I understand how to implement a StructureMap registry, my question concerns the fact that every project that contains a StructureMap registry requires a static reference to the StructureMap assembly. Is there a best practice for how to structure the configuration for a large number of projects (30+) without forcing each project to take this dependency?
The alternative, I suppose, would be to create a bootstrapper assembly that could be referenced by the host process. The bootstrapper would perform all wire-up. In this scenario, the bootstrap assembly, instead, would have references to all of the projects. This has the upside of centralizing the reference to StructureMap so that all of the projects are unaware of StructureMap.
Using XML-based configuration is not an option for me.
Are there any other options for configuration that minimize the number of static references the projects in the solution must take? I’m guessing that there isn’t, but thought I’d solicit some other opinions.
Technically, you only need a single project to reference the container framework, and that is the top-level application project. It references all the other projects and specifies the configuration of the components.
This puts the entire graph configuration out of the hands of each project, opting instead to define graphs only where they are used. This gives each application the complete freedom to configure components, rather than assuming the components will be used in the same way every time (as is implied by the registries which are inherent to each project).
An aside that may or may not be useful: in quantum physics, when we observe a particle, we collapse it from every possible state into a particular one. Frameworks are similar, in that they don’t exist in a single state until they are observed, which here means “put to use in an application.” This frames the application as the observer, which is the context in which the framework collapses into a single form.
Now, I generally wouldn’t want the application be responsible for both being a running application and also configuring that runtime. For this reason, I tend to have a Composition project which references the others as well as the container framework. The actual application project can then reference the Composition project. This externalizes the registries from each project, including the application project, producing a cohesive assembly whose sole purpose is to define the composition of a particular application.