Overview

IDriverRegistry is a core infrastructure component of the UniCon framework, responsible for two major duties:

1. Instance Lifecycle Management: Maintains active driver instances at runtime (e.g., S7, Modbus), providing Register, Unregister, and Get APIs for cross-layer sharing.
2. Dynamic Factory & Hot-Plugging: Automatically scans driver assemblies via the [UniconDriver] attribute, supporting alias registration and alias-based or strongly-typed driver instance creation without manual configuration.

This registry combines the Registry API and Factory API to achieve unified driver management and zero-configuration assembly.

Usage

1. Register Core Services

Add UniCon core services to the dependency injection container in Program.cs (or Startup.cs):

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
// Automatically injects IDriverRegistry and the DriverRegistry implementation
builder.Services.AddUniCon(); // Includes services.AddSingleton<IDriverRegistry, DriverRegistry>();

2. Auto-Discover Drivers on Startup

After the application is built, call the auto-discovery method to complete plugin-style driver loading:

var app = builder.Build();
var driverRegistry = app.Services.GetRequiredService<IDriverRegistry>();
driverRegistry.DiscoverAndRegisterDrivers(); // Automatically scans and registers all drivers marked with [UniconDriver]

3. Business Layer Usage

public class PlcManager
{
    private readonly IDriverRegistry _driverRegistry;
    private readonly IConnectionManager _connectionManager;

    public PlcManager(IDriverRegistry driverRegistry, IConnectionManager connectionManager)
    {
        _driverRegistry = driverRegistry;
        _connectionManager = connectionManager;
    }

    // See examples below
}

Parameters

Method	Parameter	Type	Description	Required	Default
Register	driver	IUniconDriver	The driver instance to register	✅	—
Unregister	driverId	string	Unique ID of the driver to unregister	✅	—
Get	driverId	string	Query a registered driver instance	✅	—
RegisterDriverType	driverType	string	Driver alias (e.g., "S7")	✅	—
	implementationType	Type	The driver implementation class	✅	—
CreateDriver (alias)	driverType	string	Driver type corresponding to the alias	✅	—
	driverId	string	Unique ID for the new instance	✅	—
CreateDriver<T>	driverId	string	Unique ID for the strongly-typed driver instance	✅	—
DiscoverAndRegisterDrivers	—	—	Automatically scans and registers all marked drivers	—	—

Returns

Method	Type	Description
Register	void	No return; simply adds the instance to the registry
Unregister	bool	Returns true on success, false if not found
Get	IUniconDriver?	Returns the instance if found, otherwise null
GetAll	IEnumerable<IUniconDriver>	A read-only collection of all active drivers
CreateDriver	IUniconDriver	Creates and returns a driver instance by alias
CreateDriver<T>	T where T : IUniconDriver	Creates and returns a strongly-typed driver instance
DiscoverAndRegisterDrivers	void	No direct return value after auto-discovery

Examples

Example 1: Zero-Friction Driver Creation & Registration using Generics

public class PlcManager
{
    private readonly IDriverRegistry _driverRegistry;
    private readonly IConnectionManager _connectionManager;

    public PlcManager(IDriverRegistry driverRegistry, IConnectionManager connectionManager)
    {
        _driverRegistry = driverRegistry;
        _connectionManager = connectionManager;
    }

    public async Task InitializeLine1PlcAsync()
    {
        // Create an S7 driver via generics; the framework automatically injects logger, cache, and other dependencies
        var plcDriver = _driverRegistry.CreateDriver<S7Driver>("PLC_01");
        // Register with the central registry
        _driverRegistry.Register(plcDriver);
        // Activate connection (example)
        await _connectionManager.RegisterDriverAsync(plcDriver, "ip=192.168.1.100;cputype=S71200");
    }
}

Example 2: Plug-and-Play Creation Based on Configuration Alias

// Assume alias and ID are read from a database or configuration file
string driverAlias = "S7"; // Driver type from business configuration
string driverId = "PLC_Line2";

// Assumes DiscoverAndRegisterDrivers() was called at application startup
IUniconDriver driver = _driverRegistry.CreateDriver(driverAlias, driverId);
_driverRegistry.Register(driver);

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Update Record: This documentation is synchronized with src/UniCon.Core/IDriverRegistry.cs (v2.3), keeping interface signatures and example code consistent.

Contributors: Entity-now