Develop Reference

Instantiating class with interfaces in c#

Hi this might be trivial but I am trying to understand the class instantiation using interface. So below is my code:
public interface IRepository
{
string GetMemberDisplayName();
}
public class Repository : IRepository
{
private readonly Manager _manager;
public Repository() {}
public Repository(string connectionName)
{
_manager = new Manager(connectionName);
}
public string GetMemberDisplayName(string ID)
{
return "FooFoo";
}
}
Now in another class that uses the repository class functionality has instantiated it as follows:
public class LogServiceHelper
{
readonly IRepository _alrAttendance;
readonly IRepository _alrUsers;
public LogServiceHelper()
{
_alrAttendance = new Repository("value1");
_alrUsers = new Repository("value2");
}
public string GetMemberName(string empId)
{
return _alrUsers.GetMemberDisplayName(empId);
}
}
My question is if this is correct way to instantiate a class with parameterized constructor. And if yes, then second question is why do we need interface in this case. We could directly instantiate the class without creating the interface?

Yes, that's how to invoke a parameterized constructor, but no, that's not what you should be doing.
As you have it, LogServiceHelper has a hard dependency on the Repository class, and so you are right, the interfaces don't buy you anything. However, if they were injected:
public LogServiceHelper(IRepository attendanceRepo, IRepository userRepo)
{
_alrAttendance = attendanceRepo;
_alrUsers = userRepo;
}
You suddenly gain the benefits of abstraction. Notably that a unit test could pass in fake repositories, and that you can switch to another implementation of IRepository without changing LogServiceHelper.
The next question is then "Who creates the Repository concrete class?". For that, I refer you to the variety of DI/IoC containers out there, such as Autofac, Unity, and NInject.

We could directly instantiate the class without creating the
interface?
This is indeed true and it might work without any problem. But then we are coming to the crucial questions:
Is my code testable, how would I test this piece of code?
Could I easily change the behavior without changing LogServiceHelper
If you don't rely on the abstraction, the answer to the above questions is unfortunately, no. Luckily there is something called SOLID and the D stands for Dependency Injection Principle.
public LogServiceHelper(IRepository alrAttendance, IRepository alrUsers)
{
_alrAttendance = alrAttendance;
_alrUsers = alrUsers;
}
So, with this simple change, you made decoupling of the moduls and all of a sudden you are relying on the abstraction which gains a lot of benefits to design.

How do I wire an IoC Container to pass a value to a factory method to resolve?

Background / Goal
We have several "client sites" on our web app that users can switch between
We do a lot of wiring up of objects based on factories that take in the client site ID and create an instance
I would like to inject these dependencies into the classes instead
I also want to make sure I can pass in my own implementations to the constructor for the purposes of unit testing.
We have initially elected to use StructureMap 3.x to do so, but are open to alternatives if they can help us solve this scenario gracefully.
Question
In instances where I require a different dependency based on a client site ID that I'll only get at run-time, what is the appropriate way to set up an IoC container and the appropriate way to request the object from it in order to make it as painless as possible?
Am I thinking about this wrong and unintentionally creating some sort of anti-pattern?
Example Code
Normally we're doing something like the following coming in:
public class MyService
{ DependentObject _dependentObject;
public MyService(int clientSiteID)
{
// ...
_dependentObject = new dependentObjectFactory(clientSiteID).GetDependentObject();
}
public void DoAThing()
{
//...
_dependentObject.DoSomething();
}
}
What I'd like to do:
public class MyService
{ DependentObject _dependentObject;
public MyService(int clientSiteID)
{
// ...
_dependentObject = MyTypeResolver.GetWIthClientContext<IDependentObject>(clientSiteID);
}
public MyService(int clientSiteID, IDependentObject dependentObject)
{
// ...
_dependentObject = dependentObject;
}
public void DoAThing()
{
//...
_dependentObject.DoSomething();
}
}
I would set up the IoC container in such a way that I can use my MyTypeResolver to pass in the clientSiteID, and have the container call my DependentObjectFactory and return the correct object result.
I'm new to IoC containers, and while I'm trying to plow through the literature, I have the feeling it may be easier than I'm making it so I'm asking here.

