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Dependency Injection for Rails Controllers

What if controllers looked like this:

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module Controller
  class Registration
    def update(response, now_flash, update_form)
      form = update_form

      if form.save
        response.respond_with SuccessfulUpdateResponse, form
      else
        now_flash[:message] = "Could not save registration."
        response.render action: 'edit', ivars: {registration: form}
      end
    end

    SuccessfulUpdateResponse = Struct.new(:form) do
      def html(response, flash, current_event)
        flash[:message] = "Updated details for %s" % form.name
        response.redirect_to :registrations, current_event
      end

      def js(response)
        response.render json: form
      end
    end
  end
end

It is a plain ruby object that receives all needed dependencies via method arguments. (Requires Some Magic, explained below.) This is a style of dependency injection inspired by Raptor, Dropwizard and Guice. It allows you to cleanly separate authorization, object fetching, control flow, and other typical controller responsibilities, and as a result is much easier to organise and test than the traditional style.

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require 'unit_helper'

require 'injector'
require 'controller/registration'

describe Controller::Registration do
  success_response = Controller::Registration::SuccessfulUpdateResponse

  let(:form)      { fire_double("Form::UpdateRegistration") }
  let(:response)  { fire_double("ControllerSource::Response") }
  let(:event)     { fire_double("Event") }
  let(:flash)     { {} }
  let(:now_flash) { {} }
  let(:injector)  { Injector.new([OpenStruct.new(
    response:      response.as_null_object,
    current_event: event.as_null_object,
    update_form:   form.as_null_object,
    flash:         flash,
    now_flash:     now_flash
  )]) }

  describe '#update' do
    it 'saves form and responds with successful update' do
      form.should_receive(:save).and_return(true)
      response
        .should_receive(:respond_with)
        .with(success_response, form)

      injector.dispatch described_class.new.method(:update)
    end

    it 'render edit page when save fails' do
      form.should_receive(:save).and_return(false)
      response
        .should_receive(:render)
        .with(action: 'edit', ivars: {registration: form})

      injector.dispatch described_class.new.method(:update)

      now_flash[:message].length.should > 0
    end
  end

  describe success_response do
    describe '#html' do
      it 'redirects to registration' do
        response.should_receive(:redirect_to).with(:registrations, event)

        injector.dispatch success_response.new(form).method(:html)
      end

      it 'includes name in flash message' do
        form.stub(:name).and_return("Don")

        injector.dispatch success_response.new(form).method(:html)

        flash[:message].should include(form.name)
      end
    end
  end
end

Before filters and authorization can be extracted out into a separate source, and will be applied when they are named in a method. For instance, if you specify current_event as a method argument in Controller::Registration#update, you will receive Controller::RegistrationSource#current_event. Authorization is interesting: requesting authorized_organiser when not authorized will cause and UnauthorizedException, which you can handle in your base ApplicationController (note: the above example omits authorization).

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module Controller
  class RegistrationSource
    def current_event(params)
      Event.find(params[:event_id])
    end

    def current_registration(params, current_event)
      current_event.registrations.find(params[:id])
    end

    def current_organiser(session)
      Organiser.find_by_id(session[:organiser_id])
    end

    def authorized_organiser(current_event, current_organiser)
      unless current_organiser && current_organiser.can_edit?(current_event)
        raise UnauthorizedException
      end
    end

    def update_form(params, current_registration)
      Form::UpdateRegistration.build(
        current_registration,
        params[:registration]
      )
    end
  end
end

Magic wiring

An Injector is responsible for introspecting method arguments and finding an appropriate object from its sources to inject. In the controller case two sources are required: one for standard controller dependencies (params, flash, etc), and one for application specific logic (the RegistrationSource seen above).

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class RegistrationsController < ApplicationController
  def update
    injector = Injector.new([
      ControllerSource.new(self),
      Controller::RegistrationSource.new
    ])
    injector.dispatch Controller::Registration.new.method(:update)
  end
end

The injector itself is fairly straightforward. The tricky part is the recursive dispatch, which enables sources to themselves request dependency injection, allowing the type of decomposition seen in registration_source where authorized_organiser depends on the definition of current_organiser in the same class.

UnknownInjectable is a cute trick for testing: you don’t need to specify every dependency requested by the method, only the ones that are being used by the code path being executed. In non-test code it probably makes sense to raise an exception earlier.

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class Injector
  attr_reader :sources

  def initialize(sources)
    @sources = sources + [self]
  end

  def dispatch(method, overrides = {})
    args = method.parameters.map {|_, name|
      source = sources.detect {|source| source.respond_to?(name) }
      if source
        dispatch(source.method(name), overrides)
      else
        UnknownInjectable.new(name)
      end
    }
    method.call(*args)
  end

  def injector
    self
  end

  class UnknownInjectable < BasicObject
    def initialize(name)
      @name = name
    end

    def method_missing(*args)
      ::Kernel.raise "Tried to call method on an uninjected param: #{@name}"
    end
  end
end

Finally for completeness, an implementation of ControllerSource:

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class ControllerSource
  Response = Struct.new(:controller, :injector) do
    def redirect_to(path, *args)
      controller.redirect_to(controller.send("#{path}_path", *args))
    end

    def render(*args)
      ivars = {}
      if args.last.is_a?(Hash) && args.last.has_key?(:ivars)
        ivars = args.last.delete(:ivars)
      end

      ivars.each do |name, val|
        controller.instance_variable_set("@#{name}", val)
      end

      controller.render *args
    end

    def respond_with(klass, *args)
      obj = klass.new(*args)
      format = controller.request.format.symbol
      if obj.respond_to?(format)
        injector.dispatch obj.method(format)
      end
    end
  end

  def initialize(controller)
    @controller = controller
  end

  def params;    @controller.params; end
  def session;   @controller.session; end
  def flash;     @controller.flash; end
  def now_flash; @controller.flash.now; end

  def response(injector)
    Response.new(@controller, injector)
  end
end

Initial impressions are that it does feel like more magic until you get in the groove, after which it is no more so than normal Rails. I remember my epiphany when writing Guice code—“oh you just name a thing and you get it!”—after which the ride became a lot smoother. I really like the better testability of controllers, since that has always been a pain point of mine. I’m going to experiment some more on larger chunks of code, try and nail down the naming conventions some more.

Disclaimer: I haven’t use this ideal in any substantial form, beyond one controller action from a project I have lying around. It remains to be seen whether it is a good idea or not.

All code as a gist.

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