# The IoC container

## Introduction

This chapter covers the Spring Framework implementation of the Inversion of Control (IoC) See the section entitled principle

The `Spring.Core` assembly is the basis for Spring.NET's IoC container. The `IObjectFactory` interface provides an advanced configuration mechanism capable of managing any type of object. `IApplicationContext` is a sub-interface of `IObjectFactory`. It adds easier integration with Spring.NET's Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) features, message resource handling (for use in internationalization), event propagation and application layer-specific context such as `WebApplicationContext` for use in web applications.

In short, the `IObjectFactory` provides the configuration framework and basic functionality, and the `IApplicationContext` adds more enterprise-specific functionality. The `IApplicationContext` is a complete superset of the `IObjectFactory` and is used exclusively in this chapter in descriptions of Spring's IoC container.

If you are new to Spring.NET or IoC containers in general, you may want to consider starting with , which contains a number of introductory level examples that actually demonstrate a lot of what is described in detail below. Don't worry if you don't absorb everything at once... those examples serve only to paint a picture of how Spring.NET hangs together in really broad brushstrokes. Once you have finished with those examples, you can come back to this section which will fill in all the fine detail.

## Container overview

The interface `IApplicationContext` represents the Spring IoC container and is responsible for instantiating, configuring, and assembling many of the objects in your application. The container gets its instructions on what objects to instantiate, configure, and assemble by reading configuration metadata. The configuration metadata is represented in XML. The configuration metadata allows you to express the objects that compose your application and the rich interdependencies between such objects.

Note that other ways to specify the metadata, such as attributes and .NET code, are planned for future releases, the core IoC container does not assume any specific metadata format. The Java version of Spring already supports such functionality.

Several implementations of the `IApplicationContext` interface are supplied out-of-the-box with Spring. In standalone applications it is common to create an instance of an `XmlApplicationContext` either programmatically or declaratively in your applications App.config file. In web applications Spring provides a `WebApplicationContext` implementation which is configured by adding a custom HTTP module and HTTP handler to your Web.config file. See the section on Web Configuration for more details.

The following diagram is a high-level view of how Spring works. Your application classes are combined with configuration metadata so that after the ApplicationContext is created and initialized, you have a fully configured and executable system or application.

### Configuration metadata

As the preceding diagram shows, the Spring IoC container consumes a form of configuration metadata; this configuration metadata represents how you as an application developer tell the Spring container to instantiate, configure, and assemble the objects in your application. Configuration metadata is supplied in a simple and intuitive XML format

XML-based metadata is by far the most commonly used form of configuration metadata. It is not however the only form of configuration metadata that is allowed. The Spring IoC container itself is totally decoupled from the format in which this configuration metadata is actually written. Attribute based and code based metadata will be part of an upcoming release and it is already part of the Spring Java framework.

Spring configuration consists of at least one and typically more than one object definition that the container must manage. XML- based configuration shows these objects as `<object/>` elements inside a top-level <objects/> element.

These object definitions correspond to the actual objects that make up your application. Typically you define service layer objects, data access objects (DAOs), presentation objects such as ASP.NET page instances, infrastructure objects such as NHibernate `SessionFactories`, and so forth. Typically one does not configure fine-grained domain objects in the container, because it is usually the responsibility of DAOs and business logic to create/load domain objects.

The following example shows the basic structure of XML-based configuration metadata:

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">

      <object id="..." type="...">
        <!-- collaborators and configuration for this object go here -->
      </object>

      <object id="...." type="...">
        <!-- collaborators and configuration for this object go here -->
      </object>

      <!-- more object definitions go here -->

    </objects>

The `id` attribute is a string that you use to identify the individual object definition. The type attribute defines the type of the object and uses the fully qualified type name, including the assembly name. The value of the `id` attribute refers to collaborating objects. The XML for referring to collaborating objects is not shown in this example; Dependencies for more information.

Spring.NET comes with an XSD schema to make the validation of the XML object definitions a whole lot easier. The XSD document is thoroughly documented so feel free to take a peek inside (see ). The XSD is currently used in the implementation code to validate the XML document. The XSD schema serves a dual purpose in that it also facilitates the editing of XML object definitions inside an XSD aware editor (typically Visual Studio) by providing validation (and Intellisense support in the case of Visual Studio). You may wish to refer to for more information regarding such integration.

### Instantiating a container

Instantiating a Spring IoC container is straightforward. The location path or paths suppied to an IApplicationContext constructor are actually resource strings that allow the container to load configuration metadata from a variety of external resources such as the local file system, embedded assembly resources, and so on.

    IApplicationContext context = new XmlApplicationContext("services.xml", "data-access.xml");

The following example shows the service layer objects `(services.xml)` configuration file.

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">

      <object id="PetStore" type="PetStore.Services.PetStoreService, PetStore">
        <property name="AccountDao" ref="AccountDao"/>
        <property name="ItemDao" ref="ItemDao"/>
        <!-- additional collaborators and configuration for this object go here -->
      </object>

      <!-- more bean definitions for services go here -->

    </objects>

The following example shows the data access objects `(daos.xml)` configuration file:

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">

      <object id="AccountDao" type="Petstore.Dao.HibernateAccountDao, PetStore">
        <!-- additional collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
      </object>

      <object id="ItemDao" type="Petstore.Dao.HibernateItemDao, PetStore">
        <!-- additional collaborators and configuration for this bean go here -->
      </object>

      <!-- more bean definitions for data access objects go here -->
    </objects>

In the preceeding example, the service layer consists of the class `PetStoreService`, and two data access objects of the type `HibernateAccountDao` and `HibernateItemDao` are based on the NHibernate Object/Relational mapping framework. The property name element refers to the name of the class's property, and the ref element refers to the name of another object definition. This linkage between id and ref elements expresses the dependency between collaborating objects. For details of configuring an object's dependencies, see Dependencies.

#### Loading configuration metadata from non-default resource locations

In the previous example the configuration resources are assumed to be located in the bin\Debug directory. You can use Spring's `IResource` abstraction to load resources from other locations.

The following example shows how to create an IoC container referring to resources located in the root directory of the filesystem an as an embedded assembly resource.

    IApplicationContext context = new XmlApplicationContext(
                     "file:///services.xml",
                     "assembly://MyAssembly/MyDataAccess/data-access.xml");

The above example uses Spring.NET's `IResource` abstraction. The `IResource` interface provides a simple and uniform interface to a wide array of IO resources that can represent themselves as `System.IO.Stream`.

After you learn about Spring's IoC container, you may want to know more about Spring's `IResource` abstraction to load metadata from other locations as desribed below and alsoin the chapter

These resources are most frequently files or URLs but can also be resources that have been embedded inside a .NET assembly. A simple URI syntax is used to describe the location of the resource, which follows the standard conventions for files, i.e. `file:///services.xml` and other well known protocols such as http.

The following snippet shows the use of the URI syntax for referring to a resource that has been embedded inside a .NET assembly, `assembly://<AssemblyName>/<NameSpace>/<ResourceName>`. The `IResource` abstraction is explained further in .

To create an embedded resource using Visual Studio you must set the Build Action of the .xml configuration file to Embedded Resource in the file property editor. Also, you will need to explicitly rebuild the project containing the configuration file if it is the only change you make between successive builds. If using NAnt to build, add a <resources> section to the csc task. For example usage, look at the Spring.Core.Tests.build file included the distribution.

#### Declarative configuration of the container in App.config/Web.config

You can also create a container by using a custom configuration section in the standard .NET application configuration file (one of `App.config` or `Web.config`). A custom configuration section that creates the same `IApplicationContext` as the previous example is

    <spring>
      <context>
        <resource uri="file://services.xml"/>
        <resource uri="assembly://MyAssembly/MyDataAccess/data-access.xml"/>
      </context>
    </spring>

The context type (specified as the value of the `type` attribute of the `context` element) is optional. In a standalone application the context type defaults to the `Spring.Context.Support.XmlApplicationContext` class and in a Web application defaults to WebApplicationContext. An example of explicitly configuring the context type The following example shows explicit use of the context type attribute:

    <spring>
      <context type="Spring.Context.Support.XmlApplicationContext, Spring.Core">
        <resource uri="file:///services.xml"/>
        <resource uri="assembly://MyAssembly/MyDataAccess/data-access.xml"/>
      </context>
    </spring>

To acquire a reference to an `IApplicationContext` using a custom configuration section, one simply uses the following code;

    IApplicationContext ctx = ContextRegistry.GetContext();

The `ContextRegistry` is used to both instantiate the application context and to perform service locator style access to other objects. (See for more information). The glue that makes this possible is an implementation of the Base Class Library (BCL) provided `IConfigurationSectionHandler` interface, namely the `Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler` class. The handler class needs to be registered in the `configSections` section of the .NET configuration file as shown below.

    <configSections>
      <sectionGroup name="spring">
        <section name="context" type="Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler, Spring.Core"/>
      </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>

This declaration now enables the use of a custom context section starting at the `spring` root element.

In some usage scenarios, user code will not have to explicitly instantiate an appropriate implementation `IApplicationContext` interface, since Spring.NET code will do it for you. For example, the ASP.NET web layer provides support code to load a Spring.NET `WebApplicationContext` automatically as part of the normal startup process of an ASP.NET web application. As such, once the container has been created for you, it is often the case that you will never need to explicitly interact with it again in your code, for example when configuring ASP.NET pages.

Spring.NET comes with an XSD schema to make the validation of the XML object definitions a whole lot easier. The XSD document is thoroughly documented so feel free to take a peek inside (see ). The XSD is currently used in the implementation code to validate the XML document. The XSD schema serves a dual purpose in that it also facilitates the editing of XML object definitions inside an XSD aware editor (typically Visual Studio) by providing validation (and Intellisense support in the case of Visual Studio). You may wish to refer to for more information regarding such integration.

Your XML object definitions can also be defined within the standard .NET application configuration file by registering the `Spring.Context.Support.DefaultSectionHandler` class as the configuration section handler for inline object definitions. This allows you to completely configure one or more `IApplicationContext` instances within a single standard .NET application configuration file as shown in the following example.

    <configuration>

      <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="spring">
          <section name="context" type="Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler, Spring.Core"/>
          <section name="objects" type="Spring.Context.Support.DefaultSectionHandler, Spring.Core" />
        </sectionGroup>
      </configSections>

      <spring>

        <context>
          <resource uri="config://spring/objects"/>
        </context>

        <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">
            ...
        </objects>

      </spring>

    </configuration>

Other options available to structure the configuration files are described in and .

The `IApplicationContext` can be configured to register other resource handlers, custom parsers to integrate user-contributed XML schema into the object definitions section, type converters, and define type aliases. These features are discussed in section

#### Composing XML-based configuration metadata

It can be useful to have object definitions span multiple XML files. Often each individual XML configuration file represents a logical layer or module in your architecture.

You can use the `IApplicationContext` constructor to load object definitions from all these XML fragments. This constructor takes multiple `IResource` locations, as was shown in the previous section. Alternatively, use one or more occurrences of the `<import/>` element to load object definitions from another file (or files). For example:

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">

      <import resource="services.xml"/>
      <import resource="resources/messageSource.xml"/>
      <import resource="/resources/themeSource.xml"/>

      <object id="object1" type="..."/>
      <object id="object2" type="..."/>

    </objects>

In the preceeding example, external object definitions are being loaded from three files, `services.xml`, `messageSource.xml`, and `themeSource.xml`. All location paths are relative to the definition file doing the importing, so `services.xml` must be in the same directory as the file doing the importing, while `messageSource.xml` and `themeSource.xml` must be in a `resources` location below the location of the importing file. As you can see, a leading slash is ignored, but given that these paths are relative, it is better form not to use the slash at all. The contents of the files being imported, including the top level `<objects/>` element, must be valid XML bean definitions according to the Spring Schema.

### Using the container

An `IApplicationContext` is the interface for an advanced factory capable of maintaining a registry of different objects and their dependencies. Using the method `GetObject(string)` or the indexer `[string]` you can retrieve instances of your objects.

The `IApplicationContext` enables you to read object definitions and access them as follows:

    // create and configure beans
    IApplicationContext context = new XmlApplicationContext("services.xml", "daos.xml");

    // retrieve configured instance
    PetStoreService service = (PetStoreService) context.GetObject("PetStoreService");

    // use configured instance
    IList userList = service.GetUserNames();

You use the method `GetObject` to retrieve instances of your objects. The IApplicationContext interface has a few other methods for retrieving objects, but ideally your application code should never use them. Indeed, your application code should have no calls to the GetObject method at all, and thus no dependency on Spring APIs at all. For example, Spring's integration with web frameworks provides for dependency injection for various web framework classes such as ASP.NET pages and user controls.

The syntactical inconvenience of the cast will be addressed in a future release of Spring.NET that is based on a generic API. Note, that even when using a generic API, looking up an object by name in no way guarantees that the return type will be that of the generic type.

### Object definition overview

A Spring IoC container manages one or more objects. These objects are created with the configuration metadata that you supply to the container.

Within the container itself, these object definitions are represented as `IObjectDefinition` objects, which contain (among other information) the following metadata:

- A type name: typically the actual implementation class of the object being defined..

- Object behavioral configuration elements, which state how the object should behave in the container (i.e. prototype or singleton, lifecycle callbacks, and so forth)

- References to other objects which are needed for the object to do its work: these references are also called collaborators or dependencies.

- Other configuration settings to set in the newly created object. An example would be the number of threads to use in an object that manages a worker thread pool, or the size limit of the pool.

This metadata translates to a set of properties that make up each object definition. The following table lists some of these properties, with links to documentation

#### Object definition explanation

Property | More info
--- | ---
type |
id and name |
singleton or prototype |
object properties |
constructor arguments |
autowiring mode |
dependency checking mode |
initialization method |
destruction method |

In addition to object definitions which contain information on how to create a specific object, the `IApplicationContext` implementations also permit the registration of existing objects that are created outside the container, by users. This is done by accessing the `ApplicationContext's` `IObjectFactory` via the property `ObjectFactory` which returns the `IObjectFactory` implementation `DefaultListableObjectFactory`. `DefaultListableObjectFactory` supports registration through the methods `RegisterSingleton(..)` and `RegisterObjectDefinition(..)`. However, typical applications work soley with objects defined through metadata object definitions.

#### Naming objects

Every object has one or more identifiers. These identifiers must be unique within the container that hosts the objects. An object usually has only one identifier, but if it requires more than one, the extra ones can be considered aliases.

A convention that has evolved is to use the standard C# convention for Property names when naming objects. That is, object names start with a uppercase letter, and are camel-cased from then on. Examples of such names would be (without quotes) 'AccountManager', 'AccountService', 'UserDao', 'LoginController', and so forth.

Naming object consistently makes your configuration easier to read and understand, and if you are using Spring AOP it helps a lot when applying advice to a set of objects related by name.

When using XML-based configuration metadata, you use the `'id'` and/or `'name'`attributes to specify the object identifier(s). The `'id'` attribute allows you to specify exactly one id, and because it is a real XML element ID attribute, the XML parser is able to do some extra validation when other elements reference the id. As such, it is the preferred way to specify an object id. However, the XML specification does limit the characters which are legal in XML IDs. This is usually not a constraint, but if you have a need to use one of these special XML characters, or want to introduce other aliases to the object, you can specify them in the `'name'` attribute , separated by a comma (`,`), semicolon (`;`), or whitespace.

You are not required to supply a name or id for a object. If no name or id is supplied explicitly, the container will generate a unique name for that object. However, if you want to refer to that object by name, through the use of the ref element or Service Location style lookup, you must provide a name. The motivations for not supplying a name for a object are to use autowiring and inline-objects which will be discussed later.

##### Aliasing an object outside the object definition

In an object definition itself, you may supply more than one name for the object, by using a combination of up to one name specified by the `id` attribute, and any number of other names in the `name` attribute. These names are equivalent aliases to the same object, and are useful for some situations, such as allowing each component in an application to refer to a common dependency by using a object name that is specific to that component itself.

Specifying all aliases where the object is actually defined is not always adequate, however. It is sometimes desirable to introduce an alias for an object that is defined elsewhere. This is commonly the case in large systems where configuration is split amongst each subsystem, each subsystem having its own set of object defintions. In XML-based configuration metadata, you can use of the <alias/> element to accomplish this.

     <alias name="fromName" alias="toName"/>

In this case, an object in the same container which is named `fromName`, may also after the use of this alias definition, be referred to as `toName`.

For example, the configuration metadata for subsystem A may refer to a DbProvider via the name 'SubsystemA-DbProvider. The configuration metadata for subsystem B may refer to a DbProvider via the name 'SubsystemB-DbProvider'. When composing the main application that uses both these subsystems the main application refers to the DbProvider via the name 'MyApp-DbProvider'. To have all three names refer to the same object you add to the MyApp configuration metadata the following aliases definitions:

    <alias name="SubsystemA-DbProvider" alias="SubsystemB-DbProvider"/>
    <alias name="SubsystemA-DbProvider" alias="MyApp-DbProvider"/>

Now each component and the main app can refer to the connection through a name that is unique and guaranteed not to clash with any other definition (effectively there is a namespace), yet they refer to the same object.

### Instantiating objects

An object definition essentially is a recipe for creating one or more objects. The container looks at the recipe for a named object when asked, and uses the configuration metadata encapsulated by that object definition to create (or acquire) an actual object.

If you are using XML-based configuration metadata, you can specify the type of object that is to be instantiated in the `'type'` attribute of the `<object/>` element. This `'type'` attribute (which internally is a `Type` property on a `IObjectDefinition` instance) is usually mandatory. (For exceptions see the section called Instantiation using an instance factory method and Object definition inheritance.) You use the Type property in one of two ways:

- Typically, to specify the type of of the object to be constructed in the case where the container itself directly creates the object by calling its constructor reflectively, somewhat equivalent to C# code using the 'new' operator.

- To specify the actual class containing the `static` factory method that will be invoked to create the object, in the less common case where the container invokes a `static` factory method on a class to create the object. The object type returned from the invocation of the `static` factory method may be the same type or another type entirely.

#### Instantiatoin with a constructor

When you create an object using the constructor approach, all normal classes are usable by and compatible with Spring. That is, the class being developed does not need to implement any specific interfaces or to be coded in a specific fashion. Simply specifying the object type should be sufficient. However, depending on what type of IoC you are going to use for that specific object, you may need to create a default constructor.

With XML-based configuration metadata you can specify your object class as follows:

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>

For details about the mechanism for supplying arguments to the constructor (if required), and setting object instance properties after the object is constructed, see .

This XML fragment describes an object definition that will be identified by the exampleObject name, instances of which will be of the `Examples.ExampleObject` type that has been compiled into the `ExamplesLibrary` assembly. Take special note of the structure of the `type` attribute's value... the namespace-qualified name of the class is specified, followed by a comma, followed by (at a bare minimum) the name of the assembly that contains the class. In the preceding example, the `ExampleObject` class is defined in the `Examples` namespace, and it has been compiled into the `ExamplesLibrary` assembly.

The name of the assembly that contains the type must be specified in the `type` attribute. Furthermore, it is recommended that you specify the fully qualified assembly name More information about assembly names can be found in the Assembly Names section of the .NET Framework Developer's Guide (installed as part of the .NET SDK), or online at Microsoft's MSDN website, by searching for Assembly Names. in order to guarantee that the type that Spring.NET uses to instantiate your object (s) is indeed the one that you expect. Usually this is only an issue if you are using classes from (strongly named) assemblies that have been installed into the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).

If you have defined nested classes use the addition symbol, +, to reference the nested class. For example, if the class `Examples.ExampleObject` had a nested class `Person` the XML declaration would be

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject+Person, ExamplesLibrary"/>

If you are defining classes that have been compiled into assemblies that are available to your application (such as the `bin` directory in the case of ASP.NET applications) via the standard assembly probing mechanisms, then you can specify simply the name of the assembly (e.g. `ExamplesLibrary.Data`)... this way, when (or if) the assemblies used by your application are updated, you won't have to change the value of every `<object/>` definition's `type` attribute to reflect the new version number (if the version number has changed)... Spring.NET will automatically locate and use the newer versions of your assemblies (and their attendant classes) from that point forward.

#### Instantiation with a static factory method

When defining an object which is to be created using a static factory method, you use the type attribute to specify the type containing the static factory method and an attribute named factory-method to specify the name of the factory method itself. You should be able to call this method (with an optional list of arguments as described later) and return a live object, which subsequently is treated as if it had been created through a constructor. One use for such an object definition is to call static factories in legacy code.