Probably the simplest way to do this is to use an Abstract Factory. Most IOC frameworks can auto-create them for you, but here's how you can do it manually (I always prefer to do it manually first so I know it works, and then you can check out how the framework can help you automagic it)
Now one thing to mention - I would recommend a slight readjustment of how the final solution works, but I'll go into that once I have shown how it can currently work. Example below assumes Ninject and please excuse any typos, etc.
First create an interface for your dependency
public interface IDependentObject
{
void DoSomething();
}
Then declare empty marker interfaces for each specific implementation of IDependentObject
public interface INormalDependentObject:IDependentObject{};
public interface ISpecialDependentObject:IDependentObject{}
and implement them:
public class NormalDependentObject:INormalDependentObject
{
readonly int _clientID;
public DependentObject(int clientID)
{
_clientID=clientID;
}
public void DoSomething(){//do something}
}
public class DependentObject:ISpecialDependentObject
{
readonly int _clientID;
public DependentObject(int clientID)
{
_clientID=clientID;
}
public void DoSomething(){//do something really special}
}
and of course as you mentioned you may have many more implementations of IDependentObject.
There may be a more elegant way of allowing your IOC framework to resolve at runtime without having to declare the marker interfaces; but for now I find it useful to use them as it makes the binding declarations easy to read :)
Next, declare an interface and implementation of an IDependentObjectFactory:
public interface IDependentObjectFactory
{
IDependentObject GetDependenObject(int clientID);
}
public class DependentObjectFactory: IDependentObjectFactory
{
readonly _kernel kernel;
public DependentObjectFactory(IKernel kernel)
{
_kernel=kernel;
}
public IDependentObject GetDependenObject(int clientID)
{
//use whatever logic here to decide what specific IDependentObject you need to use.
if (clientID==100)
{
return _kernel.Get<ISpecialDependantObject>(
new ConstructorArgument("clientID", clientID));
}
else
{
return _kernel.Get<INormalDependentObject>(
new ConstructorArgument("clientID", clientID));
}
}
}
Wire these up in your Composition Root:
_kernel.Bind<INormalDependentObject>().To<NormalDependentObject>();
_kernel.Bind<ISpecialDependentObject>().To<SpecialDependentObject>();
_kernel.Bind<IDependentObjectFactory>().To<DependentObjectFactory>();
and finally inject your factory into the service class:
public class MyService
{
IDependentObject _dependentObject;
readonly IDependentObjectFactory _factory;
//in general, when using DI, you should only have a single constructor on your injectable classes. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of the framework as to which signature it will pick if there is ever any ambiguity; most all of the common frameworks will make different decisions!
public MyService(IDependentObjectFactory factory)
{
_factory=factory;
}
public void DoAThing(int clientID)
{
var dependent _factory.GetDependentObject(clientID);
dependent.DoSomething();
}
}
Suggested changes
One immediate change from your structure above is that I have left clientID out of the service constructor and moved it to a method argument of DoAThing; this is because it makes a bit more sense to me that the Service itself would be stateless; of course depending on your scenario, you may want to not do that.
I mentioned that I had a slight adjustment to suggest , and it's this; the solution above depends (no pun!) on implementations of IDependentObject having a constructor with this signature:
public SomeDependency(int clientID)
If they don't have that signature then the factory won't work; personally I don't like my DI to have to know anything about constructor params because it takes you out of purely dealing with interfaces and forcing you to implement specific ctor signatures on your concrete classes.
It also means that you can't reliably make your IDependentObjects be part of the whole DI process (i.e whereby they themselves have dependency graphs that you want the framework to resolve) because of the forced ctor signature.
For that reason I'd recommend that IDependentObject.DoSomething() itself be changed to DoSomething(int clientID) so that you can elide the new ConstructorArgument part of the factory code; this means that your IDependentObject s can now all have totally different ctor signatures, meaning they can have different dependencies if needs be. Of course this is just my opinion, and you will know what works best in your specific scenario.
Hope that helps.

