Master page but for Regions? - wpf

Question

I have a RibbonBar with four buttons, each of which selects a different view and injects it into the MainRegion. Right now, it's working well but each of the four views have a few controls in common e.g. Displaying the username, date/time, search box etc. As of now, I've made separate views but I would like to know if there is a way of implementing a Master Page/UserControl so that I don't have to repeat code.
So the design, right now, is like so:
Shell
<Window>
<Grid>
<DockPanel>
<RibbonBar Regions:RegionManager.RegionName="ToolbarRegion">
</RibbonBar>
<ContentControl Regions:RegionManager.RegionName="MainRegion">
</ContentControl>
</DockPanel>
</Grid>
</Window>
The ToolbarRegion contains the RibbonBar with the four buttons.
Each Button will inject a view into the MainRegion. Each of these views has some common controls (much like a Master Page in ASP.Net), but the content of each view is different.
There are ways to work around this (I can't change the Shell design) but I was wondering if there was a better, more elegant way to do this.

Answer 1

I like using the Prism framework, however I feel that their Regions should only be used for Application Layout (MenuRegion, NavigationRegion, ContentRegion, etc), and not Navigation. Using them for Navigation means letting the View control the application flow, and I feel that is a job for the ViewModels.
My preferred method for displaying changing content is with DataTemplates and ContentControls
To create something like you outlined, I would have a parent ViewModel which contains
ObservableCollection<IPageViewModel> PageViewModels
IPageViewModel SelectedPageViewModel
The area I wanted to display the dynamic content would use a ContentControl such as this:
<ContentControl Content="{Binding SelectedPage" />
And DataTemplates would be used to tell WPF how to draw each section
<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Page1ViewModel}">
<local:Page1View />
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Page2ViewModel}">
<local:Page2View />
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Page3ViewModel}">
<local:Page3View />
</DataTemplate>
I have not used a RibbonBar before, however it sounds like it should allow for an ItemsSource so your final XAML should probably look something similar to this:
<Window>
<Grid>
<DockPanel>
<RibbonBar ItemsSource="{Binding PageViewModels}"
SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedPageViewModel}"
DockPanel.Dock="Top" ...>
</RibbonBar>
<StackPanel>
<Grid>
... Generic Content
</Grid>
<ContentControl Content="{Binding SelectedPageViewModel}">
<ContentControl.Resources>
<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Page1ViewModel}">
<local:Page1View />
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Page2ViewModel}">
<local:Page2View />
</DataTemplate>
<DataTemplate TargetType="{x:Type local:Page3ViewModel}">
<local:Page3View />
</DataTemplate>
</ContentControl.Resources>
</ContentControl>
</StackPanel>
</DockPanel>
</Grid>
</Window>

Answer 2

Content of your Shell.xaml:
<Window ...>
<StackPanel>
<Grid>
<!-- Your shared content -->
</Grid>
<ContentControl prism:RegionManager.RegionName="MainRegion"/>
</StackPanel>
</Window>