Question

I’m using latest MEF 2 preview from Codeplex homepage, and it’s supposed to add open-generics support. It does, but in this specific case, MEF fails to compose generic implementation of generic interface:

public interface IOuter
{
    IInner Value { get; }
}

[Export(typeof(IOuter))]
public class MyOuter : IOuter
{
    [ImportingConstructor]
    public MyOuter(InnerGenericClass<string, int> value)
    {
        this.Value = value;
    }

    public IInner Value { get; private set; }
}

public interface IInner
{
    void Say();
}
public interface IGenericInner<T, K> : IInner
{
    // something else here
}

[Export(typeof(IGenericInner<,>))]
public class InnerGenericClass<T, K> : IGenericInner<T, K>
{
    public void Say()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}", typeof(T), typeof(K));
    }
}

class Startup
{
    public void CatalogSetup()
    {
        var catalog = new AggregateCatalog(
            new AssemblyCatalog(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly())
            );
        var container = new CompositionContainer(catalog, CompositionOptions.DisableSilentRejection);

        var batch = new CompositionBatch();

        container.Compose(batch);

        var outer = container.GetExportedValue<IOuter>();
        outer.Value.Say();
    }
}

Here’s CompositionExpection:

The composition produced a single composition error. The root cause is provided below. Review the CompositionException.Errors property for more detailed information.

1) No exports were found that match the constraint: 
    ContractName    ConsoleApplication1.InnerGenericClass(System.String,System.Int32)
    RequiredTypeIdentity    ConsoleApplication1.InnerGenericClass(System.String,System.Int32)

Resulting in: Cannot set import 'ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter.Value (ContractName="ConsoleApplication1.InnerGenericClass(System.String,System.Int32)")' on part 'ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter'.
Element: ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter.Value (ContractName="ConsoleApplication1.InnerGenericClass(System.String,System.Int32)") -->  ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter -->  AssemblyCatalog (Assembly="ConsoleApplication1, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null")

Resulting in: Cannot get export 'ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter (ContractName="ConsoleApplication1.IOuter")' from part 'ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter'.
Element: ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter (ContractName="ConsoleApplication1.IOuter") -->  ConsoleApplication1.MyOuter -->  AssemblyCatalog (Assembly="ConsoleApplication1, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null")

Same exception is thrown even when I move importing of InnerGenericClass to attribute of MyOuter.Value:

[Export(typeof(IOuter))]
public class MyOuter : IOuter
{
    [Import(typeof(InnerGenericClass<string, int>))]
    public IInner Value { get; private set; }
}

What is weird, is that, it does work, when I change import type to IGenericInner:

[Export(typeof(IOuter))]
public class MyOuter : IOuter
{
    [ImportingConstructor]
    public MyOuter(IGenericInner<string, int> value)
    {
        this.Value = value;
    }

    public IInner Value { get; private set; }
}

What is even weirder, is that, it does not work, when importing via attribute.

Summary: I can’t use generic interface to import object to Value property, because there could be more implementations of IGenericInner interface (and also I want to import a specific implementation, but that’s not important).

I hope I won’t have to bypass MEF altogether in this case.

Answer 1

Cause your exporting the interface IGenericInner<> but want to import the specific class InnerGenericClass MEF does not find the correct part. You can export and import the specific class or create two exports of InnerGenericClass<> this way:

[Export(typeof(IGenericInner<,>))]
[Export(typeof(InnerGenericClass<,>))]
public class InnerGenericClass<T, K> : IGenericInner<T, K> {
    public void Say() {
        Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}", typeof(T), typeof(K));
    }
}

I just tested this in a VS .NET 4.5 project and it works.
Btw. MEF 2 is already released in .NET 4.5 – If possible I recommend using System.ComponentModel.Composition.dll part of the framework not the preview version.

UPDATE:
A third solution (which will work with the Preview Version 5) could be to use additionally a string contract name. I personally try to avoid this cause of the ugly syntax, but ok.
Code will looks like this:

[Export(typeof(IOuter))]
public class MyOuter : IOuter {
    [ImportingConstructor]
    public MyOuter([Import("MySpecialInnerGenericClass", typeof(IGenericInner<,>))]InnerGenericClass<string, int> value) {
        this.Value = value;
    }

    public IInner Value { get; private set; }
}
[Export("MySpecialInnerGenericClass", typeof(IGenericInner<,>))]
public class InnerGenericClass<T, K> : IGenericInner<T, K> {
    public void Say() {
        Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}", typeof(T), typeof(K));
    }
}