What is Inversion of Control?

Question

Inversion of Control (IoC) can be quite confusing when it is first encountered.

1. What is it?
2. Which problem does it solve?
3. When is it appropria

Answer 1

1. Inversion of control is a pattern used for decoupling components and layers in the system. The pattern is implemented through injecting dependencies into a component when it is constructed. These dependences are usually provided as interfaces for further decoupling and to support testability. IoC / DI containers such as Castle Windsor, Unity are tools (libraries) which can be used for providing IoC. These tools provide extended features above and beyond simple dependency management, including lifetime, AOP / Interception, policy, etc.

2. a. Alleviates a component from being responsible for managing it's dependencies.
   b. Provides the ability to swap dependency implementations in different environments.
   c. Allows a component be tested through mocking of dependencies.
   d. Provides a mechanism for sharing resources throughout an application.

3. a. Critical when doing test-driven development. Without IoC it can be difficult to test, because the components under test are highly coupled to the rest of the system.
   b. Critical when developing modular systems. A modular system is a system whose components can be replaced without requiring recompilation.
   c. Critical if there are many cross-cutting concerns which need to addressed, partilarly in an enterprise application.