tsyringe

What is tsyringe?

tsyringe is a lightweight dependency injection container for TypeScript and JavaScript applications. It helps manage class dependencies and promotes the use of the Inversion of Control (IoC) principle, making it easier to write modular, testable, and maintainable code.

What are tsyringe's main functionalities?

Dependency Injection

This feature allows you to inject dependencies into classes. In the example, `Foo` is injected into `Bar`, and `Bar` can use `Foo`'s methods.

const { container, injectable, inject } = require('tsyringe');

@injectable()
class Foo {
  log() {
    console.log('Foo');
  }
}

@injectable()
class Bar {
  constructor(@inject(Foo) foo) {
    this.foo = foo;
  }
  log() {
    this.foo.log();
    console.log('Bar');
  }
}

const bar = container.resolve(Bar);
bar.log();

Singleton Registration

This feature allows you to register a class as a singleton, ensuring that only one instance of the class is created and shared across the application.

const { container, singleton } = require('tsyringe');

@singleton()
class SingletonService {
  constructor() {
    this.id = Math.random();
  }
}

const instance1 = container.resolve(SingletonService);
const instance2 = container.resolve(SingletonService);
console.log(instance1.id === instance2.id); // true

Scoped Registration

This feature allows you to register a class with a scoped lifecycle, meaning a new instance is created for each container scope.

const { container, scoped, Lifecycle } = require('tsyringe');

@scoped(Lifecycle.ContainerScoped)
class ScopedService {
  constructor() {
    this.id = Math.random();
  }
}

const childContainer = container.createChildContainer();
const instance1 = childContainer.resolve(ScopedService);
const instance2 = childContainer.resolve(ScopedService);
console.log(instance1.id === instance2.id); // true

const instance3 = container.resolve(ScopedService);
console.log(instance1.id === instance3.id); // false

Custom Providers

This feature allows you to register custom providers for dependencies, giving you more control over how dependencies are resolved.

const { container, inject, injectable } = require('tsyringe');

class CustomProvider {
  get() {
    return 'Custom Value';
  }
}

container.register('CustomProvider', { useClass: CustomProvider });

@injectable()
class Consumer {
  constructor(@inject('CustomProvider') provider) {
    this.provider = provider;
  }
  log() {
    console.log(this.provider.get());
  }
}

const consumer = container.resolve(Consumer);
consumer.log(); // Custom Value

Other packages similar to tsyringe

inversify

Inversify is a powerful and flexible IoC container for TypeScript and JavaScript. It offers more advanced features like middleware, multi-injection, and context-based bindings. However, it has a steeper learning curve compared to tsyringe.

typedi

TypeDI is another dependency injection tool for TypeScript. It is similar to tsyringe in terms of ease of use and simplicity but offers additional features like service decorators and parameter decorators. It is slightly more feature-rich but also a bit more complex.

awilix

Awilix is a dependency injection container for JavaScript and TypeScript with a focus on developer experience. It offers features like lifecycle management and resolution modes. It is more flexible and configurable but can be more verbose compared to tsyringe.

README

TSyringe

A lightweight dependency injection container for TypeScript/JavaScript for constructor injection.

• TSyringe
  • Installation
• API
  • Decorators
    • injectable()
    • singleton()
    • autoInjectable()
    • inject()
    • injectAll()
    • scoped()
  • Container
    • Injection Token
    • Providers
    • Register
    • Registry
    • Resolution
    • Child Containers
    • Clearing Instances
  • Circular dependencies
    • The delay helper function
    • Interfaces and circular dependencies
• Full examples
  • Example without interfaces
  • Example with interfaces
• Non Goals
• Contributing

Installation

Install by npm

npm install --save tsyringe

or install with yarn (this project is developed using yarn)

yarn add tsyringe

Modify your tsconfig.json to include the following settings

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true
  }
}

Add a polyfill for the Reflect API (examples below use reflect-metadata). You can use:

• reflect-metadata
• core-js (core-js/es7/reflect)
• reflection

The Reflect polyfill import should only be added once, and before DI is used:

// main.ts
import "reflect-metadata";

// Your code here...

