How would you approach isolating a dependency resolver to one area in MVC3?

Question

In the recent spirit of isolating stuff and plugging it in via NuGet, does anyone have an idea about how you'd limit a dependency resolver to just one area in MVC3? It's easy enough to keep views and controllers limited to an area, but unless I'm not seeing an obvious hook, it looks like setting an IDependencyResolver is something that unavoidably has global scope. I'd like to limit it to just one area.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

IDependencyResolver is global by design. If you want to vary behavior by area, you should look at the various *Activator types and interfaces that can make decisions based on context objects.

What specifically are you trying to do?

Answer 2

I would suggest using the Common Service Locator for this. Basically each area could setup up the CSL for their specific container.

You will probably need to create an adapter between the dependency resolver or forgo it altogether and strictly use the CSL.

In general I am not a proponent of using the CSL in a line of business app. It's intent is to make it easier for open source components that use DI (like MassTransit) easier to integrate into line of business apps. This might be an exception however.

Also, look into the mvccontrib portable areas. It's designed for this type of thing.

Answer 3

What you're trying to do sounds like a bad idea. The point of dependency injection is so you can isolate specific dependencies and not have your code care where they come from.

If you're trying to restrict some objects or classes to a certain MVC area, configure your dependency injector to call the proper ones at the right time.

Some more details about what you're trying to do will help generate better answers.