RegisterInstance can't register with IntstancePerRequestMode in Autofac - asp.net-web-api

Question

I have a code in Web Api Delegating Handler that extract data from request header.
However, I can't register instance in Autofac container because Autofac container require SingleInstance only.
public class ExtractUserNameMessageHandler : DelegatingHandler
{
protected async override Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
var userNameFromFrontEnd = request.GetDependencyScope().GetService(typeof (IUserNameFromFrontEnd));
if (userNameFromFrontEnd == null)
{
var updatedContainerBuilder = new ContainerBuilder();
userNameFromFrontEnd = ExtractUserName(request);
if (userNameFromFrontEnd == null)
{
throw new Exception("We've got a request without UserName header");
}
updatedContainerBuilder.RegisterInstance(userNameFromFrontEnd)
.As<IUserNameFromFrontEnd>()
.InstancePerRequest();
var autofacDependencyResolver = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.DependencyResolver as AutofacWebApiDependencyResolver;
if (autofacDependencyResolver == null)
{
throw new Exception("We can work with Autofac DI container");
}
updatedContainerBuilder.Update(autofacDependencyResolver.Container as IContainer);
}
When I try to update container I get an exception with message - registration can support singleinstance() sharing only.
What does it mean? I can't understand why we have this limitation. But in any cases my first goal - update container with new dependency.
Does anybody have ideas?

Answer 1

(Note: This question was cross-posted to the Autofac forums as well.)
When you register a specific instance, it's effectively a singleton - it's one instance, the instance you provided.
When you try to assign it InstancePerRequest or, really, any other lifetime scope besides SingleInstance, it doesn't make logical sense because you're not going to get a different instance per request (or whatever). You're going to get the exact same instance you registered, which is a singleton.
The exception message is trying to tell you how to avoid incorrect expectations: that it can't provide you a different instance per request even though you told it to because you didn't tell it how to create a new instance, you instead provided a specific instance.
If you need a different instance of an object per lifetime scope/request/whatever, you need to register a type, a delegate, or something else that tells Autofac how to create that new instance.
What that means is that if you want a different IUserNameFromFrontEnd per request, you need to move that logic out of a DelegatingHandler and into an Autofac registration delegate.
// Make sure to register the HttpRequestMessage in the container
// so you can resolve it...
builder.RegisterHttpRequestMessage(httpConfiguration);
// Then, whilst building your root container...
builder
.Register(ctx =>
{
var request = ctx.Resolve<HttpRequestMessage>();
return ExtractUserName(request);
})
.As<IUserNameFromFrontEnd>()
.InstancePerRequest();
Now it will probably do what you're looking to do - because you told Autofac how to create the instance that belongs in each request. It also means you don't need that DelegatingHandler anymore because Autofac will just do the right thing.
More advanced (and probably not useful here, but for completeness):
If, for whatever reason, you still feel like you need to modify the registration directly in the lifetime scope, instead of updating the container you should add the registration when the request lifetime scope is created.
Again, do not update the root container for per-lifetime-scope or per-request dependencies. It's not going to work how you think.
When a new lifetime scope is created, you can add registrations on the fly.
using(var scope = container.BeginLifetimeScope(
builder => builder.RegisterInstance(myfoo).As<IFoo>()))
{
// This will use the registrations in the container
// and the scope. f == myfoo
var f = scope.Resolve<IFoo>();
}
The AutofacDependencyResolver is the thing that creates the request lifetime scope and hands it off to Web API. You can see the full source here. The key method is BeginScope:
public IDependencyScope BeginScope()
{
var lifetimeScope = _container.BeginLifetimeScope(MatchingScopeLifetimeTags.RequestLifetimeScopeTag);
return new AutofacWebApiDependencyScope(lifetimeScope);
}
If you create your own AutofacDependencyResolver you can modify how the scope is created:
public IDependencyScope BeginScope()
{
var lifetimeScope = _container.BeginLifetimeScope(
MatchingScopeLifetimeTags.RequestLifetimeScopeTag,
builder => builder.RegisterInstance(myfoo).As<IFoo>());
return new AutofacWebApiDependencyScope(lifetimeScope);
}
This isn't an explicitly supported extension point in the Autofac Web API integration right now - that's why you'd have to create your own resolver.
However, this seems like overkill to solve the thing it appears you're trying to solve. I strongly recommend just registering the delegate with Autofac rather than trying to update existing containers or scopes. You will have far more luck using the path of least resistance.