The following object definition specifies that the object will be created by calling a factory-method. The definition does not specify the type of the returned object, only the type containing the factory method. In this example, `CreateInstance` must be a static method.

    <object id="exampleObject"
          type="Examples.ExampleObjectFactory, ExamplesLibrary"
          factory-method="CreateInstance"/>

For details about the mechanism for supplying (optional) arguments to the factory method and setting object instance properties after it has been returned from the factory, see

#### Object creation via an instance factory method

Similar to instantiation through a static factory method, instantiation with an instance factory method invokes a a non-static method on an existing object from the container to create a new object. To use this mechanism, leave the `type` attribute empty, and in the `factory-object` attribute specify the name of an object in the current (or parent/ancestor) container that contains the instance method that is to be invoked to create the object. Set the name of the factory method itself with the `factory-method` attribute.

    <!-- the factory object, which contains an instance method called 'CreateInstance' -->
    <object id="exampleFactory" type="...">
      <!-- inject any dependencies required by this object -->
    </object>

    <!-- the object that is to be created by the factory object -->
    <object id="exampleObject"
          factory-method="CreateInstance"
          factory-object="exampleFactory"/>

This approach shows that the factory object itself can be managed and configured through dependency injection (DI). See Dependencies and configuraiton in detail.

In Spring documentation, 'factory object', refers to an object that is configured in the Spring container that will create objects via an instance or static factory method. By contrast, `IFactoryObject` (notice the capitalization) refers to a Spring-specific `IFactoryObject` .

### Object creation of generic types

Generic types can also be created in much the same manner an non-generic types.

#### Object creation of generic types via constructor invocation

The following examples shows the definition of simple generic types and how they can be created in Spring's XML based configuration file.

    namespace GenericsPlay
    {
        public class FilterableList<T>
        {
            private List<T> list;

            private String name;

            public List<T> Contents
            {
                get { return list; }
                set { list = value; }
            }

            public String Name
            {
                get { return name; }
                set { name = value; }
            }

            public List<T> ApplyFilter(string filterExpression)
            {
                /// should really apply filter to list ;)
                return new List<T>();
            }

        }
    }

The XML configuration to create and configure this object is shown below

    <object id="myFilteredIntList" type="GenericsPlay.FilterableList&lt;int>, GenericsPlay">
      <property name="Name" value="My Integer List"/>
    </object>

There are a few items to note in terms how to specify a generic type. First, the left bracket that specifies the generic type, i.e. `<`, is replaced with the string &lt; due to XML escape syntax for the less than symbol. Yes, we all realize this is less than ideal from the readability point of view. Second, the generic type arguments can not be fully assembly qualified as the comma is used to separate generic type arguments. Alternative characters used to overcome the two quirks can be implemented in the future but so far, all proposals don't seem to help clarify the text. The suggested solution to improve readability is to use type aliases as shown below

    <typeAliases>
     <alias name="GenericDictionary" type=" System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary&lt;,>" />
     <alias name="myDictionary" type="System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary&lt;int,string>" />
    </typeAliases>

So that instead of something like this

    <object id="myGenericObject"
            type="GenericsPlay.ExampleGenericObject&lt;System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary&lt;int , string>>, GenericsPlay" />

It can be shortened to

    <object id="myOtherGenericObject"
            type="GenericsPlay.ExampleGenericObject&lt;GenericDictionary&lt;int , string>>, GenericsPlay" />

or even shorter

    <object id="myOtherOtherGenericObject"
            type="GenericsPlay.ExampleGenericObject&lt;MyIntStringDictionary>, GenericsPlay" />

Refer to for additional information on using type aliases.

#### Object creation of generic types via static factory method

The following classes are used to demonstrate the ability to create instances of generic types that themselves are created via a static generic factory method.

    public class TestGenericObject<T, U>
    {
        public TestGenericObject()
        {
        }

        private IList<T> someGenericList = new List<T>();

        private IDictionary<string, U> someStringKeyedDictionary =
            new Dictionary<string, U>();

        public IList<T> SomeGenericList
        {
            get { return someGenericList; }
            set { someGenericList = value; }
        }

        public IDictionary<string, U> SomeStringKeyedDictionary
        {
            get { return someStringKeyedDictionary; }
            set { someStringKeyedDictionary = value; }
        }

    }

The accompanying factory class is

    public class TestGenericObjectFactory
    {
        public static TestGenericObject<V, W> StaticCreateInstance<V, W>()
        {
            return new TestGenericObject<V, W>();
        }

        public TestGenericObject<V, W> CreateInstance<V, W>()
        {
            return new TestGenericObject<V, W>();
        }
    }

The XML snippet to create an instance of TestGenericObject where `V` is a List of integers and `W` is an integer is shown below

    <object id="myTestGenericObject"
            type="GenericsPlay.TestGenericObjectFactory, GenericsPlay"
            factory-method="StaticCreateInstance&lt;System.Collections.Generic.List&lt;int>,int>"
    />

The StaticCreateInstance method is responsible for instantiating the object that will be associated with the id 'myTestGenericObject'.

#### Object creation of generic types via instance factory method

Using the class from the previous example the XML snippet to create an instance of a generic type via an instance factory method is shown below

    <object id="exampleFactory" type="GenericsPlay.TestGenericObject&lt;int,string>, GenericsPlay"/>

    <object id="anotherTestGenericObject"
            factory-object="exampleFactory"
            factory-method="CreateInstance&lt;System.Collections.Generic.List&lt;int>,int>"/>

This creates an instance of `TestGenericObject<List<int>,int>`

## Dependencies

A typical enterprise application does not consist of a single object. Even the simplest application has a few objects that work together to present what the end-user sees as a coherent application. This next section explains how you go from defining a number of object definitions that stand-alone to a fully realized application where objects collaborate to achieve a goal.

### Dependency injection

Dependency injection (DI) is a process whereby objects define their dependencies, that is, the other objects they work with, only through constructor arguments and properties that are set on the object instance after it is constructed. (Factory methods may be considered a special case of providing constructor arguments for the purposes of this description). The container injects these dependencies when it creates the bean. This process is fundamentally the inverse to the case when the bean itself is controlling the instantiation or location of its dependencies by using direct construction of classes, or the Service Locator pattern. The inverting of this responsibility is why the name Inversion of Control (IoC) is used to describe the container's actions.

Code is cleaner when using DI and decoupling is more effective when objects are provided with their dependencies. The object does not look up its dependencies, and does not know the location or class of the dependencies. Long sections of initialization code that you used to hide in a #region tag simply go away, and are placed by container configuration metadata. One can also consider this clean up an application of the principal of Separation of Concerns. Before using DI, you class was responsible for business logic AND its configuration, it was concerns with doing more than one thing. DI removes the responsibility of configuration from the class, leaving it only with a single purpose, as the location of business logic. Furthermore, since you class does not know the location of its dependencies these classes also become easier to test, in particular when the dependencies are interfaces or abstract base classes allowing for stub or mock implementation to be used in unit tests.

Dependency injection exists in two major variants, Constructor-based dependency injection and Setter-based dependency injection.

#### Constructor-based dependency injection

Constructor-based DI is accomplished by the container invoking a constructor with a number of arguments, each representing a dependency. Calling a static factory method with specific arguments to construct the object is nearly equivalent, and this discussion treats arguments to a constructor and to a static factory method similarly. The following example shows a class that can only be dependency-injected with constructor injection. Notice that there is nothing special about this class (no container specific interfaces, base classes or attributes)

    public class SimpleMovieLister
    {
      // the SimpleMovieLister has a dependency on a MovieFinder
      private IMovieFinder movieFinder;

      // a constructor so that the Spring container can 'inject' a MovieFinder
      public MovieLister(IMovieFinder movieFinder)
      {
        this.movieFinder = movieFinder;
      }

      // business logic that actually 'uses' the injected IMovieFinder is omitted...

    }

##### Constructor argument resolution

Constructor argument resolution matching occurs using the argument's type. If ambiguity exists in the constructor arguments of a object definition, then the order in which the constructor arguments are defined in a object definition is the order in which those arguments are supplied to the appropriate constructor when the object being instantiated. Consider the following class:

    namespace X.Y
    {
        public class Foo
        {
            public Foo(Bar bar, Baz baz)
            {
               // ...
            }
        }
    }

No potential ambiguity exists, assuming of course that Bar and Baz classes are not related by inheritance. Thus the following configuration will work just fine, and you do not need to specify the constructor argument indexes and / or types explicitly in the `<contructor-arg/>` element.

    <object id="foo" type="X.Y.Foo, Example">
      <constructor-arg ref="bar"/>
      <constructor-arg ref="baz"/>
    </object>

    <object id="bar" type="X.Y.Bar, Example"/>
    <object id="baz" type="X.Y.Baz, Example"/>

When another object is referenced, the type is known, and matching can occur (as was the case with the preceding example).

When a simple type is used, such as `<value>true<value>`, Spring cannot determine the type of the value, and so cannot match by type without help. Consider the following class:

    using System;

    namespace SimpleApp
    {
      public class ExampleObject
      {
        private int years;              //No. of years to the calculate the Ultimate Answer

        private string ultimateAnswer;  //The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

        public ExampleObject(int years, string ultimateAnswer)
        {
           this.years = years;
           this.ultimateAnswer = ultimateAnswer;
        }

    }

###### Constructor argument type matching

In the preceding scenario, the container can use type matching with simple types by explicitly specifying the type of the constructor argument using the `'type'` attribute. For example:

    <object name="exampleObject" type="SimpleApp.ExampleObject, SimpleApp">
      <constructor-arg type="int" value="7500000"/>
      <constructor-arg type="string" value="42"/>
    </object>

The type attribute specifies the `System.Type` of the constructor argument, such as System.Int32. Alias' are available to for common simple types (and their array equivalents). These alias' are...

###### Type aliases

Type | Alias' | Array Alias'
--- | --- | ---
System.Char | char, Char | char[], Char()
System.Int16 | short, Short | short[], Short()
System.Int32 | int, Integer | int[], Integer()
System.Int64 | long, Long | long[], Long()
System.UInt16 | ushort | ushort[]
System.UInt32 | uint | uint[]
System.UInt64 | ulong | ulong[]
System.Float | float, Single | float[], Single()
System.Double | double, Double | double[], Double()
System.Date | date, Date | date[], Date()
System.Decimal | decimal, Decimal | decimal[], Decimal()
System.Bool | bool, Boolean | bool[], Boolean()
System.String | string, String | string[], String()

###### Constructor argument Index

Use the `index` attribute to specify explicitly the index of constructor arguments. For example:

    <object name="exampleObject" type="SimpleApp.ExampleObject, SimpleApp">
      <constructor-arg index="0" value="7500000"/>
      <constructor-arg index="1" value="42"/>
    </object>

In addition to resolving the ambiguity of multiple simple values, specifying an index also resolves ambiguity where a constructor has two arguments of the same type. Note that the index is 0 based.

###### Constructor arguments by name

You can specify constructor argumetn by name using `name` attribute of the `<constructor-arg>` element.

    <object name="exampleObject" type="SimpleApp.ExampleObject, SimpleApp">
      <constructor-arg name="years" value="7500000"/>
      <constructor-arg name="ultimateAnswer" value="42"/>
    </object>

#### Setter-based dependency injection

Setter-based DI is accomplished by the container invoking setter properties on your objects after invoking a no-argument constructor or no-argument static factory method to instantiate your object.

The following eample shows a class that can only be dependency injected using pure setter injection.

    public class MovieLister
    {
      private IMovieFinder movieFinder;

      public IMovieFinder MovieFinder
      {
          set
          {
              movieFinder = value;
          }
      }

      // business logic that actually 'uses' the injected IMovieFinder is omitted...
    }

##### Constructor-based or setter-based DI?

The Spring team generally advocates the usage of setter injection, since a large number of constructor arguments can get unwieldy, especially when some properties are optional. The presence of setter properties also makes objects of that class amenable to reconfigured or reinjection later. Managment through WMI is a compelling use case.

Some purists favor constructor-based injection. Supplying all object dependencies means that the object is always returned to client (calling) code in a totally initialized state. The disadvantage is that the object becomes less amenable to reconfiguration and re-injection.

Use the DI that makes the most sense for a particular class. Sometimes, when dealing with third-party classes to which you do not have the source, the choice is made for you. A legacy class may not expose any setter methods, and so constructor injection is the only available DI.

Since you can mix both, Constructor- and Setter-based DI, it is a good rule of thumb to use constructor arguments for mandatory dependencies and setters for optional dependencies.

The `IAppliationContext` supports constructor- and setter-based DI for the objects it manages. It also supports setter-based DI after some dependencies have already been supplied via the constructor approach..

The configuration for the dependencies comes in the form of the `IObjectDefinition` class, which is used together with `TypeConverters` to know how to convert properties from one format to another. However, most users of Spring.NET will not be dealing with these classes directly (that is programatically), but rather with an XML definition file which will be converted internally into instances of these classes, and used to load an entire Spring IoC container instance. Refer to for more information regarding type conversion, and how you can design your classes to be convertible by Spring.NET.

The container resolves object dependeices as:

1. The `IApplicationContext` is created and initialized with a configuration that describes all the objects. Most Spring.NET users use an `IObjectFactory` or `IApplicationContext` variant that supports XML format configuration files.

2. Each object has dependencies expressed in the form of properties, constructor arguments, or arguments to the static-factory method if you are using that instead of a normal constructor. These dependencies apre provided to the object, when the object is actually created.

3. Each property or constructor argument is either an actual definition of the value to set, or a reference to another object in the container.

4. Each property or constructor argument which is a value must be able to be converted from whatever format it was specified in, to the actual `System.Type` of that property or constructor argument. By default Spring.NET can convert a value supplied in string format to all built-in types, such as `int`, `long`, `string`, `bool`, etc.

The Spring container validates the configuration of each object as the container is created, including the validation of whether object reference properties refer to valid object. However, the object properties themselves are not set until the object is actually created. Objects that are defined as singletons and set to be pre-instantiated, are created when the container is created. Otherwise, the object is created only when it is requested. Creation of an object potentially causes a graph of objects to be created as the objects dependencies and its dependencies' dependencies (and so on) are created and assigned.

##### Circular Dependencies

If you are using predominantly constructor injection it is possible to create unresolvable circular dependency scenario.

For example: Class A, which requires an instance of class B to be provided via constructor injection, and class B, which requires an instance of class A to be provided via constructor injection. If you configure objects for classes A and B to be injected into each other, the Spring IoC container detects this circular reference at runtime, and throw a `ObjectCurrentlyInCreationException`.

One possible solution to this issue is to edit the source code of some of your classes to be configured via setters instead of via constructors. Alternatively, avoid constructor injection and stick to setter injection only. In other words, although it is not recommended, you can configure circular dependencies with setter injection.

Unlike the typical case (with no circular dependencies), a circular dependency between object A and object B will force one of the objects to be injected into the other prior to being fully initialized itself (a classic chicken/egg scenario).

You can generally trust Spring.NET to do the right thing. It detects configuration problems, such as references to non-existent object definitions and circular dependencies, at container load-time. Spring sets properties and resolves dependencies as late as possible, which is when the object is actually created. This means that a Spring container which has loaded correctly can later generate an exception when you request an object if there is a problem creating that object or one of its dependencies. For example, the object throws an exception as a result of a missing or invalid property. This potentially delayed visibility of some configuration issues is why `IApplicationContext` by default pre-instantiate singleton objects. At the cost of some upfront time and memory to create these objects before they are actually needed, you discover configuration issues when the `IApplicationContext` is created, not later. If you wish, you can still override this default behavior and set any of these singleton objects will lazy-initialize, rather than be pre-instantiated.

If no circular dependencies exist, when one or more collaborating objects are being injected into a dependent object, each collaborating object is totally configured prior to being passed into the dependent object. This means that if object A has a dependency on object B, the Spring IoC container completely configures object B prior to invoking the setter method on object A. In other words, the object is instantiated (if not a pre-instantiated singleton), its dependencies are set, and the relevant lifecycle methods (such as a configured init method or the `IIntializingObject` callback method) will all be invoked.

#### Examples of dependency injection

First, an example of using XML-based configuration metadata for setter-based DI. A small part of a Spring XML configuration file specifying some object definitions:

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary">

        <!-- setter injection using the ref attribute -->
        <property name="objectOne" ref="anotherExampleObject"/>
        <property name="objectTwo" ref="yetAnotherObject"/>
        <property name="IntegerProperty" value="1"/>
    </object>

    <object id="anotherExampleObject" type="Examples.AnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>
    <object id="yetAnotherObject" type="Examples.YetAnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>

    [C#]
    public class ExampleObject
    {
      private AnotherObject objectOne;
      private YetAnotherObject objectTwo;
      private int i;

      public AnotherObject ObjectOne
      {
        set { this.objectOne = value; }
      }

      public YetAnotherObject ObjectTwo
      {
        set { this.objectTwo = value; }
      }

      public int IntegerProperty
      {
        set { this.i = value; }
      }
    }

In the preceding example, setters have been declared to match against the properties specified in the XML file. Find below an example of using constructor-based DI.

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary">
        <constructor-arg name="objectOne" ref="anotherExampleObject"/>
        <constructor-arg name="objectTwo" ref="yetAnotherObject"/>
        <constructor-arg name="IntegerProperty" value="1"/>
    </object>

    <object id="anotherExampleObject" type="Examples.AnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>
    <object id="yetAnotherObject" type="Examples.YetAnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>

    [Visual Basic.NET]
    Public Class ExampleObject

        Private myObjectOne As AnotherObject
        Private myObjectTwo As YetAnotherObject
        Private i As Integer

        Public Sub New (
            anotherObject as AnotherObject,
            yetAnotherObject as YetAnotherObject,
            i as Integer)

            myObjectOne = anotherObject
            myObjectTwo = yetAnotherObject
            Me.i = i
        End Sub
    End Class

Ghe constructor arguments specified in the object definition will be used to pass in as arguments to the constructor of the `ExampleObject`.

Now consider a variant of this where instead of using a constructor, Spring is told to call a static factory method to return an instance of the object

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleFactoryMethodObject, ExamplesLibrary"
         factory-method="CreateInstance">
        <constructor-arg name="objectOne" ref="anotherExampleObject"/>
        <constructor-arg name="objectTwo" ref="yetAnotherObject"/>
        <constructor-arg name="intProp" value="1"/>
    </object>

    <object id="anotherExampleObject" type="Examples.AnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>
    <object id="yetAnotherObject" type="Examples.YetAnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>

    [C#]
    public class ExampleFactoryMethodObject
    {
      private AnotherObject objectOne;
      private YetAnotherObject objectTwo;
      private int i;

      // a private constructor
      private ExampleFactoryMethodObject()
      {
      }

      public static ExampleFactoryMethodObject CreateInstance(AnotherObject objectOne,
                                   YetAnotherObject objectTwo,
                                   int intProp)
      {
        ExampleFactoryMethodObject fmo = new ExampleFactoryMethodObject();
        fmo.AnotherObject = objectOne;
        fmo.YetAnotherObject = objectTwo;
        fmo.IntegerProperty = intProp;
        return fmo;
      }

      // Property definitions

    }

Arguments to the static factory method are supplied via `<constructor-arg/>` elements, exactly the same as if a constructor had actually been used. The type of the class being returned by the factory method does not have to be of the same type as the class which contains the static factory method, although in this example it is. An instance (non-static) factory method would be used in an essentially identical fashion (aside from the use of the `factory-object` attribute instead of the `type` attribute), so will not be detailed here.

Note that Setter Injection and Constructor Injectionare not mutually exclusive. It is perfectly reasonable to use both for a single object definition, as can be seen in the following example:

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.MixedIocObject, ExamplesLibrary">
        <constructor-arg name="objectOne" ref="anotherExampleObject"/>
        <property name="objectTwo" ref="yetAnotherObject"/>
        <property name="IntegerProperty" value="1"/>
    </object>

    <object id="anotherExampleObject" type="Examples.AnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>
    <object id="yetAnotherObject" type="Examples.YetAnotherObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>

    [C#]
    public class MixedIocObject
    {
      private AnotherObject objectOne;
      private YetAnotherObject objectTwo;
      private int i;

      public MixedIocObject (AnotherObject obj)
      {
        this.objectOne = obj;
      }

      public YetAnotherObject ObjectTwo
      {
        set { this.objectTwo = value; }
      }

      public int IntegerProperty
      {
        set { this.i = value; }
      }
    }

### Dependencies and configuration in detail

As mentioned in the previous section, you can define object properties and constructor arguments as either references to other managed objects (collaborators), or as values defined inline. Spring's XML-based configuration metadata supports sub-element types within its `<property/>` and <`constructor-arg/>` elements for this purpose.

