Hosting MEF in an application

Hosting MEF in an application involves creating an instance of the CompositionContainer, adding Composable Parts to it, including the application host itself and then composing. Below are the steps involved with hosting. 1. Create a host class. In the sample below we are using a console application, so the host is the Program class. 2. Add a reference to the System.ComponentModel.Composition assembly. 3. Add the following using statement: using System.ComponentModel.Composition; 4. Add a Compose() method which creates an instance of the container and composes the host. 5. Add a Run() method which calls Compose(); 6. In the Main() method instantiate the host class. Note: For an ASP.NET or WPF application the host class is instantiated by the runtime making this step unnecessary. The code snippet below indicates how the code should look
using using using using System.ComponentModel.Composition; System.ComponentModel.Composition.Hosting; System.Reflection; System;

public class Program { public static void Main(string[] args) { Program p = new Program(); p.Run(); } public void Run() { Compose(); } private void Compose() { var container = new CompositionContainer(); container.ComposeParts(this); } }

7. Define one or more exports which the host will import. In the code below we've defined an IMessageSender interface. We've also defined an EmailSender Composable Part that exports an IMessageSender which it declares through the [System.ComponentModel.Composition.Export] attribute.
public interface IMessageSender

{ void Send(string message); } [Export(typeof(IMessageSender))] public class EmailSender : IMessageSender { public void Send(string message) { Console.WriteLine(message); } }

8. Add properties to the host class for each import which are decorated with the [System.ComponentModel.Composition.Import] attribute. For example below is an import for IMessageSender that is added to the Program class.
[Import] public IMessageSender MessageSender { get; set; }

9. Add parts to the container. In MEF, there are several ways in which to do this. One way is by directly adding existing Composable Part instances, while a second, more common approach is through the use of catalogs, which we will mention after the section below. Adding parts directly to the container In the Compose() method manually add each Composable Part by using the ComposeParts() extension method. In the example below, an instance of the EmailSender added to the container along with the current instance of the Program class which imports it.
private void Compose() { var container = new CompositionContainer(); container.ComposeParts(this, new EmailSender()); }

Adding to the container using an AssemblyCatalog By using the catalog, the container handles creating parts automatically rather than them having to be added explicitly. To do this, create a catalog in the Compose() method. Next create a resolver off of the catalog and pass it to the container's constructor. In the example below an AssemblyCatalog is created with the executing assembly passed into the constructor. We're not adding an instance of EmailSender as it it will be discovered in the catalog that was passed for the current assembly.
private void Compose() { var catalog = new AssemblyCatalog(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); var container = new CompositionContainer(catalog);

container.ComposeParts(this); }

After following each of the above steps, the code should look as shown below.
using using using using System.ComponentModel.Composition; System.ComponentModel.Composition.Hosting; System.Reflection; System;

public class Program { [Import] public IMessageSender MessageSender { get; set; } public static void Main(string[] args) { Program p = new Program(); p.Run(); } public void Run() { Compose(); MessageSender.Send("Message Sent"); } private void Compose() { AssemblyCatalog catalog = new AssemblyCatalog(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); var container = new CompositionContainer(catalog); container.ComposeParts(this); } } public interface IMessageSender { void Send(string message); } [Export(typeof(IMessageSender))] public class EmailSender : IMessageSender { public void Send(string message) { Console.WriteLine(message); } }

When the above code is compiled and executed, the application will be composed with its IMessageSender import. The Send() method will then be called which will output "Message Sent" on the console.