I am very new to WPF and MVVM Pattern. I even have no experience on windows.
I have Created Simple login window
_ Login.xaml, LoginViewModel.cs
_ Dashboard.xaml, DashboardViewModel.cs
After Login Successfully - ( In Login time we will select Language also )
I am Displaying Username & Selected Language in Dashboard window
I wrote code like this:
public partial class App : Application
{
protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
{
base.OnStartup(e);
try
{
var login = new Login();
var loginVM = new LoginViewModel();
Dashboard main = null;
loginVM.LoginCompleted += (sender, args) =>
{
DashboardViewModel dvModel = new DashboardViewModel(loginVM);
main = new Dashboard();
main.DataContext = dvModel;
main.ShowDialog();
login.Hide();
};
login.DataContext = loginVM;
login.ShowDialog();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw ex;
}
}
In Dashboard Window it is displaying username and Language successfully.
But my problem is those two (Username & Language) properties I want to use in dashboard codebehind for update the layout based on language & other xaml files or other viewmodels . How to do that one ?
Technically I want to use Loginviewmodel object in all viewmodels.
Based on Selected Language I want to update Layout.
Note: Is this login approach good ? Is there any alternative for Globalization in MVVM pattern ?
Using a ViewModel for login is perfectly valid. I would perhaps create a token in your loginVM to pass around the system, depending on your needs. That token should be passed into the constructors of your other viewmodels from your main view model (DashboardViewModel?). This can be resolved using any decent IoC container.
For globalization/localization, I would use resources (in satellite assemblies). We've experimented with various things, and found that we didn't like the WPF UUIDs added everywhere when using LocBaml. And storing translation is a database quickly became a performance hog (even when loading in bulk). This does require you to find your labels etc. to a resource manager, but in my opinion, it is worth it.
Take a look at this article, for a nice extension, that enables you to simply write:
<TextBlock Text="{Resx MyText}"/>
And it will be translated using resource files.
An alterative approach is to simply store the Username and Language is a static property. I know most people don't like globals, but something like this is in nature very global, and you will still be able to inject it in if you so desire. The downside of this approach is that your unit tests would have to setup this static variable first.
EDIT An example of the static approach:
public static class RuntimeInfo {
public static string UserName { get; set; }
public static CultureInfo UserCulture { get; set; }
}
In your loginVM, simply store the necessary values in a static class. This can be accessed anywhere needed. This is not as 'correct' as the previous approach, but it can be more pragmatic than having to pass the username into every single ViewModel in your application.
I still recommend injection through an IoC container though.
See the next post. This original one question content has been removed, as doesn't have any sense. Briefly, I asked how to bind XML (which I generated by mistake while parsing DLL assembly) to TreeView using XmlDataProvider in MVVM way. But later I understood that this approach was wrong, and I switched to generation of data entity model (just write classes which represent all the entities I would like to expose in the tree) instead of XML.
So, the result in the next post. Currently from time to time I update this "article", so F5, and
Enjoy reading!
Introduction
The right way I had found reading this article
It's a long story, most of you just can skip it :) But those, who want to understand the problem and solution, must read this all !
I'm QA, and some time ago had become responsible for Automation of the product I clicks. Fortunately, this automaton takes place not in some Testing Tool, but in Visual Studio, so it is maximally close to development.
For our automation we use a framework which consist of MbUnit (Gallio as runner) and of MINT (addition to MbUnit, which is written by the customer we work with). MbUnit gives us Test Fixtures and Tests, and MINT adds additional smaller layer -- Actions inside tests. Example. Fixture is called 'FilteringFixture'. It consist of amount of tests like 'TestingFilteringById', or 'TestingFilteringWithSpecialChars', etc. Each test consist of actions, which are atomic unit of our test. Example of actions are - 'Open app (parameter)', 'OpenFilterDialog', etc.
We already have a lot of tests, which contain a lot of actions, it's a mess. They use internal API of the product we QA. Also, we start investigation a new Automation approach - UI automation via Microsoft UI Automation (sorry for tautology). So the necessity of some "exporter", or "reporter" tool became severe for managers.
Some time ago I have got a task to develop some application, which can parse a DLL (which contains all the fixtures, tests and actions), and export its structure in the human readable format (TXT, HTML, CSV, XML, any other). But, right after that, I went to vacation (2 weeks).
It happens so, that my girlfriend went to her family until vacation (she also got it), and I remained at home so alone. Thinking what me to do all this time (2 weeks), I remember about that "write exporter tool task" and how long I have been planning to start learning WPF. So, I decided to make my task during vacation, and also dress a application to WPF. At that time I heard something about MVVM, and I decided to implement it using pure MVVM.