#### Straight values (primitives, `strings`, and so on)

The `value` attribute of the `<property/>` element specifies a property or constructor argument as a human-readable string representation. As mentioned previously, `TypeConverter` instances are used to convert these string values from a `System.String` to the actual property or argument type.

In the following example, we use a `SqlConnection` from the `System.Data.SqlClient` namespace. This class (like many other existing classes) can easily configured by Spring as it offers a convenient public property for configuration of its `ConnectionString` property.

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">
      <object id="myConnection" type="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection">
          <!-- results in a call to the setter of the ConnectionString property -->
          <property
              name="ConnectionString"
              value="Integrated Security=SSPI;database=northwind;server=mySQLServer"/>
      </object>
    </objects>

##### The idref element

An idref element is simply an error-proof way to pass the id (string value - not a reference) of another object in the container to a `<constructor-arg/>` or `<property/>` element.

    <object id="theTargetObject" type="...">
       . . .
    </object>

    <object id="theClientObject" type="...">
      <property name="targetName">
        <idref object="theTargetObject"/>
      </property>
    </object>

This above object definition snipped is exactly equivalent (at runtime) to the following snippit:

    <object id="theTargetObject" type="...">
      . . .
    </object>

    <object id="theClientObject" type="...">
      <property name="targetName" value="theTargetObject"/>
    </object>

The first form is preferable to the second is that using the `idref` tag allows the container to validate at deployment time that the referenced, named object actually exists. In the second variation, no validation is performed on the value that is passed to the `targetName` property of the client object. Typos are only discovered (with ost mikely fatal results) when the 'client' object is actually instantiated. If the 'client' bean is a prototype bean, this typo and the resulting exception may only be discovered long after the container is deployed.

Additionally, if the reference object is in the same XML unit, and the object name is the object id, you can use the `local` attribute which allows the XML parser itself to validate the object name earlier, at XML document parse time.

    <property name="targetName">
      <idref local="theTargetObject"/>
    </property>

##### Whitespace Handling

Usually all leading and trailing whitespaces are trimmed from a <value /> element's text. In some cases it is necessary to maintain whitespaces exactly as they are written into the xml element. The parser does understand the xml:space attribute in this case:

    <property name="myProp">
      <value xml:space="preserve"> &#x000a;&#x000d;&#x0009;</value>
    </property>

The above configuration will result in the string " \n\r\t". Note, that you don't have to explicitely specifiy the 'xml' namespace on top of your configuration.

#### References to other objects (collaborators)

The `ref` element is the final element allowed inside a `<constructor-arg/> or <property/>` definition element. Here you set the value of the specified property to be a reference to another object (a collaborator) managed by the container. The referenced object is a dependency of the object whose property will be set, and it is initialzed on demand as needed before the property is set. (If the collaborator is a singleton object it may be initialized already by the container.) All references are ultimately just a reference to another object. Scoping and validation depend on whether you specify the id/name of the object through the `bean`, `local`, or `parent` attributes.

Specifying the target object through the `object` attribute of the `ref` tag is the most general form, and allows creation of a reference to any object in the same container or parent container, regardless of whether it is in the same XML file. The value of the `object` attribute may be the same as the `id` attribute of the target object, or as one of the values in the `name` attribute of the target object.

    <ref object="someObject"/>

Specifying the target object by using the `local` attribute leverages the ability of the XML parser to validate XML id references within the same file. The value of the `local` attribute must be the same as the `id` attribute of the target object. The XML parser will issue an error if no matching element is found in the same file. As such, using the local variant is the best choice (in order to know about errors are early as possible) if the target object is in the same XML file.

    <ref local="someObject"/>

Specifying the target object through the `parent` attribute creates a reference to an object that is in a parent container of the current container. The value of the '`parent'` attribute may be the same as either the '`id'` attribute of the target object, or one of the values in the '`name'` attribute of the target object, and the target object must be in a parent container to the current one. You us ethis object reference variant mainly when you have a hierarchy of containers and you want to wrap an existing bean in a parent container with some sort of proxy which will have the same name as the parent bean.

    <!-- in the parent context -->
    <object id="AccountService" type="MyApp.SimpleAccountService, MyApp">
    <!-- insert dependencies as required as here -->
    </object>

    <!-- in the child (descendant) context -->
    <object id="AccountService" <-- notice that the name of this bean is the same as the name of the 'parent' bean
            type="Spring.Aop.Framework.ProxyFactoryBean, Spring.Aop">
      <property name="target">
        <ref parent="AccountService"/> <-- notice how we refer to the parent bean -->
      </property>
      <!-- insert other configuration and dependencies as required as here -->
    </object>

#### Inner objects

An `<object/>` element inside the <`constructor-arg/> or <property/>` element defines so called inner object.

    <object id="outer" type="...">

      <!-- Instead of using a reference to target, just use an inner object -->

      <property name="target">
        <object type="ExampleApp.Person, ExampleApp">
          <property name="name" value="Tony"/>
          <property name="age" value="51"/>
        </object>
      </property>
    </object>

An inner object definition does not require a defined id or name; the container ignores these values. It also ignores the `scope` flag. Inner object are always anonymous and they are always scoped as prototypes. It is not possible to inject inner objects into collaborating beans other than into the enclosing object.

#### Setting collection values

The `list`, `set`, `name-values` and `dictionary` elements allow properties and arguments of the type `IList`, `ISet`, `NameValueCollection` and `IDictionary`, respectively, to be defined and set.

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">
      <object id="moreComplexObject" type="Example.ComplexObject">
          <!--
          results in a call to the setter of the SomeList (System.Collections.IList) property
          -->
          <property name="SomeList">
              <list>
                  <value>a list element followed by a reference</value>
                  <ref object="myConnection"/>
              </list>
          </property>
          <!--
          results in a call to the setter of the SomeDictionary (System.Collections.IDictionary) property
          -->
          <property name="SomeDictionary">
              <dictionary>
                  <entry key="a string => string entry" value="just some string"/>
                  <entry key-ref="myKeyObject" value-ref="myConnection"/>
              </dictionary>
          </property>
          <!--
          results in a call to the setter of the SomeNameValue (System.Collections.NameValueCollection) property
          -->
          <property name="SomeNameValue">
              <name-values>
                  <add key="HarryPotter" value="The magic property"/>
                  <add key="JerrySeinfeld" value="The funny (to Americans) property"/>
              </name-values>
          </property>
          <!--
          results in a call to the setter of the SomeSet (Spring.Collections.ISet) property
          -->
          <property name="someSet">
              <set>
                  <value>just some string</value>
                  <ref object="myConnection"/>
              </set>
          </property>
      </object>
    </objects>

Many classes in the BCL expose only read-only properties for collection classes. When Spring.NET encounters a read-only collection, it will configure the collection by using the getter property to obtain a reference to the collection class and then proceed to add the additional elements to the existing collection. This results in an additive behavior for collection properties that are exposed in this manner.

The value of a Dictionary entry, or a set value, can also again be any of the following elements:

    (object | ref | idref | expression | list | set | dictionary |
          name-values | value | null)

The shortcut forms for value and references are useful to reduce XML verbosity when setting collection properties. See for more information.

#### Setting generic collection values

Spring supports setting values for classes that expose properties based on the generic collection interfaces `IList<T>` and `IDictionary<TKey, TValue>`. The type parameter for these collections is specified by using the XML attribute `element-type` for `IList<T>` and the XML attributes `key-type` and `value-type` for `IDictionary<TKey, TValue>`. The values of the collection are automaticaly converted from a string to the appropriate type. If you are using your own user-defined type as a generic type parameter you will likely need to register a custom type converter. Refer to for more information. The implementations of `IList<T>` and `IDictionary<TKey, TValue>` that is created are `System.Collections.Generic.List` and `System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`.

The following class represents a lottery ticket and demonstrates how to set the values of a generic IList.

    public class LotteryTicket {

      List<int> list;

      DateTime date;

      public List<int> Numbers {
        set { list = value; }
        get { return list; }
      }

      public DateTime Date {
        get { return date; }
        set { date = value; }
      }
    }

The XML fragment that can be used to configure this class is shown below

    <object id="MyLotteryTicket" type="GenericsPlay.Lottery.LotteryTicket, GenericsPlay">
      <property name="Numbers">
        <list element-type="int">
          <value>11</value>
          <value>21</value>
          <value>23</value>
          <value>34</value>
          <value>36</value>
          <value>38</value>
        </list>
      </property>
      <property name="Date" value="4/16/2006"/>
    </object>

The following shows the definition of a more complex class that demonstrates the use of generics using the `Spring.Expressions.IExpression` interface as the generic type parameter for the IList element-type and the value-type for IDictionary. `Spring.Expressions.IExpression` has an associated type converter, `Spring.Objects.TypeConverters.ExpressionConverter` that is already pre-registered with Spring.

        public class GenericExpressionHolder
        {
            private System.Collections.Generic.IList<IExpression> expressionsList;

            private System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<string,IExpression> expressionsDictionary;

            public System.Collections.Generic.IList<IExpression> ExpressionsList
            {
                set { this.expressionsList = value; }
            }

            public System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<string, IExpression> ExpressionsDictionary
            {
                set { this.expressionsDictionary = value; }
            }

            public IExpression this[int index]
            {
                get
                {
                    return this.expressionsList[index];
                }
            }

            public IExpression this[string key]
            {
                get { return this.expressionsDictionary[key]; }
            }
        }

An example XML configuration of this class is shown below

    <object id="genericExpressionHolder"
        type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.GenericExpressionHolder,
        Spring.Core.Tests">
        <property name="ExpressionsList">
            <list element-type="Spring.Expressions.IExpression, Spring.Core">
                <value>1 + 1</value>
                <value>date('1856-7-9').Month</value>
                <value>'Nikola Tesla'.ToUpper()</value>
                <value>DateTime.Today > date('1856-7-9')</value>
            </list>
        </property>
        <property name="ExpressionsDictionary">
            <dictionary key-type="string" value-type="Spring.Expressions.IExpression, Spring.Core">
                <entry key="zero">
                    <value>1 + 1</value>
                </entry>
                <entry key="one">
                    <value>date('1856-7-9').Month</value>
                </entry>
                <entry key="two">
                    <value>'Nikola Tesla'.ToUpper()</value>
                </entry>
                <entry key="three">
                    <value>DateTime.Today > date('1856-7-9')</value>
                </entry>
            </dictionary>
        </property>
    </object>

#### Null and empty values

Spring treats empty arguments for properties and the like as empty Strings. The following XML-based configuration metadata snippet sets the email property to the empty String value ("")

    <object type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary">
      <property name="email" value=""/>
    </object>

This results in the email property being set to the empty string value (`""`), in much the same way as can be seen in the following snippet of C# code

    exampleObject.Email = "";

The `<null>` element is used to handle `null` values. For example:

    <object type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary">
      <property name="email"><null/></property>
    </object>

This results in the email property being set to `null`, again in much the same way as can be seen in the following snippet of C# code:

    exampleObject.Email = null;

#### Setting indexer properties

An indexer lets you set and get values from a collection using a familiar bracket `[]` notation. Spring's XML configuration supports the setting of indexer properties. Overloaded indexers as well as multiparameter indexers are also supported. The property expression parser described in is used to perform the type conversion of the indexer name argument from a string in the XML file to a matching target type. As an example consider the following class

    public class Person
    {
        private IList favoriteNames = new ArrayList();

        private IDictionary properties = new Hashtable();

        public Person()
        {
            favoriteNames.Add("p1");
            favoriteNames.Add("p2");
        }

        public string this[int index]
        {
            get { return (string) favoriteNames[index]; }
            set { favoriteNames[index] = value; }
        }

        public string this[string keyName]
        {
            get { return (string) properties[keyName]; }
            set { properties.Add(keyName, value); }
        }
    }

The XML configuration snippet to populate this object with data is shown below

    <object id="person" type="Test.Objects.Person, Test.Objects">
        <property name="[0]" value="Master Shake"/>
        <property name="['one']" value="uno"/>
    </object>

The use of the property expression parser in Release 1.0.2 changed how you configure indexer properties. The following section describes this usage.

The older style configuration uses the following syntax

    <object id="objectWithIndexer" type="Spring.Objects.TestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
        <property name="Item[0]" value="my string value"/>
    </object>

You can also change the name used to identify the indexer by adorning your indexer method declaration with the attribute `[IndexerName("MyItemName")]`. You would then use the string `MyItemName[0]` to configure the first element of that indexer.

There are some limitations to be aware in the older indexer configuration. The indexer can only be of a single parameter that is convertible from a string to the indexer parameter type. Also, multiple indexers are not supported. You can get around that last limitation currently if you use the IndexerName attribute.

#### Value and ref shortcut forms

Spring XML used to be even more verbose. What is now popular usage is actually the shortcut from of the original way to specify values and references.

There are also some shortcut forms that are less verbose than using the full `value` and `ref` elements. The `property`, `constructor-arg`, and `entry` elements all support a `value` attribute which may be used instead of embedding a full `value` element. Therefore, the following:

    <property name="myProperty">
          <value>hello</value>
    </property>

    <constructor-arg>
      <value>hello</value>
    </constructor-arg>

    <entry key="myKey">
      <value>hello</value>
    </entry>

are equivalent to:

    <property name="myProperty" value="hello"/>

    <constructor-arg value="hello"/>

    <entry key="myKey" value="hello"/>

In general, when typing definitions by hand, you will probably prefer to use the less verbose shortcut form.

The `property` and `constructor-arg` elements support a similar shortcut `ref` attribute which may be used instead of a full nested `ref` element. Therefore, the following...

    <property name="myProperty">
      <ref object="anotherObject"/>
    </property>

    <constructor-arg index="0">
      <ref object="anotherObject"/>
    </constructor-arg>

is equivalent to...

    <property name="myProperty" ref="anotherObject"/>

    <constructor-arg index="0" ref="anotherObject"/>

The shortcut form is equivalent to a `<ref object="xxx">` element; there is no shortcut for either the `<ref local="xxx">` or `<ref parent="xxx">` elements. For a local or parent `ref`, you must still use the long form.

Finally, the entry element allows a shortcut form the specify the key and/or value of a dictionary, in the form of key/key-ref and value/value-ref attributes. Therefore, the following

    <entry>
      <key>
         <ref object="MyKeyObject"/>
      </key>
      <ref object="MyValueObject"/>
    </entry>

Is equivalent to:

    <entry key-ref="MyKeyObject" value-ref="MyValueObject"/>

As mentioned previously, the equivalence is to `<ref object="xxx">` and not the local or parent forms of object references.

#### Compound property names and Spring expression references

You can use compound or nested property names when you set object properties. Property names are interpreted using the Spring Expression Language (SpEL) and therefore can leverage its many features to set property names. For example, in this object definition a simple nested property name is configured

    <object id="foo" type="Spring.Foo, Spring.Foo">
      <property name="bar.baz.name" value="Bingo"/>
    </object>

As an example of some alternative ways to declare the property name, you can use SpEL's support for indexers to configure a Dictionary key value pair as an alternative to the nested `<dictionary>` element. More importantly, you can use the 'expression' element to refer to a Spring expression as the value of the property. Simple examples of this are shown below

    <property name=“minValue” expression=“int.MinValue” />

    <property name=“weekFromToday” expression="DateTime.Today + 7"/>

Using SpEL's support for method evaluation, you can easily call static method on various helper classes in your XML configuraiton.

### Declarative Event Listener Registration

In C# events are built right into the language thanks to the `event` keyword. Under the scenes, events are essentially a shorthand notation for delegates with some additional guidelines as to what the parameters to an event handler method should be (i.e. a sender `System.Object` and an `System.EventArgs` object).

    public class EventSource
    public event EventHandler Click;

In use, .NET events are combined with one or more event handler methods. Each handler method is programmatically added, or removed, from the event and corresponds to an object's method that should be invoked when a particular event occurs. When more than one handler method is added to an event, then each of the registered methods will be invoked in turn when an event occurs.

    TestObject source = new TestObject();
    TestEventHandler eventListener1 = new TestEventHandler();
    TestEventHandler eventListener2 = new TestEventHandler();

    source.Click += eventListener1.HandleEvent; // Adding the first event handler method to the event
    source.Click += eventListener2.HandleEvent; // Adding a second event handler method to the event

    source.OnClick(); // First eventListener1.HandleEvent is invoked, then eventListener2.HandleEvent

When OnClick() is invoked, the event is fired.

    public void OnClick()
    {
       if (Click != null)
       {
          Click(this, EventArgs.Empty); // Fire the event off to the registered handler methods
       }
    }

One of the not so nice things about using events is that, without employing late binding, you declare the objects that are registered with a particular event programmatically. Spring .NET offers a way to declaratively register your handler methods with particular events using the `<listener>` element inside your `<object>` elements.

#### Declarative event handlers

Rather than having to specifically declare in your code that you are adding a method to be invoked on an event, using the `<listener>` element you can register a plain object's methods with the corresponding event declaratively in your application configuration.

Using the `listener` element you can:

- Configure a method to be invoked when an event is fired.
- Register a collection of handler methods based on a regular expression.
- Register a handler method against an event name that contains a regular expression.

#### Configuring a method to be invoked when an event is fired

The same event registration in the example above can be achieved using configuration using the `<listener>` element.

    <object id="eventListener1" type="SpringdotNETEventsExample.TestEventHandler, SpringdotNETEventsExample">
       <!-- wired up to an event exposed on an instance -->
       <listener event="Click" method="HandleEvent">
          <ref object="source"/>
       </listener>
    </object>

    <object id="eventListener2" type="SpringdotNETEventsExample.TestEventHandler, SpringdotNETEventsExample">
       <!-- wired up to an event exposed on an instance -->
       <listener event="Click" method="HandleEvent">
          <ref object="source"/>
       </listener>
    </object>

In this case the two different objects will have their `HandleEvent` method invoked, as indicated explicitly using the `method` attribute, when a `Click` event, as specified by the `event` attribute, is triggered on the object referred to by the `ref` element.

#### Registering a collection of handler methods based on a regular expression

Regular expressions can be employed to wire up more than one handler method to an object that contains one or more events.

    <object id="eventListener" type="SpringdotNETEventsExample.TestEventHandler, SpringdotNETEventsExample">
       <listener method="Handle.+">
          <ref object="source"/>
       </listener>
    </object>

Here all the `eventListener`'s handler methods that begin with 'Handle', and that have the corresponding two parameters of a `System.Object` and a `System.EventArgs`, will be registered against all events exposed by the `source` object.

You can also use the name of the event in regular expression to filter your handler methods based on the type of event triggered.

    <object id="eventListener" type="SpringdotNETEventsExample.TestEventHandler, SpringdotNETEventsExample">
       <!-- For the Click event, the HandleClick handler method will be invoked. -->
       <listener method="Handle${event}">
          <ref object="source"/>
       </listener>
    </object>

#### Registering a handler method against an event name that contains a regular expression

Finally, you can register an object's handler methods against a selection of events, filtering based on their name using a regular expression.

    <object id="eventListener" type="SpringdotNETEventsExample.TestEventHandler, SpringdotNETEventsExample">
       <listener method="HandleEvent" event="Cl.+">
          <ref object="source"/>
       </listener>
    </object>

In this example the `eventListener`'s `HandleEvent` handler method will be invoked for any event that begins with 'Cl'.

### Using `depends-on`

If an object is a dependency of another that usually means that one object is set as a property of another. Typically you accomplish this with the `<ref/>` element in XML-based configuration metadata. However, sometimes dependencies between beans are less direct; for example, a static initializer in a class needs to be triggered, such as device driver registration. The `depends-on` attribute can explicitly force one or more beans to be initialized before the bean using this element is initialized. The following example uses the `depends-on` attribute to express a dependency on a single object:

    <object id="objectOne" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary" depends-on="manager">
      <property name="manager" ref="manager"/>
    </object>

    <object id="manager" type="Examples.ManagerObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>

To express a dependency on multiple objects, supply a list of object names as the value of the '`depends-on`' attribute, with commas, whitespace and semicolons used as valid delimiters:

    <object id="objectOne" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary" depends-on="manager,accountDao">
      <property name="manager" ref="manager" />
    </object>

    <object id="manager" type="Examples.ManagerObject, ExamplesLibrary" />
    <object id="accountDao" type="Examples.AdoAccountDao, ExamplesLibrary" />

The `depends-on` attribute in the object definition can specify both an initialization time dependency and, in the case of a singleton object only, a corresponding destroy time dependency. Dependent objects that define a `depends-on` relationship with a given object are destroyed first, prior to the given object itself being destroyed. Thus `depends-on` can also control shutdown order.

