Using a Global Service Locator

If all aspect instances are using the same global dependency injection container, it is likely that dependencies of all instances will resolve to the same service implementation. Therefore, storing dependencies in an instance field may be a waste of memory, especially for aspects that are applied to a very high number of code elements.

Alternatively, dependencies can be stored in static fields and initialized in the aspect static constructor.

In this case, dependency injection method such as SatisfyImportsOnce(ComposablePart) cannot be used. Instead, the container must be used as a service locator. For instance, MEF exposes the method GetExport.

Example: testable aspect with a global MEF service locator

The following code snippet shows a logging aspect and how it could be used in production code:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition.Hosting;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition.Primitives;
using PostSharp.Aspects;
using PostSharp.Extensibility;
using PostSharp.Serialization;

namespace DependencyResolution.GlobalServiceLocator
{
    public interface ILogger
    {
        void Log(string message);
    }

    public static class AspectServiceLocator
    {
        private static CompositionContainer container;

        public static void Initialize(ComposablePartCatalog catalog)
        {
            container = new CompositionContainer(catalog);
        }

        public static Lazy<T> GetService<T>() where T : class
        {
            return new Lazy<T>(GetServiceImpl<T>);
        }

        private static T GetServiceImpl<T>()
        {
            if (container == null)
                throw new InvalidOperationException();

            return container.GetExport<T>().Value;
        }
    }

    [PSerializable]
    public class LogAspect : OnMethodBoundaryAspect
    {
        private static readonly Lazy<ILogger> logger;

        static LogAspect()
        {
            if (!PostSharpEnvironment.IsPostSharpRunning)
            {
                logger = AspectServiceLocator.GetService<ILogger>();
            }
        }


        public override void OnEntry(MethodExecutionArgs args)
        {
            logger.Value.Log("OnEntry");
        }
    }

    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            AspectServiceLocator.Initialize(new TypeCatalog(typeof (ConsoleLogger)));

            LoggedMethod();
        }

        [LogAspect]
        public static void LoggedMethod()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Hello, world.");
        }
    }


    [Export(typeof (ILogger))]
    internal class ConsoleLogger : ILogger
    {
        public void Log(string message)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(message);
        }
    }
}

The following code snippet shows how the logging aspect can be tested:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition;
using System.ComponentModel.Composition.Hosting;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

namespace DependencyResolution.GlobalServiceLocator.Test
{
    [TestClass]
    public class TestLogAspect
    {
        static TestLogAspect()
        {
            AspectServiceLocator.Initialize(new TypeCatalog(typeof (TestLogger)));
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void TestMethod()
        {
            TestLogger.Clear();
            TargetMethod();
            Assert.AreEqual("OnEntry" + Environment.NewLine, TestLogger.GetLog());
        }

        [LogAspect]
        private void TargetMethod()
        {
        }
    }

    [Export(typeof (ILogger))]
    internal class TestLogger : ILogger
    {
        public static readonly StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        public void Log(string message)
        {
            stringBuilder.AppendLine(message);
        }

        public static string GetLog()
        {
            return stringBuilder.ToString();
        }

        public static void Clear()
        {
            stringBuilder.Clear();
        }
    }
}