DLL which can parse DLL with fixrtures etc had been written rather fast (~1-2 days). After that I had started with WPF, and this article will show you how it ended.
I have spent a major part of my vacation (almost 8 days!), trying to sorted it out in my head and code, and finally, it is done (almost). My girlfriend would not believe what I was doing all this time, but I have a proof!
Sharing my solution step by step in pseudo code, to help others avoid similar problems. This answer is more looks like tutorial =) (Really?). If you are interested what were the most complicated things while learning WPF from scratch, I would say -- make it all really MVVM and f*g TreeView binding!
If you want an archived file with solution, I can give it a bit later, just when I have made a decision, that it is worth of that. One limitation, I'm not sure I may share the MINT.dll, which brings Actions, as it has been developed by the customer of our company. But I can just remove it, and share the application, which can display information about Fixtures and Tests only, but not about actions.
Boastful words. With just a little C# / WinForms / HTML background and no practice I have been able to implement this version of the application in almost 1 week (and write this article). So, impossible is possible! Just take a vacation like me, and spend it to WPF learning!
Step by step tutorial (w/o attached files yet)
Short repetition of the task:
Some time ago I have got a task to develop an application, which can parse a DLL (which contains test fixtures, test methods and actions - units of our unit testing based automation framework), and export its structure in the human readable format (TXT, HTML, CSV, XML, any other). I decided to implement it using WPF and pure MVVM (both were absolutely new things for me). The 2 most difficult problems for me became MVVM approach itself, and then MVVM binding to TreeView control. I skip the part about MVVM division, it's a theme for separate article. The steps below are about binding to TreeView in MVVM way.
Not so important: Create DLL which can open DLL with unit tests and finds fixtures, test methods and actions (more smaller level of unit test, written in our company) using reflection. If you are interested in how it had been done, look here: Parsing function / method content using Reflection
DLL: Separated classes are created for both fixtures, tests and actions (data model, entity model?).We'll use them for binding. You should think by yourself, what will be an entity model for your tree. Main idea - each level of tree should be exposed by appropriate class, with those properties, which help you to represent the model in the tree (and, ideally, will take right place in your MVVM, as model or part of the model). In my case, I was interested in entity name, list of children and ordinal number. Ordinal number is a number, which represents order of an entity in the code inside DLL. It helps me show ordinal number in the TreeView, still not sure it's right approach, but it works!
public class MintFixutre : IMintEntity
{
private readonly string _name;
private readonly int _ordinalNumber;
private readonly List<MintTest> _tests = new List<MintTest>();
public MintFixutre(string fixtureName, int ordinalNumber)
{
_name = fixtureName;
if (ordinalNumber <= 0)
throw new ArgumentException("Ordinal number must begin from 1");
_ordinalNumber = ordinalNumber;
}
public List<MintTest> Tests
{
get { return _tests; }
}
public string Name { get { return _name; }}
public bool IsParent { get { return true; } }
public int OrdinalNumber { get { return _ordinalNumber; } }
}
public class MintTest : IMintEntity
{
private readonly string _name;
private readonly int _ordinalNumber;
private readonly List<MintAction> _actions = new List<MintAction>();
public MintTest(string testName, int ordinalNumber)
{
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(testName))
throw new ArgumentException("Test name cannot be null or space filled");
_name = testName;
if (ordinalNumber <= 0)
throw new ArgumentException("OrdinalNumber must begin from 1");
_ordinalNumber = ordinalNumber;
}
public List<MintAction> Actions
{
get { return _actions; }
}
public string Name { get { return _name; } }
public bool IsParent { get { return true; } }
public int OrdinalNumber { get { return _ordinalNumber; } }
}
public class MintAction : IMintEntity
{
private readonly string _name;
private readonly int _ordinalNumber;
public MintAction(string actionName, int ordinalNumber)
{
_name = actionName;
if (ordinalNumber <= 0)
throw new ArgumentException("Ordinal numbers must begins from 1");
_ordinalNumber = ordinalNumber;
}
public string Name { get { return _name; } }
public bool IsParent { get { return false; } }
public int OrdinalNumber { get { return _ordinalNumber; } }
}
BTW, I also created an interface below, which implement all the entities. Such interface can help you in the future. Still not sure, should I was also add there Childrens property of List<IMintEntity> type, or something like that?
