In Nest.js, how to get a service instance inside a decorator?

Question

In CustomDecorator, how to access a service instance defined in Nest.js?

export const CustomDecorator = (): MethodDecorator => {
  return (
    target: Object,
    propertyKey: string | symbol,
    descriptor: PropertyDescriptor
    ) => {

    // Here, is possibile to access a Nest.js service (i.e. TestService) instance?

    return descriptor;
  }
};

Answer 1

Late to the party, but since I had a similar problem (Use global nest module in decorator) and stumbled upon this question.

import { Inject } from '@nestjs/common';
export function yourDecorator() {
  const injectYourService = Inject(YourServiceClass);

  return (target: any, propertyKey: string, propertyDescriptor: PropertyDescriptor) => {
    // this is equivalent to have a constructor like constructor(yourservice: YourServiceClass)
    // note that this will injected to the instance, while your decorator runs for the class constructor
    injectYourService(target, 'yourservice');

    // do something in you decorator

    // we use a ref here so we can type it
    const yourservice: YourServiceClass = this.yourservice;
    yourservice.someMethod(someParam);
  };
}

Answer 2

We have a few point:

• Property decorator executed before decorated instance will be created.
• Decorator want to use some instance resolved by Injector of decorated instance.

As a straightforward way - use some instance injected by decorated instance.

@Injectable()
export class CatsService {
  constructor(public myService: MyService){}

  @CustomDecorator()
  foo(){}
}

export const CustomDecorator = (): MethodDecorator => {
  return (
    target: Object,
    propertyKey: string | symbol,
    descriptor: PropertyDescriptor
  ) => {

    const originalMethod = descriptor.value;

    descriptor.value = function () {
      const serviceInstance = this;
      console.log(serviceInstance.myService);

    }

    return descriptor;
  }
};

PS i think it is somehow possible to use instance of Injector to get any of desired instances (like angular does).

Answer 3

Came across this question and spent the day trying to figure out a good answer. This may not fit every use case, but I was able to copy a common pattern in Nest's core package to suit my needs.

I wanted to create my own decorator for annotating controller methods to handle events (e.g, @Subscribe('some.topic.key') async handler() { ... })).

To implement this, my decorator used SetMetadata from @nestjs/common to register some metadata I required (the method name it was being applied to, the class it belonged to, a reference to the method).

export const Subscribe = (topic: string) => {
  return (target: any, propertyKey: string, descriptor: PropertyDescriptor) => {
    SetMetadata<string, RabbitSubscriberMetadataConfiguration>(
      RABBITMQ_SUBSCRIBER,
      {
        topic,
        target: target.constructor.name,
        methodName: propertyKey,
        callback: descriptor.value,
      },
    )(target, propertyKey, descriptor);
  };
};

From there, I was able to create my own module which hooked into Nest's lifecycle hooks to find all methods I had decorated with my decorator, and apply some logic to it, e.g:

@Module({
  imports: [RabbitmqChannelProvider],
  providers: [RabbitmqService, MetadataScanner, RabbitmqSubscriberExplorer],
  exports: [RabbitmqService],
})
export class RabbitmqModule implements OnModuleInit {
  constructor(
    private readonly explorer: RabbitmqSubscriberExplorer,
    private readonly rabbitmqService: RabbitmqService,
  ) {}

  async onModuleInit() {
    // find everything marked with @Subscribe
    const subscribers = this.explorer.explore();
    // set up subscriptions
    for (const subscriber of subscribers) {
      await this.rabbitmqService.subscribe(
        subscriber.topic,
        subscriber.callback,
      );
    }
  }
}

The explorer service used some utilities in @nestjs/core to introspect the container and handle finding all the decorated functions with their metadata.

@Injectable()
export class RabbitmqSubscriberExplorer {
  constructor(
    private readonly modulesContainer: ModulesContainer,
    private readonly metadataScanner: MetadataScanner,
  ) {}

  public explore(): RabbitSubscriberMetadataConfiguration[] {
    // find all the controllers
    const modules = [...this.modulesContainer.values()];
    const controllersMap = modules
      .filter(({ controllers }) => controllers.size > 0)
      .map(({ controllers }) => controllers);

    // munge the instance wrappers into a nice format
    const instanceWrappers: InstanceWrapper<Controller>[] = [];
    controllersMap.forEach(map => {
      const mapKeys = [...map.keys()];
      instanceWrappers.push(
        ...mapKeys.map(key => {
          return map.get(key);
        }),
      );
    });

    // find the handlers marked with @Subscribe
    return instanceWrappers
      .map(({ instance }) => {
        const instancePrototype = Object.getPrototypeOf(instance);
        return this.metadataScanner.scanFromPrototype(
          instance,
          instancePrototype,
          method =>
            this.exploreMethodMetadata(instance, instancePrototype, method),
        );
      })
      .reduce((prev, curr) => {
        return prev.concat(curr);
      });
  }

  public exploreMethodMetadata(
    instance: object,
    instancePrototype: Controller,
    methodKey: string,
  ): RabbitSubscriberMetadataConfiguration | null {
    const targetCallback = instancePrototype[methodKey];
    const handler = Reflect.getMetadata(RABBITMQ_SUBSCRIBER, targetCallback);
    if (handler == null) {
      return null;
    }
    return handler;
  }
}

I am not espousing this as being the best way to handle this, but it has worked well for me. Use this code at your own risk, it should get you started :-). I adapted the code available from here: https://github.com/nestjs/nest/blob/5.1.0-stable/packages/microservices/listener-metadata-explorer.ts