Unity: pass parameters to custom lifetime constructor, in xml configuration file

Question

I wrote my CustomLifetimeManager like this:

public class CustomLifetimeManager <T> : LifetimeManager
{
    private readonly string _arg;

    public CustomLifetimeManager(string arg)
    {
      _arg = arg;
    }
}

Now, it works easy configuring the container programmatically, but how add it in configuration file like the following?

<type type="myTime"
      mapTo="myImpl">
      <lifetime type="CustomLifetimeManager"/>
</type>

Answer 1

You need to add a second class: A TypeConverter. This class is responsible for taking a string and turning it into whatever type you want. Once you implement it, you can then do something like this in your config file:

<register type="MyType" mapTo"MyImpl">
  <lifetime typeConverter="CustomLifetimeManagerConverter" value="arg" />
</register>

and from there it should just work (assuming the config can find the type converter like any other type).