8.4 KiB
title: Injector summary: Introduction to using Dependency Injection within SilverStripe.
Injector
The Injector class is the central manager of inter-class dependencies in SilverStripe. It offers developers the ability to declare the dependencies a class type has, or to change the nature of the dependencies defined by other developers.
Some of the goals of dependency injection are:
- Simplified instantiation of objects
- Providing a uniform way of declaring and managing inter-object dependencies
- Making class dependencies configurable
- Simplifying the process of overriding or replacing core behaviour
- Improve testability of code
- Promoting abstraction of logic
The following sums up the simplest usage of the Injector it creates a new object of type MyClassName through create
:::php
$object = Injector::inst()->create('MyClassName');
The benefit of constructing objects through this syntax is ClassName can be swapped out using the
Configuration API by developers.
mysite/_config/app.yml
:::yml
Injector:
MyClassName:
class: MyBetterClassName
Repeated calls to create() create a new object each time.
:::php
$object = Injector::inst()->create('MyClassName');
$object2 = Injector::inst()->create('MyClassName');
echo $object !== $object2;
// returns true;
Singleton Pattern
The Injector API can be used for the singleton pattern through get(). Subsequent calls to get return the same
object instance as the first call.
:::php
// sets up MyClassName as a singleton
$object = Injector::inst()->get('MyClassName');
$object2 = Injector::inst()->get('MyClassName');
echo ($object === $object2);
// returns true;
Dependencies
The Injector API can be used to define the types of $dependencies that an object requires.
:::php
<?php
class MyController extends Controller {
// both of these properties will be automatically
// set by the injector on object creation
public $permissions;
public $textProperty;
// we declare the types for each of the properties on the object. Anything we pass in via the Injector API must
// match these data types.
static $dependencies = array(
'textProperty' => 'a string value',
'permissions' => '%$PermissionService',
);
}
When creating a new instance of MyController the dependencies on that class will be met.
:::php
$object = Injector::inst()->get('MyController');
echo ($object->permissions instanceof PermissionService);
// returns true;
echo (is_string($object->textProperty));
// returns true;
The Configuration YAML does the hard work of configuring those $dependencies for us.
mysite/_config/app.yml
:::yml
Injector:
PermissionService:
class: MyCustomPermissionService
MyController
properties:
textProperty: 'My Text Value'
Now the dependencies will be replaced with our configuration.
:::php
$object = Injector::inst()->get('MyController');
echo ($object->permissions instanceof MyCustomPermissionService);
// returns true;
echo ($object->textProperty == 'My Text Value');
// returns true;
As well as properties, method calls can also be specified:
:::yml
Injector:
Logger:
class: Monolog\Logger
calls:
- [ pushHandler, [ %$DefaultHandler ] ]
Using constants as variables
Any of the core constants can be used as a service argument by quoting with back ticks "`". Please ensure you also quote the entire value (see below).
CachingService:
class: SilverStripe\Cache\CacheProvider
properties:
CacheDir: '`TEMP_DIR`'
Note: undefined variables will be replaced with null.
Factories
Some services require non-trivial construction which means they must be created by a factory class. To do this, create
a factory class which implements the Factory interface. You can then specify
the factory key in the service definition, and the factory service will be used.
An example using the MyFactory service to create instances of the MyService service is shown below:
mysite/_config/app.yml
:::yml
Injector:
MyService:
factory: MyFactory
mysite/code/MyFactory.php
:::php
<?php
class MyFactory implements SilverStripe\Core\Injector\Factory {
public function create($service, array $params = array()) {
return new MyServiceImplementation();
}
}
// Will use MyFactoryImplementation::create() to create the service instance.
$instance = Injector::inst()->get('MyService');
Dependency overrides
To override the $dependency declaration for a class, define the following configuration file.
mysite/_config/app.yml
MyController:
dependencies:
textProperty: a string value
permissions: %$PermissionService
Managed objects
Simple dependencies can be specified by the $dependencies, but more complex configurations are possible by specifying
constructor arguments, or by specifying more complex properties such as lists.
These more complex configurations are defined in Injector configuration blocks and are read by the Injector at
runtime.
Assuming a class structure such as
:::php
<?php
class RestrictivePermissionService {
private $database;
public function setDatabase($d) {
$this->database = $d;
}
}
class MySQLDatabase {
private $username;
private $password;
public function __construct($username, $password) {
$this->username = $username;
$this->password = $password;
}
}
And the following configuration..
:::yml
name: MyController
---
MyController:
dependencies:
permissions: %$PermissionService
Injector:
PermissionService:
class: RestrictivePermissionService
properties:
database: %$MySQLDatabase
MySQLDatabase
constructor:
0: 'dbusername'
1: 'dbpassword'
Calling..
:::php
// sets up ClassName as a singleton
$controller = Injector::inst()->get('MyController');
Would setup the following
- Create an object of type
MyController - Look through the dependencies and call get('PermissionService')
- Load the configuration for PermissionService, and create an object of type
RestrictivePermissionService - Look at the properties to be injected and look for the config for
MySQLDatabase - Create a MySQLDatabase class, passing dbusername and dbpassword as the parameters to the constructor.
Service inheritance
By default, services registered with Injector do not inherit from one another; This is because it registers named services, which may not be actual classes, and thus should not behave as though they were.
Thus if you want an object to have the injected dependencies of a service of another name, you must assign a reference to that service.
:::yaml
Injector:
JSONServiceDefinition:
class: JSONServiceImplementor
properties:
Serialiser: JSONSerialiser
GZIPJSONProvider: %$JSONServiceDefinition
Injector::inst()->get('GZIPJSONProvider') will then be an instance of JSONServiceImplementor with the injected
properties.
It is important here to note that the 'class' property of the parent service will be inherited directly as well. If class is not specified, then the class will be inherited from the outer service name, not the inner service name.
For example with this config:
:::yaml
Injector:
Connector:
properties:
AsString: true
ServiceConnector: %$Connector
Both Connector and ServiceConnector will have the AsString property set to true, but the resulting
instances will be classes which match their respective service names, due to the lack of a class specification.
Testing with Injector
In situations where injector states must be temporarily overridden, it is possible to create nested Injector instances
which may be later discarded, reverting the application to the original state. This is done through nest and unnest.
This is useful when writing test cases, as certain services may be necessary to override for a single method call.
:::php
// Setup default service
Injector::inst()->registerService(new LiveService(), 'ServiceName');
// Test substitute service temporarily
Injector::nest();
Injector::inst()->registerService(new TestingService(), 'ServiceName');
$service = Injector::inst()->get('ServiceName');
// ... do something with $service
// revert changes
Injector::unnest();