### Lazily-initialized objects

By default, `IApplicationContext` implementations eagerly pre-instantiate all singleton objects as part of the initialization process. Generally this pre-instantiation is desirable, because errors in configuration or the surrounding environment are discovered immediately, as opposed to hours or even days later. When this behavior is not desirable, you can prevent pre-instantiation of a singleton object by marking the object definition as lazy-initialized. A lazy-initialized object tells the IoC container to create an object instance when it is first requested, rather than at startup.

In XML, this behavior is controlled by the `'lazy-init'`attribute on the `<object/>` element; for example:

    <object id="lazy" type="MyCompany.ExpensiveToCreateObject, MyApp" lazy-init="true"/>

    <object name="not.lazy" type="MyCompany.AnotherObject, MyApp"/>

When the preceding configuration is consumed by an `IApplicationContext`, the object named `lazy` is not eagerly pre-instantiated when the `IApplicationContext` is starting up, whereas the `not.lazy` object is eagerly pre-instantiated.

However, when a lazy-initialized bean is a dependency of a singleton object that is not `lazy-initialized`, the `IApplicationContext` creates the lazy-initialized bean at startup, because it must satisfy the singleton's dependencies. The lazy-initialized bean is injected into a singleton object elsewhere that is not lazy-initialized.

You can also control lazy-initialization at the container level by using the `default-lazy-init` attribute on the `<objects/>` element; for example:

    <objects default-lazy-init="true">
      <!-- no objects will be pre-instantiated... -->
    </objects>

### Autowiring collaborators

The Spring container is able to autowire relationships between collaborating objects. This means that it is possible to automatically let Spring resolve collaborators (other objects) for your object by inspecting the contents of the IoC container.. The autowiring functionality has five modes. Autowiring is specified per object and can thus be enabled for some object, while other objects will not be autowired. Using autowiring, it is possible to reduce or eliminate the need to specify properties or constructor arguments, thus saving a significant amount of typing. When using XML-based configuration metadata, the autowire mode for an object definition is specified by using the autowire attribute of the <object/> element. The following values are allowed:

#### Autowiring modes

Mode | Explanation
--- | ---
no | No autowiring at all. This is the default value and you are encouraged not to change this for large applications, since specifying your collaborators explicitly gives you a feeling for what you're actually doing (always a bonus) and is a great way of somewhat documenting the structure of your system.

byName

This option will inspect the objects within the container, and look for an object named exactly the same as the property which needs to be autowired. For example, if you have an object definition that is set to autowire by name, and it contains a `Master` property, Spring.NET will look for an object definition named `Master`, and use it as the value of the `Master` property on your object definition.

byType

This option gives you the ability to resolve collaborators by type instead of by name. Supposing you have an `IObjectDefinition` with a collaborator typed `SqlConnection`, Spring.NET will search the entire object factory for an object definition of type `SqlConnection` and use it as the collaborator. If 0 (zero) or more than 1 (one) object definitions of the desired type exist in the container, a failure will be reported and you won't be able to use autowiring for that specific object.

constructor | This is analogous to byType, but applies to constructor arguments. If there isn't exactly one object of the constructor argument type in the object factory, a fatal error is raised.
autodetect | Chooses constructor or byType through introspection of the object class. If a default constructor is found, byType gets applied.

Note that explicit dependencies in property and constructor-arg settings always override autowiring. Please also note that it is not currently possible to autowire so-called simple properties such as primitives, Strings, and Types (and arrays of such simple properties). (This is by-design and should be considered a feature.) When using either the byType or constructor autowiring mode, it is possible to wire arrays and typed-collections. In such cases all autowire candidates within the container that match the expected type will be provided to satisfy the dependency. Strongly-typed IDictionaries can even be autowired if the expected key type is string. An autowired IDictionary values will consist of all object instances that match the expected type, and the IDictionary's keys will contain the corresponding object names.

Autowire behavior can be combined with dependency checking, which will be performed after all autowiring has been completed. It is important to understand the various advantages and disadvantages of autowiring. Some advantages of autowiring include:

- Autowiring can significantly reduce the volume of configuration required. However, mechanisms such as the use of a object template (discussed elsewhere in this chapter) are also valuable in this regard.

- Autowiring can cause configuration to keep itself up to date as your objects evolve. For example, if you need to add an additional dependency to a class, that dependency can be satisfied automatically without the need to modify configuration. Thus there may be a strong case for autowiring during development, without ruling out the option of switching to explicit wiring when the code base becomes more stable.

Some disadvantages of autowiring:

- Autowiring is more magical than explicit wiring. Although, as noted in the above table, Spring is careful to avoid guessing in case of ambiguity which might have unexpected results, the relationships between your Spring-managed objects are no longer documented explicitly.

- Wiring information may not be available to tools that may generate documentation from a Spring container.

Another issue to consider when autowiring by type is that multiple object definitions within the container may match the type specified by the setter method or constructor argument to be autowired. For arrays, collections, or IDictionary, this is not necessarily a problem. However for dependencies that expect a single value, this ambiguity will not be arbitrarily resolved. Instead, if no unique object definition is available, an Exception will be thrown.

When deciding whether to use autowiring, there is no wrong or right answer in all cases. A degree of consistency across a project is best though; for example, if autowiring is not used in general, it might be confusing to developers to use it just to wire one or two object definitions.

### Checking for dependencies

The Spring IoC container can check for unresolved dependencies of an object deployed into the container. When enabling checking for unresolved dependencies all properties of the object must have an explicit values set for them in the object definition or have their values set via autowiring.

This feature useful when you want to ensure that all properties (or all properties of a certain type) are set on an object. An object often has default values for many properties, or some properties do not apply to all usage scenarios, so this feature is of limited use. You can enable dependency checking per object, just as with the autowiring functionality. The default is not not check dependencies. In XML-based configuration metadata, you specify dependency checking via the `dependency-check` attribute in an object definition, which may have the following values.

#### Dependency checking modes

Mode | Explanation
--- | ---
none | (Default) No dependency checking. Properties of the object which have no value specified for them are simply not set.
simple | Dependency checking for primitive types and collections (everything except collaborators).
object | Dependency checking for collaborators only.
all | Dependency checking for collaborators, primitive types and collections.

### Method injection

In most application scenarios, most object in the container are singletons. When a singleton object needs to collaborate with (use) another singleton object, or a non-singleton object needs to collaborate with another non-singleton object, you typically handle the dependency by defining one object as a property of the other. A problem arrises when the object lifecycles are different. Suppose singleton object A needs to use a non-singleton (prototype) object B, perhaps on each method invocation on A. The container only creates the singleton object A once, and thus only get the opportunity to set the properties. The container cannot provide object A with a new instance of object B every time one is needed.

A solution is to forego some inversion of control. You can make object A aware of the container by implementing the `IApplicationContextAware` interface, and by making a GetObject("B") call to the container ask for (a typically new) object B every time it needs it. Find below an example of this approach

    using System.Collections;
    using Spring.Objects.Factory;

    namespace Fiona.Apple
    {
        public class CommandManager : IObjectFactoryAware
        {
            private IObjectFactory objectFactory;

            public object Process(IDictionary commandState)
            {
                // grab a new instance of the appropriate Command
                Command command = CreateCommand();
                // set the state on the (hopefully brand new) Command instance
                command.State = commandState;
                return command.Execute();
            }

            // the Command returned here could be an implementation that executes asynchronously, or whatever
            protected Command CreateCommand()
            {
                return (Command) objectFactory.GetObject("command");  // notice the Spring API dependency
            }

            public IObjectFactory ObjectFactory
            {
                set { objectFactory = value; }
            }
        }
    }

The preceding is not desirable, because the business code is aware of and coupled to the Sring Framework. Method Injection, a somewhat advanced feature of the Spring IoC container, allows this use case to be handled in a clean fashion.

#### Lookup Method Injection

Lookup method injection is the ability of the container to override methods on container managed objects, to return the result of looking up another named object in the container. The lookup typically involves a prototype object as in the scenario described in the preceding section. The Spring framework implements this method injection by a dynamically generating a subclass overriding the method using the classes in the `System.Reflection.Emit` namespace.

You can read more about the motivation for Method Injection in this blog entry.

Looking at the `CommandManager` class in the previous code snippit, you see that the Spring container will dynamically override the implementation of the `CreateCommand()` method. Your `CommandManager` class will not have any Spring dependencies, as can be seen in this reworked example below:

    using System.Collections;

    namespace Fiona.Apple
    {
        public abstract class CommandManager
        {

            public object Process(IDictionary commandState)
            {
                Command command = CreateCommand();
                command.State = commandState;
                return command.Execute();
            }

            // okay... but where is the implementation of this method?
            protected abstract Command CreateCommand();
        }
    }

In the client class containing the method to be injected (the `CommandManager` in this case) the method to be injected requires a signature of the following form:

    <public|protected> [abstract] <return-type> TheMethodName(no-arguments);

If the method is `abstract`, the dynamically-generated subclass implements the method. Otherwise, the dynamically-generated subclass overrides the concrete method defined in the original class. Let's look at an example:

    <!-- a stateful object deployed as a prototype (non-singleton) -->
    <object id="command" class="Fiona.Apple.AsyncCommand, Fiona" singleton="false">
      <!-- inject dependencies here as required -->
    </object>

    <!-- commandProcessor uses a statefulCommandHelpder -->
    <object id="commandManager" type="Fiona.Apple.CommandManager, Fiona">
      <lookup-method name="CreateCommand" object="command"/>
    </object>

The object identified as `commandManager` will calls its own method `CreateCommand` whenever it needs a new instance of the `command` object. You must be careful to deploy the `command` object as prototype, if that is actually what is needed. If it is deployed as a singleton the same instance of `singleShotHelper` will be returned each time.

Note that lookup method injection can be combined with Constructor Injection (supplying optional constructor arguments to the object being constructed), and also with Setter Injection (settings properties on the object being constructed).

#### Arbitrary method replacement

A less commonly useful form of method injection than Lookup Method Injection is the ability to replace arbitrary methods in a managed object with another method implementation.

With XML-based configuration metadata, you can use the `replaced-method` element to replace an existing method implementation with another, for a deployed object. Consider the following class, with a method `ComputeValue`, which we want to override:

    public class MyValueCalculator {

      public virtual string ComputeValue(string input) {
        // ... some real code
      }

      // ... some other methods
    }

A class implementing the `Spring.Objects.Factory.Support.IMethodReplacer` interface is needed to provide the new (injected) method definition.

    /// <summary>
    /// Meant to be used to override the existing ComputeValue(string)
    /// implementation in MyValueCalculator.
    /// </summary>
    public class ReplacementComputeValue : IMethodReplacer
    {
    	public object Implement(object target, MethodInfo method, object[] arguments)
    	{
    		// get the input value, work with it, and return a computed result...
    		string value = (string) arguments[0];
    		// compute...
    		return result;
    	}
    }

The object definition to deploy the original class and specify the method override would look like this:

    <object id="myValueCalculator" type="Examples.MyValueCalculator, ExampleAssembly">
      <!-- arbitrary method replacement -->
      <replaced-method name="ComputeValue" replacer="replacementComputeValue">
        <arg-type match="String"/>
      </replaced-method>
    </object>

    <object id="replacementComputeValue" type="Examples.ReplacementComputeValue, ExampleAssembly"/>

You can use one or more contained `arg-type` elements within the `replaced-method` element to indicate the method signature of the method being overridden. The signature for the arguments is necessaryonly if the method is overloaded and multiple variants exist within the class. For convenience, the type string for an argument may be a substring of the fully qualified type name. For example, the following all match `System.String`.

        System.String
        String
        Str

Because the number of arguments is often enough to distinguish between each possible choice, this shortcut can save a lot of typing, by allowing you to typ just the shortest string which will match an argument type.

### Setting a reference using the members of other objects and classes.

This section details those configuration scenarios that involve the setting of properties and constructor arguments using the members of other objects and classes. This kind of scenario is quite common, especially when dealing with legacy classes that you cannot (or won't) change to accommodate some of Spring.NET's conventions... consider the case of a class that has a constructor argument that can only be calculated by going to say, a database. The `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` handles exactly this scenario ... it will allow you to inject the result of an arbitrary method invocation into a constructor (as an argument) or as the value of a property setter. Similarly, `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` and `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject` allow you to retrieve values from another object's property or field value. These classes implement the `IFactoryObject` interface which indicates to Spring.NET that this object is itself a factory and the factories product, not the factory itself, is what will be associated with the object id. Factory objects are discussed further in

#### Setting a reference to the value of property.

The `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` is an `IFactoryObject` that addresses the scenario of setting one of the properties and / or constructor arguments of an object to the value of a property exposed on another object or class. One can use it to get the value of any public property exposed on either an instance or a class (in the case of a property exposed on a class, the property must obviously be static).

In the case of a property exposed on an instance, the target object that a `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` will evaluate can be either an object instance specified directly inline or a reference to another arbitrary object. In the case of a static property exposed on a class, the target object will be the class (the .NET `System.Type`) exposing the property.

The result of evaluating the property lookup may then be used in another object definition as a property value or constructor argument. Note that nested properties are supported for both instance and class property lookups. The `IFactoryObject` is discussed more generally in .

Here's an example where a property path is used against another object instance. In this case, an inner object definition is used and the property path is nested, i.e. spouse.age.

    <object name="person" type="Spring.Objects.TestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
      <property name="age" value="20"/>
      <property name="spouse">
        <object type="Spring.Objects.TestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
          <property name="age" value="21"/>
        </object>
      </property>
    </object>

    // will result in 21, which is the value of property 'spouse.age' of object 'person'
    <object name="theAge" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetObject" ref="person"/>
      <property name="TargetProperty" value="spouse.age"/>
    </object>

An example of using a `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` to evaluate a `static` property is shown below.

    <object id="cultureAware"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.XmlObjectFactoryTests+MyTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
      <property name="culture" ref="cultureFactory"/>
    </object>

    <object id="cultureFactory"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="StaticProperty">
          <value>System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture, Mscorlib</value>
      </property>
    </object>

Similarly, an example showing the use of an instance property is shown below.

    <object id="instancePropertyCultureAware"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.XmlObjectFactoryTests+MyTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
      <property name="Culture" ref="instancePropertyCultureFactory"/>
    </object>

    <object id="instancePropertyCultureFactory"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetObject" ref="instancePropertyCultureAwareSource"/>
      <property name="TargetProperty" value="MyDefaultCulture"/>
    </object>

    <object id="instancePropertyCultureAwareSource"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.XmlObjectFactoryTests+MyTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests"/>

#### Setting a reference to the value of field.

The `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject` class addresses much the same area of concern as the `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` described in the previous section. However, as its name might suggest, the `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject` class is concerned with looking up the value of a public field exposed on either an instance or a class (and similarly, in the case of a field exposed on a class, the field must obviously be static).

The following example demonstrates using a `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject` to look up the value of a (public, static) field exposed on a class

    <object id="withTypesField"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.XmlObjectFactoryTests+MyTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
      <property name="Types" ref="emptyTypesFactory"/>
    </object>

    <object id="emptyTypesFactory"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.FieldRetrievingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetType" value="System.Type, Mscorlib"/>
        <property name="TargetField" value="EmPTytypeS"/>
    </object>

The example in the next section demonstrates the look up of a (public) field exposed on an object instance.

    <object id="instanceCultureAware"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.XmlObjectFactoryTests+MyTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
      <property name="Culture" ref="instanceCultureFactory"/>
    </object>

    <object id="instanceCultureFactory"
      type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.FieldRetrievingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetObject" ref="instanceCultureAwareSource"/>
      <property name="TargetField" value="Default"/>
    </object>

    <object id="instanceCultureAwareSource"
             type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml.XmlObjectFactoryTests+MyTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests"/>

#### Setting a property or constructor argument to the return value of a method invocation.

The `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` rounds out the trio of classes that permit the setting of properties and constructor arguments using the members of other objects and classes. Whereas the `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` and `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject` classes dealt with simply looking up and returning the value of property or field on an object or class, the `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` allows one to set a constructor or property to the return value of an arbitrary method invocation,

The `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` class handles both the case of invoking an (instance) method on another object in the container, and the case of a static method call on an arbitrary class. Additionally, it is sometimes necessary to invoke a method just to perform some sort of initialization.... while the mechanisms for handling object initialization have yet to be introduced (see ), these mechanisms do not permit any arguments to be passed to any initialization method, and are confined to invoking an initialization method on the object that has just been instantiated by the container. The `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` allows one to invoke pretty much any method on any object (or class in the case of a static method).

The following example (in an XML based `IObjectFactory` definition) uses the `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` class to force a call to a static factory method prior to the instantiation of the object...

    <object id="force-init"
      type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.MethodInvokingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="StaticMethod">
        <value>ExampleNamespace.ExampleInitializerClass.Initialize</value>
      </property>
    </object>
    <object id="myService" depends-on="force-init"/>

Note that the definition for the `myService` object has used the `depends-on` attribute to refer to the `force-init` object, which will force the initialization of the `force-init` object first (and thus the calling of its configured `StaticMethod` static initializer method, when `myService` is first initialized. Please note that in order to effect this initialization, the `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` object must be operating in `singleton` mode (the default.. see the next paragraph).

Note that since this class is expected to be used primarily for accessing factory methods, this factory defaults to operating in `singleton` mode. As such, as soon as all of the properties for a `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` object have been set, and if the `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` object is still in `singleton` mode, the method will be invoked immediately and the return value cached for later access. The first request by the container for the factory to produce an object will cause the factory to return the cached return value for the current request (and all subsequent requests). The `IsSingleton` property may be set to false, to cause this factory to invoke the target method each time it is asked for an object (in this case there is obviously no caching of the return value).

A static target method may be specified by setting the `targetMethod` property to a string representing the static method name, with `TargetType` specifying the `Type` that the static method is defined on. Alternatively, a target instance method may be specified, by setting the `TargetObject` property to the name of another Spring.NET managed object definition (the target object), and the `TargetMethod` property to the name of the method to call on that target object.

Arguments for the method invocation may be specified in two ways (or even a mixture of both)... the first involves setting the `Arguments` property to the list of arguments for the method that is to be invoked. Note that the ordering of these arguments is significant... the order of the values passed to the `Arguments` property must be the same as the order of the arguments defined on the method signature, including the argument `Type`. This is shown in the example below

    <object id="myObject" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.MethodInvokingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetType" value="Whatever.MyClassFactory, MyAssembly"/>
      <property name="TargetMethod" value="GetInstance"/>

      <!-- the ordering of arguments is significant -->
      <property name="Arguments">
        <list>
          <value>1st</value>
          <value>2nd</value>
          <value>and 3rd arguments</value>
          <!-- automatic Type-conversion will be performed prior to invoking the method -->
        </list>
      </property>
    </object>

The second way involves passing an arguments dictionary to the `NamedArguments` property... this dictionary maps argument names (`String`s) to argument values (any object). The argument names are not case-sensitive, and order is (obviously) not significant (since dictionaries by definition do not have an order). This is shown in the example below

    <object id="myObject" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.MethodInvokingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetObject">
        <object type="Whatever.MyClassFactory, MyAssembly"/>
      </property>
      <property name="TargetMethod" value="Execute"/>

      <!-- the ordering of named arguments is not significant -->
      <property name="NamedArguments">
        <dictionary>
          <entry key="argumentName"><value>1st</value></entry>
          <entry key="finalArgumentName"><value>and 3rd arguments</value></entry>
          <entry key="anotherArgumentName"><value>2nd</value></entry>
        </dictionary>
      </property>
    </object>

The following example shows how use `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` to call an instance method.

    <object id="myMethodObject" type="Whatever.MyClassFactory, MyAssembly" />

    <object id="myObject" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.MethodInvokingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetObject" ref="myMethodObject"/>
      <property name="TargetMethod" value="Execute"/>
    </object>

The above example could also have been written using an anonymous inner object definition... if the object on which the method is to be invoked is not going to be used outside of the factory object definition, then this is the preferred idiom because it limits the scope of the object on which the method is to be invoked to the surrounding factory object.

Finally, if you want to use `MethodInvokingFactoryObject` in conjunction with a method that has a variable length argument list, then please note that the variable arguments need to be passed (and configured) as a list. Let us consider the following method definition that uses the `params` keyword (in C#), and its attendant (XML) configuration...

