Using ServiceStack Funq IoC: how dependencies are injected?

Question

I have WinForm application and I want to use ServiceStack dependency injection mechanism:

public class AppHost : AppHostBase
{
    public AppHost()
        : base("MyName", typeof(AppHost).Assembly)
    {
    }

    public override void Configure(Container container)
    {
        container.RegisterAutoWiredAs<AppApplicationContext, IAppApplicationContext>();
    }
}

Then in some form class use it:

public class SomeClass : AppBaseForm
{
    public IAppApplicationContext AppApplicationContext { get; set; }

    public SomeClass(IAppApplicationContext appApplicationContext)
    {
        AppApplicationContext = appApplicationContext;
    }

    public SomeClass()
    {
    }
}

But AppApplicationContext is always null. When in parameterless constructor I write:

AppApplicationContext = AppHostBase.Resolve<IAppApplicationContext>();

then every thing is OK. But is this right way to do that? I mean AppApplicationContext should not be resolved by IoC automatically? And WinForm must have parameterless constructor.

Rest of code:

private static void Main()
{
    var appHost = new AppHost();
    appHost.Init();
}

public interface IAppApplicationContext
{
}

public class AppApplicationContext : IAppApplicationContext
{
}

Answer 1

You need to call AutoWire to have the container inject the dependancies. You can use it in your WinForm app like this:

public class SomeClass : AppBaseForm
{
    public IAppApplicationContext AppApplicationContext { get; set; }

    public SomeClass()
    {
        // Tell the container to inject dependancies
        HostContext.Container.AutoWire(this);
    }
}

When you use a regular ServiceStack service, the AutoWire happens behind the scenes during the request pipeline when ServiceStack creates an instances of your Service.

I have created a fully working example here. Note: The demo is just a console application, not WinForms but it does shows the IoC being used outside of the ServiceStack service, and it works no differently.