How to decorate class that relies on a runtime value for creation

I'm brand new to using Simple Injector although I have been using Ninject for a long time, so I am comfortable with DI in general. One thing that attracted me to want to use Simple Injector was the ease of use of Decorators.
I have been able to successfully use decorators with Simple Injector in all normal cases where the dependencies are resolved when the service is requested. However, I am having a hard time figuring out if there is a way to get my decorators applied in a case when the service must be constructed using a runtime value.
In Ninject, I could pass a ConstructorArgument to the kernel.Get<IService> request that could be inherited down the chain of N decorators all the way to the "real" implementing class. I cannot figure out a way to replicate that using Simple Injector.
I have put some very basic code below to illustrate. What I would want to do in the real world would be to pass an IMyClassFactory instance into other classes in my application. Those other classes could then use it to create IMyClass instances using the IRuntimeValue they would provide. The IMyClass instance they got from the IMyClassFactory would be decorated automatically by the registered decorators.
I know I could manually apply my decorator(s) in my IMyClassFactory or any Func<IMyClass> I could come up with, but I would like it to "just work".
I keep going around and around trying to abstract out the MyClass construction, but I can't figure out how to get it to resolve with the IRuntimeValue constructor argument and be decorated.
Am I overlooking an obvious solution?
using System;
using SimpleInjector;
using SimpleInjector.Extensions;
public class MyApp
{
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
var container = new Container();
container.Register<IMyClassFactory, MyClassFactory>();
container.RegisterDecorator(typeof (IMyClass), typeof (MyClassDecorator));
container.Register<Func<IRuntimeValue, IMyClass>>(
() => r => container.GetInstance<IMyClassFactory>().Create(r));
container.Register<IMyClass>(() => ?????)); // Don't know what to do
container.GetInstance<IMyClass>(); // Expect to get decorated class
}
}
public interface IRuntimeValue
{
}
public interface IMyClass
{
IRuntimeValue RuntimeValue { get; }
}
public interface IMyClassFactory
{
IMyClass Create(IRuntimeValue runtimeValue);
}
public class MyClassFactory : IMyClassFactory
{
public IMyClass Create(IRuntimeValue runtimeValue)
{
return new MyClass(runtimeValue);
}
}
public class MyClass : IMyClass
{
private readonly IRuntimeValue _runtimeValue;
public MyClass(IRuntimeValue runtimeValue)
{
_runtimeValue = runtimeValue;
}
public IRuntimeValue RuntimeValue
{
get
{
return _runtimeValue;
}
}
}
public class MyClassDecorator : IMyClass
{
private readonly IMyClass _inner;
public MyClassDecorator(IMyClass inner)
{
_inner = inner;
}
public IRuntimeValue RuntimeValue
{
get
{
return _inner.RuntimeValue;
}
}
}
Edit 1:
Ok, thanks to Steven for the great answer. It has given me a couple of ideas.
Maybe to make it a little more concrete though (although not my situation, more "classic"). Say I have an ICustomer that I create at runtime by reading a DB or deserializing from disk or something. So I guess that would be considered a "newable" to quote one of the articles Steven linked. I would like to create an instance of ICustomerViewModel so I can display and manipulate my ICustomer. My concrete CustomerViewModel class takes in an ICustomer in its constructor along with another dependency that can be resolved by the container.
So I have an ICustomerViewModelFactory that has a .Create(ICustomer customer) method defined which returns ICustomerViewModel. I could always get this working before I asked this question because in my implementation of ICustomerViewModelFactory I could do this (factory implemented in composition root):
return new CustomerViewModel(customer, container.GetInstance<IDependency>());
My issue was that I wanted my ICustomerViewModel to be decorated by the container and newing it up bypassed that. Now I know how to get around this limitation.
So I guess my follow-up question is: Is my design wrong in the first place? I really feel like the ICustomer should be passed into the constructor of CustomerViewModel because that demonstrates intent that it is required, gets validated, etc. I don't want to add it after the fact.