    [C#]
    public class MyClassFactory
    {
        public object CreateObject(Type objectType, params string[] arguments)
        {
            return ... // implementation elided for clarity...
        }
    }

    <object id="myMethodObject" type="Whatever.MyClassFactory, MyAssembly" />

    <object id="paramsMethodObject" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.MethodInvokingFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="TargetObject" ref="myMethodObject"/>
      <property name="TargetMethod" value="CreateObject"/>
      <property name="Arguments">
        <list>
          <value>System.String</value>
          <!-- here is the 'params string[] arguments' -->
          <list>
            <value>1st</value>
            <value>2nd</value>
          </list>
        </list>
    </object>

### Provided IFactoryObject implementations

In addition to `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject`, `MethodInvokingFactoryObject`, and `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject` Spring.NET comes with other useful implementations of the `IFactoryObject` interface. These are discussed below.

#### Common logging

The `LogFactoryObject` is useful when you would like to share a Common.Logging log object across a number of classes instead of creating a logging instance per class or class hierarchy. Information on the Common.Logging project can be found here. In the example shown below the same logging instance, with a logging category name of "DAOLogger", is used in both the SimpleAccountDao and SimpleProductDao data access objects.

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net"
             xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
             xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.net
             http://www.springframework.net/xsd/spring-objects.xsd" >

        <object name="daoLogger" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.LogFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
          <property name="logName" value="DAOLogger"/>
        </object>

        <object name="productDao" type="PropPlayApp.SimpleProductDao, PropPlayApp ">
          <property name="maxResults" value="100"/>
          <property name="dbConnection" ref="myConnection"/>
          <property name="log" ref="daoLogger"/>
        </object>

        <object name="accountDao" type="PropPlayApp.SimpleAccountDao, PropPlayApp ">
          <property name="maxResults" value="100"/>
          <property name="dbConnection" ref="myConnection"/>
          <property name="log" ref="daoLogger"/>
        </object>

        <object name="myConnection" type="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection, System.Data">
          <property name="connectionstring" value="dsn=MyDSN;uid=sa;pwd=myPassword;"/>
        </object>

    </objects>

## Object Scopes

When you create an object definition, you create a recipe for creating actual instances of the class defined by that object definition. The idea that an object definition is a recipe is important, because it means that, as with a class, you can create many object instances from a single recipe.

You can control not only the various dependencies and configuration values that are to be plugged into an object that is created from a particular object definition, but also the scope of the objects created from a particular object definition. This approach powerful and flexible in that you can choose the scope of the objects you create through configuration instead of having to bake in the scope of an object at the .NET class level. Ob jects can be defined to be deployed in one of a number of scopes: out of the box, the Spring Framework supports five scopes, three of which are available only if you use a web-aware IApplicationContext.

The following scopes supported. Support for user defined custom scopes is planned for Spring .NET 2.0.

### Object Scopes

Scope | Description
--- | ---
singleton | Scopes a single object definition to a single object instance per Spring IoC container.
prototype | Scopes a single object definition to any number of object instances.
request | Scopes a single object definition to the lifecycle of a single HTTP request; that is, each and every HTTP request has its own instance of an object created off the back of a single object definition. Only valid in the context of a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.
session | Scopes a single object definition to the lifecycle of a HTTP Session. Only valid in the context of a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.
application | Scopes a single object definition to the lifecycle of a web application. Only valid in the context of a web-aware Spring ApplicationContext.

### The singleton scope

Singleton scoped objects have only one shared instance of an object managed by the container. All request for objects with an id or ids matching that object definition result in that one specific object instance being returned by the Spring container.

To put it another way, when you define an object definition and it is scoped as a singleton, the Spring IoC container creates exactly one instance of the object defined by that object definition. This single instance is stored in a cache of such singleton object, and all subsequent requests and references for that named object return the cached object.

Spring's concept of a singleton differns from the Singleton pattern as defined in the Gang of Four (GoF) patterns book. The GoF Singleton hard-codes the scope of an object such that one and only one instance of a particular class is created per ApplicationDomain. The scope of the Spring singleton is best described as per container and per object. This means that if you define one object for a particular class in a single Spring container, then the Spring container creates one and only one instance of the class defined by that object definition. The singleton scope is the default scope in Spring. To define an object as a singleton in XML, you would write, for example:

    <object id="accountService" type="MyApp.DefaultAccountService, MyApp"/>

    <!-- the following is equivalent, though redundant (singleton scope is the default) -->
    <object id="accountService" type="MyApp.DefaultAccountService, MyApp" singleton="true"/>

### The prototype scope

The non-singleton, prototype scope of object deployment results in the creation of a new object instance every time a request for that specific object is made. That is, the object is injected into another object or you request through a `GetObject()` method call on the container. As a rule use the prototype scope for all objects that are stateful and the singleton scope for stateless objects.

The following examples defines an object as a prototype in XML:

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary" scope="prototype"/>

The `<singleton/>` attribute was introduced Spring 1.0 as there were only two types of scopes, singleton and prototype. The element singleton=true refers to singleton scope and singleton=false refers to prototype scope. In Spring 1.1 the additional web scopes were introduced along with the new elment 'scope'. The scope element is the preferred element to use.

In contrast to the other scopes, Spring does not manage the complete lifecycle of a prototype object: the container instantiates, configures, decorates and otherwise assembles a prototype object, hands it to the client, with no further record of that prototype instance. Thus, although initialization lifecycle callback methods are called on all objects regardless of scope, in the case of prototypes, configured destruction lifecycle callbacks are not called. The client code must clean up prototype-scoped objects and release any expensive resources that the prototype object(s) are holding. To get the Spring container to release resources held by prototype-scoped objects, try using a custom object post processor which would hold a reference to the objects that need to be cleaned up.

In some respects, the Spring container's role in regard to a prototype-scoped object is a replacement for the C# 'new' operator. All lifecycle management past that point must be handled by the client. (For details on the lifecycle of an object in the Spring container, see .

### Singleton objects with prototype-object dependencies

When you use singleton-scoped objects with dependencies on prototype objects, be aware that dependencies are resolved at instantiation time. Thus if you dependency-inject a prototype-scoped objects into a singleton-scoped object, a new prototype bean is instantiated and then dependency-injected into the singleton object. The prototype instance is the sole instance that is ever supplied to the singleton-scoped object.

However, suppose you want the singleton-scoped object to acquire a new instance of the prototype-scoped object repeatedly at runtime. You cannot dependency-inject a prototype-scoped object into your singleton object, because that injection occurs only once, when the Spring container is instantiating the singleton object and resolving and injecting its dependencies. If you need a new instance of a prototype object at runtime more than once, see .

### Request, session and web application scopes

The request, session and application scopes are only available if you use a web-aware Spring IApplicationContext implementation, such as `WebApplicationContext`. If you use these scopes with regular Spring IoC containers such as the `XmlApplicationContext`, you will get an exception complaining about an unknown object scope.

Please refer to the web documentation on object scopes for more information.

## Type conversion

Type converters are responsible for converting objects from one type to another. When using the XML based file to configure the IoC container, string based property values are converted to the target property type. Spring will rely on the standard .NET support for type conversion unless an alternative `TypeConverter` is registered for a given type. How to register custom TypeConverters will be described shortly. As a reminder, the standard .NET type converter support works by associating a `TypeConverter` attribute with the class definition by passing the type of the converter as an attribute argument. More information about creating custom `TypeConverter` implementations can be found online at Microsoft's MSDN website, by searching for Implementing a Type Converter. For example, an abbreviated class definition for the BCL type `Font` is shown below.

    [Serializable, TypeConverter(typeof(FontConverter)), ...]
    public sealed class Font : MarshalByRefObject, ICloneable, ISerializable, IDisposable
    {
      // Methods

      ... etc ..
    }

### Type Conversion for Enumerations

The default type converter for enumerations is the `System.ComponentModel.EnumConverter` class. To specify the value for an enumerated property, simply use the name of the property. For example the `TestObject` class has a property of the enumerated type `FileMode`. One of the values for this enumeration is named `Create`. The following XML fragment shows how to configure this property

    <object id="rod" type="Spring.Objects.TestObject, Spring.Core.Tests">
      <property name="name" value="Rod"/>
      <property name="FileMode" value="Create"/>
    </object>

### Built-in TypeConverters

Spring.NET pre-registers a number of custom `TypeConverter` instances (for example, to convert a type expressed as a string into a real `System.Type` object). Each of those is listed below and they are all located in the `Spring.Objects.TypeConverters` namespace of the `Spring.Core` library.

#### Built-in `TypeConverters`

Type | Explanation
--- | ---
`RuntimeTypeConverter` | Parses strings representing `System.Types` to actual `System.Types` and the other way around.
`FileInfoConverter` | Capable of resolving strings to a `System.IO.FileInfo` object.
`StringArrayConverter` | Capable of resolving a comma-delimited list of strings to a string-array and vice versa.
`UriConverter` | Capable of resolving a string representation of a Uri to an actual `Uri`-object.
`CredentialConverter` | Capable of resolving a string representation of a credential for Web client authentication into an instance of `System.Net.ICredentials`
`StreamConverter` | Capable of resolving Spring IResource Uri (string) to its corresponding `InputStream`-object.
`ResourceConverter` | Capable of resolving Spring IResource Uri (string) to an `IResource` object.
`ResourceManagerConverter` | Capable of resolving a two part string (resource name, assembly name) to a `System.Resources.ResourceManager` object.
`RgbColorConverter` | Capable of resolving a comma separated list of Red, Green, Blue integer values to a `System.Drawing.Color` structure.
`ExpressionConverter` | Capable of resolving a string into an instance of an object that implements the `IExpression` interface.
`NameValueConverter` | Capable of resolving an XML formatted string to a `Specialized.NameValueCollection`
`RegexConverter` | Capable of resolving a string into an instance of `Regex`
`RegistryKeyConverter` | Capable of resolving a string into a `Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey` object.

Spring.NET uses the standard .NET mechanisms for the resolution of `System.Types`, including, but not limited to checking any configuration files associated with your application, checking the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), and assembly probing.

### Custom Type Conversion

There are a few ways to register custom type converters. The fundamental storage area in Spring for custom type converters is the `TypeConverterRegistry` class. The most convenient way if using an XML based implementation of `IObjectFactory` or `IApplicationContext` is to use the custom configuration section handler `TypeConverterSectionHandler` This is demonstrated in section

An alternate approach, present for legacy reasons in the port of Spring.NET from the Java code base, is to use the object factory post-processor `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.CustomConverterConfigurer`. This is described in the next section.

If you are constructing your IoC container Programatically then you should use the `RegisterCustomConverter(Type requiredType, TypeConverter converter)` method of the `ConfigurableObjectFactory` interface.

#### Using CustomConverterConfigurer

This section shows in detail how to define a custom type converter that does not use the .NET `TypeConverter` attribute. The type converter class is standalone and inherits from the `TypeConverter` class. It uses the legacy factory post-processor approach.

Consider a user class ExoticType, and another class DependsOnExoticType which needs ExoticType set as a property:

    public class ExoticType
    {
        private string name;

        public ExoticType(string name)
        {
            this.name = name;
        }

        public string Name
        {
            get { return this.name; }
        }
    }

and

    public class DependsOnExoticType
    {
        public DependsOnExoticType() {}

        private ExoticType exoticType;

        public ExoticType ExoticType
        {
            get { return this.exoticType; }
            set { this.exoticType = value; }
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return exoticType.Name;
        }
    }

When things are properly set up, we want to be able to assign the type property as a string, which a TypeConverter will convert into a real ExoticType object behind the scenes:

    <object name="sample" type="SimpleApp.DependsOnExoticType, SimpleApp">
      <property name="exoticType" value="aNameForExoticType"/>
    </object>

The TypeConverter looks like this:

    public class ExoticTypeConverter : TypeConverter
    {
    	public ExoticTypeConverter()
    	{
    	}

    	public override bool CanConvertFrom (
    		ITypeDescriptorContext context,
    		Type sourceType)
    	{
    		if (sourceType == typeof (string))
    		{
    			return true;
    		}
    		return base.CanConvertFrom (context, sourceType);
    	}

    	public override object ConvertFrom (
    		ITypeDescriptorContext context,
    		CultureInfo culture, object value)
    	{
    		string s = value as string;
    		if (s != null)
    		{
    			return new ExoticType(s.ToUpper());
    		}
    		return base.ConvertFrom (context, culture, value);
    	}
    }

Finally, we use the `CustomConverterConfigurer` to register the new `TypeConverter` with the `IApplicationContext`, which will then be able to use it as needed:

    <object id="customConverterConfigurer"
    	type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.CustomConverterConfigurer, Spring.Core">
      <property name="CustomConverters">
        <dictionary>
          <entry key="SimpleApp.ExoticType">
            <object type="SimpleApp.ExoticTypeConverter"/>
          </entry>
        </dictionary>
      </property>
    </object>

## Customizing the nature of an object

### Lifecycle interfaces

To interact with the container's management of the object lifecycle, you can implement the Spring `InitializingObject` and standard `System.IDisposable` interfaces. The container calls `AfterPropertiesSet()` method for the former and the `Dispose()` method for the latter, thus allowing you to do things upon the initialization and destruction of your objects. You can also achieve the same integration with the container without coupling your objects to Spring interfaces though the use of `init-method` and `destroy-method` object definition metadata.

Internally, Spring.NET uses implementations of the `IObjectPostProcessor` interface to process any call interfaces it can find and call the appropriate methods. If you need custom features or other lifecycle behavior Spring.NET does not offer out-of-the-box, you can implement an `IObjectPostProcessor` yourself. For more information see.

#### IInitializingObject / `init-method`

The `Spring.Objects.Factory.IInitializingObject` interface allows an object to perform initialization work after all the necessary properties on an object are set by the container. The `IInitializingObject` interface specifies a single method:

- `void AfterPropertiesSet()`: called after all properties have been set by the container. This method enables you to do checking to see if all necessary properties have been set correctly, or to perform further initialization work. You can throw any `Exception` to indicate misconfiguration, initialization failures, etc.

It is recommended that you do not use the `IInitializingObject` interface because it unnecessarily coupules the code to Spring. Alternatively, specify an POJO initialization method. In the case of XML-based configuration metadata, you use the `init-method` attribute to specify the name of the method that has a void no-argument signature. For example, the following definition:

    <object id="exampleInitObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject" init-method="init"/>
    [C#]
    public class ExampleObject
    {
        public void Init()
        {
            // do some initialization work
        }
    }

...is exactly the same as...

    <object id="exampleInitObject" type="Examples.AnotherExampleObject"/>
    [C#]
    public class AnotherExampleObject : IInitializingObject
    {
        public void AfterPropertiesSet()
        {
            // do some initialization work
        }
    }

... but does not couple the code to Spring.NET.

#### IDisposable / `destroy-method`

Implementing the `System.IDisposable` interface allows an object to get a callback callback when the container containing it is destroyed. The `IDisposable` interface specifies a single method:

- `void Dispose()`: and is called on destruction of the container. This allows you to release any resources you are keeping in this object (such as database connections). You can throw any `Exception` here... however, any such `Exception` will not stop the destruction of the container - it will only get logged.v

Since the `IDisposable` interface resides in the core .NET library, it does not couple your class to Spring as in the case with the `IInitializingObject` interface. However, you may also specify a destruction method that is not tied to the `IDisposable` interface. In the case of XML-based configuration metadata, you use the `destroy-method` attribute to specify the name of the method that has a void no-argument signature. For example, the following definition:

    <object id="exampleInitObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject" destroy-method="cleanup"/>
    [C#]
    public class ExampleObject
    {
        public void cleanup()
        {
            // do some destruction work (such as closing any open connection (s))
        }
    }

is exactly the same as:

    <object id="exampleInitObject" type="Examples.AnotherExampleObject"/>
    [C#]
    public class AnotherExampleObject : IDisposable
    {
        public void Dispose()
        {
            // do some destruction work
        }
    }

### IApplicationContextAware and IObjectNameAware

When an `IApplicationContext` creates a class that implements the `IApplicationContextAware` interface, the class is provided with a reference to that `IApplicationContext`.

    public interface IApplicationContextAware {
        IApplicationContext ApplicationContext {
          set;
        }
    }

Thus objects can manipulate programmatically the `IApplicationContext` that created them, through the `IApplicationContext` interface, or by casting the reference to a known subclass of this interface, such as `IConfigurableApplicationContext`, which exposes additional functionality. One use would be the programmatic retrieval of other objects. Sometimes this capability is useful; however, in general you should avoid it, because it couples the code to Spring and does not follow the Inversion of Control style, where collaborators are provided to objects as properties. Other methods of the `IApplicationContext` provide access to file resources, publishing application events, and accessing a `IMessageSource`. These additional features are described in

#### IObjectNameAware

When an `IApplicationContext` creates a class that implements the `Spring.Objects.Factory.IObjectNameAware` interface, the class is provided with a reference to the name defined in its associated object definition.

    public interface IObjectNameAware {
      string ObjectName {
         set;
      }
    }

The callback is invoked after population of normal object properties but before an initialization callback such as `IInitializingObject` 's AfterPropertiesSet method or a custom initalization method is invoked.

## Object definition inheritance

An object definition can contain a lot of configuration information, including constructor arguments, property values, and container-specific information such as initialization method, static factory method name, and so on. A child object definition inherits configuration data from a parent definition. The child definition can override some values, or add others, as needed. Using parent and child object definitions can save a lot of typing. Effectively, this is a form of templating.

If you work with an IApplicationContext interface programmatically, child object definitions are represented by the `ChildObjectDefinition` class. Most users do not work with them on this level, instead configuring object definitions declaratively in something like the `XmlApplicationContext.` When you use XML-based configuration metadata, you indicate a child object using the parent attribute, specifying the parent object definition as the value of this attribute.

    <object id="inheritedTestObject" type="Spring.Objects.TestObject, Spring.Core.Tests" abstract="true">
      <property name="name" value="parent"/>
      <property name="age" value="1"/>
    </object>
    <object id="inheritsWithDifferentClass" type="Spring.Objects.DerivedTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests"
      parent="inheritedTestObject" init-method="Initialize">
      <property name="name" value="override"/>
      <!-- age will inherit value of 1 from parent -->
    </object>

A child object definition uses the object class from the parent definition if none is specified, but can also override it. In the latter case, the child object class must be compatible with the parent, that is, it must accept the parent's property values.

A child object definition inherits constructor argument values, property values and method overrides from the parent, with the option to add new values. Any initialization method, destroy method and/or static factory methods that you specify will override the corresponding parent settings.

The remaining settings are always be taken from the child definition: `depends on`, `autowire mode`, `dependency check`, `singleton`, `lazy init`.

The preceding example explicitly marks the parent object definition as abstract using the `abstract` attribute. If the parent definition does not specify a class, explicitly marking the parent object definition as abstract is required, as follows:

    <object id="inheritedTestObjectWithoutClass" abstract="true">
      <property name="name" value="parent"/>
      <property name="age" value="1"/>
    </object>
    <object id="inheritsWithClass" type="Spring.Objects.DerivedTestObject, Spring.Core.Tests"
      parent="inheritedTestObjectWithoutClass" init-method="Initialize">
      <property name="name" value="override"/>
      <!-- age will inherit value of 1 from parent -->
    </object>

The parent object cannot be instantiated on its own since it incomplete, and it is also explicitly marked as abstract. When a definition is abstract like this, it is usable only as a pure template object definition that serves as a parent definition for child definitions. Trying to use such an abstract parent object on its own, by referring to it as a ref property of another object, or doing an explicit `GetObject()` with the parent object id, returns an error. The container's internal `PreInstantiateSingletons` method will completely ignore object definitions that are considered abstract.

Application contexts pre-instantiate all singletons by default. Therefore it is important (at least for singleton objects) that if you have a (parent) object definition which you intend to use only as a template, and this definition specifies a class, you must make sure to set the abstract attribute to true , otherwise the application context will actually (attempt to) pre-instantiate the abstract object.

## Container extension points

The Spring container is essentially nothing more than an advanced factory capable of maintaining a registry of different

objects and their dependencies. The `IObjectFactory` enables you to read object definitions and access them using the object factory. When using just the `IObjectFactory` you would create an instance of one and then read in some object definitions in the XML format as follows:

    [C#]
    IResource input = new FileSystemResource ("objects.xml");
    XmlObjectFactory factory = new XmlObjectFactory(input);

That is pretty much it. Using `GetObject(string)` (or the more concise indexer method `factory ["string"]`) you can retrieve instances of your objects...

