Recently was trying to work out how to allow custom resources to be specified in Dashen. I already know what data is needed/defined for a resource: a name, a MIME type, and a Stream. We can make this required data known very easily:

public class Resource
{
	public string Name { get; private set; }
	public string MimeType { get; private set; }
	public Stream Content { get; private set; }

	public Resource(string name, string mimeType, Stream content)
	{
		Name = name;
		MimeType = mimeType;
		Content = content;
	}
}

As all the parameters can only be set through the constructor, you are communicating that they are all required.

However when it comes to adding this Resource into our configuration, we are met with 3 possible solutions:

Resource collection on the config

var dashboard = DashboardBuilder.Create(new DashboardConfiguration
{
	ListenOn = new Uri("http://localhost:3030"),
	Resources = new[] { new Resource("test.png", "image/png", new FileStrea(...))}
});

As the DashboardConfiguration object is only used in this one call, it implies that the contents of it only get read once. Nothing to stop you holding on to a reference to the Resources collection though.

AddResource method on the config

var config = new DashboardConfiguration
config.ListenOn = new Uri("http://localhost:3030");

config.AddResource(new Resource("test.png", "image/png", new FileStrea(...)));
//or
config.AddResource("test.png", "image/png", new FileStrea(...));

var dashboard = DashboardBuilder.Create(config);

Resources are still added to the DashboardConfiguration, but this time via a method. This hides the internal storage of resources. Second version also means we can hide the Resource class from the public too if we want. Also implies a level of uniqueness - could throw an exception on duplicate name being added, or rename the method to AddUniqueResource or similar.

AddResource method on the Dashboard

var dashboard = DashboardBuilder.Create(new DashboardConfiguration
{
	ListenOn = new Uri("http://localhost:3030"),
});

dashboard.AddResource(new Resource("test.png", "image/png", new FileStrea(...)));
//or
dashboard.AddResource("test.png", "image/png", new FileStrea(...));

Resource class is still hideable. Being able to add to the dashboard rather than the config implies that resources could be added at anytime, rather than just startup/config time.

Selected Solution

In the end I decided to expose the Resources as an IEnumerable<Resource> on the DashboardConfiguration object. I did this as I don’t actually mind if the collection gets modified once the dashboard is started, and I can see some use-cases for dynamic resource resolution.