[Question] Best practices ServiceClient & Dependency Injection

[mVermaat]

Do you have any guidance / best practices when using the ServiceClient in web applications or function apps? These will use dependency injection. Kind of similar to what was done for the HttpClient.

So basically: What is the correct way of using the ServiceClient with Dependency Injection in web applications?

[jordimontana82]

@mVermaat I think that is not coevered in the Dataverse docs (yet) but here's a nice example by Temmy @temmyraharjo:

https://temmyraharjo.wordpress.com/2022/07/09/how-to-make-azure-functions-dataverse-service-client/

[MattB-msft]

Yep. this is on the "To-Do" list for samples for the client,
also, we are internally testing a few different extensions for Dependency injection, one of which we may add to the client in the future.

[mVermaat]

Good to know, thanks for the information. With the current constraints, what is the best approach? I know I can make it 'work' by implementing something like in the link. However I'm not sure what the consequences are for using in example Scoped or Singleton.

[MattB-msft]

Scoped or Singleton uses cases are situational, IE, what are you trying to accomplish in the function or asp.net core app.
We do not have a strong opinion on it and are using both processes in different services.

Mainly what we are testing is memory and isolation management options for us in API services (function and the like), when running at scale over a long period of time. Once we settle on a specific approach, we will build it into the client as an extension. In the meantime, we may provide a sample or 2 on the PowerApps Samples site based on current work.

[jordimontana82]

@MattB-msft was wondering if some samples for this were published to the PowerApps Samples site in the end?

[KimBon]

@MattB-msft any update on this one? where can we see a latest sample or best practices for dependency injection?

[ferodom]

@MattB-msft any updates I am having a hard time with the dependency injection taking about a second to create an instance of service client any suggestions?

this is what I am doing

builder.Services.AddScoped(x =>
new ServiceClient(new ConnectionOptions()
{
ServiceUri = new Uri(datavserseUrl),
AuthenticationType = AuthenticationType.ClientSecret,
ClientId = clientId,
ClientSecret = clientSecret,
})
);

[FarmerenHE]

It works in both Singleton and Scoped setups, depending on your usecase it can be used differently but my recommendation would be to always use it as a singleton.

Scoped:
Pros:
Easy and quick to setup codewise.
Cons:
Takes a long time to create (often >300 ms)
Uses up connections from the connectionpool (primarily an issue with consumption based functions)

Singleton:
Cons:
You need to setup some handling to take care of the cases where the connection fails for one reason or another and then recreate the ServiceClient object and store it in the singleton.
Pros:
You dont need to spend time creating the serviceclient
It can be shared between function instances
Makes handling of API limits easier

If your running on consumptionbased azure functions you have a limit of 600 outbound connections, everytime you scope a new instances of the serviceclient it reserves one or more connections and they have to be unused for 5 minutes to be removed again. - thus making a singleton the only way to go in any sort of high load situation.

Personally I always use it as a singelton in my own custom build framework that ensures a connection is recreated if needed, handles the API limits and share the load between different connections if running in a high performance scenario. (We have tested it to 1400 calls/s sustained for an hour without running into API limits or azure connection limits).

[FarmerenHE]

We have our own wrapper that extends IOrganizationServiceAsync2 and passes any calls to the internal ServiceClient (we also have a ton of extensions to make query expressions easier hidden in there).

When it hits API Limits (error 429) its own "IsReady" method invalidates it for the time that the service reports it to be invalid (using the Retry-After key from the errormessage).

Yeah were avoiding Linq alltogether and only using queryexpressions (or fetchxml in some cases) - XrmToolbox have a nice FetchXMLBuilder tool that allows to create the query and export it as QueryExpression, making development of complex queries quite simple.

[rappen]

You're welcome, @FarmerenHE 😉

[tpb1109]

We have our own wrapper that extends IOrganizationServiceAsync2 and passes any calls to the internal ServiceClient (we also have a ton of extensions to make query expressions easier hidden in there).

When it hits API Limits (error 429) its own "IsReady" method invalidates it for the time that the service reports it to be invalid (using the Retry-After key from the errormessage).

Yeah were avoiding Linq alltogether and only using queryexpressions (or fetchxml in some cases) - XrmToolbox have a nice FetchXMLBuilder tool that allows to create the query and export it as QueryExpression, making development of complex queries quite simple.

Hey @FarmerenHE! I know this is an older thread, but I’d love to pick your brain on some approaches I’m taking for a large project for a web application that uses Dataverse heavily. I’m new to the azure development environment and some of the concepts of dependency injection, so I’d love to get your perspective on the way I’m handling certain things.

[FarmerenHE]

Hey @FarmerenHE! I know this is an older thread, but I’d love to pick your brain on some approaches I’m taking for a large project for a web application that uses Dataverse heavily. I’m new to the azure development environment and some of the concepts of dependency injection, so I’d love to get your perspective on the way I’m handling certain things.

The short version is that you need to register dataverse as a singleton, have a way to handle multiple instances and preferably some sort of throttling functionality to ensure you dont hit API limits.

Your welcome to send me a message on linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-otto-nielsen-marqvarsen-46539722/ if you need something more specific

[tpb1109]

@FarmerenHE thanks! I sent you a connection request.

[khoait]

@FarmerenHE thanks for your valuable insights! are you also tweaking Max Concurrent Calls in the Azure Functions with Service Bus?

[FarmerenHE]

We have just left it running in more or less its default configuration, we usually raise the maximum allowed parallel instances instead (but no more than 2 pr. user as that more than that is usually the place were we start seeing API Limits anyway.

Were running azure functions in consumption plan as we find that have the best performance especially when we also look at the cost

[khoait]

thank you!

[NARESHARADHYULA]

@FarmerenHE
What is recommendation for the lifetime scope of dataverse serviceclient when used in a WebApp that may run for months before being recycled?
How should the implementation be for a highvolume web application to avoid port exhaustion issues?

[FarmerenHE]

@FarmerenHE What is recommendation for the lifetime scope of dataverse serviceclient when used in a WebApp that may run for months before being recycled? How should the implementation be for a highvolume web application to avoid port exhaustion issues?

In my initial framework I recycled it every 5 minutes, I have since changed that to a flow where it gets rebuild every time the code hits an exception from the call, the call is then tried again before the call is returned as faulty. (Its not perfect, but we generally get so few exceptions from our code that its good enough)

As for high volume make sure you never use .Clone() as that consumes a lot of ports, other than that I have found that if possible consumptionplan is giving the best performance and least port exhaustion issues.