public interface IMintEntity
{
string Name { get; }
bool IsParent { get; }
int OrdinalNumber { get; }
}
DLL - building data model: DLL has a method which opens DLL with unit tests and enumerating data. During enumeration, it builds a data model like below. Real method example is given, reflection core + Mono.Reflection.dll are used, don't be confused with complexity. All that you need - look how the method fills _fixtures list with entities.
private void ParseDllToEntityModel()
{
_fixutres = new List<MintFixutre>();
// enumerating Fixtures
int f = 1;
foreach (Type fixture in AssemblyTests.GetTypes().Where(t => t.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestFixtureAttribute), false).Length > 0))
{
var tempFixture = new MintFixutre(fixture.Name, f);
// enumerating Test Methods
int t = 1;
foreach (var testMethod in fixture.GetMethods().Where(m => m.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestAttribute), false).Length > 0))
{
// filtering Actions
var instructions = testMethod.GetInstructions().Where(
i => i.OpCode.Name.Equals("newobj") && ((ConstructorInfo)i.Operand).DeclaringType.IsSubclassOf(typeof(BaseAction))).ToList();
var tempTest = new MintTest(testMethod.Name, t);
// enumerating Actions
for ( int a = 1; a <= instructions.Count; a++ )
{
Instruction action = instructions[a-1];
string actionName = (action.Operand as ConstructorInfo).DeclaringType.Name;
var tempAction = new MintAction(actionName, a);
tempTest.Actions.Add(tempAction);
}
tempFixture.Tests.Add(tempTest);
t++;
}
_fixutres.Add(tempFixture);
f++;
}
}
DLL: Public property Fixtures of the List<MintFixutre> type is created to return just created data model ( List of Fixtures, which contain lists of tests, which contains lists of Actions ). This will be our binding source for TreeView.
public List<MintFixutre> Fixtures
{
get { return _fixtures; }
}
ViewModel of MainWindow (with TreeView inside): Contains object / class from DLL which can parse unit tests DLLs. Also exposes Fixtures public property from the DLL of List<MintFixutre> type. We will bind to it from XAML of MainWindow. Something like that (simplified):
var _exporter = MySuperDllReaderExporterClass ();
// public property of ViewModel for TreeView, which returns property from #4
public List<MintFixture> Fixtures { get { return _exporter.Fixtures; }}
// Initializing exporter class, ParseDllToEntityModel() is called inside getter
// (from step #3). Cool, we have entity model for binding.
_exporter.PathToDll = #"open file dialog can help";
// Notifying all those how are bound to the Fixtures property, there are work for them, TreeView, are u listening?
// will be faced later in this article, anticipating events
OnPropertyChanged("Fixtures");
XAML of MainWindow - Setup data templates: Inside a Grid, which contains TreeView, we create <Grid.Resources> section, which contains a set of templates for our TreeViewItems. HierarchicalDataTemplate (Fixtures and Tests) is used for those who have child items, and DataTemplate is used for "leaf" items (Actions). For each template, we specify which its Content (text, TreeViewItem image, etc.), ItemsSource (in case of this item has children, e.g. for Fixtures it is {Binding Path=Tests}), and ItemTemplate (again, only in case this item has children, here we set linkage between templates - FixtureTemplate uses TestTemplate for its children, TestTemplate uses ActionTemplate for its children, Action template does not use anything, it is a leaf!). IMPORTANT: Don't forget, that in order to "link" "one" template to "another", the "another" template must be defined in XAML above the "one"! (just enumerating my own blunders :) )
XAML - TreeView linkage: We setup TreeView with: linking with data model from ViewModel (remember public property?) and with just prepared templates, which represent content, appearance, data sources and nesting of tree items! One more important note. Don't define your ViewModel as "static" resource inside XAML, like <Window.Resources><MyViewModel x:Key="DontUseMeForThat" /></Window.Resources>. If you do so, then you won't be able to notify it on property changed. Why? Static resource is static resource, it initializes ones, and after that remains immutable. I might be wrong here, but it was one of my blunders. So for TreeView use ItemsSource="{Binding Fixtures}" instead of ItemsSource="{StaticResource myStaticViewModel}"
ViewModel - ViewModelBase - Property Changed: Almost all. Stop! When user opens an application, then initially TreeView is empty of course, as user hasn't opened any DLL yet! We must wait until user opens a DLL, and only then perform binding. It is done via OnPropertyChanged event. To make life easier, all my ViewModels are inherited from ViewModelBase, which right exposes this functionality to all my ViewModel.
