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design-patternsfactory-pattern

When does a service locator method become more prefered?

To realize the Inversion of Control, one can use either a service locator or a dependency injector. Service Locator may be harder to or lengthier to code than DI. I think the Service Locator is like another name for Factory pattern, right ? And I don't know when I must use the SL instead of DI ? Do you any real cases to apply any of them ?

Solution

  • As a default position, avoid ServiceLocators. See Mark Seemann's excellent blog post on the subject.

    Dependency Injection is much easier to maintain, and does not require a "injector", or DI framework at all. It's just a matter or providing an object with it's dependencies (preferably in the constructor) rather than letting the object gather them itself. I am a pretty strict adherent to DI, and I almost never use a DI framework.