Castle ActiveRecord and Castle Windsor Configuration for .NET

Well it's been a long time since my last post....over 2 months wow! Started a new job and it's been keeping me busy. Been working a lot with the Castle stack for .NET. It's actually a VERY nice framework based on what are now common enterprise architecture patters, or as Fowler would call them PEAA.

It actually has really good documentation that is not a freaking dissertation (hello SpringSource, I'm talking to you!).

Here is an example of how to configure the ActiveRecord Framework along with the IoC Windsor using the facilitator:

In the web.config in the config section we need to add the castle facilitator:

<configsection>
<section name="castle" type="Castle.Windsor.Configuration.AppDomain.CastleSectionHandler,   Castle.Windsor">
</section>
</configsection>

Then we need to setup the castle section that we just defined like so:

<castle>
  <facilities>
   <facility id="arfacility" type="Castle.Facilities.ActiveRecordIntegration.ActiveRecordFacility, Castle.Facilities.ActiveRecordIntegration" isWeb="true" isDebug="false">
    <assemblies>
     <item>[assembly_name_to_init_AR]</item>
    </assemblies>
    <config>
     <add key="connection.driver_class" value="NHibernate.Driver.SqlClientDriver"/>
     <add key="dialect" value="NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2005Dialect"/>
     <add key="connection.provider" value="NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider"/>
     <add key="connection.connection_string_name" value="[connection_string_name]"/>
     <add key="proxyfactory.factory_class" value="NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle.ProxyFactoryFactory,NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle"/>
     <add key="query.factory_class" value="NHibernate.Hql.Ast.ANTLR.ASTQueryTranslatorFactory, NHibernate"/>
    </config>
   </facility>
  </facilities>
 </castle>

if you want to use just active record without the IoC and facilitator you just need:

<section name="activerecord" type="Castle.ActiveRecord.Framework.Config.ActiveRecordSectionHandler, Castle.ActiveRecord" />

instead to the configuration section and the following:

<activerecord 
        isWeb="true|false" 
        isDebug="true|false" 
        pluralizeTableNames="true|false"
        threadinfotype="custom thread info implementation"
        sessionfactoryholdertype="custom session holder implementation"
        namingstrategytype="custom namingstrategy implementation">

        <config
            database="MsSqlServer2000|MsSqlServer2005|MsSqlServer2008|SQLite|MySql|MySql5|Firebird|PostgreSQL|PostgreSQL81|PostgreSQL82|MsSqlCe|Oracle8i|Oracle9i|Oracle10g"
            connectionStringName="name of connection string in config">
            <!-- Any legal NHibernate parameter you want to specify or override its default value -->
        </config>

        <config type="Full Type name to Abstract Class that defines boundaries for different database">
            <add key="connection.driver_class"           value="NHibernate Driver" />
            <add key="dialect"                           value="NHibernate Dialect" />
            <add key="connection.provider"               value="NHibernate Connection Provider" />
      <!-- Use only one of the two attributes below -->
            <add key="connection.connection_string"      value="connection string" />
            <add key="connection.connection_string_name" value="name of connection string in config" />
        </config>
        
    </activerecord>

this is described in nice detail on the castle website

The last step would be to use the global.asax.cs file and on Application_Start do:

//init windsor IoC container
            Castle.Windsor.WindsorContainer container = new Castle.Windsor.WindsorContainer(new Castle.Windsor.Configuration.Interpreters.XmlInterpreter());
            

Now adding classes for automated DI is just as simple. In the same init method you would do the following:

container.Register(Castle.MicroKernel.Registration.Component.For<[class_name_here]>());

To recall a class you just make a setter in another class that has been injected. If you want access from a class that was not injected by Windsor you would do the following:

container.Resolve<[class_name_here]>();

Not so bad huh?