The project I am working on is a mobile .NET CF based application. I have to implement the MVP pattern in it. I am now using OpenNETCF.IoC library and Services in it.
I have to refactor Windows Forms code to SmartParts.
I have a problem in implementing navigation scenario:
// Show Main menu
bodyWorkspace.Show(mainMenuView);
// Show First view based on user choice
bodyWorkspace.Show(firstView);
// In first view are some value(s) entered and these values should be passed to the second view
bodyWorkspace.Show(secondView); // How?
In Windows Forms logic this is implemented with variables:
var secondForm = new SecondForm();
secondForm.MyFormParameter = myFormParameter;
How can I reimplement this logic in MVP terms?
It greatly depends on your architecture, but this would be my suggestion:
First, ViewB does not need information in ViewA. It needs information either in the Model or a Presenter. ViewA and ViewB should get their info from the same place.
This could be done, as an example, by a service. This could look like this:
class ParameterService
{
public int MyParameter { get; set; }
}
class ViewA
{
void Foo()
{
// could also be done via injection - this is just a simple example
var svc = RootWorkItem.Services.Get<ParameterService>();
svc.MyParameter = 42;
}
}
class ViewB
{
void Bar()
{
// could also be done via injection - this is just a simple example
var svc = RootWorkItem.Services.Get<ParameterService>();
theParameter = svc.MyParameter;
}
}
Event Aggregation, also supported in the IoC framework you're using, could also work, where ViewA publishes an event that ViewB subscribes to. An example of this can be found here, but generally speaking you'll use the EventPublication and EventSubscription attributes (the former on an event in ViewA, the latter on a method in ViewB).
Related
Suppose I have a Windows WPF application (SampleApp) that is using IoC (Ninject). I have wired up everything in my composition root as follows.
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
IKernel kernel = new StandardKernel();
var modules = new List<NinjectModule>
{
new ExternalDependencies(),
new DependencyResolver()
};
kernel.Load(modules);
var mainWindow = kernel.Get<IMainWindow>();
mainWindow.ShowDialog();
kernel.Release(mainWindow);
kernel.Dispose();
}
The Conents of ExternalDependencies can be ignored for this example, but here are the contents of DependencyResolver which is for internal dependencies.
class DependencyResolver : NinjectModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Bind<IMainWindow>().To<MainWindow>().InSingletonScope();
Bind<IProductWindow>().To<Product>().InSingletonScope();
}
}
As you can see, I have MainWindow and Product wired up. The ctor on MainWindow looks as follows.
public MainWindow(IDomain<TaskFields, TaskExtFields, TaskEmbeds> task)
{
_task = task;
InitializeComponent();
}
We're all good to this point. However, now I am at the point where I would like to have actions in the main window (button clicks, menu selections, etc) open various other forms. For example I have a Product window as follows and I want a button click to open the window and wire everything up appropriately.
public Product(IDomain<ProductFields, ProductExtFields, ProductEmbeds> productDomain)
{
_productDomain = productDomain;
InitializeComponent();
}
Looking to keep my IoC from leaking out of the Main method. In other words I don't want the code to look like...
var productWindow = GlobalIoC.Get<IProductWindow>();
which would violate the three R's principle, require me to make the IoC global and leak information that I hope is not needed out into the rest of the code.
Right now I am dealing with 2 or 3 windows for testing - however in a final application I can see this growing to a larger number, say perhaps hundreds of windows each with their own backing viewmodels (when I get through this I will be implementing viewmodels), domain, data models, repositories, etc.
I have all of this working for the main form but I cannot wrap my head around how to properly wire everything up so that it's available, and stays in the composition root.
To be clear, this is currently a learning project (IoC, MVVM, DI)
Suggestions?
I am building composite WPF application using MVVM-light. I have Views that have ViewModels injected into them using MEF:
DataContext = App.Container.GetExportedValue<ViewModelBase>(
ViewModelTypes.ContactsPickerViewModel);
In addition, I have ViewModels for each View (Screens and UserControls), where constructor usually looks like this:
private readonly ICouchDataModel _couchModel;
[ImportingConstructor]
public ContactsPickerControlViewModel(ICouchDataModel couchModel)
{
_couchModel = couchModel;
_couchModel.GetContactsListCompleted+=GetContactsListCompleted;
_couchModel.GetConcatcsListAsync("Andy");
}
Currently, I have some performance issues. Everything is just slow.
