
   46 public void SampleButtonClick_should_shout_Hello()
   47 {
   48     // setup view and create presenter
   49     var view = Stub<ISampleModuleView>();
   50     var presenter = CreatePresenter<SampleModulePresenter, ISampleModuleView>(view);
   51 
   52     // We fill the textbox with "remco" (SampleModuleView.Name)
   53     view.Name = "remco";
   54 
   55     // Click the button!
   56     view.Raise(x => x.SampleButtonClick += null, view, EventArgs.Empty);
   57 
   58     // Assertions
   59     Assert.That(view.Message, Is.EqualTo("Hello remco"));
   60 }

(I’m using Rhino Mocks here). I think the comment are self explanatory.

Finally the presenter:

   14 public class SampleModulePresenter : Presenter<ISampleModuleView>
   15 {
   16     public override void Initialize()
   17     {
   18         base.Initialize();
   19         View.SampleButtonClick += View_SampleButtonClick;
   20     }
   21 
   22     private void View_SampleButtonClick(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   23     {
   24         View.Message = "Hello " + View.Name;
   25     }
   26 }

In the next post I will show some more in-depth code of DotNetNukeMVP and out-line my ideas of an alternative Data Access Layer for DotNetNuke.

Tags: ,

ASP.Net | DotNetNuke | MVP

About me

Remco Ros

Hey, i'm remco, currently working as a .Net developer in the netherlands, interested in new technologies, physics, and spirituality.

Have a question? contact me.