public class ViewModelBase : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(PropertyChangedEventArgs args)
{
var handler = PropertyChanged;
if (handler != null)
handler(this, args);
}
}
XAML - OnPropertyChanged and commanding. User clicks a button to opens DLL which contains unit tests data. As we using MVVM, then click is handled via commanding. At the end of the OpenDllExecuted handler OnPropertyChanged("Fixtures") is executed, notifying the Tree, that the property, to which it is bind to has been changed, and that now is time to refresh itself. RelayCommand helper class can be taken for example from there). BTW, as I know, there are some helper libraries and toolkits exist Something like that happens in the XAML:
And ViewModel - Commanding
private ICommand _openDllCommand;
//...
public ICommand OpenDllCommand
{
get { return _openDllCommand ?? (_openDllCommand = new RelayCommand(OpenDllExecuted, OpenDllCanExecute)); }
}
//...
// decides, when the <OpenDll> button is enabled or not
private bool OpenDllCanExecute(object obj)
{
return true; // always true for Open DLL button
}
//...
// in fact, handler
private void OpenDllExecuted(object obj)
{
var openDlg = new OpenFileDialog { ... };
_pathToDll = openDlg.FileName;
_exporter.PathToDll = _pathToDll;
// Notifying TreeView via binding that the property <Fixtures> has been changed,
// thereby forcing the tree to refresh itself
OnPropertyChanged("Fixtures");
}
Final UI (but not final for me, a lot of things should be done!). Extended WPF toolkit was used somewhere: http://wpftoolkit.codeplex.com/
I am using a WebBrowser component in WPF to host some JavaScript + HTML and I want to be able to pass a customisable object in as the ObjectForScripting property. My end goal is that the javascript running in the WebBrowser can call something like:
window.external['lookup'].getValue(someId);
I can achieve something close to this by implementing a class with ComVisible set to true that has a lookup property on it:
[ComVisible(true)]
public class ScriptingContext
{
public LookupService lookup { get; set; } //where LookupService is also ComVisible
}
However, I want to be flexible about the members on the ObjectForScripting that I'm passing in so I can't specify what each property will be beforehand.
Ideally I would like to just specify a name-object pair to pass in, but afaict this doesn't work.
What I have tried (and failed with) so far:
using a Dictionary<string,object> as my context
using an extension of Dictionary<string,object> that is marked as ComVisible
using an ExpandoObject
using a List<KeyValuePair<string,object>>
using an extension of List<KeyValuePair<string,object>> that is marked as ComVisible
Is there some way to pass a customisable ObjectForScripting into the WPF WebBrowser that I am missing?
I'm not sure what you mean by customisable, but there's plenty of ways to accomplish what you're going for, such as building a wrapper for your dictionary and having that be your ObjectForScripting:
[ComVisible(true)]
public class ScriptingContext
{
private Dictionary<string, object> objectsForScripting;
public object GetValue(string s)
{
return objectsForScripting[s];
}
}
With the corresponding javascript window.external.GetValue("lookup").getValue(someId).
Note that you can also pass ComVisible objects to javascript through the InvokeScript method and interact with them that way, using something like webBrowser.InvokeScript("RegisterProperty", "lookup", lookupObject) and manage the objects you're exposing on the javascript side.
I 'm fairly new to Prism and I 'm currently re-writing one of our existing applications using Prism as a proof of concept project.
The application uses MVVM with a ViewModel first approach: our ViewModel is resolved by the container, and an IViewResolver service figures out what view it should be wired up to (using name conventions amongst other things).
The code (to add a view to a tab control) at the moment looks something like this:
var vm = (get ViewModel from somewhere)
IRegion reg = _regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"];
var vw = _viewResolver.FromViewModel(vm); // Spins up a view and sets its DataContext
reg.Add(vw);
reg.Activate(vw);
This all works fine, however I 'd really like to use the Prism navigation framework to do all this stuff for me so that I can do something like this:
_regionManager.RequestNavigate(
"MainRegion",
new Uri("NameOfMyViewModel", UriKind.Relative)
);
and have Prism spin up the ViewModel + View, set up the DataContext and insert the view into the region.
I 've had some success by creating DataTemplates referencing the ViewModel types, e.g.:
<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Module01">
<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:TestViewModel}">
<local:TestView />
</DataTemplate>
</ResourceDictionary>
...and have the module add the relevant resource dictionary into the applications resources when the module is initialized, but that seems a bit rubbish.
Is there a way to effectively take over view creation from Prism, so that when RequestNavigate is called I can look at the supplied Uri and spin up the view / viewmodel based on that? There’s an overload of RegionManager.RegisterViewWithRegion that takes a delegate that allows you to supply a view yourself, and I guess I’m after something like that.
