StructureMap 3 - some changes I've noticed
StructureMap 3 was released recently, and as a regular user of StructureMap, so far I have to say that I'm pleased.
Mainly because not much was really broken, and also because I'm just happy to see a project I use so much continue to get updated.
There are a couple things that are moved around or renamed. In this post, I'll be talking about HTTP request scoping, decoration, and assembly scanning.
HTTP Request Scoping
StructureMap 3 no longer includes anything tied to HttpContext. But don't panic! It's all been moved to another package: StructureMap.Web. The API is a little different as well. Compare and contrast:
Also note that the cleanup (which I typically put in Application_EndRequest in Global.asax.cs) is also a bit different. In StructureMap 2, I would just call ObjectFactory.ReleaseAndDisposeAllHttpScopedObjects();. In StructureMap 3, instead I call HttpContextLifecycle.DisposeAndClearAll();.
Decoration
If you are using the decorator pattern, then you probably often wire it up in your IoC container. In StructureMap 2, you used EnrichWith. In StructureMap 3, you use DecorateWith. I also think, but I'm not 100% sure, that DecorateWith is a little smarter about types as well. which I only noticed in some of my Castle DynamicProxy stuff. Behold:
If you have my book, AOP in .NET, then you'll know that a change to "EnrichWith" is fairly significant to the code examples in that book. But luckily, it's a relatively easy change (or you can just keep using StructureMap 2.x).
Assembly Scanning
Not a big deal here, just note that some of the assembly scanning extensions (specifically TheCallingAssembly, AssembliesFromApplicationBaseDirectory, AssebliesFromPath) have moved to the StructureMap.Graph namespace. No biggy, especially since ReSharper is able to point these things out and add "using StructureMap.Graph" automatically.
Summary
StructureMap 3 is definitely worth a shot. Based on the NuGet numbers so far, it's not being installed en masse just yet. But based on how I use StructureMap, it's practically a no-brainer to make the upgrade. One thing I didn't mention above (because it's not an API change) is that the error messages in StructureMap are now way more useful, and there are other benefits (like performance) that you are essentially getting for free (in terms of the time you'll spend upgrading). The only drawback is that documentation (as always) is lagging, but between the unit tests, Stack Overflow, and just noodling around, I haven't found that to be much of an impediment to an otherwise splendid tool.
