Here's my scenario:
Shell with 1 TabControl and 1 region called MenuRegion
MenuRegion contains Buttons for each of the available modules (applications).
I want to achieve the following using Prism (Composite Application Library for WPF): When one of the buttons is clicked, I need to add a new TabItem to the TabControl, and load and individual instance of the corresponding module (application) inside this TabItem.
One module may appear several times in the TabControl.
I really appreciate your answer. But I don't believe you're using Prism (http://www.codeplex.com/CompositeWPF) are you? My question was more related to Prism, and I've edited it to be more clear now.
In Prism you dynamically load modules' views into regions. I am not sure how to do that in my scenario because the regions are to be set dynamically. How would I name them?
Thanks!
I'm new to this PRISM world (1 week experience :)) ) and had the same requirement!
First of all you have to get the Regionextensions from here.
The solution to my (may be your) problem is as follows:
have 2 regions (menu and tabcontrol - for mdi like behaviour)
tabitem header has to be prepared with a button for closing (which is bound to a command for closing this tabitem-actually hiding this tabitem)
send event from menu item to the module which should load the view (I've instantiated the modules on demand). In the module's initialize method subscribe to the event sent by the menu item. In the event handling method you simply re-show the tabitem
If this is to abstract to you I can send you a skeleton application I've developed to play around.
We do something similar, though we have the tab items already created (with no content) and show/hide as appropriate. When the tab item is selected, then we load the tab content.
private void TabControl_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.OriginalSource != sender) return;
TabControl tabControl = (TabControl)sender;
TabItem tabItem = (TabItem)tabControl.SelectedItem;
if (!tabItem.HasContent)
AddTabContent(tabItem); // This will cause a refresh once the content is loaded.
else
Refresh(tabItem);
}
private void AddTabContent(TabItem tabItem)
{
IOptimusPage page = tabItem.Tag as IOptimusPage;
//This allows lazy loading of controls
if (page != null)
{
if (!tabItem.HasContent)
{
CustomerEngagementUserControl control = page.GetControl(DataContext as CustomerEngagementUIObject, Services);
tabItem.Content = control;
}
}
}
The tab item content is specified in the tab item tag, using pages which are responsible for creating the content.
<TabItem
Header="Personal Background"
Style="{StaticResource FirstBreadcrumbTabItem}"
x:Name="PersonalBackgroundTab">
<TabItem.Tag>
<Pages:FfnaPersonalBackgroundPage />
</TabItem.Tag>
</TabItem>
The page creates the control.
class FfnaPersonalBackgroundPage : IOptimusPage
{
#region IOptimusPage Members
public CustomerEngagementUserControl GetControl(CustomerEngagementUIObject dataContext, CustomerEngagementServices services)
{
CustomerEngagementUserControl control = new FfnaPersonalBackgroundControl();
control.DataContext = dataContext;
control.Services = services;
return control;
}
#endregion
}
You could use a similar technique to create your tab items on the fly.
I know it's quite late a response but I am doing something similar, although haven't achieved the full solution yet.
This code happens on the click event of a button which I am handling in the presenter. The module is defined in the config file.
ModuleInfo moduleInfoObject = this.moduleEnumerator.GetModule("ModuleA");
Assembly assembly = this.LoadAssembly(moduleInfoObject);
Type type = assembly.GetType(moduleInfoObject.ModuleType);
IModule aModule = this.CreateModule(type);
aModule.Initialize();
// - - - -Helper Methods - - - -
// - - - LoadAssembly - - -
private Assembly LoadAssembly(ModuleInfo moduleInfo)
{
string assemblyFile = moduleInfo.AssemblyFile;
assemblyFile = this.GetModulePath(assemblyFile);
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(assemblyFile);
Assembly assembly;
try
{
assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(file.FullName);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new ModuleLoadException(null, assemblyFile, ex.Message, ex);
}
return assembly;
} // LoadAssembly(moduleInfo)
// - - - CreateModule - - -
private IModule CreateModule(Type type)
{
return (IModule)containerFacade.Resolve(type);
} // CreateModule(type)
// - - - GetModulePath - - -
private string GetModulePath(string assemblyFile)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(assemblyFile))
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("assemblyFile");
} // if
if (Path.IsPathRooted(assemblyFile) == false)
{
assemblyFile = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, assemblyFile);
} // if
return assemblyFile;
} // GetModulePath(assemblyFile)
Related
I'm creating a WPF MVVM app using Caliburn Micro. I have a set of buttons in a menu (Ribbon) that live in the view for my shell view model, which is a ScreenConductor. Based on the currently active Screen view model, I would like to have the ribbon buttons be disabled/enabled if they are available for use with the active Screen, and call actions or commands on the active Screen.
This seems like a common scenario. Is there a pattern for creating this behavior?
Why don't you do the reverse thing, instead of checking which commands are supported by the current active screen, let the active screen populate the menu or ribbon tab with all the controls that it supports, (i would let it inject its own user control which might just be a complete menu or a ribbon tab all by itself), this will also enhance the user experience as it will only show the user the controls that he can work with for the current active screen.
EDIT: Just looking at your question again and I'm thinking that this is much simpler than it looks
The only issue I can see you having is that a lack of a handler (and guard) method on a child VM will mean that buttons that don't have an implementation on the currently active VM will still be enabled.
