In many cases a mono embedding conundrum can be resolved by using a managed helper method. This is the approach used here.
So we have:
A managed helper method that accepts a generic type definition and an array of generic parameter types.
A client method that accepts a generic type definition name (e.g.: System.Collections.Generic.List`1), an assembly image that contains the type (or use an Assembly Qualified name) and an object of the required generic parameter type. We retrieve the underlying monoType for the object.
Note that when passing type info into the managed layer it has to be an instance of MonoReflectionType as obtained from mono_type_get_object().
The managed helper method is trivial and does the actual instantiation:
public static object CreateInstanceOfGenericType(Type genericTypeDefinition, Type[] parms)
{
// construct type from definition
Type constructedType = genericTypeDefinition.MakeGenericType(parms);
// create instance of constructed type
object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(constructedType);
return obj;
}
The helper code is called, in this case, from Objective-C:
+ (id)createInstanceOfGenericTypeDefinition:(char *)genericTypeDefinitionName monoImage:(MonoImage *)monoImage itemObject:(id)itemObject
{
// get the contained item monoType
MonoType *monoType = [DBType monoTypeForMonoObject:[itemObject monoObject]];
MonoReflectionType *monoReflectionType = mono_type_get_object([DBManagedEnvironment currentDomain], monoType);
// build a System.Array of item types
DBManagedObject *argType = [[DBManagedObject alloc] initWithMonoObject:(MonoObject *)monoReflectionType];
NSArray *argTypes = @[argType];
DBSystem_Array *dbsAargTypes = [argTypes dbsArrayWithTypeName:@"System.Type"];
// get the generic type definition
//
// Retrieves a MonoType from given name. If the name is not fully qualified,
// it defaults to get the type from the image or, if image is NULL or loading
// from it fails, uses corlib.
// This is the embedded equivalent of System.Type.GetType();
MonoType *monoGenericTypeDefinition = mono_reflection_type_from_name(genericTypeDefinitionName, monoImage);
// create instance using helper method
MonoMethod *helperMethod = [DBManagedEnvironment dubrovnikMonoMethodWithName:"CreateInstanceOfGenericType" className:"Dubrovnik.FrameworkHelper.GenericHelper" argCount:2];
void *hargs [2];
hargs[0] = mono_type_get_object([DBManagedEnvironment currentDomain], monoGenericTypeDefinition);
hargs[1] = [dbsAargTypes monoArray]; // a monoArray *
MonoObject *monoException = NULL;
MonoObject *monoObject = mono_runtime_invoke(helperMethod, NULL, hargs, &monoException);
if (monoException) NSRaiseExceptionFromMonoException(monoException);
id object = [System_Object subclassObjectWithMonoObject:monoObject];
return object;
}
For the complete code see Dubrovnik on Github