Setting IContextManager in Csla 9

[ajohnstone-ks]

Migrating from Csla 8 to 9, it seems like the ability to set the IContextManager via Csla's configuration is gone, and the .AddConsoleApp(), .AddXaml() etc configure it now with no way to override.

Did I miss where I can set it via the configuration? I know I can just do it myself with services.AddSingleton<IContextManager>, but in order to figure out how to override it I had to dig into the Csla code, so it would be nicer if it was overridable directly on the configuration as that's more obvious.

[StefanOssendorf]

It got removed with #4146. Maybe @rockfordlhotka can tell why this change was made.

but in order to figure out how to override it I had to dig into the Csla code

Anything related to DI matters with the order of registration. So the last registration always wins. Tbh it's the only way I know how to tweak some libraries out there. But yeah maybe we can bring that back. 🤔

[ajohnstone-ks]

@StefanOssendorf No, in Csla 8 there was a property on CslaOptions ContextManagerType that I could set. I'm asking for something like that to be restored.

[rockfordlhotka]

I removed it (iirc) because there were a whole bunch of edge-case bugs with the way we were doing configuration in v8, and I cleaned up all that code for v9 to simplify and standardize - thus eliminating most or all of the potential issues.

@StefanOssendorf is right - you can just register IContextManager to something else after the UseCsla call to override it to something custom. Or, if you want your code in-line with UseCsla, create your own extension method just like AddConsole or AddMaui, etc.

imo that keeps the intent clear - why are you setting one or more config values in the code? Because of a specific host, or testing, or ???

[ajohnstone-ks]

@rockfordlhotka

why are you setting one or more config values in the code

I'm not sure I understand the question; I'm talking about configuring Csla and what happens in the .AddCsla() section. I don't know of any other way to change the IContextManager to use except in the startup code.

We're changing the IContextManager to use because the default one that is registerd in .AddConsoleApp() and .AddXaml() don't work for our Windows services or Maui app. During login we put a couple of things in ClientContext that need to go with every call, or the user session can't be located on the server (and thus they are not authenticated).

(Yes, I know those would be best in ClaimsPrincpal but we have one business rules library that powers the Windows services, Maui app AND our WinForms app (which is the largest of all the apps), and ClaimsPrincipal does not serialize correctly on .Net framework).

I have made the change to register a different IContextManager after the .UseCsla() call, but I think the argument that I can do that so it shouldn't be in the config api is weak; there are a number of types that is true of IInterceptDataPortal, IObjectFactoryLoader, IDataPortalExceptionInspector for example, but the fluent Csla config api allows you to set all those directly.

The request is to add to XamlOptions a public Type ContextManagerType {get; set;} and then AddXaml can have this line

config.Services.AddSingleton<Core.IContextManager, ApplicationContextManager>();

change to

if (xamlOptions.ContextManagerType == null)
{
  config.Services.AddSingleton<Core.IContextManager, ApplicationContextManager>();
}
else { 
  config.Services.AddSingleton<Core.IContextManager>(xamlOptions.ContextManagerType);
}

I'd be willing to do the changes myself if you open a ticket.