    [C#]
    object foo = factory.GetObject ("foo"); // gets the object defined as 'foo'
    object bar = factory ["bar"];           // same thing, just using the indexer

You'll get a reference to the same object if you defined it as a singleton (the default) or you'll get a new instance each time if you set the `singleton` property of your object definition to false.

    <object id="exampleObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary"/>
    <object id="anotherObject" type="Examples.ExampleObject, ExamplesLibrary" singleton="false"/>

    [C#]
    object one = factory ["exampleObject"];   // gets the object defined as 'exampleObject'
    object two = factory ["exampleObject"];
    Console.WriteLine (one == two)            // prints 'true'
    object three = factory ["anotherObject"]; // gets the object defined as 'anotherObject'
    object four = factory ["anotherObject"];
    Console.WriteLine (three == four);        // prints 'false'

The client-side view of the `IObjectFactory` is surprisingly simple. The `IObjectFactory` interface has only seven methods (and the aforementioned indexer) for clients to call:

- `bool ContainsObject(string)`: returns true if the `IObjectFactory` contains an object definition that matches the given name.

- `object GetObject(string)`: returns an instance of the object registered under the given name. Depending on how the object was configured by the `IObjectFactory` configuration, either a singleton (and thus shared) instance or a newly created object will be returned. An `ObjectsException` will be thrown when either the object could not be found (in which case it'll be a `NoSuchObjectDefinitionException`), or an exception occurred while instantiated and preparing the object.

- `Object this [string]`: this is the indexer for the `IObjectFactory` interface. It functions in all other respects in exactly the same way as the `GetObject(string)` method. The rest of this documentation will always refer to the `GetObject(string)` method, but be aware that you can use the indexer anywhere that you can use the `GetObject(string)` method.

- `Object GetObject(string, Type)`: returns an object, registered under the given name. The object returned will be cast to the given `Type`. If the object could not be cast, corresponding exceptions will be thrown (`ObjectNotOfRequiredTypeException`). Furthermore, all rules of the `GetObject(string)` method apply (see above).

- `bool IsSingleton(string)`: determines whether or not the object definition registered under the given name is a singleton or a prototype. If the object definition corresponding to the given name could not be found, an exception will be thrown (`NoSuchObjectDefinitionException`)

- `string[] GetAliases(string)`: returns the aliases for the given object name, if any were defined in the `IObjectDefinition`.

- `void ConfigureObject(object target):` Injects dependencies into the supplied target instance. The name of the abstract object definition is the `System.Type.FullName` of the target instance. This method is typically used when objects are instantiated outside the control of a developer, for example when ASP.NET instantiates web controls and when a WinForms application creates UserControls.

- `void ConfigureObject(object target, string name):` Offers the same functionality as the previously listed Configure method but uses a named object definition instead of using the type's full name.

A sub-interface of `IObjectFactory`, `IConfigurableObjectFactory` adds some convenient methods such as

- `void RegisterSingleton(string name, object objectInstance)` : Register the given existing object as singleton in the object factory under the given object name.

- `void RegisterAlias(string name, string theAlias)`; Given an object name, create an alias.

Check the SDK docs for additional details on IConfigurableObjectFactory methods and properties and the full `IObjectFactory` class hierarchy.

### Obtaining an `IFactoryObject`, not its product

Sometimes there is a need to ask an `IObjectFactory` for an actual `IFactoryObject` instance itself, not the object it produces. This may be done by prepending the object id with `&` when calling the `GetObject` method of the `IObjectFactory` and `IApplicationContext` interfaces. So for a given `IFactoryObject` with an id `myObject`, invoking `GetObject("myObject")` on the `IObjectFactory` will return the product of the `IFactoryObject`, but invoking `GetObject("&myObject")` will return the `IFactoryObject` instance itself.

## Container extension points

The IoC component of the Spring Framework has been designed for extension. There is typically no need for an application developer to subclass any of the various `IObjectFactory` or `IApplicationContext` implementation classes. The Spring IoC container can be infinitely extended by plugging in implementations of special integration interfaces. The next few sections are devoted to detailing all of these various integration interfaces.

### Customizing objects with `IObjectPostProcessors`

The first extension point that we will look at is the `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.IObjectPostProcessor` interface. This interface defines a number of callback methods that you as an application developer can implement in order to provide your own (or override the containers default) instantiation logic, dependency-resolution logic, and so forth. If you want to do some custom logic after the Spring container has finished instantiating, configuring and otherwise initializing an object, you can plug in one or more `IObjectPostProcessor` implementations.

You can configure multiple `IObjectPostProcessors` if you wish. You can control the order in which these `IObjectPostProcessor` execute by setting the 'Order' property (you can only set this property if the `IObjectPostProcessor` implements the `IOrdered` interface; if you write your own `IObjectPostProcessor` you should consider implementing the `IOrdered` interface too); consult the SDK docs for the `IObjectPostProcessor` and `IOrdered` interfaces for more details.

`IObjectPostProcessor` operate on object instances; that is to say, the Spring IoC container will have instantiated a object instance for you, and then `IObjectPostProcessors` get a chance to do their stuff. If you want to change the actual object definition (that is the recipe that defines the object), then you rather need to use a `IObjectFactoryPostProcessor` (described below in the section entitled Customizing configuration metadata with IObjectFactoryPostProcessors.

Also, `IObjectPostProcessors` are scoped per-container. This is only relevant if you are using container hierarchies. If you define a `IObjectPostProcessor` in one container, it will only do its stuff on the objects in that container. Objects that are defined in another container will not be post-processed by `IObjectPostProcessors` in another container, even if both containers are part of the same hierarchy.

The `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.IObjectPostProcessor` interface, which consists of two callback methods shown below.

    object PostProcessBeforeInitialization(object instance, string name);

    object PostProcessAfterInitialization(object instance, string name);

When such a class is registered as a post-processor with the container, for each object instance that is created by the container,(see below for how this registration is effected), for each object instance that is created by the container, the post-processor will get a callback from the container both before any initialization methods (such as the `AfterPropertiesSet` method of the `IInitializingObject` interface and any declared init method) are called, and also afterwards. The post-processor is free to do what it wishes with the object, including ignoring the callback completely. An object post-processor will typically check for marker interfaces, or do something such as wrap an object with a proxy. Some Spring.NET AOP infrastructure classes are implemented as object post-processors as they do this proxy-wrapping logic.

Other extensions to the `IObjectPostProcessors` interface are `IInstantiationAwareObjectPostProcessor` and `IDestructionAwareObjectPostProcessor` defined below

    public interface IInstantiationAwareObjectPostProcessor : IObjectPostProcessor
    {
         object PostProcessBeforeInstantiation(Type objectType, string objectName);

         bool PostProcessAfterInstantiation(object objectInstance, string objectName);

         IPropertyValues PostProcessPropertyValues(IPropertyValues pvs, PropertyInfo[] pis, object objectInstance, string objectName);
    }

    public interface IDestructionAwareObjectPostProcessor : IObjectPostProcessor
    {
         void PostProcessBeforeDestruction (object instance, string name);
    }

The `PostProcessBeforeInstantiation` callback method is called right before the container creates the object. If the object returned by this method is not null then the default instantiation behavior of the container is short circuited. The returned object is the one registered with the container and no other `IObjectPostProcessor` callbacks will be invoked on it. This mechanism is useful if you would like to expose a proxy to the object instead of the actual target object. The `PostProcessAfterInstantiation` callback method is called after the object has been instantiated but before Spring performs property population based on explicit properties or autowiring. A return value of false would short circuit the standard Spring based property population. The callback method `PostProcessPropertyValues` is called after Spring collects all the property values to apply to the object, but before they are applied. This gives you the opportunity to perform additional processing such as making sure that a property is set to a value if it contains a `[Required]` attribute or to perform attribute based wiring, i.e. adding the attribute `[Inject("objectName")]` on a property. Both of these features are scheduled to be included in Spring .12.

The `IDestructionAwareObjectPostProcessor` callback contains a single method, `PostProcessBeforeDestruction`, which is called before a singleton's destroy method is invoked.

It is important to know that the `IObjectFactory` treats object post-processors slightly differently than the `IApplicationContext`. An `IApplicationContext` will automatically detect any objects which are deployed into it that implement the `IObjectPostProcessor` interface, and register them as post-processors, to be then called appropriately by the factory on object creation. Nothing else needs to be done other than deploying the post-processor in a similar fashion to any other object. On the other hand, when using plain `IObjectFactories`, object post-processors have to manually be explicitly registered, with a code sequence such as...

    ConfigurableObjectFactory factory = new .....; // create an IObjectFactory
    ... // now register some objects
    // now register any needed IObjectPostProcessors
    MyObjectPostProcessor pp = new MyObjectPostProcessor();
    factory.AddObjectPostProcessor(pp);
    // now start using the factory
    ...

This explicit registration step is not convenient, and this is one of the reasons why the various `IApplicationContext` implementations are preferred above plain `IObjectFactory` implementations in the vast majority of Spring-backed applications, especially when using IObjectPostProcessors.

IObjectPostProcessors and AOP auto-proxying

Classes that implement the `IObjectPostProcessor` interface are special, and so they are treated differently by the container. All `IObjectPostProcessors` and their directly referenced object will be instantiated on startup, as part of the special startup phase of the IApplicationContext, then all those `IObjectPostProcessors` will be registered in a sorted fashion - and applied to all further objects. Since AOP auto-proxying is implemented as a `IObjectPostProcessor` itself, no `IObjectPostProcessors` or directly referenced objects are eligible for auto-proxying (and thus will not have aspects 'woven' into them). For any such object, you should see an info log message: “Object 'foo' is not eligible for getting processed by all `IObjectPostProcessors` (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying)”.

#### Example: Hello World, IObjectPostProcessor-style

This first example is hardly compelling, but serves to illustrate basic usage. All we are going to do is code a custom IObjectPostProcessor implementation that simply invokes the ToString() method of each object as it is created by the container and prints the resulting string to the system console. Yes, it is not hugely useful, but serves to get the basic concepts across before we move into the second example which is actually useful. The basis of the example is the MovieFinder quickstart that is included with the Spring.NET distribution.

Find below the custom IObjectPostProcessor implementation class definition

    using System;
    using Spring.Objects.Factory.Config;

    namespace Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder
    {
        public class TracingObjectPostProcessor : IObjectPostProcessor
        {
            public object PostProcessBeforeInitialization(object instance, string name)
            {
                return instance;
            }

            public object PostProcessAfterInitialization(object instance, string name)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Object '" + name + "' created : " + instance.ToString());
                return instance;
            }
        }
    }

And the following configuration

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net" >
      <description>An example that demonstrates simple IoC features.</description>

      <object id="MyMovieLister"
              type="Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.MovieLister, Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder">
        <property name="movieFinder" ref="MyMovieFinder"/>
      </object>

      <object id="MyMovieFinder"
              type="Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.SimpleMovieFinder, Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder"/>

      <!-- when the above objects are instantiated, this custom IObjectPostProcessor implementation
           will output the fact to the system console -->
      <object type="Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.TracingObjectPostProcessor, Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder"/>
    </objects>

Notice how the TracingObjectPostProcessor is simply defined; it doesn't even have a name, and because it is a object it can be dependency injected just like any other object.

Find below a small driver script to exercise the above code and configuration;

    IApplicationContext ctx =
            new XmlApplicationContext(
                "assembly://Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder/Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder/AppContext.xml");

    MovieLister lister = (MovieLister) ctx.GetObject("MyMovieLister");
    Movie[] movies = lister.MoviesDirectedBy("Roberto Benigni");
    LOG.Debug("Searching for movie...");
    foreach (Movie movie in movies)
    {
      LOG.Debug(string.Format("Movie Title = '{0}', Director = '{1}'.", movie.Title, movie.Director));
    }
    LOG.Debug("MovieApp Done.");

The output of executing the above program will be:

    INFO  - Object 'Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.TracingObjectPostProcessor' is not eligible for being processed by all IObjectPostProcessors
           (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying).
    Object 'MyMovieFinder' created : Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.SimpleMovieFinder
    Object 'MyMovieLister' created : Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.MovieLister
    DEBUG - Searching for movie...
    DEBUG - Movie Title = 'La vita e bella', Director = 'Roberto Benigni'.
    DEBUG - MovieApp Done.

#### Example: the RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor

Using callback interfaces or annotations in conjunction with a custom IObjectPostProcessor implementation is a common means of extending the Spring IoC container. The `[Required]` attribute in the `Spring.Objects.Factory.Attributes` namespace can be used to mark a property as being 'required-to-be-set' (i.e. an setter property with this attribute applied must be configured to be dependency injected with a value), else an `ObjectInitializationException` will be thrown by the container at runtime.

The best way to illustrate the usage of this attribute is with an example.

    public class MovieLister
    {
      // the MovieLister has a dependency on the MovieFinder
      private IMovieFinder _movieFinder;

      // a setter property so that the Spring container can 'inject' a MovieFinder
      [Required]
      public IMovieFinder MovieFinder
      {
        set { _movieFinder = value; }
      }

      // business logic that actually 'uses' the injected MovieFinder is omitted...

    }

Hopefully the above class definition reads easy on the eye. Any and all `IObjectDefinitions` for the `MovieLister` class must be provided with a value.

Let's look at an example of some XML configuraiton that will not pass validation.

    <object id="MyMovieLister"
              type="Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder.MovieLister, Spring.IocQuickStart.MovieFinder">
          <!-- whoops, no MovieFinder is set (and this property is [Required]) -->
      </object>

At runtime the following message will be generated by the Spring container

    Error creating context 'spring.root': Property 'MovieFinder' required for object 'MyMovieLister'

There is one last little piece of Spring configuration that is required to actually 'switch on' this behavior. Simply annotating the 'setter' properties of your classes is not enough to get this behavior. You need to enable a component that is aware of the `[Required]` attribute and that can process it appropriately.

This component is the `RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor` class. This is a special `IObjectPostProcessor` implementation that is `[Required]`-aware and actually provides the 'blow up if this required property has not been set' logic. It is very easy to configure; simply drop the following object definition into your Spring XML configuration.

    <object type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Attributes.RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor, Spring.Core"/>

Finally, one can configure an instance of the `RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor` class to look for another `Attribute` type. This is great if you already have your own `[Required]`-style attribute. Simply plug it into the definition of a `RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor` and you are good to go. By way of an example, let's suppose you (or your organization / team) have defined an attribute called [Mandatory]. You can make a `RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor` instance `[Mandatory]`-aware like so:

    <object type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Attributes.RequiredAttributeObjectPostProcessor, Spring.Core">
      <property name="RequiredAttributeType" value="MyApp.Attributes.MandatoryAttribute, MyApp"/>
    </object>

### Customizing configuration metadata with ObjectFactoryPostProcessors

The next extension point that we will look at is the `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.IObjectFactoryPostProcessor`. The semantics of this interface are similar to the `IObjectPostProcessor`, with one major difference. `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` operate on; that is to say, the Spring IoC container will allow `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` to read the configuration metadata and potentially change it before the container has actually instantiated any other objects. By implementing this interface, you will receive a callback after the all the object definitions have been loaded into the IoC container but before they have been instantiated. The signature of the interface is shown below

    public interface IObjectFactoryPostProcessor
    {
      void PostProcessObjectFactory (IConfigurableListableObjectFactory factory);
    }

You can configure multiple `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` if you wish. You can control the order in which these `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` execute by setting the 'Order' property (you can only set this property if the `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` implements the `IOrdered` interface; if you write your own `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` you should consider implementing the `IOrdered` interface too); consult the SDK docs for the `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` and `IOrdered` interfaces for more details.

If you want to change the actual object instances (the objects that are created from the configuration metadata), then you rather need to use a `IObjectObjectPostProcessor` (described above in the section entitled Customizing objects with `IObjectPostProcessors`.

Also, `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` are scoped per-container. This is only relevant if you are using container hierarchies. If you define a `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` in one container, it will only do its stuff on the object definitions in that container. Object definitions in another container will not be post-processed by `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` in another container, even if both containers are part of the same hierarchy.

An object factory post-processor is executed manually (in the case of a IObjectFactory) or automatically (in the case of an IApplicationContext) to apply changes of some sort to the configuration metadata that defines a container. Spring.NET includes a number of pre-existing object factory post-processors, such as `PropertyResourceConfigurer` and `PropertyPlaceHolderConfigurer`, both described below and ObjectNameAutoProxyCreator, which is very useful for wrapping other objects transactionally or with any other kind of proxy, as described later in this manual.

In an `IObjectFactory`, the process of applying an `IObjectFactoryPostProcessor` is manual, and will be similar to this:

    XmlObjectFactory factory = new XmlObjectFactory(new FileSystemResource("objects.xml"));
    // create placeholderconfigurer to bring in some property
    // values from a Properties file
    PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer cfg = new PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer();
    cfg.setLocation(new FileSystemResource("ado.properties"));
    // now actually do the replacement
    cfg.PostProcessObjectFactory(factory);

This explicit registration step is not convenient, and this is one of the reasons why the various `IApplicationContext` implementations are preferred above plain `IObjectFactory` implementations in the vast majority of Spring-backed applications, especially when using `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors`.

An `IApplicationContext` will detect any objects which are deployed into it that implement the `ObjectFactoryPostProcessor` interface, and automatically use them as object factory post-processors, at the appropriate time. Nothing else needs to be done other than deploying these post-processor in a similar fashion to any other object.

Just as in the case of `IObjectPostProcessors`, you typically don't want to have `IObjectFactoryPostProcessors` marked as being lazily-initialized. If they are marked as such, then the Spring container will never instantiate them, and thus they won't get a chance to apply their custom logic. If you are using the 'default-lazy-init' attribute on the declaration of your <objects/> element, be sure to mark your various `IObjectFactoryPostProcessor` object definitions with 'lazy-init="false"'.

#### Example: The `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer`

The `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer` is an excellent solution when you want to externalize a few properties from a file containing object definitions. This is useful to allow the person deploying an application to customize environment specific properties (for example database configuration strings, usernames, and passwords), without the complexity or risk of modifying the main XML definition file or files for the container.

Variable substitution is performed on simple property values, lists, dictionaries, sets, constructor values, object type name, and object names in runtime object references. Furthermore, placeholder values can also cross-reference other placeholders.

Note that `IApplicationContext`s are able to automatically recognize and apply objects deployed in them that implement the `IObjectFactoryPostProcessor` interface. This means that as described here, applying a `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer` is much more convenient when using an `IApplicationContext`. For this reason, it is recommended that users wishing to use this or other object factory postprocessors use an `IApplicationContext` instead of an `IObjectFactory`.

In the example below a data access object needs to be configured with a database connection and also a value for the maximum number of results to return in a query. Instead of hard coding the values into the main Spring.NET configuration file we use place holders, in the NAnt style of ${variableName}, and obtain their values from NameValueSections in the standard .NET application configuration file. The Spring.NET configuration file looks like:

    <configuration>

      <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="spring">
          <section name="context" type="Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler, Spring.Core"/>
        </sectionGroup>
        <section name="DaoConfiguration" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"/>
        <section name="DatabaseConfiguration" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"/>
      </configSections>

      <DaoConfiguration>
        <add key="maxResults" value="1000"/>
      </DaoConfiguration>

      <DatabaseConfiguration>
        <add key="connection.string" value="dsn=MyDSN;uid=sa;pwd=myPassword;"/>
      </DatabaseConfiguration>

      <spring>
        <context>
          <resource uri="assembly://DaoApp/DaoApp/objects.xml"/>
        </context>
      </spring>

    </configuration>

Notice the presence of two NameValueSections in the configuration file. These name value pairs will be referred to in the Spring.NET configuration file. In this example we are using an embedded assembly resource for the location of the Spring.NET configuration file so as to reduce the chance of accidental tampering in deployment. This Spring.NET configuration file is shown below.

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net"
             xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
             xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.net
             http://www.springframework.net/xsd/spring-objects.xsd" >

        <object name="productDao" type="DaoApp.SimpleProductDao, DaoApp ">
          <property name="maxResults" value="${maxResults}"/>
          <property name="dbConnection" ref="myConnection"/>
        </object>

        <object name="myConnection" type="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection, System.Data">
          <property name="connectionstring" value="${connection.string}"/>
        </object>

        <object name="appConfigPropertyHolder"
                type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, Spring.Core">

            <property name="configSections">
              <value>DaoConfiguration,DatabaseConfiguration</value>
            </property>

        </object>
    </objects>

The values of `${maxResults}` and `${connection.string}` match the key names used in the two NameValueSectionHandlers `DaoConfiguration` and `DatabaseConfiguration`. The `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer` refers to these two sections via a comma delimited list of section names in the `configSections` property. If you are using section groups, prefix the section group name, for example myConfigSection/DaoConfiguraiton.

