MVC 3 Dependency Injection with Ninject 2.2 + Global Action Filter

Question

I am trying to use ASP.NET MVC 3 and Ninject 2.2 to inject a logger object into a custom ActionFilterAttribute.

I am able to get this to work if I mark each controller with the custom attribute.

However I cannot get this to work if I remove the attribute decoration from the controllers and try to use a global action filter.

Here is the code:

under App_Start - NinjectMVC3.cs

using NinjectTest.Abstract;
using NinjectTest.Concrete;

[assembly:      WebActivator.PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(NinjectTest.App_Start.NinjectMVC3), "Start")]
[assembly: WebActivator.ApplicationShutdownMethodAttribute(typeof(NinjectTest.App_Start.NinjectMVC3), "Stop")]

namespace NinjectTest.App_Start
{
using Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicModuleHelper;

using Ninject;
using Ninject.Web.Mvc;

public static class NinjectMVC3 
{
    private static readonly Bootstrapper bootstrapper = new Bootstrapper();

    /// <summary>
    /// Starts the application
    /// </summary>
    public static void Start() 
    {
        DynamicModuleUtility.RegisterModule(typeof(OnePerRequestModule));
        bootstrapper.Initialize(CreateKernel);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Stops the application.
    /// </summary>
    public static void Stop()
    {
        bootstrapper.ShutDown();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates the kernel that will manage your application.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>The created kernel.</returns>
    private static IKernel CreateKernel()
    {
        var kernel = new StandardKernel();
        RegisterServices(kernel);
        return kernel;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Load your modules or register your services here!
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="kernel">The kernel.</param>
    private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
    {
        kernel.Bind<ILogger>().To<Log4NetLogger>();
    }       
}

}

Global.asax.cs

using System.Web.Routing;
using NinjectTest.Attributes;

namespace NinjectTest
{
public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication
{
    public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
    {
        filters.Add(new TestLoggingAttribute());
        filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
    }

    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapRoute(
            "Default", // Route name
            "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
            new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
        );

    }

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure();

        AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

        RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
        RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    }
}

}

TestLoggingAttribute.cs

using System.Web.Mvc;
using Ninject;
using NinjectTest.Abstract;

namespace NinjectTest.Attributes
{
public class TestLoggingAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    [Inject]
    public ILogger _logger { get; set; }

    public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
    {

        var controller = filterContext.RouteData.Values["controller"];
        var action = filterContext.RouteData.Values["action"];

        _logger.Info("controller: " + controller + " action: " + action);

        base.OnActionExecuted(filterContext);
    }     

  }
}

HomeController.cs

using System.Web.Mvc;
using NinjectTest.Attributes;

namespace NinjectTest.Controllers
{
//[TestLogging]
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewBag.Message = "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC!";

        return View();
    }

    public ActionResult About()
    {
        return View();
    }

}
}

Like I mentioned if I uncomment the [TestLogging] attribute in the controller this all works. However I want to use a global filter instead. Can someone help me out?

Answer 1

You might find the following blog post useful. So in your RegisterServices method simply:

private static void RegisterServices(IKernel kernel)
{
    kernel.Bind<ILogger>().To<Log4NetLogger>();
    kernel.BindFilter<TestLoggingAttribute>(FilterScope.Global, 0);
}       

and to bring the BindFilter extension method into scope don't forget to add a proper using directive:

using Ninject.Web.Mvc.FilterBindingSyntax;