Orchard CMS : Creating module for OpenRasta, problems with dependency injection

Question

I'm trying to create an Orchard CMS module that enables a RESTful web service using OpenRasta for a given route (/openrasta/* for example).

I need to get to the Orchard ContentManager to get the content for the service to return, so my OpenRasta handler (ContentHandler) uses a ContentService, which implements IContentService, which inherits IDependency. Normally this would work because Orchard will inject a ContentManager into the constructor:

public class ContentService : IContentService {
    public IContentManager content;

    public ContentService(IContentManager content) {
        this.content = content;
    }

    public IEnumerable<string> GetContentTypeDefinitionNames() {
        return content.GetContentTypeDefinitions().Select(d => d.Name);
    }
}

But when I run it I get an error because OpenRasta doesn't know anything about the Orchard dependencies and it's trying to create ContentService, not Orchard, which is fair enough:

OpenRasta.DI.DependencyResolutionException: Could not resolve type ContentService because its dependencies couldn't be fullfilled Constructor: Orchard.ContentManagement.IContentManager

Is there a way to achieve this, can I go to an Orchard class somewhere and say "give me an instance of the ContentManager"?

Update: See my comments on @rfcdejong's answer for updates on my progress.

Answer 1

Are u using a ServiceRoute, added in a class implementing IRouteProvider Look at the ServiceRoute summary, it says "Enables the creation of service routes over HTTP in support of REST scenarios."

public class Routes : IRouteProvider
{
    public void GetRoutes(ICollection<RouteDescriptor> routes)
    {
        foreach (var routeDescriptor in GetRoutes())
            routes.Add(routeDescriptor);
    }

    private static ServiceRoute _rastaService = new ServiceRoute(
        "openrasta",
        new MyServiceHostFactory<IOpenRastaService>(), 
        typeof(IOpenRastaService));

    public IEnumerable<RouteDescriptor> GetRoutes()
    {
        return new[] 
        {
            new RouteDescriptor
            {
                Priority = -1,
                Route = _rastaService
            }
        };
    }
}

And want to resolve ContentService? U might have to resolve the interface.

i guess u want the following to work:

var contentService = LifetimeScope.ResolveNew<IContentService>();

I have used HostContainer.Resolve directly and had issues as well. I will describe the solution i'm using at the moment in my own ServiceHostFactory

Do u have a own ServiceHostFactory deriven from OrchardServiceHostFactory? In that case u can implement the following code to help u resolve instances

    private ILifetimeScope _lifetimeScope = null;
    private ILifetimeScope LifetimeScope
    {
        get
        {
            if (_lifetimeScope == null)
            {
                IHttpContextAccessor accessor = HostContainer.Resolve<IHttpContextAccessor>();
                IRunningShellTable runningShellTable = HostContainer.Resolve<IRunningShellTable>();
                ShellSettings shellSettings = runningShellTable.Match(accessor.Current());
                IOrchardHost orchardHost = HostContainer.Resolve<IOrchardHost>();
                ShellContext shellContext = orchardHost.GetShellContext(shellSettings);
                _lifetimeScope = shellContext.LifetimeScope;
            }
            return _lifetimeScope;
        }
    }

I also created LifetimeScopeExtensions that has the following code

public static class LifetimeScopeExtensions
{
    public static T ResolveNew<T>(this ILifetimeScope scope)
    {
        IWorkContextAccessor workContextAccessor = scope.Resolve<IWorkContextAccessor>();
        WorkContext workContext = workContextAccessor.GetContext();
        if (workContext == null)
        {
            using (IWorkContextScope workContextScope = workContextAccessor.CreateWorkContextScope())
            {
                ILifetimeScope lifetimeScope = workContextScope.Resolve<ILifetimeScope>();
                return lifetimeScope.Resolve<T>();
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ILifetimeScope lifetimeScope = workContext.Resolve<ILifetimeScope>();
            return lifetimeScope.Resolve<T>();
        }
    }

    public static object ResolveNew(this ILifetimeScope scope, Type type)
    {
        IWorkContextAccessor workContextAccessor = scope.Resolve<IWorkContextAccessor>();
        WorkContext workContext = workContextAccessor.GetContext();
        if (workContext == null)
        {
            using (IWorkContextScope workContextScope = workContextAccessor.CreateWorkContextScope())
            {
                ILifetimeScope lifetimeScope = workContextScope.Resolve<ILifetimeScope>();
                return lifetimeScope.Resolve(type);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ILifetimeScope lifetimeScope = workContext.Resolve<ILifetimeScope>();
            return lifetimeScope.Resolve(type);
        }
    }
}


        var settingsService = LifetimeScope.ResolveNew<ITokenServiceSettingsService>();

Answer 2

So the issue is that your CMS uses its own IoC container. By default OpenRasta does that too.

This means that services that are present in Orchard won't be visible to OpenRasta.

For all other IoC containers, the answer is damn right simple: You use the IoC adaptation layer that lets OpenRasta live in whatever ioc container you want. We support unity, structuremap, castle and ninject. That said, autofac is not supported as no one ever built it.

The cleanest way for you to solve this problem (and any other you may encounter in the future for those issues) would be to build your own autofac ioc adaptation layer for openrasta. If you need help doing that, you can join the openeverything mailing list where the devs would be happy to help you.