The `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer` class also supports retrieving name value pairs from other `IResource` locations. These can be specified using the `Location` and `Locations` properties of the `PropertyPlaceHolderConfigurer` class.

If there are properties with the same name in different resource locations the default behavior is that the last property processed overrides the previous values. This is behavior is controlled by the `LastLocationOverrides` property. True enables overriding while false will append the values as one would normally expect using `NameValueCollection.Add`.

In an ASP.NET environment you must specify the full, four-part name of the assembly when using a `NameValueFileSectionHandler`

                <section name="hibernateConfiguration"
                type="System.Configuration.NameValueFileSectionHandler, System,
                Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>

##### Type, Ref, and Expression substitution

The PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer can be used to substitute type names, which is sometimes useful when you have to pick a particular implementation class at runtime. For example:

    <object id="MyMovieFinder" type="${custom.moviefinder.type}"/>

If the class is unable to be resolved at runtime to a valid type, resolution of the object will fail once it is about to be created (which is during the PreInstantiateSingletons() phase of an ApplicationContext for a non-lazy-init object.)

Similarly you can replace 'ref' and 'expression' metadata, as shown below

    <object id="TestObject" type="Simple.TestObject, MyAssembly">
      <property name="age" expression="${ageExpression}"/>
      <property name="spouse" ref="${spouse-ref}"/>
    </object>

##### Replacement with Environment Variables

You may also use the value environment variables to replace property placeholders. The use of environment variables is controlled via the property `EnvironmentVariableMode`. This property is an enumeration of the type `EnvironmentVariablesMode` and has three values, Never, Fallback, and Override. `Fallback` is the default value and will resolve a property placeholder if it was not already done so via a value from a resource location. `Override` will apply environment variables before applying values defined from a resource location. `Never` will, quite appropriately, disable environment variable substitution. An example of how the `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer` XML is modified to enable override usage is shown below

    <object name="appConfigPropertyHolder"
            type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer, Spring.Core">
            <property name="configSections" value="DaoConfiguration,DatabaseConfiguration"/>
            <property name="EnvironmentVariableMode" value="Override"/>
        </object>
    </objects>

#### Example: The `PropertyOverrideConfigurer`

The `PropertyOverrideConfigurer`, another object factory post-processor, is similar to the `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer`, but in contrast to the latter, the original definitions can have default values or no values at all for object properties. If an overriding configuration file does not have an entry for a certain object property, the default context definition is used.

Note that the object factory definition is not aware of being overridden, so it is not immediately obvious when looking at the XML definition file that the override configurer is being used. In case that there are multiple `PropertyOverrideConfigurer` instances that define different values for the same object property, the last one will win (due to the overriding mechanism).

The example usage is similar to when using `PropertyPlaceHolderConfigurer` except that the key name refers to the name given to the object in the Spring.NET configuration file and is suffixed via 'dot' notation with the name of the property For example, if the application configuration file is

    <configuration>
      <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="spring">
          <section name="context" type="Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler, Spring.Core"/>
        </sectionGroup>
        <section name="DaoConfigurationOverride" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"/>
      </configSections>

      <DaoConfigurationOverride>
        <add key="productDao.maxResults" value="1000"/>
      </DaoConfigurationOverride>

      <spring>
        <context>
          <resource uri="assembly://DaoApp/DaoApp/objects.xml"/>
        </context>
      </spring>

    </configuration>

Then the value of 1000 will be used to overlay the value of 2000 set in the Spring.NET configuration file shown below

    <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.net http://www.springframework.net/xsd/spring-objects.xsd" >

        <object name="productDao" type="PropPlayApp.SimpleProductDao, PropPlayApp " >
          <property name="maxResults" value="2000"/>
          <property name="dbConnection" ref="myConnection"/>
          <property name="log" ref="daoLog"/>
        </object>

        <object name="daoLog" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.LogFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
          <property name="logName" value="DAOLogger"/>
        </object>

        <object name="myConnection" type="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection, System.Data">
          <property name="connectionstring">
            <value>dsn=MyDSN;uid=sa;pwd=myPassword;</value>
          </property>
        </object>

        <object name="appConfigPropertyOverride" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.PropertyOverrideConfigurer, Spring.Core">
          <property name="configSections">
            <value>DaoConfigurationOverride</value>
          </property>
        </object>

    </objects>

#### IVariableSource

The IVariableSource is the base interface for providing the ability to get the value of property placeholders (name-value) pairs from a variety of sources. Out of the box, Spring.NET supports a number of variable sources that allow users to obtain variable values from .NET config files, java-style property files, environment variables, command line arguments and the registry and the new connection strings configuration section in .NET 2.0. The list of implementing classes is listed below. Please refer to the SDK documentation for more information.

- `ConfigSectionVariableSource`

- `PropertyFileVariableSource`

- `EnvironmentVariableSource`

- `CommandLineArgsVariableSource`

- `RegistryVariableSource`

- `SpecialFolderVariableSource`

- `ConnectionStringsVariableSource`

You use this by defining an instance of `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.VariablePlaceholderConfigurer` in your configuration and set the property `VariableSource` to a single `IVariableSource` instance or the list property `VariableSources` to a list of `IVariableSource` instances. In the case of the same property defined in multiple `IVariableSource` implementations, the first one in the list that contains the property value will be used.

    <object type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.VariablePlaceholderConfigurer, Spring.Core">
       <property name="VariableSources">
          <list>
             <object type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.ConfigSectionVariableSource, Spring.Core">
                <property name="SectionNames" value="CryptedConfiguration" />
             </object>
          </list>
       </property>
    </object>

The IVariableSource interface is shown below

    public interface IVariableSource
    {
      string ResolveVariable(string name);
    }

This is a simple contract to implement if you should decide to create your own custom implemention. Look at the source code of the current implementations for some inspiration if you go that route. To register your own custom implemenation, simply configure VariablePlaceholderConfigurer to refer to your class.

### Customizing instantiation logic using `IFactoryObjects`

The `Spring.Objects.Factory.IFactoryObject` interface is to be implemented by objects that are themselves factories.

The `IFactoryObject` interface is a point of pluggability into the Spring IoC containers instantiation logic. If you have some complex initialization code that is better expressed in C# as opposed to a (potentially) verbose amount of XML, you can create your own `IFactoryObject`, write the complex initialization inside that class, and then plug your custom `IFactoryObject` into the container.

The `IFactoryObject` interface provides one method and two (read-only) properties:

- `object GetObject()`: has to return an instance of the object this factory creates. The instance can possibly be shared (depending on whether this factory provides singletons or prototypes).

- `bool IsSingleton`: has to return `true` if this IFactoryObject returns singletons, `false` otherwise.

- `Type ObjectType`: has to return either the object type returned by the `GetObject()` method or `null` if the type isn't known in advance.

`IFactoryObject`

The IFactoryObject concept and interface is used in a number of places within the Spring Framework. Some examples of its use is described in for the `PropertyRetrievingFactoryObject` and `FieldRetrievingFactoryObject`. An additional use of creating an custom IFactoryObject implementation is to retrieve an object from an embedded resource file and use it to set another objects dependency. An example of this is provided here.

Finally, there is sometimes a need to ask a container for an actual `IFactoryObject` instance itself, not the object it produces. This may be achieved by prepending the object id with '`&`' (sans quotes) when calling the `GetObject` method of the `IObjectFactory` (including `IApplicationContext`). So for a given `IFactoryObject` with an id of '`myObject`', invoking `GetObject("myObject")` on the container will return the product of the `IFactoryObject`, but invoking `GetObject("&myObject")` will return the `IFactoryObject` instance itself.

#### IConfigurableFactoryObject

The `Spring.Objects.Factory.IConfigurableFactoryObject` interface inherits from `IFactoryObject` interface and adds the following property.

- `IObjectDefinition ProductTemplate` : Gets the template object definition that should be used to configure the instance of the object managed by this factory.

`IConfigurableFactoryObject` implementions you already have examples of in are `WebServiceProxyFactory`.

## The `IApplicationContext`

While the `Spring.Objects` namespace provides basic functionality for managing and manipulating objects, often in a programmatic way, the `Spring.Context` namespace introduces the `IApplicationContext` interface, which enhances the functionality provided by the `IObjectFactory` interface in a more framework-oriented style. Many users will use ApplicationContext in a completely declarative fashion, not even having to create it manually, but instead relying on support classes such as the .NET configuration section handlers such as ContextHandler and WebContextHandler together to declaratively define the ApplicationContext and retrieve it though a ContextRegistry. (Of course it is still possible to create an `IApplicationContext` Programatically).

The basis for the context module is the `IApplicationContext` interface, located in the `Spring.Context` namespace. Deriving from the `IObjectFactory` interface, it provides all the functionality of the `IObjectFactory`. To be able to work in a more framework-oriented fashion, using layering and hierarchical contexts, the `Spring.Context` namespace also provides the following functionality

- Loading of multiple (hierarchical) contexts, allowing some of them to be focused and used on one particular layer, for example the web layer of an application.

- Access to localized resources at the application level by implementing `IMessageSource`.

- Uniform access to resources that can be read in as an InputStream, such as URLs and files by implementing `IResourceLoader`

- Loosely Coupled Event Propagation. Publishers and subscribers of events do not have to be directly aware of each other as they register their interest indirectly through the application context.

### IObjectFactory or IApplicationContext?

Short version: use an `IApplicationContext` unless you have a really good reason for not doing so. For those of you that are looking for slightly more depth as to the 'but why' of the above recommendation, keep reading.

As the `IApplicationContext` includes all the functionality the object factory via its inheritance of the `IObjectFactory` interface, it is generally recommended to be used over the `IObjectFactory` except for a few limited situations where memory consumption might be critical. This may become more important if the .NET Compact Framework is supported. The history of `IObjectFactory` comes from the Spring Java framework, where the use of Spring in Applets was a concern to reduce memory consumption. However, for most 'typical' enterprise applications and systems, the `IApplicationContext` is what you will want to use. Spring generally makes heavy use of the `IObjectPostProcessor` extension point (to effect proxying and suchlike), and if you are using just a plain `IObjectFactory` then a fair amount of support such as transactions and AOP will not take effect (at least not without some extra steps on your part), which could be confusing because nothing will actually be wrong with the configuration.

Find below a feature matrix that lists what features are provided by the `IObjectFactory` and `IApplicationContext` interfaces (and attendant implementations). The following sections describe functionality that `IApplicationContext` adds to the basic `IObjectFactory` capabilities in a lot more depth than the said feature matrix.)

#### Feature Matrix

Feature | `IObjectFactory` | `IApplicationContext`
--- | --- | ---
Object instantiation/wiring | Yes | Yes
Automatic `IObjectPostProcessor` registration | No | Yes
Automatic `IObjectFactoryPostProcessor` registration | No | Yes
Convenient `IMessageSource` access | No | Yes
`ApplicationEvent` publication | No | Yes
Singleton service locator style access | No | Yes
Declarative registration of custom resource protocol handler, XML Parsers for object definitions, and type aliases | No | Yes

## Configuration of IApplicationContext

Well known locations in the .NET application configuration file are used to register resource handlers, custom parsers, type alias, and custom type converts in addition to the context and objects sections mentioned previously. A sample .NET application configuration file showing all these features is shown below. Each section requires the use of a custom configuration section handler. Note that the types shown for resource handlers and parsers are fictional.

    <configuration>

      <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="spring">

          <section name="context" type="Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler, Spring.Core"/>
          <section name="objects" type="Spring.Context.Support.DefaultSectionHandler, Spring.Core" />

          <section name="parsers" type="Spring.Context.Support.NamespaceParsersSectionHandler, Spring.Core"/>
          <section name="resources" type="Spring.Context.Support.ResourceHandlersSectionHandler, Spring.Core"/>
          <section name="typeAliases" type="Spring.Context.Support.TypeAliasesSectionHandler, Spring.Core"/>
          <section name="typeConverters" type="Spring.Context.Support.TypeConvertersSectionHandler, Spring.Core"/>

         </sectionGroup>
      </configSections>

      <spring>
        <parsers>
          <parser type="Spring.Aop.Config.AopNamespaceParser, Spring.Aop" />
          <parser type="Spring.Data.Config.DatabaseNamespaceParser, Spring.Data" />
        </parsers>

        <resources>
          <handler protocol="db" type="MyCompany.MyApp.Resources.MyDbResource"/>
        </resources>

        <context caseSensitive="false">
          <resource uri="config://spring/objects"/>
          <resource uri="db://user:pass@dbName/MyDefinitionsTable"/>
        </context>

        <typeAliases>
           <alias name="WebServiceExporter" type="Spring.Web.Services.WebServiceExporter, Spring.Web"/>
           <alias name="DefaultPointcutAdvisor" type="Spring.Aop.Support.DefaultPointcutAdvisor, Spring.Aop"/>
           <alias name="AttributePointcut" type="Spring.Aop.Support.AttributeMatchMethodPointcut, Spring.Aop"/>
           <alias name="CacheAttribute" type="Spring.Attributes.CacheAttribute, Spring.Core"/>
           <alias name="MyType" type="MyCompany.MyProject.MyNamespace.MyType, MyAssembly"/>
         </typeAliases>

        <typeConverters>
          <converter for="Spring.Expressions.IExpression, Spring.Core" type="Spring.Objects.TypeConverters.ExpressionConverter, Spring.Core"/>
          <converter for="MyTypeAlias" type="MyCompany.MyProject.Converters.MyTypeConverter, MyAssembly"/>
        </typeConverters>

        <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">
            ...
        </objects>

      </spring>

    </configuration>

The new sections are described below. The attribute `caseSensitive` allows the for both `IObjectFactory` and `IApplicationContext` implementations to not pay attention to the case of the object names. This is important in web applications so that ASP.NET pages can be resolved in a case independent manner. The default value is true.

### Registering custom parsers

Instead of using the default XML schema that is generic in nature to define an object's properties and dependencies, you can create your own XML schema specific to an application domain. This has the benefit of being easier to type and getting XML intellisense for the schema being used. The downside is that you need to write code that will transform this XML into Spring object definitions. One would typically implement a custom parser by deriving from the class `ObjectsNamespaceParser` and overriding the methods `int ParseRootElement(XmlElement root, XmlResourceReader reader)` and `int ParseElement(XmlElement element, XmlResourceReader reader)`. Registering custom parsers outside of App.config will be addressed in a future release.

To register a custom parser register a section handler of the type `Spring.Context.Support.NamespaceParsersSectionHandler` in the configSecitons section of App.config. The parser configuration section contains one or more <parser> elements each with a type attribute. Below is an example that registers all the namespaces provided in Spring.

As of Spring.NET 1.2.0 it is no longer necessary to explicitly configure the namespace parsers that come with Spring via a custom section in App.config. You will still need to register custom namespace parsers if you are writing your own.

    <configuration>

      <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="spring">
          <!-- other configuration section handler defined here -->
          <section name="parsers" type="Spring.Context.Support.NamespaceParsersSectionHandler, Spring.Core"/>
         </sectionGroup>
      </configSections>

      <spring>
        <parsers>
          <parser type="Spring.Aop.Config.AopNamespaceParser, Spring.Aop" />
          <parser type="Spring.Data.Config.DatabaseNamespaceParser, Spring.Data" />
          <parser type="Spring.Transaction.Config.TxNamespaceParser, Spring.Data" />
          <parser type="Spring.Validation.Config.ValidationNamespaceParser, Spring.Core" />
          <parser type="Spring.Remoting.Config.RemotingNamespaceParser, Spring.Services" />
        </parsers>
      </spring>

    </configuration>

You can also register custom parser programmatically using the NamespaceParserRegistry. Here is an example taken from the code used in the Transactions Quickstart application.

    NamespaceParserRegistry.RegisterParser(typeof(DatabaseNamespaceParser));
    NamespaceParserRegistry.RegisterParser(typeof(TxNamespaceParser));
    NamespaceParserRegistry.RegisterParser(typeof(AopNamespaceParser));

    IApplicationContext context =
          new XmlApplicationContext("assembly://Spring.TxQuickStart.Tests/Spring.TxQuickStart/system-test-local-config.xml");

### Registering custom resource handlers

Creating a custom resource handler means implementing the `IResource` interface. The base class `AbstractResource` is a useful starting point. Look at the Spring source for classes such as `FileSystemResource` or `AssemblyResource` for implementation tips. You can register your custom resource handler either within App.config, as shown in the program listing at the start of this section using a .`ResourceHandlersSectionHandler` or define an object of the type `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.ResourceHandlerConfigurer` as you would any other Spring managed object. An example of the latter is shown below:

    <object id="myResourceHandlers" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.ResourceHandlersSectionHandler, Spring.Core">
          <property name="ResourceHandlers">
              <dictionary>
                  <entry key="db" value="MyCompany.MyApp.Resources.MyDbResource, MyAssembly"/>
              </dictionary>
          </property>
    </object>

### Registering Type Aliases

Type aliases allow you to simplify Spring configuration file by replacing fully qualified type name with an alias for frequently used types. Aliases can be registered both within a config file and programatically and can be used anywhere in the context config file where a fully qualified type name is expected. Type aliases can also be defined for generic types.

One way to configure a type alias is to define them in a custom config section in the Web/App.config file for your application, as well as the custom configuration section handler. See the previous XML configuration listing for an example that makes an alias for the WebServiceExporter type. Once you have aliases defined, you can simply use them anywhere where you would normally specify a fully qualified type name:

    <object id="MyWebService" type="WebServiceExporter">
        ...
    </object>

    <object id="cacheAspect" type="DefaultPointcutAdvisor">
        <property name="Pointcut">
            <object type="AttributePointcut">
                <property name="Attribute" value="CacheAttribute"/>
            </object>
        </property>
        <property name="Advice" ref="aspNetCacheAdvice"/>
    </object>

To register a type alias register a section handler of the type `Spring.Context.Support.TypeAliasesSectionHandler` in the configSecitons section of App.config. The type alias configuration section contains one or more <alias> elements each with a name and a type attribute. Below is an example that registers the alias for WebServiceExporter

    <configuration>

      <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="spring">
          <!-- other configuration section handler defined here -->
          <section name="parsers" type="Spring.Context.Support.TypeAliasesSectionHandler, Spring.Core"/>
         </sectionGroup>
      </configSections>

      <spring>
        <typeAliases>
           <alias name="WebServiceExporter" type="Spring.Web.Services.WebServiceExporter, Spring.Web"/>
        </typeAliases>
      </spring>

    </configuration>

For an example showing type aliases for generic types see .

Another way is to define an object of the type `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.TypeAliasConfigurer` within the regular <objects> section of any standard Spring configuration file. This approach allows for more modularity in defining type aliases, for example if you can't access App.config/Web.config. An example of registration using a `TypeAliasConfigurer` is shown below

    <object id="myTypeAlias" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.TypeAliasConfigurer, Spring.Core">
          <property name="TypeAliases">
              <dictionary>
                  <entry key="WebServiceExporter" value="Spring.Web.Services.WebServiceExporter, Spring.Web"/>
                  <entry key="DefaultPointcutAdvisor" value="Spring.Aop.Support.DefaultPointcutAdvisor, Spring.Aop"/>
                  <entry key="MyType" value="MyCompany.MyProject.MyNamespace.MyType, MyAssembly"/>
              </dictionary>
          </property>
    </object>

### Registering Type Converters

The standard .NET mechanism for specifying a type converter is to add a `TypeConverter` attribute to a type definition to specify the type of the Converter. This is the preferred way of defining type converters if you control the source code for the type that you want to define a converter for. However, this configuration section allows you to specify converters for the types that you don't control, and it also allows you to override some of the standard type converters, such as the ones that are defined for some of the types in the .NET Base Class Library.

You can specify the type converters in App.config by using Spring.Context.Support.TypeConvertersSectionHandler as shown before or define an object of the type `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.``CustomConverterConfigurer`. An example of registration using a `CustomConverterConfigurer` is shown below

    <object id="myTypeConverters" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.CustomConverterConfigurer, Spring.Core">
          <property name="CustomConverters">
              <dictionary>
                  <entry key="System.Date" value="MyCompany.MyProject.MyNamespace.MyCustomDateConverter, MyAssembly"/>
              </dictionary>
          </property>
    </object>

## Added functionality of the `IApplicationContext`

As already stated in the previous section, the `IApplicationContext` has a couple of features that distinguish it from the `IObjectFactory`. Let us review them one-by-one.

