re-motion mixins basics -- the 'Uses' attribute and the 'ObjectFactory'

New Shimmer – a dessert topping AND a floor wax!

A classic example for multiple inheritance is based on a Saturday Night Live parody ad starring Chevy Chase: New Shimmer.

Is New Shimmer a dessert topping? Is it a floor wax? The answer is: both!

So we have two classes - DessertTopping and FloorWax - and desire to inherit from both of them, giving us a dessert wax:

public class DessertTopping
{
  public void TasteGood ()
  {
    Console.WriteLine ("Mmmmmm, tastes terrific!");
  }
} 

public class FloorWax
{
  public void SealFloor ()
  {
    Console.WriteLine ("Dirt, grime, even black heel marks -- wipe clean with a damp mop!");
  }
}

The result of our mixing will be a new class that is generated by re-motion's factory, which also instantiates that class:

// generate the class that "inherits" dessert topping members and floor wax members
// and instantiate that class
var myDessertWax = ObjectFactory.Create<DessertTopping> (ParamList.Empty);

The myDessertWax instance will be able to execute both the

  • TasteGood
  • SealFloor
    methods.

For this to work, you

  • refashion the FloorWax class as a mixin class
  • MUST use the ObjectFactory to instantiate your mixed class (DessertWax – instantiating with new won't do much in terms of mixing here.
  • create a mixin configuration with attributes, for the ObjectFactory to process

It is the ObjectFactory that learns how you have set up your code and how target classes are extended by mixins classes. The type-paramter DessertTopping in

var myDessertWax = ObjectFactory.Create<DessertTopping> (ParamList.Empty);

will have all the information attached to it for the ObjectFactory to do the right thing and instantiate a mixed class, in this case derived from the specified target class DessertTopping and its mixin. The entirety of all specifications of which mixin classes extend which target classes in an application is called the "mixin configuration" and is determined by reflection when the application starts up determining the mixin configuration. The ObjectFactory knows the entire mixin configuration, usually before any part of your actual application code starts to run.

Putting it all together

By convention, we give a mixin the suffix (wait for it) "Mixin""mixin" convention. A mixin requires an interface for accessing the mixin's members in the instance, in this case the SealFloor method.

public interface IFloorWaxMixin 
{
  void SealFloor ();
}

public class FloorWaxMixin : IFloorWaxMixin
{
  public void SealFloor ()
  {
    Console.WriteLine ("Dirt, grime, even black heel marks -- wipe clean with a damp mop!");
  }
}

Now all we have to do for the mixing is telling the DessertTopping class to actually use the FloorWaxMixin class. You do that with the Uses attribute:

[Uses (typeof (FloorWaxMixin))]
public class DessertTopping
{
  public void TasteGood ()
  {
    Console.WriteLine ("Mmmmmm, tastes terrific!");
  }
} 

Here is the call to ObjectFactory again:

var myDessertWax = ObjectFactory.Create<DessertTopping> (ParamList.Empty);

You can access DessertTopping's TasteGood as expected:

myDessertWax.TasteGood ();

For accessing the FloorWaxMixin's SealFloor you must cast to its interface:

((IFloorWaxMixin) myDessertWax).SealFloor ();
You need only one interface here

Note that the DessertTopping class does not need an interface, and that the mixin class FloorWaxMixin does not know anything about the DessertTopping class. With the FloorWaxMixin class you can give a SealFloor method to any class, instantiate it with the ObjectFactory and call the new instance's SealFloor method by casting to the IFloorWaxMixin interface.

A target class can use multiple mixins (of course!)

What if a dessert wax is not useful enough and needs even more features? What about adding a shaving cream for more utility and vitamins to make the dessert wax more nutritious? Make it use more mixins:

[Uses (typeof (FloorWaxMixin))]
[Uses (typeof (ShavingCreamMixin))]
[Uses (typeof (VitaminsMixin))]
public class DessertTopping
{
  public void TasteGood ()
  {
    Console.WriteLine ("Mmmmmm, tastes terrific!");
  }
} 

Note that each of these mixins also needs an interface, because without one you can't access the mixins member in the instance of the mixed class. For example:

myShavingVitaminDessertWax.TasteGood ();
((IFloorWaxMixin) myShavingVitaminDessertWax).SealFloor ();
((IShavingCreamMixin) myShavingVitaminDessertWax).LubricateBeardStubbles ();
((IVitaminsMixin) myShavingVitaminDessertWax).BoostImmuneSystem ();
Don't forget to touch the library

As pointed out in the overview re-motion mixins front matter -- READ ME, you must force the .NET runtime to load a reference to the Remotion.dll assembly. Otherwise the compiler will remove the facilities for loading the Remotion.dll assembly and your application will throw a type initializer exception, because it can't load it.

The easiest way to touch the assembly is to use the IMixinTarget identifier:

FrameworkVersion.RetrieveFromType (typeof (IMixinTarget));

You will see this line in all code samples in this tutorial. It doesn't do anything except taking care that the Remotion assembly can be loaded properly. If you use re-motion mixin in the context of the larger re-motion framework (re-store, for example), you don't need such a line, because the framework will take care of loading the reference. If you forget that line, you will get a re-motion mixins TypeInitializationException.

Using Uses

The sample code presented so far would not be considered in good taste in production. For one, the object factory cannot instantiate the DessertTopping class independently of its mixin class – the Uses attribute cannot be ignored here. It is much better style to introduce a dedicated class as target class. A natural name in this example is DessertWax, using both a DessertTopping and a FloorWaxMixin. (Note that we assume here that DessertTopping can be used as a stand-alone class, not only as a mixin class. For this reason we keep the name DessertTopping and don't rename it to DessertToppingMixin, as explained in "mixin" convention.)

What's more, applying the Uses attribute to the target class is a modification to that target class' source code. It is more practical to do it the other way around and attribute the mixin class with Extends. The next page explains how this works.

Under the hood

The wiki page under the hood of re-motion mixins -- the simplest case -- 'DessertTopping' uses 'FloorWaxMixin' explains how data is organized for this simple use of re-motion mixins. The data is organized in exactly the same way for what is discussed next – re-motion mixins basics -- the 'Extends' attribute.

Sample code

You can find a complete listing for this dessert wax sample in subversion

See also