I have 2 kind of related questions
What is the right way of calling DAL methods asynchronously (that access my couchdb)? await/async? Tasks? Because currently I have to write a lot of wrappers(OnBegin, OnCompletion) around each operation, I have GetAsyncResult method that does some crazy things with ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem , Action etc.
I hope there is the more elegant way of calling
Currently, I have some screens in my application and on each screen, there are different custom UserControls, some of them need same data (or slightly changed) from DB.
Questions: what is the right way to share datasource among them? I am mostly viewing data, not editing.
Example: On Screen A: I have Contacts dropdown list user control (UC1), and contact details user control(UC2). In each user control, their ViewModel is calling DAL:
_couchModel.GetConcatcsListAsync("Andy");
And on completion I assign result data to a property:
List<ContactInfo> ContactsList = e.Resuls;
ContactsList is binded to ItemsSource of DropDownListBox in UC1. The same story happens in UC2. So I end up with 2 exactly same calls to DB.
Also If I go to Screen B, where I have UC1, I’ll make another call to DB, when I’ll go to Screen B from Screen A.
What is the right way to making these interaction ? e.g. Getting Data and Binding it to UC.
Thank you.
Ad.1
I think you can simply use Task.Factory to invoke code asynchronously (because of that you can get rid off OnBegin, OnCompletion) or if you need more flexibility, than you can make methods async.
Ad. 2
The nice way (in my opinion) to do it is to create DatabaseService (singleton), which would be injected in a constructor. Inside DatabaseService you can implement some logic to determine whether you want to refresh a collection(call DAL) or return the same (it would be some kind of cache).
Then you can call DatabaseService instead of DAL directly and DatabaseService will decide what to do with this call (get collection from DB or return the same or slightly modified current collection).
Edit:
DatabaseService will simply share a collection of objects between ViewModels.
Maybe the name "DBCacheService" would be more appropriate (you will probably use it only for special tasks as caching collections).
I don't know your architecture, but basically you can put that service in your client application, so the plan would be:
Create DatabaseService.cs
[Export(typeof(IDatabaseService))]
public class DatabaseService : IDatabaseService
{
private List<object> _contacts = new List<object>();
public async Task<List<object>> GetConcatcsList(string name)
{
if (_contacts.Count == 0)
{
//call DAL to get it
//_contacts = await Task.Factory.StartNew(() => dal.GetContactsList(name));
}
else
{
//refresh list if required (there could be some condition)
}
return _contacts;
}
}
Add IDatabaseService to your ViewModel's constructor.
Call IDatabaseService instead of DAL.
If you choose async version of DatabaseService, then you'll need to use await and change your methods to async. You can do it also synchronously and call it (whenever you want it to be asynchronous) like that:
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
var result = dbService.GetContactsList("Andy");
});
Edit2:
invoking awaitable method inside Task:
Task.Factory.StartNew(async () =>
{
ListOfContacts = await _CouchModel.GetConatcsList ("Andy");
});
I have a page where you basically select a set of options (configuration), and then you go to a next page, where you do some stuff
Using the MVVM Light toolkit, I have a viewmodel that binds to the view of the first page. when the user hits a button, it redirects to another view, which would be the 2nd page
i.e.:
Page2Command = new DelegateCommand((obj) =>
Messenger.Default.Send<Uri>(new Uri("/DoStuffView.xaml", UriKind.Relative),
Common.CommonResources.GoToDoStuffRequest)) });
The problem is, the viewmodel for the 2nd view (the way that I see it) has a couple of parameters in the constructor, which are basically the dependencies on the configuration that was set on the first page.
i.e. :
public DoStuffViewModel(ICollection<Note> availableNotes, SoundMappers soundType)
{
}
The problem lies here.. How can I instantiate the viewmodel with this data that was dynamically selected by the user on the 1st page?.
I can't use the ViewModelLocator pattern that MVVM light provides, since those viewmodels don't have any dependencies, they are just by themselves (or they can retrieve data from a db, file or whatever, but they don't have any dynamic input data). I could do it through the view's constructor, instantiate there the viewmodel, and assign to the view's DataSource the newly created viewmodel, but I think that's not very nice to do.
suggestions?
