Register Spring.Net objects with code

Anyone that has worked with Spring.Net is probably familiar with configuring the IOC container using an XML document. A typical example would be:

   2:  

   3: <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net" 

   4:          xmlns:v='http://www.springframework.net/validation' 

   5:          xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.net/aop" 

   6:          xmlns:db="http://www.springframework.net/db" 

   8:  

   1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

   9:   <object id="ConsoleWriter" type="SimpleCalculatorWithComplexTree.Writers.ConsoleWriter" singleton="false" >

  10:     <constructor-arg name="formatter" ref="HexFormatter" />

  11:   </object>

  12:  

  13:   <object id="Calculator" type="SimpleCalculatorWithComplexTree.Calculator" singleton="false">

  14:     <constructor-arg name="writer" ref="ConsoleWriter" />

  15:   </object>

  16:  

  17:   <object id="HexFormatter" type="SimpleCalculatorWithComplexTree.Formatters.HexFormatter" singleton="false" >

  18:     

  19:   </object>

  20:   

  21: </objects>

The last couple of years has seen an anti-XML movement begin to form. In the world of IOC containers, this has materialized as a movement away from XML configuration and more towards using code constructs and “convention over configuration.” I’m not against XML. After all, almost everything has a place.

I recently did a presentation on Spring.Net for a .NET user group. I wanted to introduce the IOC container without overwhelming people with XML. A quick search found an article about XMLless configuration of the container. This approach felt like it would be a distraction from my goal of getting to the container.

Luckily I stumbled into at article from early 2008 that discussed the configuration api. From this I was able to create this method that extends the GenericApplicationContext and allows for easy registration of a type in the container:

   1: Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices

   2: Imports Spring.Context.Support

   3: Imports Spring.Objects.Factory.Support

   4:  

   5: Public Module SpringExtension

   6:  

   7:     <Extension()>

   8:     Public Sub RegisterType(Of T)(ByVal ctx As GenericApplicationContext, ByVal builderConfig As Action(Of ObjectDefinitionBuilder))

   9:         Dim objectDefinitionFactory As IObjectDefinitionFactory = New DefaultObjectDefinitionFactory()

  10:  

  11:         Dim builder As ObjectDefinitionBuilder = ObjectDefinitionBuilder.RootObjectDefinition(objectDefinitionFactory, GetType(T))

  12:         builderConfig.Invoke(builder)

  13:  

  14:         ctx.RegisterObjectDefinition(builder.ObjectDefinition.ObjectType.Name, builder.ObjectDefinition)

  15:  

  16:     End Sub

  17:  

  18: End Module

Here’s a quick example of its use:

   1: Dim ctx = New GenericApplicationContext()

   2:  

   3: ctx.RegisterType(Of Calculator)(Sub(b As ObjectDefinitionBuilder) b _

   4:                               .SetAutowireMode(Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.AutoWiringMode.AutoDetect) _

   5:                               .SetSingleton(False))

   6:  

   7: ctx.RegisterType(Of HexFormatter)(Sub(b As ObjectDefinitionBuilder) b _

   8:                       .SetAutowireMode(Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.AutoWiringMode.AutoDetect) _

   9:                       .SetSingleton(False))

  10:  

  11: ctx.RegisterType(Of ConsoleWriter)(Sub(b As ObjectDefinitionBuilder) b _

  12:                       .SetAutowireMode(Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.AutoWiringMode.AutoDetect) _

  13:                       .SetSingleton(False))

Disable password expiration on Windows Hyper-V server

Back in April I wrong a quick entry about not being able to use the Hyper-V Remote manager to access the Hyper-V server. I was getting the error “Cannot connect to the RPC service on computer…” because my credentials on the server had expired. Today I finally got around to changing the account security policy on the server to prevent password from expiring. The command is:

NET accounts /MAXPWAGE:UNLIMITED

Spring.Net and Common.Logging 2.0

Versions 1.2 and 1.3 of Spring.Net bind to Common.Logging 1.2. If you are using or need to use v2.0 of Common.Logging, you can use an assembly redirect to force the assembly loader to the updated version. Put the following into your application’s configuration file:

<configuration>
   <runtime>
      <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
       <dependentAssembly>
         <assemblyIdentity name="Common.Logging"
                           publicKeyToken="AF08829B84F0328E" />
         <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.2.0.0"
                          newVersion="2.0.0.0"/>
       </dependentAssembly>
      </assemblyBinding>
   </runtime>
</configuration>