Question

I want to set the Entity Framework ObjectContext in a repository class – the ObjectContext being a property of the repository.

I am using Unity XML configuration:

<register type="IUsersRepository" mapTo="SqlUsersRepository" >
  <property name="MyObjectContext">
    <value value="Per-Request" typeConverter="ObjectContextTypeConverter" />
  </property>
</register>

The ObjectContextTypeConverter interprets the value of the property – in this case “Per-Request” – and uses an ObjectContext stored in HttpContext.Current.Items (a per request collection in asp.net).

The ObjectContextTypeConverter.ConvertFrom method is only called once when the Unity configurations is loaded in the Application_Start method of the Global.asax file. Yet when I try to resolve an interface using Unity – the ConvertFrom method won’t be called again.

Is there a way to solve this problem?

Answer 1

The reason is that you’re setting it as a value. You can set it as a dependency:

<property name="MyObjectContext">
    <dependency />
</property>

and inject the context through an in injection factory:

Container.RegisterType<ObjectContext>(
    new InjectionFactory(c => GetTheContextInstance()));