### Context Hierarchies

You can structure the configuration information of application context into hierarchies that naturally reflect the internal layering of your application. As an example, abstract object definitions may appear in a parent application context configuration file, possibly as an embedded assembly resource so as not to invite accidental changes.

    <spring>
      <context>
        <resource uri="assembly://MyAssembly/MyProject/root-objects.xml"/>
        <context name="mySubContext">
          <resource uri="file://objects.xml"/>
        </context>
      </context>
    </spring>

The nesting of `context` elements reflects the parent-child hierarchy you are creating. The nesting can be to any level though it is unlikely one would need a deep application hierarchy. The xml file must contain the `<objects>` as the root name. Another example of a hierarchy, but using sections in the application configuration file is shown below.

    <configSections>
      <sectionGroup name="spring">
        <section name="context" type="Spring.Context.Support.ContextHandler, Spring.Core"/>
        <section name="objects" type="Spring.Context.Support.DefaultSectionHandler, Spring.Core" />
        <sectionGroup name="child">
          <section name="objects" type="Spring.Context.Support.DefaultSectionHandler, Spring.Core" />
        </sectionGroup>
      </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>

    <spring>

      <context name="ParentContext">
        <resource uri="config://spring/objects"/>
        <context name="ChildContext">
          <resource uri="config://spring/child/objects"/>
        </context>
      </context>

      <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">

        ...

      </objects>

      <child>
        <objects xmlns="http://www.springframework.net">

          ...

        </objects>
      </child>

    </spring>

As a reminder, the `type` attribute of the context tag is optional and defaults to `Spring.Context.Support.XmlApplicationContext`. The name of the context can be used in conjunction with the service locator class, `ContextRegistry`, discussed in

### Using `IMessageSource`

The `IApplicationContext` interface extends an interface called `IMessageSource` and provides localization (i18n or internationalization) services for text messages and other resource data types such as images. This functionality makes it easier to use .NET's localization features at an application level and also offers some performance enhancements due to caching of retrieved resources. Together with the `NestingMessageSource`, capable of hierarchical message resolving, these are the basic interfaces Spring.NET provides for localization. Let's quickly review the methods defined there:

- `string GetMessage(string name)`: retrieves a message from the `IMessageSource` and using CurrentUICulture.

- `string GetMessage(string name, CultureInfo cultureInfo)`: retrieves a message from the `IMessageSource` using a specified culture.

- `string GetMessage(string name, params object[] args)`: retrieves a message from the `IMessageSource` using a variable list of arguments as replacement values in the message. The CurrentUICulture is used to resolve the message.

- `string GetMessage(string name, CultureInfo cultureInfo, params object[] args)`: retrieves a message from the `IMessageSource` using a variable list of arguments as replacement values in the message. The specified culture is used to resolve the message.

- `string GetMessage(string name, string defaultMessage, CultureInfo culture, params object[] arguments)`: retrieves a message from the `IMessageSource` using a variable list of arguments as replacement values in the message. The specified culture is used to resolve the message. If no message can be resolved, the default message is used.

- `string GetMessage(IMessageSourceResolvable resolvable, CultureInfo culture)` : all properties used in the methods above are also wrapped in a class - the `MessageSourceResolvable`, which you can use in this method.

- `object GetResourceObject(string name)`:Get a localized resource object, i.e. Icon, Image, etc. given the resource name. The CurrentUICulture is used to resolve the resource object.

- `object GetResourceObject(string name, CultureInfo cultureInfo)`:Get a localized resource object, i.e. Icon, Image, etc. given the resource name. The specified culture is used to resolve the resource object.

- `void ApplyResources(object value, string objectName, CultureInfo cultureInfo)`: Uses a ComponentResourceManager to apply resources to all object properties that have a matching key name. Resource key names are of the form objectName.propertyName

When an `IApplicationContext` gets loaded, it automatically searches for an `IMessageSource` object defined in the context. The object has to have the name `messageSource`. If such an object is found, all calls to the methods described above will be delegated to the message source that was found. If no message source was found, the `IApplicationContext` checks to see if it has a parent containing a similar object, with a similar name. If so, it uses that object as the `IMessageSource`. If it can't find any source for messages, an empty `StaticMessageSource` will be instantiated in order to be able to accept calls to the methods defined above.

#### Fallback behavior

The fallback rules for localized resources seem to have a bug that is fixed by applying Service Pack 1 for .NET 1.1. This affects the use of IMessageSource.GetMessage methods that specify CultureInfo. The core of the issue in the .NET BCL is the method ResourceManager.GetObject that accepts CultureInfo.

Spring.NET provides two `IMessageSource` implementations. These are `ResourceSetMessageSource` and `StaticMessageSource`. Both implement `IHierarchicalMessageSource` to resolve messages hierarchically. The `StaticMessageSource` is hardly ever used but provides programmatic ways to add messages to the source. The `ResourceSetMessageSource` is more interesting and an example is provided for in the distribution and discussed more extensively in the section. The `ResourceSetMessageSource` is configured by providing a list of `ResourceManager`s. When a message code is to be resolved, the list of ResourceManagers is searched to resolve the code. For each `ResourceManager` a `ResourceSet` is retrieved and asked to resolve the code. Note that this search does not replace the standard hub-and-spoke search for localized resources. The ResourceManagers list specifies the multiple 'hubs' where the standard search starts.

    <object name="messageSource" type="Spring.Context.Support.ResourceSetMessageSource, Spring.Core">
      <property name="resourceManagers">
        <list>
           <value>Spring.Examples.AppContext.MyResource, Spring.Examples.AppContext</value>
        </list>
      </property>
    </object>

You can specify the arguments to construct a ResourceManager as a two part string value containing the base name of the resource and the assembly name. This will be converted to a ResourceManager via the `ResourceManagerConverter` TypeConverter. This converter can be similarly used to set a property on any object that is of the type `ResourceManager.` You may also specify an instance of the `ResourceManager` to use via an object reference. The convenience class `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.ResourceManagerFactoryObject` can be used to conveniently create an instance of a ResourceManager.

    <object name="myResourceManager" type="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.ResourceManagerFactoryObject, Spring.Core">
      <property name="baseName">
        <value>Spring.Examples.AppContext.MyResource</value>
      </property>
      <property name="assemblyName">
        <value>Spring.Examples.AppContext</value>
      </property>
    </object>

In application code, a call to `GetMessage` will retrieve a properly localized message string based on a code value. Any arguments present in the retrieved string are replaced using `String.Format` semantics. The ResourceManagers, ResourceSets and retrieved strings are cached to provide quicker lookup performance. The key 'HelloMessage' is contained in the resource file with a value of `Hello {0} {1}`. The following call on the application context will return the string `Hello Mr. Anderson`. Note that the caching of ResourceSets is via the concatenation of the ResourceManager base name and the CultureInfo string. This combination must be unique.

    string msg = ctx.GetMessage("HelloMessage",
                                new object[] {"Mr.", "Anderson"},
                                CultureInfo.CurrentCulture );

It is possible to chain the resolution of messages by passing arguments that are themselves messages to be resolved giving you greater flexibility in how you can structure your message resolution. This is achieved by passing as an argument a class that implements `IMessageResolvable` instead of a string literal. The convenience class `DefaultMessageResolvable` is available for this purpose. As an example if the resource file contains a key name `error.required` that has the value '`{0} is required {1}`' and another key name `field.firstname` with the value '`First name`'. The following code will create the string '`First name is required dude!`'

    string[] codes = {"field.firstname"};
    DefaultMessageResolvable dmr = new DefaultMessageResolvable(codes, null);
    ctx.GetMessage("error.required",
    		new object[] { dmr, "dude!" },
                    CultureInfo.CurrentCulture ));

The examples directory in the distribution contains an example program, `Spring.Examples.AppContext`, that demonstrates usage of these features.

The `IMessageSourceAware` interface can also be used to acquire a reference to any `IMessageSource` that has been defined. Any object that is defined in an `IApplicationContext` that implements the `IMessageSourceAware` interface will be injected with the application context's `IMessageSource` when it (the object) is being created and configured.

### Using resources within Spring.NET

A lot of applications need to access resources. Resources here, might mean files, but also news feeds from the Internet or normal web pages. Spring.NET provides a clean and transparent way of accessing resources in a protocol independent way. The `IApplicationContext` has a method (`GetResource(string)`) to take care of this. Refer to for more information on the string format to use and the `IResource` abstraction in general.

### Loosely coupled events

The Eventing Registry allows developers to utilize a loosely coupled event wiring mechanism. By decoupling the event publication and the event subscription, most of the mundane event wiring is handled by the IoC container. Event publishers can publish their event to a central registry, either all of their events or a subset based on criteria such as delegate type, name, return value, etc... Event subscribers can choose to subscribe to any number of published events. Subscribers can subscriber to events based on the type of object exposing them, allowing one subscriber to handle all events of a certain type without regards to how many different instances of that type are created.

The `Spring.Objects.Events.IEventRegistry` interface represents the central registry and defines publish and subscribe methods.

- `void PublishEvents( object sourceObject )`: publishes all events of the source object to subscribers that implement the correct handler methods.

- `void Subscribe(object subscriber )`: The subscriber receives all events from the source object for which it has matching handler methods.

- `void Subscribe(object subscriber, Type targetSourceType )`: The subscriber receives all events from a source object of a particular type for which it has matching handler methods.

- `void Unsubscribe(object subscriber )`: Unsubscribe all events from the source object for which it has matching handler methods.

- `void Unsubscribe(object subscriber, Type targetSourceType )`: Unsubscribe all events from a source object of a particular type for which it has matching handler methods.

`IApplicationContext` implements this interface and delegates the implementation to an instance of `Spring.Objects.Events.Support.EventRegistry`. You are free to create and use as many EventRegistries as you like but since it is common to use only one in an application, `IApplicationContext` provides convenient access to a single instance.

Within the `example/Spring/Spring.Examples.EventRegistry` directory you will find an example on how to use this functionality. When you open up the project, the most interesting file is the EventRegistryApp.cs file. This application loads a set of object definitions from the application configuration file into an `IApplicationContext` instance. From there, three objects are loaded up: one publisher and two subscribers. The publisher publishes its events to the `IApplicationContext` instance:

    // Create the Application context using configuration file
    IApplicationContext ctx = ContextRegistry.GetContext();

    // Gets the publisher from the application context
    MyEventPublisher publisher = (MyEventPublisher)ctx.GetObject("MyEventPublisher");

    // Publishes events to the context.
    ctx.PublishEvents( publisher );

One of the two subscribers subscribes to all events published to the `IApplicationContext` instance, using the publisher type as the filter criteria.

    // Gets first instance of subscriber
    MyEventSubscriber subscriber = (MyEventSubscriber)ctx.GetObject("MyEventSubscriber");

    // Gets second instance of subscriber
    MyEventSubscriber subscriber2 = (MyEventSubscriber)ctx.GetObject("MyEventSubscriber");

    // Subscribes the first instance to the any events published by the type MyEventPublisher
    ctx.Subscribe( subscriber, typeof(MyEventPublisher) );

This will wire the first subscriber to the original event publisher. Anytime the event publisher fires an event, (`publisher.ClientMethodThatTriggersEvent1();`) the first subscriber will handle the event, but the second subscriber will not. This allows for selective subscription, regardless of the original prototype definition.

### Event notification from `IApplicationContext`

Event handling in the `IApplicationContext` is provided through the `IApplicationEventListener` interface that contains the single method `void HandleApplicationEvent( object source, ApplicationEventArgs applicationEventArgs )`. Classes that implement the `IApplicationEventListener` interface are automatically registered as a listener with the `IApplicationContext`. Publishing an event is done via the context's `PublishEvent( ApplicationEventArgs eventArgs )` method. This implementation is based on the traditional Observer design pattern.

The event argument type, `ApplicationEventArgs`, adds the time of the event firing as a property. The derived class `ContextEventArgs` is used to notify observers on the lifecycle events of the application context. It contains a property `ContextEvent Event` that returns the enumeration `Refreshed` or `Closed.`. The `Refreshed` enumeration value indicated that the `IApplicationContext` was either initialized or refreshed. Initialized here means that all objects are loaded, singletons are pre-instantiated and the `IApplicationContext` is ready for use. The `Closed` is published when the `IApplicationContext` is closed using the `Dispose()` method on the `IConfigurableApplicationContext` interface. Closed here means that singletons are destroyed.

Implementing custom events can be done as well. Simply call the `PublishEvent` method on the `IApplicationContext`, specifying a parameter which is an instance of your custom event argument subclass.

Let's have a look at an example. First, the `IApplicationContext`:

    <object id="emailer" type="Example.EmailObject">
        <property name="blackList">
            <list>
                <value>black@list.org</value>
                <value>white@list.org</value>
                <value>john@doe.org</value>
            </list>
        </property>
    </object>

    <object id="blackListListener" type="Example.BlackListNotifier">
        <property name="notificationAddress">
            <value>spam@list.org</value>
        </property>
    </object>

and then, the actual objects:

    public class EmailObject : IApplicationContextAware {

        // the blacklist
        private IList blackList;

        public IList BlackList
        {
          set { this.blackList = value; }
        }

        public IApplicationContext ApplicationContext
        {
          set { this.ctx = value; }
        }

        public void SendEmail(string address, string text) {
            if (blackList.contains(address))
            {
                BlackListEvent evt = new BlackListEvent(address, text);
                ctx.publishEvent(evt);
                return;
            }
            // send email...
        }
    }

    public class BlackListNotifier : IApplicationEventListener
    {

        // notification address
        private string notificationAddress;

        public string NotificationAddress
        {
          set { this.notificationAddress = value; }
        }

        public void HandleApplicationEvent(ApplicationEvent evt)
        {
            if (evt instanceof BlackListEvent)
            {
                // notify appropriate person
            }
        }
    }

## Customized behavior in the ApplicationContext

The `IObjectFactory` already offers a number of mechanisms to control the lifecycle of objects deployed in it (such as marker interfaces like `IInitializingObject` and `System.IDisposable`, their configuration only equivalents such as `init-method` and `destroy-method`) attributes in an XmlObjectFactory configuration, and object post-processors. In an `IApplicationContext`, all of these still work, but additional mechanisms are added for customizing behavior of objects and the container.

### The `IApplicationContextAware` marker interface

All marker interfaces available with ObjectFactories still work. The `IApplicationContext` does add one extra marker interface which objects may implement, `IApplicationContextAware`. An object which implements this interface and is deployed into the context will be called back on creation of the object, using the interface's `ApplicationContext` property, and provided with a reference to the context, which may be stored for later interaction with the context.

### The `IObjectPostProcessor`

Object post-processors are classes which implement the `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.IObjectPostProcessor` interface, have already been mentioned. It is worth mentioning again here though, that post-processors are much more convenient to use in `IApplicationContext`s than in plain `IObjectFactory` instances. In an `IApplicationContext`, any deployed object which implements the above marker interface is automatically detected and registered as an object post-processor, to be called appropriately at creation time for each object in the factory.

### The `IObjectFactoryPostProcessor`

Object factory post-processors are classes which implement the `Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.IObjectFactoryPostProcessor` interface, have already been mentioned. It is worth mentioning again here though, that object factory post-processors are much more convenient to use in `IApplicationContext`s. In an `IApplicationContext`, any deployed object which implements the above marker interface is automatically detected as an object factory post-processor, to be called at the appropriate time.

### The `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer`

The `PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer` has already been described in the context of its use within an `IObjectFactory`. It is worth mentioning here though, that it is generally more convenient to use it with an `IApplicationContext`, since the context will automatically recognize and apply any object factory post-processors, such as this one, when they are simply deployed into it like any other object. There is no need for a manual step to execute it.

## Configuration of ApplicationContext without using XML

The class GenericApplicationContext can be used as a basis for creating an IApplicationContext implementation that read the container metadata from sources other than XML. This could be by scanning objects in a .DLL for known attributes or a scripting language that leverages a DSL to create terse IObjectDefinitions. There is a class, Spring.Objects.Factory.Support.ObjectDefinitionBuilder offers some convenience methods for creating an IObjectDefinition in a less verbose manner than using the RootObjectDefinition API. The following shows how to configure the GenericApplicationContext to read from XML, just so show familiar API usage

    GenericApplicationContext ctx = new GenericApplicationContext();
    XmlObjectDefinitionReader reader = new XmlObjectDefinitionReader(ctx);
    reader.LoadObjectDefinitions("assembly://Spring.Core.Tests/Spring.Context.Support/contextB.xml");
    reader.LoadObjectDefinitions("assembly://Spring.Core.Tests/Spring.Context.Support/contextC.xml");
    reader.LoadObjectDefinitions("assembly://Spring.Core.Tests/Spring.Context.Support/contextA.xml");
    ctx.Refresh();

The implementation of IObjectDefinitionReader is responsible for creating the configuration metadata, i.e., implementations of RootObjectDefinition, etc. Note a web version of this application class has not yet been implemented.

An example, with a yet to be created DLL scanner, that would get configuration metadata from the .dll named MyAssembly.dll located in the runtime path, would look something like this

    GenericApplicationContext ctx = new GenericApplicationContext();
    ObjectDefinitionScanner scanner = new ObjectDefinitionScanner(ctx);
    scanner.scan("MyAssembly.dll");
    ctx.refresh();

Refer to the Spring API documentation for more information.

## Service Locator access

The majority of the code inside an application is best written in a Dependency Injection (Inversion of Control) style, where that code is served out of an `IObjectFactory` or `IApplicationContext` container, has its own dependencies supplied by the container when it is created, and is completely unaware of the container. However, there is sometimes a need for singleton (or quasi-singleton) style access to an `IObjectFactory` or `IApplicationContext`. For example, third party code may try to construct a new object directly without the ability to force it to get these objects out of the IObjectFactory. Similarly, nested user control components in a WinForms application are created inside the generated code in InitializeComponent. If this user control would like to obtain references to objects contained in the container it can use the service locator style approach and 'reach out' from inside the code to obtain the object it requires. (Note support for DI in WinForms is under development.)

The `Spring.Context.Support.ContextRegistry` class allows you to obtain a reference to an `IApplicationContext` via a static locator method. The `ContextRegistry` is initialized when creating an `IApplicationContext` through use of the `ContextHandler` discussed previously. The simple static method `GetContext()` can then be used to retrieve the context. Alternatively, if you create an `IApplicationContext` though other means you can register it with the `ContextRegistry` via the method `void RegisterContext(IApplicationContext context)` in the start-up code of your application. Hierarchical context retrieval is also supported though the use of the `GetContext(string name)` method, for example:

    IApplicationContex ctx = ContextRegistry.GetContext("mySubContext");

This would retrieve the nested context for the context configuration shown previously.

    <spring>
      <context>
        <resource uri="assembly://MyAssembly/MyProject/root-objects.xml"/>
    	<context name="mySubContext">
    	    <resource uri="file://objects.xml"/>
            </context>
      </context>
    </spring>

Do not call ContextRegistry.GetContext within a constructor as it will result in and endless recursion. (This is scheduled to be fixed in 1.1.1) In this case it is quite likely you can use the IApplicationContextAware interface and then retrieve other objects in a service locator style inside an initialization method.

The `ContextRegistry.Clear()` method will remove all contexts. On .NET 2.0, this will also call the ConfigurationManager's RefreshSection method so that the Spring context configuration section will be reread from disk when it is retrieved again. Note that in a web application RefeshSection will not work as advertised and you will need to touch the web.config files to reload a configuration.

## Stereotype attributes

Beginning with Spring 1.2, the [Repository] attribute was introduced as a marker for any class that fulfills the role or stereotype of a repository (a.k.a. Data Access Object or DAO). Among the possibilities for leveraging such a marker is the automatic translation of exceptions as described in Exception Translation.

Spring 1.2 introduces further stereotype annotations: [Component] and [Service]. [Component] serves as a generic stereotype for any Spring-managed component; whereas, [Repository] and [Service] serve as specializations of [Component] for more specific use cases (e.g., in the persistence and service layers, respectively). The ASP.NET MVC [Controller] attribute will serve this purpose for the controller layer. What this means is that you can annotate your component classes with [Component], but by annotating them with [Repository] or [Service] your classes are more properly suited for processing by tools or associating with aspects. For example, these stereotype annotations make ideal targets for pointcuts. Of course, it is also possible that [Repository] and [Service] may carry additional semantics in future releases of the Spring Framework. Thus, if you are making a decision between using [Component] or [Service] for your service layer, [Service] is clearly the better choice. Similarly, as stated above, [Repository] is already supported as a marker for automatic exception translation in your persistence layer. The next version of Spring will use the [Component] attribute to perform attribute based autowiring by-type as in the Spring Java Framework.