Simple Injector explicitly lacks support for passing on runtime values through the GetInstance method. Reason for this is that runtime values should not be used when the object graph is constructed. In other words, the constructors of your injectables should not depend on runtime values. There are several problems with doing that. First of all, your injectables might need to live much longer than those runtime values do. But perhaps more importantly, you want to be able to verify and diagnose your container's configuration and that becomes much more troublesome when you start using runtime values in the object graphs.
So in general there are two solutions for this. Either you pass on the runtime value through the method call graph or you create a 'contextual' service that can supply this runtime value when requested.
Passing on the runtime value through the call graph is especially a valid solution when you practice architectures like this and this where you pass on messages through your system or when the runtime value can be an obvious part of the service's contract. In that case it is easy to pass on the runtime value with the message or the method and this runtime value will also pass through any decorator on the way through.
In your case this would mean that the factory creates the IMyService without passing in the IRuntimeValue and your code passes this value on to the IMyService using the method(s) it specifies:
var service = _myServiceFactory.Create();
service.DoYourThing(runtimeValue);
Passing through the runtime value through the call graph however is not always a good solution. Especially when this runtime value should not be part of the contract of the message that is sent. This especially holds for contextual information use as information about the current logged in user, the current system time, etc. You don't want to pass this information through; you just want it to be available. We don't want this, because this would give an extra burden to the consumers of passing the right value every time, while they probably shouldn't even be able to change this information (take the user in who's context the request is executed for instance).
In that case you should define service that can be injected and allows retrieving this context. For instance:
public interface IUserContext {
User CurrentUser { get; }
}
public interface ITimeProvider {
DateTime Now { get; }
}
In these cases the current user and the current time aren't injected directly into a constructor, but instead these services are. The component that needs to access the current user can simply call _userContext.CurrentUser and this will be done after the object is constructed (read: not inside the constructor). Thus: in a lazy fashion.
This does mean however that the IRuntimeValue must be set somewhere before MyClass gets invoked. This probably means you need to set it inside the factory. Here's an example:
var container = new Container();
var context = new RuntimeValueContext();
container.RegisterSingle<RuntimeValueContext>(context);
container.Register<IMyClassFactory, MyClassFactory>();
container.RegisterDecorator(typeof(IMyClass), typeof(MyClassDecorator));
container.Register<IMyClass, MyClass>();
public class RuntimeValueContext {
private ThreadLocal<IRuntimeValue> _runtime;
public IRuntimeValue RuntimeValue {
get { return _runtime.Value; }
set { _runtime.Value = value; }
}
}
public class MyClassFactory : IMyClassFactory {
private readonly Container _container;
private readonly RuntimeValueContext context;
public MyClassFactory(Container container, RuntimeValueContext context) {
_container = container;
_context = context;
}
public IMyClass Create(IRuntimeValue runtimeValue) {
var instance = _container.GetInstance<IMyClass>();
_context.RuntimeValue = runtimeValue;
return instance;
}
}
public class MyClass : IMyClass {
private readonly RuntimeValueContext _context;
public MyClass(RuntimeValueContext context) {
_context = context;
}
public IRuntimeValue RuntimeValue { get { return _context.Value; } }
}
You can also let the MyClass accept the IRuntimeValue and make the following registration:
container.Register<IRuntimeValue>(() => context.Value);
But the disallows verifying the object graph, since Simple Injector will ensure that registrations never return null, but context.Value will be null by default. So another option is to do the following:
container.Register<IMyClass>(() => new MyClass(context.Value));
This allows the IMyClass registration to be verified, but will during verification still create a new MyClass instance that is injected with a null value. If you have a guard clause in the MyClass constructor, this will fail. This registration however disallows MyClass to be auto-wired by the container. Auto-wiring that class can come in handy when you've got more dependencies to inject into MyClass for instance.

Ways to setup a Ninject singleton

I have a class (MyFacade) that I injected parameter(s) with Ninject:
class MyFacade
{
IDemoInterface demo;
public MyFacade(IDemoInterface demo)
{
this.demo = demo;
}
public void MyMethod()
{
Console.WriteLine(demo.GetInfo());
}
}
Of course, I have to setup the Ninject to inject the appropiate implementation of my parameter (IDemoInterface)
I know, I can instantiate MyFacade object by doing kernel.Get<MyFacade>(); without setting anything else. Currently my facade doesn't have an interface (because it is my only implementation, maybe I will add its interface for standard proposes)
if I want to make this facade singlenton, I know two ways: create a empty constructor and pass a parameter by doing this kernel.Get<IDemoInterface>(); or by setup Ninject like: kernel.Bind<MyFacade>().To<MyFacade>().InSingletonScope();
The second one look a better approach, but do you know any other way to setup it in a singleton way?