As I see you send messsage using Messenger class so you are familiar with messaging in MVVM light. You have to define your own message type that should accept your parameters from page 1:
public class Page2ViewModelCreateMessage : MessageBase
{
public ICollection<Note> AvailableNotes{get;set;}
public SoundMappers SoundType{get;set;}
public Page2ViewModelCreateMessage ()
{
}
public Page2ViewModelCreateMessage(ICollection<Note> availableNotes, SoundMappers soundType)
{
this.AvailableNotes = availableNotes;
this.SoundType = soundType;
}
}
You have to send an Page2ViewModelCreateMessage instance with you parameters and send it on navigating:
var message = new Page2ViewModelCreateMessage(myAvailableNotes, mySoundType)
Messenger.Default.Send(message);
On Page2 you have to register for recieving message of type Page2ViewModelCreateMessage:
Messenger.Default.Register<Page2ViewModelCreateMessage>(this, OnPage2ViewModelCreateMessage);
..
public void OnPage2ViewModelCreateMessage(Page2ViewModelCreateMessage message)
{
var page2ViewModel = new Page2ViewModel(messsage.AvailableNotes, message.SoundType);
}
As you can see I have replace your DoStuffViewModel with Page2ViewModel to be more clear.
I hope this will help you.
NOTE:I dont guarantee that code will work as its written in notepad.
The way I do this is to have a central controller class that the ViewModels all know about, via an interface. I then set state into this before having the phone perform the navigation for me. Each ViewModel then interrogates this central class for the state it needs.
There are a number of benefits to this for me:
It allows me to have non-static ViewModels.
I can use Ninject to inject the concrete implementation of the controller class and have it scoped as a singleton.
Most importantly, when tombstoning, I only need to grab the current ViewModel and the controller class.
I ran into a problem with messaging where my ViewModel was the registered listener, because I was View First and not ViewModel First, I was forced to use static ViewModel references. Otherwise the ViewModel wasn't created in time to receive the message.
I use the controller class in conjunction with messages (it is basically the recipient of all messages around the UI) so in future if I refactor, I don't need to change much, just the recipients of the messages.
Come to think of it, the controller class is also my navigation sink - as I have some custom navigation code that skips back paging on certain pages etc.
Here's an example of my current set up:
public interface IController
{
Foo SelectedFoo { get; }
}
public class ViewModel
{
private IController _controller;
public ViewModel(IController controller)
{
_controller = controller;
}
private void LoadData()
{
// Using selected foo, we load the bars.
var bars = LoadBars(_controller.SelectedFoo);
}
}
You could use PhoneApplicationService dictionary to save data you need when navigation from first event, and parse it when you navigateTo second page. you can also use that data in your ViewModels.
Something like this:
PhoneApplicationService.Current.State["DatatFromFirstPage"] = data;
and when navigating to second page:
if (PhoneApplicationService.Current.State.ContainsKey("DatatFromFirstPage"))
{
var dataUsedOnSeconPage= PhoneApplicationService.Current.State["DatatFromFirstPage"];
}
you can use this data globally in entire app
I'm pretty new with Prism and after playing a bit around, there a few questions that arise. I'm trying to create a modular application that basically contains a map control in a shell window. The plugin modules offer different tools for interacting with the map. Some of the modules are pretty independent and simply display pins on the map.
1st question: How would RegionManager come into play for the module-specific classes (presenters) that must interact with the main map control? Usually in a RegionManager you register a specific view which is linked to a ViewModel, but in my case there is one single view (the map view) with multiple presenters acting on it.
2nd question: I need to be able to open several windows (shells) -- a bit like an MS Word document -- that should all be extended by the plugin modules. In a single-shell environment, when the module specific classes were instantiated, they could use the Dependency Injection Container to get a reference to the RegionManager or the Shell itself in order to get access to the map control. However with multiple shells, I don't see how to get access to the map control of the right shell. The dependency container has references to object global to the application, not specific for the shell I'm currently working in. Same is true for the EventAggregator.
Any input would be very welcome,
Ed
After hours of reading Prism-related articles and forums I've come across the article "How to build an outlook style application" on Erwin van der Valk's Blog - How to Build an Outlook Style Application.
In one part of the architecture, a Unity Child Container was used to resolve type instances. That's exactly what I needed for the answer to my 2nd question: I needed to have "scoped" (by window) dependency injection (ex: window scoped EventAggregator, Map control, etc.)
Here's how I create a new window:
private IShellWindow CreateNewShell(IRegionManager regionManager)
{
IUnityContainer childContainer = this.Container.CreateChildContainer();
... register types in child container ...
var window = new ShellWindow();
RegionManager.SetRegionManager(window, regionManager);
window.Content = childContainer.Resolve<MapDocumentView>();
return window;
}
So MapDocumentView and all its components will be injected (if needed) window-scoped instances.
