Why registering a generic type with one type parameter to Unity Container fails here?

Question

I am trying to register a generic type to unitycontainer via configuration file, as shown below in a simplified way.

However on the LoadConfiguration method call I get an error:

"The type name or alias IDataLoader`1[Bar] could not be resolved. Please check your configuration file and verify this type name."

This is the line I get my exception after:

IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer().LoadConfiguration();

And those are my classes (in the assemblies same name as namespaces):

namespace FooBar.DataManager
{
    public interface IDataLoader<TSource>
    {
        void DoSomeWork(TSource source);
    }
}

namespace FooBar.DataManager.MyDataManager
{
    public class FooDataLoader : IDataLoader <Bar>
    {
      public void DoSomeWork(Bar source)
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Doing {0}", source.Name);
      }
    }
}

namespace FooBar.DomainModel
{
    public class Bar
    {
        string Name {get; set;}
    }

}

And this is the part how I register in the configuration file:

<unity xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/practices/2010/unity">
        <alias alias="Bar" type="FooBar.DomainModel.Bar, FooBar.DomainModel" />
        <alias alias="IDataLoader`1" type="FooBar.DataManager.IDataLoader, FooBar.DataManager" />

    <container>
      <register type="IDataLoader`1[Bar]" mapTo="FooBar.DataManager.MyDataManager.DataLoader, FooBar.DataManager.MyDataManager" name="FooBarLoader" />
    </container>

</unity>

Can you please advise how should I register the IDataLoader generic type into unitycontainer? Or where I do my mistake? Thanks!

Answer 1

Looking at the documentation again, I think you want to use backticks or square brackets for the open type in the alias target, but not for the closed type or the alias itself:

<unity xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/practices/2010/unity">
    <alias alias="Bar" type="FooBar.DomainModel.Bar, FooBar.DomainModel" />
    <alias alias="IDataLoader" type="FooBar.DataManager.IDataLoader`1, FooBar.DataManager" />

    <container>
      <register type="IDataLoader[Bar]" mapTo="FooBar.DataManager.MyDataManager.DataLoader, FooBar.DataManager.MyDataManager" name="FooBarLoader" />
    </container>
</unity>