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Refactoring Legacy C# Code: Issues with Inherited Interfaces and Dependency Injection

๐Ÿ‘€ Views: 39 ๐Ÿ’ฌ Answers: 1 ๐Ÿ“… Created: 2025-09-06
c# dependency-injection refactoring interfaces C#

Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy... I tried several approaches but none seem to work. I'm working on a personal project and I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but Currently refactoring some legacy code that heavily relies on interfaces that have become convoluted over time... Iโ€™m facing a challenge with an interface `IService` that has been implemented in multiple classes, but now needs to support Dependency Injection (DI) without breaking existing functionality. Hereโ€™s a simplified version of the interface and its implementations: ```csharp public interface IService { void Execute(); } public class LegacyService : IService { public void Execute() { // Legacy code execution } } public class NewService : IService { public void Execute() { // New logic execution } } ``` In my startup configuration, Iโ€™m trying to register these services: ```csharp services.AddSingleton<IService, LegacyService>(); // Later I want to switch to NewService without much hassle ``` The challenge arises when I attempt to switch to `NewService`. While testing, I encountered an error: `InvalidOperationException: Unable to resolve service for type 'IService' while attempting to activate 'NewService'`. It seems that during initialization, the DI container canโ€™t find the appropriate mapping for `IService`. Iโ€™ve tried multiple approaches, such as using `AddTransient` and `AddScoped`, but the issue persists. To add to the confusion, I noticed that some parts of the application still refer to `LegacyService` directly rather than through the interface. This leads to tight coupling which Iโ€™m trying to avoid. To maintain functionality while transitioning to the new service, Iโ€™d like to ensure that all references to `IService` are updated without causing any disruption. The ultimate goal is to introduce `NewService` gradually, ensuring that the legacy logic can still operate until we fully phase it out. What strategies could I employ to refactor this code effectively? Are there best practices to manage interface implementations in a DI context, especially with legacy systems? Any insights would be greatly appreciated! This is part of a larger service I'm building. What's the best practice here? My development environment is Ubuntu. Has anyone else encountered this? I'm working with C# in a Docker container on Ubuntu 22.04. Any feedback is welcome! For reference, this is a production CLI tool. Has anyone else encountered this?