WPF + MvvM + Prism - wpf

Question

I am new in the Wpf & Mvvm world , but I have found a couple of examples and just found that there is some different way to instantiate the model. I would like to know the best/correct way to do it. both ways are using Unity
What I've foud:
var navigatorView = new MainView();
navigatorView.DataContext = m_Container.Resolve<INavigatorViewModel>();
m_RegionManager.Regions["NavigatorRegion"].Add(navigatorView);
What I did:
var navigatorView = m_Container.Resolve<MainView>;
m_RegionManager.Regions["NavigatorRegion"].Add(navigatorView);
and I changed the constructor to receive viewmodel so I can point the datacontext to it:
public MainView(NavigatorViewModel navigatorViewModel)
{
this.DataContext = navigatorViewModel;
}
Other examples I've found another way like:
...vm = new viewmodel
...m = new model
v.model = vm;
get/set DataContext
cheers

Answer 1

I like Igor's suggestion, but without the viewmodel having knowledge of the view. I prefer my dependencies to go one direction (View -> ViewModel -> Model).
What I do is ViewModel-First and just DataTemplate the viewmodel. So I do this:
MainViewModel mainViewModel = container.Resolve<MainViewModel>();
region.Add(mainViewModel, "MainView");
region.Activate(mainViewModel);
With the addition of the ViewModel -> View mapping done with a WPF datatemplate (I don't think this approach is possible with Silverlight, though)
App.xaml:
<Application.Resources>
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type viewModels:MainViewModel}">
<views:MainView />
</DataTemplate>
</Application.Resources>
That's it! I love this approach. I like the way it feels like magic. It also has the following advantages:
Don't have to modify constructors to suit the mapping
Don't have to register type for IMyViewModel in the container... you can work with concrete types. I like to keep my registrations to application services like IViewRegistry or ILogger... those kinds of things
You can change the mapping using resources scoped to a particular view that a region is in (this is nice if you want to reuse your ViewModels but want them to look different in different areas of the application

Answer 2

What you got there makes sense and in both cases is a View-first approach to creating a viewmodel. I.e. the view creates the ViewModel. In the original example the viewmodel is created outside of the view (and is sometimes referred to as marriage pattern), but as far as I am concerned that's the same thing - creation of the view creates the ViewModel.
If this suits your needs stick with it. Another approach you might look into is ViewModel first where the viewmodel takes a dependency on the view like so:
//In the bare-bones(i.e. no WPF dependencies) common interface assembly
interfac IView {
void ApplyViewModel(object viewmodel);
}
interface IMainView : IView {
//this interface can actually be empty.
//It's only used to map to implementation.
}
//In the ViewModel assembly
class MainViewModel {
public MainViewModel(IMainView view) {
view.ApplyViewModel(this);
}
}
public partial class MainView : UserControl, IMainView {
void ApplyViewModel(object viewmodel){
DataContext = viewmodel;
}
}
Then you can inject this view like so:
IRegion region = regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"];
//This might look strange as we are resolving the class to itself, not an interface to the class
//This is OK, we want to take advantage of the DI container
//to resolve the viewmodel's dependencies for us,
//not just to resolve an interface to the class.
MainViewModel mainViewModel = container.Resolve<MainViewModel>();
region.Add(mainViewModel.View, "MainView");
region.Activate(ordersView.View);