Passing data to dependencies registered with Execution Context Scope lifetime in Simple Injector - task-parallel-library

Question

Is there a way to pass data to dependencies registered with either Execution Context Scope or Lifetime Scope in Simple Injector?
One of my dependencies requires a piece of data in order to be constructed in the dependency chain. During HTTP and WCF requests, this data is easy to get to. For HTTP requests, the data is always present in either the query string or as a Request.Form parameter (and thus is available from HttpContext.Current). For WCF requests, the data is always present in the OperationContext.Current.RequestContext.RequestMessage XML, and can be parsed out. I have many command handler implementations that depend on an interface implementation that needs this piece of data, and they work great during HTTP and WCF scoped lifestyles.
Now I would like to be able to execute one or more of these commands using the Task Parallel Library so that it will execute in a separate thread. It is not feasible to move the piece of data out into a configuration file, class, or any other static artifact. It must initially be passed to the application either via HTTP or WCF.
I know how to create a hybrid lifestyle using Simple Injector, and already have one set up as hybrid HTTP / WCF / Execution Context Scope (command interfaces are async, and return Task instead of void). I also know how to create a command handler decorator that will start a new Execution Context Scope when needed. The problem is, I don't know how or where (or if I can) "save" this piece of data so that is is available when the dependency chain needs it to construct one of the dependencies.
Is it possible? If so, how?
Update
Currently, I have an interface called IProvideHostWebUri with two implementations: HttpHostWebUriProvider and WcfHostWebUriProvider. The interface and registration look like this:
public interface IProvideHostWebUri
{
Uri HostWebUri { get; }
}
container.Register<IProvideHostWebUri>(() =>
{
if (HttpContext.Current != null)
return container.GetInstance<HttpHostWebUriProvider>();
if (OperationContext.Current != null)
return container.GetInstance<WcfHostWebUriProvider>();
throw new NotSupportedException(
"The IProvideHostWebUri service is currently only supported for HTTP and WCF requests.");
}, scopedLifestyle); // scopedLifestyle is the hybrid mentioned previously
So ultimately unless I gut this approach, my goal would be to create a third implementation of this interface which would then depend on some kind of context to obtain the Uri (which is just constructed from a string in the other 2 implementations).
#Steven's answer seems to be what I am looking for, but I am not sure how to make the ITenantContext implementation immutable and thread-safe. I don't think it will need to be made disposable, since it just contains a Uri value.

Answer 1

So what you are basically saying is that:
You have an initial request that contains some contextual information captured in the request 'header'.
During this request you want to kick off a background operation (on a different thread).
The contextual information from the initial request should stay available when running in the background thread.
The short answer is that Simple Injector does not contain anything that allows you to do so. The solution is in creating a piece of infrastructure that allows moving this contextual information along.
Say for instance you are processing command handlers (wild guess here ;-)), you can specify a decorator as follows:
public class BackgroundProcessingCommandHandlerDecorator<T> : ICommandHandler<T>
{
private readonly ITenantContext tenantContext;
private readonly Container container;
private readonly Func<ICommandHandler<T>> decorateeFactory;
public BackgroundProcessingCommandHandlerDecorator(ITenantContext tenantContext,
Container container, Func<ICommandHandler<T>> decorateeFactory) {
this.tenantContext = tenantContext;
this.container = container;
this.decorateeFactory = decorateeFactory;
}
public void Handle(T command) {
// Capture the contextual info in a local variable
// NOTE: This object must be immutable and thread-safe.
var tenant = this.tenantContext.CurrentTenant;
// Kick off a new background operation
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
using (container.BeginExecutionContextScope()) {
// Load a service that allows setting contextual information
var context = this.container.GetInstance<ITenantContextApplier>();
// Set the context for this thread, before resolving the handler
context.SetCurrentTenant(tenant);
// Resolve the handler
var decoratee = this.decorateeFactory.Invoke();
// And execute it.
decoratee.Handle(command);
}
});
}
}
Note that in the example I make use of an imaginary ITenantContext abstraction, assuming that you need to supply the commands with information about the current tenant, but any other sort of contextual information will obviously do as well.
The decorator is a small piece of infrastructure that allows you to process commands in the background and it is its responsibility to make sure all the required contextual information is moved to the background thread as well.
To be able to do this, the contextual information is captured and used as a closure in the background thread. I created an extra abstraction for this, namely ITenantContextApplier. Do note that the tenant context implementation can implement both the ITenantContext and the ITenantContextApplier interface. If however you define the ITenantContextApplier in your composition root, it will be impossible for the application to change the context, since it does not have a dependency on ITenantContextApplier.
Here's an example:
// Base library
public interface ITenantContext { }
// Business Layer
public class SomeCommandHandler : ICommandHandler<Some> {
public SomeCommandHandler(ITenantContext context) { ... }
}
// Composition Root
public static class CompositionRoot {
// Make the ITenantContextApplier private so nobody can see it.
// Do note that this is optional; there's no harm in making it public.
private interface ITenantContextApplier {
void SetCurrentTenant(Tenant tenant);
}
private class AspNetTenantContext : ITenantContextApplier, ITenantContext {
// Implement both interfaces
}
private class BackgroundProcessingCommandHandlerDecorator<T> { ... }
public static Container Bootstrap(Container container) {
container.RegisterPerWebRequest<ITenantContext, AspNetTenantContext>();
container.Register<ITenantContextApplier>(() =>
container.GetInstance<ITenantContext>() as ITenantContextApplier);
container.RegisterDecorator(typeof(ICommandHandler<>),
typeof(BackgroundProcessingCommandHandlerDecorator<>));
}
}
A different approach would be to just make the complete ITenantContext available to the background thread, but to be able to pull this off, you need to make sure that:
The implementation is immutable and thus thread-safe.
The implementation doesn't require disposing, because it will typically be disposed when the original request ends.