Installers

Basics - Creating and using an Installer

Installers are custom types that implement the IWindsorInstaller interface and are used to register Components to the container, using the fluent registration API.

public class MyInstaller : IWindsorInstaller
{
    public void Install(IWindsorContainer container, IConfigurationStore store)
    {
        container.Register(Component.For<IMyType>()
                                    .ImplementedBy<ConcreteMyType1>());

        //Registering several components in one call to .Register
        container.Register(
            Component.For<IFoo>().ImplementedBy<Foo>(),
            Component.For<IBar>().ImplementedBy<Bar());
    }
}

//To use the installer:
WindsorContainer container = new WindsorContainer();
container.Install(new MyInstaller());

container.Resolve<IFoo>();

Keep in mind

Installers must have public default constructor: When installers are instantiated by Windsor, they must have public default constructor. Otherwise an exception will be thrown.

FromAssembly Class

Another way to .Install installers is by using Castle’s FromAssembly class. It gives an array of functions to locate installers in the loaded assemblies. For example:

//Will locate IInstallers in the current assembly that is calling the method
container.Install(FromAssembly.This());

For more details see Castle’s Documentation

Installing from Configuration

Castle enables to register components also via XML Registration.

//To install from the app/web.config
container.Install(Configuration.FromAppConfig());

//To install from an xml file
Configuration.FromXmlFile("relative_path_to_file.xml");

Read Castle’s documentation for “What is it for”