When setting up your bindings, you need to bind your dependencies. It is always better to setup your dependencies in your bindings, as opposed to doing a kernel.Get<T>() in a constructor. You are using IOC, so leverage the framework you are using to do the injection for you.
In your second example binding, what you are missing is binding in your IDemoInterface. Your bindings should look like this:
//bind the dependency to the implementation.
kernel.Bind<IDemoInterface>().To<DemoInterface>();
//since you bound your dependency, ninject should now have
// all the dependencies required to instantiate your `MyFacade` object.
kernel.Bind<MyFacade>().To<MyFacade>().InSingletonScope();

If you do not want the container to manage the lifecycle of your singleton by using InSingletonScope(), but still wants it to get injected, I can think of 2 ways to go about it. Choose which one suits better to your needs. Consider the following ISingleton (name your interface) implementation:
public class ConcreteSingleton : ISingleton
{
private static readonly Lazy<ConcreteSingleton> _instance = new Lazy<ConcreteSingleton>(() => new ConcreteSingleton());
private ConcreteSingleton() { }
public static ConcreteSingleton Instance
{
get
{
return _instance.Value;
}
}
}
Alter the singleton class to have a GetInstance(...) method
In this method (my preferred approach), you won't be calling kernel.Inject(instance) each time, only for the first time the singleton is initialized. Adding the following method to your ConcreteSingleton class:
public static ConcreteSingleton GetInstance(IKernel kernelForInjection)
{
if (_instance.IsValueCreated == false)
{
kernelForInjection.Inject(_instance.Value);
}
return _instance.Value;
}
And using this binding:
kernel.Bind<ISingleton>().ToMethod(c => ConcreteSingleton.GetInstance(c.Kernel));
Will achieve the desired behavior of not having a public constructor but enabling your facade to be efficiently injected.
Perform injection each time the ISingleton instance is requested
If by any reason you are not allowed to modify your ConcreteSingleton: This approach will wrap the singleton creation in a provider to efficiently inject the instance only for the first time it is created. It is important to note that the provider itself must be registered as a singleton.
internal class ConcreteSingletonProvider : Provider<ISingleton>
{
public IKernel Kernel { get; set; }
//Just a wrapper
private readonly Lazy<ISingleton> _lazy = new Lazy<ISingleton>(() => ConcreteSingleton.Instance);
public ConcreteSingletonProvider(IKernel kernel)
{
Kernel = kernel;
}
protected override ISingleton CreateInstance(IContext context)
{
if (_lazy.IsValueCreated == false)
{
Kernel.Inject(ConcreteSingleton.Instance);
}
return _lazy.Value;
}
}
And your bindings should be like this:
kernel.Bind<ISingleton>().ToProvider<ConcreteSingletonProvider>();
kernel.Bind<ConcreteSingletonProvider>().ToSelf().InSingletonScope();
This gist has a complete working sample for the above approach.
Hope that helps!

With Unity how do I inject a named dependency into a constructor?

I have the IRespository registered twice (with names) in the following code:
// Setup the Client Repository
IOC.Container.RegisterType<ClientEntities>(new InjectionConstructor());
IOC.Container.RegisterType<IRepository, GenericRepository>
("Client", new InjectionConstructor(typeof(ClientEntities)));
// Setup the Customer Repository
IOC.Container.RegisterType<CustomerEntities>(new InjectionConstructor());
IOC.Container.RegisterType<IRepository, GenericRepository>
("Customer", new InjectionConstructor(typeof(CustomerEntities)));
IOC.Container.RegisterType<IClientModel, ClientModel>();
IOC.Container.RegisterType<ICustomerModel, CustomerModel>();
But then when I want to resolve this (to use the IRepository) I have to do a manual resolve like this:
public ClientModel(IUnityContainer container)
{
this.dataAccess = container.Resolve<IRepository>(Client);
.....
}
What I would like to do is to have it resolved in the constructor (just like IUnityContainer). I need some way to say which named type to resolve to.
Something like this: (NOTE: Not real code)
public ClientModel([NamedDependancy("Client")] IRepository dataAccess)
{
this.dataAccess = dataAccess;
.....
}
Is there a way to make my fake code work?

You can configure dependencies with or without names in the API, attributes, or via the config file. You didn't mention XML above, so I'll assume you're using the API.
To tell the container to resolve a named dependency, you'll need to use an InjectionParameter object. For your ClientModel example, do this:
container.RegisterType<IClientModel, ClientModel>(
new InjectionConstructor( // Explicitly specify a constructor
new ResolvedParameter<IRepository>("Client") // Resolve parameter of type IRepository using name "Client"
)
);
This tells the container "When resolving ClientModel, call the constructor that takes a single IRepository parameter. When resolving that parameter, resolve with the name 'Client' in addition to the type."
If you wanted to use attributes, your example almost works, you just need to change the attribute name:
public ClientModel([Dependency("Client")] IRepository dataAccess)
{
this.dataAccess = dataAccess;
.....
}