API

TSyringe performs Constructor Injection on the constructors of decorated classes.

Decorators

injectable()

Class decorator factory that allows the class' dependencies to be injected at runtime. TSyringe relies on several decorators in order to collect metadata about classes to be instantiated.

Usage

import {injectable} from "tsyringe";

@injectable()
class Foo {
  constructor(private database: Database) {}
}

// some other file
import "reflect-metadata";
import {container} from "tsyringe";
import {Foo} from "./foo";

const instance = container.resolve(Foo);

singleton()

Class decorator factory that registers the class as a singleton within the global container.

Usage

import {singleton} from "tsyringe";

@singleton()
class Foo {
  constructor() {}
}

// some other file
import "reflect-metadata";
import {container} from "tsyringe";
import {Foo} from "./foo";

const instance = container.resolve(Foo);

autoInjectable()

Class decorator factory that replaces the decorated class' constructor with a parameterless constructor that has dependencies auto-resolved.

Note Resolution is performed using the global container.

Usage

import {autoInjectable} from "tsyringe";

@autoInjectable()
class Foo {
  constructor(private database?: Database) {}
}

// some other file
import {Foo} from "./foo";

const instance = new Foo();

Notice how in order to allow the use of the empty constructor new Foo(), we need to make the parameters optional, e.g. database?: Database.

inject()

Parameter decorator factory that allows for interface and other non-class information to be stored in the constructor's metadata.

Usage

import {injectable, inject} from "tsyringe";

interface Database {
  // ...
}

@injectable()
class Foo {
  constructor(@inject("Database") private database?: Database) {}
}

injectAll()

Parameter decorator for array parameters where the array contents will come from the container. It will inject an array using the specified injection token to resolve the values.

Usage

import {injectable, injectAll} from "tsyringe";

@injectable
class Foo {}

@injectable
class Bar {
  constructor(@injectAll(Foo) fooArray: Foo[]) {
    // ...
  }
}

scoped()

Class decorator factory that registers the class as a scoped dependency within the global container.

Available scopes

• ResolutionScoped
  • The same instance will be resolved for each resolution of this dependency during a single resolution chain
• ContainerScoped
  • The dependency container will return the same instance each time a resolution for this dependency is requested. This is similar to being a singleton, however if a child container is made, that child container will resolve an instance unique to it.

Usage

@scoped(Lifecycle.ContainerScoped)
class Foo {}

Container

The general principle behind Inversion of Control (IoC) containers is you give the container a token, and in exchange you get an instance/value. Our container automatically figures out the tokens most of the time, with 2 major exceptions, interfaces and non-class types, which require the @inject() decorator to be used on the constructor parameter to be injected (see above).

In order for your decorated classes to be used, they need to be registered with the container. Registrations take the form of a Token/Provider pair, so we need to take a brief diversion to discuss tokens and providers.

Injection Token

A token may be either a string, a symbol, a class constructor, or a instance of DelayedConstructor.

type InjectionToken<T = any> = constructor<T> | DelayedConstructor<T> | string | symbol;

Providers

Our container has the notion of a provider. A provider is registered with the DI container and provides the container the information needed to resolve an instance for a given token. In our implementation, we have the following 4 provider types:

Class Provider

{
  token: InjectionToken<T>;
  useClass: constructor<T>;
}

This provider is used to resolve classes by their constructor. When registering a class provider you can simply use the constructor itself, unless of course you're making an alias (a class provider where the token isn't the class itself).

Value Provider

{
  token: InjectionToken<T>;
  useValue: T
}

This provider is used to resolve a token to a given value. This is useful for registering constants, or things that have a already been instantiated in a particular way.

