Use Unity to intercept all calls to IMyInterface.SomeMethod

Question

I am trying to learn Unity Interceptors and I am having a hard go of it.

Say I have an interface like this:

public interface IMyInterface
{
   void SomeMethod();
}

And I have an unknown number of classes that implement that interface like this:

public class SpecificClass1 : IMyInterface
{
   public void SomeMethod()
   {
       Console.WriteLine("Method Called");
   }
}

I am looking for a way to say, "for all instance of IMyInterface (I don't want to enumerate them), when SomeMethod is called run my interceptor.

It is the Non-Enumeration of the classe that is giving me trouble. (There are plenty of examples if you can enumerate all your classes.)

I have read of Type Interception, but I can't seem to find out if it will do what I am looking for.

Any Unity experts out there know how to do what I am looking for?

score 20 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 10 '12 at 21:50

You could create InterceptionBehavior then register it on specific class. Note you could filter executing methods in Invoke thru IMethodInvocation input

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.Practices.Unity;
using Microsoft.Practices.Unity.InterceptionExtension;
using NUnit.Framework;

namespace UnitTests
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class ForTest
    {
        [Test]
        public void Test()
        {
            IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer().AddNewExtension<Interception>();
            container.RegisterType<IMyInterface, SpecificClass1>(
                new Interceptor<InterfaceInterceptor>(),
                new InterceptionBehavior<MyInterceptionBehavior>());
            var myInterface = container.Resolve<IMyInterface>();
            myInterface.SomeMethod();
        }
    }

    public interface IMyInterface
    {
        void SomeMethod();
    }

    public class SpecificClass1 : IMyInterface
    {
        #region IMyInterface

        public void SomeMethod()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Method Called");
        }

        #endregion
    }

    public class MyInterceptionBehavior : IInterceptionBehavior
    {
        public bool WillExecute
        {
            get { return true; }
        }

        #region IInterceptionBehavior

        public IEnumerable<Type> GetRequiredInterfaces()
        {
            return Enumerable.Empty<Type>();
        }

        public IMethodReturn Invoke(IMethodInvocation input, GetNextInterceptionBehaviorDelegate getNext)
        {
            IMethodReturn result = getNext()(input, getNext);
            Console.WriteLine("Interception Called");
            return result;
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

Console output

Method Called
Interception Called

More about Interception with Unity

Randy Levy · Answer 2 · 2016-03-02T16:35:00.450

@GSerjo, has outlined the Unity interception approach which works well. If you wanted to automate the configuration of interception you can use a UnityContainerExtension to automatically wire up all the interface interception as well as the behaviors. If you wanted to get into more specific interception (method names, signatures, return values etc.) then you would probably need to look at Policy Injection (using matching rules with CallHandlers).

So in this case the container extension would look like:

public class UnityInterfaceInterceptionRegisterer : UnityContainerExtension
{
    private List<Type> interfaces = new List<Type>();
    private List<IInterceptionBehavior> behaviors = 
        new List<IInterceptionBehavior>();

    public UnityInterfaceInterceptionRegisterer(Type interfaceType, 
        IInterceptionBehavior interceptionBehavior)
    {
        interfaces.Add(interfaceType);
        behaviors.Add(interceptionBehavior);
    }

    public UnityInterfaceInterceptionRegisterer(Type[] interfaces, 
        IInterceptionBehavior[] interceptionBehaviors)
    {            
        this.interfaces.AddRange(interfaces);
        this.behaviors.AddRange(interceptionBehaviors);

        ValidateInterfaces(this.interfaces);
    }

    protected override void Initialize()
    {
        base.Container.AddNewExtension<Interception>();

        base.Context.Registering += 
            new EventHandler<RegisterEventArgs>(this.OnRegister);
    }

    private void ValidateInterfaces(List<Type> interfaces)
    {
        interfaces.ForEach((i) =>
        {
            if (!i.IsInterface)
                throw new ArgumentException("Only interface types may be configured for interface interceptors");
        }
        );
    }

    private bool ShouldIntercept(RegisterEventArgs e)
    {
        return e != null && e.TypeFrom != null && 
               e.TypeFrom.IsInterface && interfaces.Contains(e.TypeFrom);
    }

    private void OnRegister(object sender, RegisterEventArgs e)
    {
        if (ShouldIntercept(e))
        {
            IUnityContainer container = sender as IUnityContainer;

            var i = new Interceptor<InterfaceInterceptor>();
            i.AddPolicies(e.TypeFrom, e.TypeTo, e.Name, Context.Policies);

            behaviors.ForEach( (b) =>
                {
                    var ib = new InterceptionBehavior(b);
                    ib.AddPolicies(e.TypeFrom, e.TypeTo, e.Name, Context.Policies);
                }
            );
        }
    }
}

Then you could use it like so:

IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer()
    .AddExtension(new UnityInterfaceInterceptionRegisterer(
        new Type[] { typeof(IMyInterface), 
                     typeof(IMyOtherInterface) }, 
        new IInterceptionBehavior[] { new MyInterceptionBehavior(), 
                                      new AnotherInterceptionBehavior() }
        ));

container.RegisterType<IMyInterface, SpecificClass1>();

var myInterface = container.Resolve<IMyInterface>();
myInterface.SomeMethod();

Now when the interface is registered the appropriate interception policies will also be added to the container. So in this case if the interface registered is of type IMyInterface or IMyOtherInterface then policies will be setup for interface interception and the Interception Behaviors MyInterceptionBehavior and AnotherInterceptionBehavior will also be added.

Note that Unity 3 (released after this question/answer) added a Registration by Convention feature that can do what this extension does (without having to write any custom code). An example from the Developer's Guide to Dependency Injection Using Unity:

var container = new UnityContainer();

container.AddNewExtension<Interception>();
container.RegisterTypes(
    AllClasses.FromLoadedAssemblies().Where(
      t => t.Namespace == "OtherUnitySamples"),
    WithMappings.MatchingInterface,
    getInjectionMembers: t => new InjectionMember[]
    {
      new Interceptor<VirtualMethodInterceptor>(),
      new InterceptionBehavior<LoggingInterceptionBehavior>()
    });

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 10 '12 at 22:04

Setting up interception requires multiple actions incl. configuration of intercepted types, policies and handlers.

First see Using Interception in Applications for general details about the types of situations where interception is supported (with or without a DI container for example). Then see Type Interception for more details about the supported type interceptors. Especially take note of what interceptors can be used with the type of your class (otherwise the handlers will never trigger).

When you have decided what interceptor to use, configure it and create a sufficient call handler as per the links above. If you still have trouble at this point, post a more detailed question. If you have already done this, please post the configs and code as "non-enumeration of the classe" simply does not give any hints what you are actually asking. Do you by any chance mean with "enumeration" that you assign a attribute-driven policy and are unable to achieve what you want without it?

Use Unity to intercept all calls to IMyInterface.SomeMethod

3 Answers3