I think I might need to supply my own IRegionBehaviorFactory, but am unsure what's involved (or even if I am on the right path!).
Any help appreciated!
--
note: Originally posted over at the prism codeplex site
Sure you can do that. I 've found that Prism v4 is really extensible, if only you know where to plug in.
In this case, you want your own custom implementation of IRegionNavigationContentLoader.
Here's how to set things up in your bootstrapper (the example is from a subclass of UnityBootstrapper from one of my own projects):
protected override void ConfigureContainer()
{
// IMPORTANT: Due to the inner workings of UnityBootstrapper, accessing
// ServiceLocator.Current here will throw an exception!
// If you want access to IServiceLocator, resolve it from the container directly.
base.ConfigureContainer();
// Set up our own content loader, passing it a reference to the service locator
// (it will need this to resolve ViewModels from the container automatically)
this.Container.RegisterInstance<IRegionNavigationContentLoader>(
new ViewModelContentLoader(this.Container.Resolve<IServiceLocator>()));
}
The ViewModelContentLoader itself derives from RegionNavigationContentLoader to reuse code, and will look something like this:
public class ViewModelContentLoader : RegionNavigationContentLoader
{
private readonly IServiceLocator serviceLocator;
public ViewModelContentLoader(IServiceLocator serviceLocator)
: base(serviceLocator)
{
this.serviceLocator = serviceLocator;
}
// THIS IS CALLED WHEN A NEW VIEW NEEDS TO BE CREATED
// TO SATISFY A NAVIGATION REQUEST
protected override object CreateNewRegionItem(string candidateTargetContract)
{
// candidateTargetContract is e.g. "NameOfMyViewModel"
// Just a suggestion, plug in your own resolution code as you see fit
var viewModelType = this.GetTypeFromName(candidateTargetContract);
var viewModel = this.serviceLocator.GetInstance(viewModelType);
// get ref to viewResolver somehow -- perhaps from the container?
var view = _viewResolver.FromViewModel(vm);
return view;
}
// THIS IS CALLED TO DETERMINE IF THERE IS ANY EXISTING VIEW
// THAT CAN SATISFY A NAVIGATION REQUEST
protected override IEnumerable<object>
GetCandidatesFromRegion(IRegion region, string candidateNavigationContract)
{
if (region == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("region");
}
// Just a suggestion, plug in your own resolution code as you see fit
var viewModelType = this.GetTypeFromName(candidateNavigationContract);
return region.Views.Where(v =>
ViewHasDataContract((FrameworkElement)v, viewModelType) ||
string.Equals(v.GetType().Name, candidateNavigationContract, StringComparison.Ordinal) ||
string.Equals(v.GetType().FullName, candidateNavigationContract, StringComparison.Ordinal));
}
// USED IN MY IMPLEMENTATION OF GetCandidatesFromRegion
private static bool
ViewHasDataContract(FrameworkElement view, Type viewModelType)
{
var dataContextType = view.DataContext.GetType();
return viewModelType.IsInterface
? dataContextType.Implements(viewModelType)
: dataContextType == viewModelType
|| dataContextType.GetAncestors().Any(t => t == viewModelType);
}
// USED TO MAP STRINGS OF VIEWMODEL TYPE NAMES TO ACTUAL TYPES
private Type GetTypeFromName(string typeName)
{
// here you need to map the string type to a Type object, e.g.
// "NameOfMyViewModel" => typeof(NameOfMyViewModel)
return typeof(NameOfMyViewModel); // hardcoded for simplicity
}
}
To stop some confusion about "ViewModel first approach":
You use more a "controller approach", but no "ViewModel first approach". A "ViewModel first approach" is, when you inject your View in your ViewModel, but you wire up both, your ViewModel and View, through a third party component (a controller), what by the way is the (I dont want to say "best", but) most loosely coupled approach.
But to answer your Question:
A possible solution is to write an Extension for the Prism RegionManager that does exactly what you have described above:
public static class RegionManagerExtensions
{
public static void AddToRegion<TViewModel>(
this IRegionManager regionManager, string region)
{
var viewModel = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<TViewModel>();
FrameworkElement view;
// Get View depending on your conventions
if (view == null) throw new NullReferenceException("View not found.");
view.DataContext = viewModel;
regionManager.AddToRegion(region, view);
regionManager.Regions[region].Activate(view);
}
}
then you can call this method like this:
regionManager.AddToRegion<IMyViewModel>("MyRegion");
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.