Asp.Net MVC Controller: declarative AOP with Spring.Net

Question

Is it possible, that Spring.Net Aspects don't work with Asp.Net Controller?

I want to configure transactions on Action methods of Controllers but the proxy doesn't seem to trigger.

<object id="ControllerClassPointcut" type="Spring.Aop.Support.SdkRegularExpressionMethodPointcut, Spring.Aop">
  <property name="patterns">
    <list>
      <value>xxx.Controllers.CompanyController.*</value>
    </list>
  </property>
</object>

<aop:config>
  <aop:advisor pointcut-ref="ControllerClassPointcut" advice-ref="TxAdvice"/>
  <!-- TxAdvice taken from ServiceContext -->
</aop:config>

<tx:advice id="TxAdvice" transaction-manager="TransactionManager">
  <tx:attributes>
    <tx:method name="*" propagation="Required"/>
  </tx:attributes>
</tx:advice>

and the action method of the CompanyController is:

    [HttpPost]
    public virtual ActionResult Create(Guid id, CompanyonViewModel vm)
    {
       ...
    }

but I the advice does not take effect although the pointcut is recognized. If I take an other class than a controller as pointcut it works.

for some methods the advice works. For example for the setter for the repository. But Sprint.Net does not recognize that the action method "Create" is called

Candidate is: 'xxx.Controllers.CompanyController.set_CompanyService'; pattern is 'xxx.Controllers.CompanyController.*'; matched=True Candidate advisor [DefaultObjectFactoryPointcutAdvisor: pointcut [Spring.Aop.Support.SdkRegularExpressionMethodPointcut]; advice object = 'TxAdvice'] accepted for targetType [xxx.Controllers.CompanyController]

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

Can you try with the configuration

<aop:config proxy-target-type="true">

This will create an inheritance based proxy. you may need to download a recent nightly build of spirng.net for this to work (not 1.3.0).

Answer 2

I had a similar a problem with the [Transaction] attribute (which works using Spring.AOP). In my case, I called the [Transaction] flagged methods from within the same class and was surprised that the transaction advice didn't fire.

The explanation was, that when calling a [Transaction] marked method from within the class, you hold a reference to the real instance instead of the AOP-proxied instance, therefore the call does not get intercepted.

When a request is made to an MVC app, then from the request url a controller is chosen (from the IControllerFactory instance). On this controller, the Execute method is called, which in turn is responsible for calling the actions. So I think that action methods are always called from within the controller. Which means that by definition action methods will never get intercepted. This would explain why those pointcuts are recognized, but don't fire.

if I take an other class than a controller as pointcut it works

It also explains why pointcuts on other classes than controllers do fire: they are likely called from a controller, which will hold a AOP-proxied reference to instances of the other classes.

... for some methods the advice works ... For example for the setter for the repository

I assume that your (for instance) CompanyController.CustomerController has a property CustomerRepository, set using DI. It makes sense that this pointcut fires, because the setter is called from outside the CompanyController.CustomerController, for instance by your DI container (or your ControllerFactory).

A solution could be to introduce service objects, on which you define the transaction advice that you now have on your controllers. From your controllers, you call methods on these service objects - and then the pointcuts will fire.