Factory provider

{
  token: InjectionToken<T>;
  useFactory: FactoryFunction<T>;
}

This provider is used to resolve a token using a given factory. The factory has full access to the dependency container.

We have provided 2 factories for you to use, though any function that matches the FactoryFunction<T> signature can be used as a factory:

type FactoryFunction<T> = (dependencyContainer: DependencyContainer) => T;

instanceCachingFactory

This factory is used to lazy construct an object and cache result, returning the single instance for each subsequent resolution. This is very similar to @singleton()

import {instanceCachingFactory} from "tsyringe";

{
  token: "SingletonFoo";
  useFactory: instanceCachingFactory<Foo>(c => c.resolve(Foo))
}

predicateAwareClassFactory

This factory is used to provide conditional behavior upon resolution. It caches the result by default, but has an optional parameter to resolve fresh each time.

import {predicateAwareClassFactory} from "tsyringe";

{
  token: 
  useFactory: predicateAwareClassFactory<Foo>(
    c => c.resolve(Bar).useHttps,
    FooHttps, // A FooHttps will be resolved from the container
    FooHttp
  )
}

Token Provider

{
  token: InjectionToken<T>;
  useToken: InjectionToken<T>;
}

This provider can be thought of as a redirect or an alias, it simply states that given token x, resolve using token y.

Register

The normal way to achieve this is to add DependencyContainer.register() statements somewhere in your program some time before your first decorated class is instantiated.

container.register<Foo>(Foo, {useClass: Foo});
container.register<Bar>(Bar, {useValue: new Bar()});
container.register<Baz>("MyBaz", {useValue: new Baz()});

Registry

You can also mark up any class with the @registry() decorator to have the given providers registered upon importing the marked up class. @registry() takes an array of providers like so:

@registry([
  { token: Foobar, useClass: Foobar },
  { token: "theirClass", useFactory: (c) => {
       return new TheirClass( "arg" )
    },
  }
])
class MyClass {}

This is useful when you want to register multiple classes for the same token. You can also use it to register and declare objects that wouldn't be imported by anything else, such as more classes annotated with @registry or that are otherwise responsible for registering objects. Lastly you might choose to use this to register 3rd party instances instead of the container.register(...) method. note: if you want this class to be @injectable you must put the decorator before @registry, this annotation is not required though.

Resolution

Resolution is the process of exchanging a token for an instance. Our container will recursively fulfill the dependencies of the token being resolved in order to return a fully constructed object.

The typical way that an object is resolved is from the container using resolve().

const myFoo = container.resolve(Foo);
const myBar = container.resolve<Bar>("Bar");

You can also resolve all instances registered against a given token with resolveAll().

interface Bar {}

@injectable()
class Foo implements Bar {}
@injectable()
class Baz implements Bar {}

@registry([ // registry is optional, all you need is to use the same token when registering
  { token: 'Bar', useToken: Foo }, // can be any provider
  { token: 'Bar', useToken: Baz },
])
class MyRegistry {}

const myBars = container.resolveAll<Bar>("Bar"); // myBars type is Bar[]

Child Containers

If you need to have multiple containers that have disparate sets of registrations, you can create child containers:

const childContainer1 = container.createChildContainer();
const childContainer2 = container.createChildContainer();
const grandChildContainer = childContainer1.createChildContainer();

Each of the child containers will have independent registrations, but if a registration is absent in the child container at resolution, the token will be resolved from the parent. This allows for a set of common services to be registered at the root, with specialized services registered on the child. This can be useful, for example, if you wish to create per-request containers that use common stateless services from the root container.