Now that I can have scoped injected objects, I can get the window-scoped map in my module-based MapPresenter. To answer my 1st question, I defined an interface IHostApplication which is implemented by the Bootstrapper which has a MapPresenterRegistry property. This interface is added to the main container.
Upon initialization, the modules will register their presenters and upon the window creation, they will be instantiated.
So for the module initialization:
public void Initialize()
{
...
this.hostApplication.MapPresenterRegistry.Add(typeof(ModuleSpecificMapPresenter));
...
}
The code that initializes the map window:
private void View_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Register map in the == scoped container ==
container.RegisterInstance<IMap>(this.View.Map);
// Create map presenters
var hostApplication = this.container.Resolve<IHostApplication>();
foreach (var mapPresenterType in hostApplication.MapPresenterRegistry)
{
var mapPresenter = this.container.Resolve(mapPresenterType) as IMapPresenter;
if (mapPresenter != null)
{
this.mapPresenters.Add(mapPresenter);
}
}
}
The module-specific MapPresenter:
public ModuleSpecificMapPresenter(IEventAggregator eventAggregator, IMap map)
{
this.eventAggregator = eventAggregator;
this.map = map;
this.eventAggregator.GetEvent<AWindowSpecificEvent>().Subscribe(this.WindowSpecificEventFired);
// Do stuff on with the map
}
So those are the big lines of my solution. What I don't really like is that I don't take advantage of region management this way. I pretty much have custom code to do the work.
If you have any further thoughts, I would be happy to hear them out.
Eduard
You have one main view and many child views, and child views can be added by different modules.
I'm not sure that the RegionManager class can be applied in this situation, so I would create a separate global class IPinsCollectionState
which must be registered as singleton in the bootstrapper.
public interface IPin
{
Point Coordinates { get; }
IPinView View { get; }
//You can use a view model or a data template instead of the view interface, but this example is the simplest
}
public interface IPinsCollectionState
{
ObservableCollection<IPin> Pins { get; }
}
Your main view model and different modules can receive this interface as a constructor parameter:
public class MapViewModel
{
public MapViewModel(IPinsCollectionState collectionState)
{
foreach (var item in collectionState.Pins)
{ /* Do something */ };
collectionState.Pins.CollectionChanged += (s, e) => {/* Handle added or removed items in the future */};
}
//...
}
Example of a module view model:
public class Module1ViewModel
{
public Module1ViewModel(IPinsCollectionState collectionState)
{
//somewhere in the code
collectionState.Pins.Add(new Module1Pin());
}
}
The second question can be solved in many different ways:
Application.Current.Windows
A global MainViewModel which contains the list of ShellViewModels and if you add new view model it will be displayed in new window. The bootstrapper is single for all windows.
Some kind of shared state which is passed to the constructor of the bootstrapper.
I don't know how these windows are related between themselves, and I don't know which way is the best, maybe it is possible to write an application with separated windows.
I am working on a PRISM application where we drill down into the data (to get more details).
In my implementation I have a nested MVVM and when I navigate down the tree I would like to pass a model to a my newly created view.
As far as I know, currently PRISM allows to pass strings, but doesn't allow to pass objects. I would like to know what are the ways of overcoming this issue.
i usually use a service where i register the objects i want to be passed with a guid. these get stored in a hashtable and when navigating in prism i pass the guid as a parameter which can then be used to retrieve the object.
hope this makes sense to you!
I would use the OnNavigatedTo and OnNavigatedFrom methods to pass on the objects using the NavigationContext.
First derive the viewmodel from INavigationAware interface -
public class MyViewModel : INavigationAware
{ ...
You can then implement OnNavigatedFrom and set the object you want to pass as navigation context as follows -
void INavigationAware.OnNavigatedFrom(NavigationContext navigationContext)
{
SharedData data = new SharedData();
...
navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context = data;
}
and when you want to receive the data, add the following piece of code in the second view model -
void INavigationAware.OnNavigatedTo(NavigationContext navigationContext)
{
if (navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context != null)
{
if (navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context is SharedData)
{
SharedData data = (SharedData)navigationContext.NavigationService.Region.Context;
...
}
}
}
ps. mark this as answer if this helps.
PRISM supports supplying parameters:
var para = new NavigationParameters { { "SearchResult", result } };
_regionManager.RequestNavigate(ShellRegions.DockedRight, typeof(UI.SearchResultView).FullName, OnNavigationCompleted, para);
and implement the INavigationAware interface on your View, ViewModel or both.
you can also find details here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg430861%28v=pandp.40%29.aspx