Application Generation - LightWire

Critical LightWire Error in Setter Injection for Transients

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:26:00 -0400

LightWire is a lightweight Dependency Injection engine for CFML that I wrote a while back and is being used by a number of developers and projects. Many thanks to Micky Dionisio for finding and documenting a critical error in LightWire. I saw the posting yesterday, but didn’t get a chance to replicate the error and post a patch until this morning. This posting clarifies what the error is and how to patch it.

Critical Error in LightWire - Patch Available

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:01:00 -0400

Thanks Martin for catching the critical lack of a var scoping on a couple of variables in LightWire. While I've been using the unpatched version on over 40 projects without issue, under load (creating lots of transient objects) this could be a real problem, so please update your LightWire.cfc and BaseConfigObject.cfc either from the svn repo (or in svn go to http://svn.riaforge.org/lightwire) or by downloading the latest zip file. The ColdBox team are aware of the issue, so you may see a separate patch directly from them. Both versions include the autowiring code added by Luis, so you should be able to use either version with Coldbox.

Coldbox and Lightwire

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:10:00 -0400

One of the many stories I didn't get a chance to mention recently was the great efforts by Aaron Roberson and Luis Majano. LightWire is now a supported DI engine in Coldbox. Great work guys - many thanks!

LightWire: Paul Marcotte on the new "mixin" tag

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:45:00 -0400

One of the differentiators of LightWire is the concept of "mixin injection". It could more properly be called generic setter injection and the idea is to provide the benefits of setter injection (the ability to handle circular dependencies) without having to clutter up your classes with a bunch of setters that you're never actually supposed to call. Paul has added a tag to allow you to describe your mixin injections using an XML config file. Check out his posting for more information.

Lightwire Updated

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:37:00 -0400

Just a quick note that Paul Marcotte made some improvements and added some documentation regarding ColdSpring XML in LightWire. It only took me a month to finally get round to uploading - sorry Paul :-< Available via svn or download at the project site.

LightWire Preso Recording Available Online

Wed, 16 May 2007 16:05:00 -0400

As Nick just mentioned, the LightWire recording is now available online. The presentation provided a brief intro to Dependency Injection, a short overview of ColdSpring and then ran through how to use LightWire and why you might consider it for some use cases. If you're interested in why you might want to use a programmatic config file, "mixin injection" or "ghetto annotations", check it out. Good Q&A at the end, and as always, Joe had the last word (ColdSpring Forever *grin*).

Programmatic Config Files and Automagic Configuration

Wed, 16 May 2007 10:38:00 -0400

Something I was getting really tired of in my framework was that every time I added a new feature (controller) or custom data type, not only did I need to write the CFC, but I also had to add the bean definition to my config file. With the programmatic config file in LightWire, I was able to write a script to automagically instantiate and inject all of the custom data types and features by looking at all of the CFC's in the appropriate directories . . . [More]

ONLINE LightWire Preso at 2pm EST Today

Wed, 16 May 2007 10:23:00 -0400

Just realized I hadn't made it at all obvious. The preso today at 2pm is online. Just click here just before 2pm EST if you'd like to attend! This is a redo of last weeks which was marred by some technical glitches. Thanks to the CF Frameworks crew for putting this together.

Programmatic Configuration and Virtual Beans

Wed, 16 May 2007 10:18:00 -0400

Something else I'm going to be presenting today at 2pm EST in terms of the kinds of benefits you can get by using a Dependency Injection engine with a programmatic config file . . . [More]

An Example of the Benefits of a Programmatic Config File for Dependency Injection

Wed, 16 May 2007 09:43:00 -0400

I'm giving a presentation at 2pm EST today on LightWire. As part of that I decided to finally take a few minutes to mock up what a small part of my config file would actually look like if I did it in XML rather than programmatically . . . [More]

When NOT to Use Dependency Injection (introductory)

Tue, 15 May 2007 14:33:00 -0400

While I can't imagine any non-trivial OO project that I wouldn't use dependency injection for, there are specific tasks within a project that don't necessarily need DI. Someone asked me a question earlier today which raised a good point when getting comfortable with DI - the difference between a dependency and a runtime bean request . . . [More]

InitMethod Added to LightWire

Sat, 12 May 2007 13:03:00 -0400

I just had a use case where I needed the ability to call a custom init() method after fully initializing a bean but before returning it from LightWire (I needed a config method for my #BusinessObjectName#Metadata config beans to automagically add any config properties I hadn't explicitly set for an object). In the past I'd just called super.config() at the end of the init() method, but that didn't allow for metadata inheritance (if you called MyUserMetadata that extended UserMetadata config would get called twice and it'd get nasty). So, I have officially added support for an InitMethod property to the addSingleton(), addTransient() and addBean() config methods. This has not been added to the ColdSpring XML reader, but I'll have a word with Paul and wouldn't be surprised if this got done soon. For now I've just updated the LightWire svn repo for anyone in a rush to use the feature :->

LightWire Preso - Apologies

Wed, 09 May 2007 16:03:00 -0400

To the few, the trusty who sat through almost 40 minutes of technical issues, many thanks for hanging in there :-> After resolving sound, screen sharing and connectivity issues, we finally gave up the ghost when my Internet went down hard for almost 10 minutes. The preso will be rescheduled, and the preso will be fully debugged so it should be nice and smooth next time. I'll post the new time when I get confirmation from Nick.

LightWire Preso - Link

Wed, 09 May 2007 09:46:00 -0400

Here is a link to the connect room for the LightWire Preso at 2pm EST today: https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a200985228/pbonlightwire/. If you want to review the benefits of Dependency Injection or see how programmatic configuration, mixin injection and perhaps even "ghetto annotations" can hep you to develop quicker, more agile OO apps, come along and check it out. Thanks Nick! More information . . .

LightWire Preso 2pm EST Tomorrow

Tue, 08 May 2007 08:52:00 -0400

If you're interested in finding out more about how LightWire works, check out the Preso tomorrow at 2pm EST put together by the CF Frameworks crew. I'll provide a brief overview of DI/IoC, but this will really be focused on how LightWire works (including ColdSpring XML support) and the use cases I've found for programmatic config files, Mixin injection and "Ghetto annotations". If you'd like to learn more about alternative approaches to Dependency Injection in the ColdFusion world and how they can support more rapid development for certain use cases, it should be an hour well spent.