Clearing Instances

The container.clearInstances() method allows you to clear all previously created and registered instances:

class Foo {}
@singleton()
class Bar {}

const myFoo = new Foo();
container.registerInstance("Test", myFoo);
const myBar = container.resolve(Bar);

container.clearInstances();

container.resolve("Test"); // throws error
const myBar2 = container.resolve(Bar); // myBar !== myBar2
const myBar3 = container.resolve(Bar); // myBar2 === myBar3

Unlike with container.reset(), the registrations themselves are not cleared. This is especially useful for testing:

@singleton()
class Foo {}

beforeEach(() => {
  container.clearInstances();
});

test("something", () => {
  container.resolve(Foo); // will be a new singleton instance in every test
});

Circular dependencies

Sometimes you need to inject services that have cyclic dependencies between them. As an example:

@injectable()
export class Foo {
  constructor(public bar: Bar) {}
}

@injectable()
export class Bar {
  constructor(public foo: Foo) {}
}

Trying to resolve one of the services will end in an error because always one of the constructor will not be fully defined to construct the other one.

container.resolve(Foo)

Error: Cannot inject the dependency at position #0 of "Foo" constructor. Reason:
    Attempted to construct an undefined constructor. Could mean a circular dependency problem. Try using `delay` function.

The delay helper function

The best way to deal with this situation is to do some kind of refactor to avoid the cyclic dependencies. Usually this implies introducing additional services to cut the cycles.

But when refactor is not an option you can use the delay function helper. The delay function wraps the constructor in an instance of DelayedConstructor.

The delayed constructor is a kind of special InjectionToken that will eventually be evaluated to construct an intermediate proxy object wrapping a factory for the real object.

When the proxy object is used for the first time it will construct a real object using this factory and any usage will be forwarded to the real object.

@injectable()
export class Foo {
  constructor(@inject(delay(() => Bar)) public bar: Bar) {}
}

@injectable()
export class Bar {
  constructor(@inject(delay(() => Foo)) public foo: Foo) {}
}

// construction of foo is possible
const foo = container.resolve(Foo);

// property bar will hold a proxy that looks and acts as a real Bar instance. 
foo.bar instanceof Bar; // true

Interfaces and circular dependencies

We can rest in the fact that a DelayedConstructor could be used in the same contexts that a constructor and will be handled transparently by tsyringe. Such idea is used in the next example involving interfaces:

export interface IFoo {}

@injectable()
@registry([
  {
    token: "IBar",
    // `DelayedConstructor` of Bar will be the token
    useToken: delay(() => Bar)
  }
])
export class Foo implements IFoo {
  constructor(@inject("IBar") public bar: IBar) {}
}
export interface IBar {}

@injectable()
@registry([
  {
    token: "IFoo",
    useToken: delay(() => Foo)
  }
])
export class Bar implements IBar {
  constructor(@inject("IFoo") public foo: IFoo) {}
}

Full examples

Example without interfaces

Since classes have type information at runtime, we can resolve them without any extra information.

// Foo.ts
export class Foo {}

// Bar.ts
import {Foo} from "./Foo";
import {injectable} from "tsyringe";

@injectable()
export class Bar {
  constructor(public myFoo: Foo) {}
}

// main.ts
import "reflect-metadata";
import {container} from "tsyringe";
import {Bar} from "./Bar";

const myBar = container.resolve(Bar);
// myBar.myFoo => An instance of Foo

Example with interfaces

Interfaces don't have type information at runtime, so we need to decorate them with @inject(...) so the container knows how to resolve them.

// SuperService.ts
export interface SuperService {
  // ...
}

// TestService.ts
import {SuperService} from "./SuperService";
export class TestService implements SuperService {
  //...
}

// Client.ts
import {injectable, inject} from "tsyringe";

@injectable()
export class Client {
  constructor(@inject("SuperService") private service: SuperService) {}
}

// main.ts
import "reflect-metadata";
import {Client} from "./Client";
import {TestService} from "./TestService";
import {container} from "tsyringe";

container.register("SuperService", {
  useClass: TestService
});

const client = container.resolve(Client);
// client's dependencies will have been resolved

Non goals

The following is a list of features we explicitly plan on not adding:

• Property Injection

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [e-mail] with any additional questions or comments.