knife_generator

Code generator for Knife, a compile-time dependency injection library for Dart.

This package is added to dev_dependencies and used together with build_runner. The annotations are defined in a separate package, knife_annotations.

Installation

dependencies:
  knife_annotations: ^1.0.0

dev_dependencies:
  knife_generator: ^1.0.0
  build_runner: ^2.4.9

How the library works

Knife describes a DI graph through two main concepts: components and modules.

A component is the root entry point into the dependency graph. It lists the modules involved in assembly and declares the methods through which ready-to-use dependencies can be obtained.

A module describes the rules by which dependencies are added to the graph. Inside a module you can:

create a dependency manually via @provides
bind an abstraction to an implementation via @binds

If a dependency is not created by a module method, it can be built through a constructor marked with @inject.

How to run the generator

Install dependencies:

dart pub get

Run generation:

dart run build_runner build

If you need to rebuild files and overwrite conflicting outputs:

dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs

As a result, the generator creates:

*.component.dart for components
*.module.dart for modules with @binds

What the package does

analyzes annotations from knife_annotations
builds the dependency graph during generation
generates type-safe component and module implementations
reports graph build errors at compile time

Limitations

Cyclic dependencies are not supported
Generic methods in providers are not supported
Lazy initialization is not supported