This is a very late response but the question still shows up in Google.
So anyways, 5 years later...
I have a pretty simple approach. Usually when you need to use "named dependency" it's because you're trying to implement some kind of strategy pattern. In that case, I simply create a level of indirection between Unity and the rest of my code called the StrategyResolver to not be directly depending on Unity.
public class StrategyResolver : IStrategyResolver
{
private IUnityContainer container;
public StrategyResolver(IUnityContainer unityContainer)
{
this.container = unityContainer;
}
public T Resolve<T>(string namedStrategy)
{
return this.container.Resolve<T>(namedStrategy);
}
}
Usage:
public class SomeClass: ISomeInterface
{
private IStrategyResolver strategyResolver;
public SomeClass(IStrategyResolver stratResolver)
{
this.strategyResolver = stratResolver;
}
public void Process(SomeDto dto)
{
IActionHandler actionHanlder = this.strategyResolver.Resolve<IActionHandler>(dto.SomeProperty);
actionHanlder.Handle(dto);
}
}
Registration:
container.RegisterType<IActionHandler, ActionOne>("One");
container.RegisterType<IActionHandler, ActionTwo>("Two");
container.RegisterType<IStrategyResolver, StrategyResolver>();
container.RegisterType<ISomeInterface, SomeClass>();
Now, the nice thing about this is that I will never have to touch the StrategyResolver ever again when adding new strategies in the future.
It's very simple. Very clean and I kept the dependency on Unity to a strict minimum. The only time I would have touch the StrategyResolver is if I decide to change container technology which is very unlikely to happen.
Hope this helps!
Edit: I don't really like the accepted answer because when you use the Dependency attribute in your service's constructor you actually have a hard dependency on Unity. The Dependency attribute is part of the Unity library. At that point you might as well pass an IUnityContainer dependency everywhere.
I prefer having my service classes depend on objects that I completely own instead of having a hard dependency on an external library all over the place. Also using Dependency attribute makes the constructors signatures less clean and simple.
Furthermore, this technique allows to resolve named dependencies at runtime without having to hardcode the named dependencies in the constructor, in the application configuration file or use InjectionParameter which are all methods that require to know what named dependency to use at design time.
Edit (2016-09-19):
For those that might wonder, the container will know to pass itself when you are requesting IUnityContainer as dependency, as shown in the StrategyResolver constructor signature.
Edit (2018-10-20):
Here's another way, simply using a factory:
public class SomeStrategyFactory : ISomeStrategyFactory
{
private IStrategy _stratA;
private IStrategy _stratB;
public SomeFactory(IStrategyA stratA, IStrategyB stratB)
{
_stratA = stratA;
_stratB = stratB;
}
public IStrategy GetStrategy(string namedStrategy){
if (namedStrategy == "A") return _stratA;
if (namedStrategy == "B") return _stratB;
}
}
public interface IStrategy {
void Execute();
}
public interface IStrategyA : IStrategy {}
public interface IStrategyB : IStrategy {}
public class StrategyA : IStrategyA {
public void Execute(){}
}
public class StrategyB : IStrategyB {
public void Execute() {}
}
Usage:
public class SomeClass : ISomeClass
{
public SomeClass(ISomeStrategyFactory strategyFactory){
IStrategy strat = strategyFactory.GetStrategy("HelloStrategy");
strat.Execute();
}
}
Registration:
container.RegisterType<ISomeStrategyFactory, SomeStrategyFactory>();
container.RegisterType<IStrategyA, StrategyA>();
container.RegisterType<IStrategyB, StrategyB>();
container.RegisterType<ISomeClass, SomeClass>();
This 2nd suggestion is the same thing but using the factory design pattern.
Hope this helps!

You should be able to use ParameterOverrides
var repository = IOC.Container.Resolve<IRepository>("Client");
var clientModel = IOC.Container.Resolve<ClientModel>(new ParameterOverrides<ClientModel> { {"dataAccess", repository } } );
edit:
I'm not sure why you're passing around the UnityContainer - personally, we inject our dependencies into the constructor themselves (which is "normal" from what I've seen). But regardless, you can specify a name in your RegisterType and Resolve methods.
IOC.Container.RegisterType<IRepository, GenericRepository>("Client");
IOC.Container.Resolve<IRepository>("Client");
and it will give you the type you registered for that name.

Don't do this - just create a class ClientRepository : GenericRepository { } and utilise the Type system.