The default strategy for CM is to try and find a matching method name (after parsing the action text) and if one is not found, to leave the button alone. If you were to customise that behaviour so that the default is for buttons to be disabled, you could easily get it working by just implementing the command buttons in your shell, making sure to set the command target to the active item:
In the shell define your buttons, making sure they have a target that points to the active child VM
<Button cal:Message.Attach="Command1" cal:Action.TargetWithoutContext="{Binding ActiveItem}" />
Then just implement the method in your child VM as per usual
public void Command1() { }
and optionally a CanXX guard
public bool CanCommand1
{
get
{
if(someCondition) return false;
return true;
}
}
Assuming you don't get much more complex than this, it should work for you
I'm going to have a quick look at the CM source and see if I can come up with something that works for this
EDIT:
Ok you can customise the ActionMessage.ApplyAvailabilityEffect func to get the effect you want - in your bootstrapper.Configure() method (or somewhere at startup) use:
ActionMessage.ApplyAvailabilityEffect = context =>
{
var source = context.Source;
if (ConventionManager.HasBinding(source, UIElement.IsEnabledProperty))
{
return source.IsEnabled;
}
if (context.CanExecute != null)
{
source.IsEnabled = context.CanExecute();
}
// Added these 3 lines to get the effect you want
else if (context.Target == null)
{
source.IsEnabled = false;
}
// EDIT: Bugfix - need this to ensure the button is activated if it has a target but no guard
else
{
source.IsEnabled = true;
}
return source.IsEnabled;
};
This seems to work for me - there is no target for methods which couldn't be bound to a command, so in that case I just set IsEnabled to false. This activates buttons only when a method with a matching signature is found on the active child VM - obviously give it a good test before you use it :)
Create methods and accompanying boolean properties for each of your commands on your shell view model. (See code below for an example.) Caliburn.Micro's conventions will wire them up to the buttons for you automatically. Then simply raise property changed events for the boolean properties when you change views to have them be re-evaluated.
For example, let's say you have a Save button. The name of that button in your xaml would be Save, and in your view model, you would have a Save method along with a CanSave boolean property. See below:
public void Save()
{
var viewModelWithSave = ActiveItem as ISave;
if (viewModelWithSave != null) viewModelWithSave.Save();
}
public bool CanSave { get { return ActivateItem is ISave; } }
Then, in your conductor, whenever you change your active screen, you would call NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => CanSave);. Doing this will cause your button to be disabled or enabled depending upon if the active screen is capable of dealing with that command. In this example, if the active screen doesn't implement ISave, then the Save button would be disabled.
I would use the Caliburn.Micro event aggregation in this scenario, as follows:
Create a class named ScreenCapabilities with a bunch of Boolean attributes (e.g. CanSave, CanLoad, etc.)
Create a message named ScreenActivatedMessage with a property of type ScreenCapabilities
Create a view model for your ribbon that subscribes to (handles) the ScreenActivatedMessage
In the ribbon view model's Handle method, set the local CanXXX properties based on the supplied ScreenCapabilities.
It would look something like this (code typed by hand, not tested):
public class ScreenCapabilities
{
public bool CanSave { get; set; }
// ...
}
public class ScreenActivatedMessage
{
public ScreenCapabilities ScreenCapabilities { get; set; }
// ...
}
public class RibbonViewModel : PropertyChangedBase, IHandle<ScreenActivatedMessage>
{
private bool _canSave;
public bool CanSave
{
get { return _canSave; }
set { _canSave = value; NotifyPropertyChanged(() => CanSave); }
}
// ...
public void Handle(ScreenActivatedMessage message)
{
CanSave = message.ScreenCapabilities.CanSave;
// ...
}
}
Then, somewhere appropriate, when the screen changes, publish the message. See see Caliburn.Micro wiki for more info.
Define a property (let's say ActiveScreen) for the active screen in the shell view model.
And let's assume you have properties for the each button such as DeleteButton, AddButton.
Screen is a viewmodel for the screens.
private Screen activeScreen;
public Screen ActiveScreen
{
get
{
return activeScreen;
}
set
{
activeScreen= value;
if (activeScreen.Name.equals("Screen1"))
{
this.AddButton.IsEnabled = true;
this.DeleteButton.IsEnabled = false;
}
if else (activeScreen.Name.equals("Screen2"))
{
this.AddButton.IsEnabled = true;
this.DeleteButton.IsEnabled = true;
}
NotifyPropertyChanged("ActiveScreen");
}
}
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 '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 am not able to call the navigation service from the user control.
even when I create one event handler on the main page to call the navigation service that is laos not working.
Can you please help me?
I think I see the problem, but like Austin indicated, there isn't much to go on in your initial description. It sounds like you are trying to access the NavgationService (which is a PhoneApplicationPage property) from within a UserControl that you are placing on that page.
As with many things in these APIs, you have a couple of options. First, you can access the PhoneApplicationFrame (which contains your pages and manages navigation) and use it for navigation:
var frame = App.Current.RootVisual as PhoneApplicationFrame;
frame.Navigate(new Uri("/TargetPage.xaml", UriKind.Relative));
Alternatively, you can walk the control's Visual Tree using the VisualTreeHelper until you get to the containing page:
var page = GetParentOfType<PhoneApplicationPage>(this); // this is your user control
private static T GetParentOfType<T>(DependencyObject item) where T : DependencyObject
{
if (item == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("item");
T result;
var parent = VisualTreeHelper.GetParent(item);
if (parent == null) return null;
else if (parent.GetType().IsSubclassOf(typeof(T))
{
result = (T)parent;
}
else result = GetParameterOfType<T>(parent);
return result;
}
As you see, the VisualTree approach involves more code, but gets you the containing page object, where you have more access to things like NavigationContext, etc.
Hope that was your question (and your answer.)
I have a prism/wpf/mef solution that contains an AvalonDock. I created a RegionAdapterBase<Pane> class that handles creating and removing the Panes from AvalonDock.
Heres the problem I'm running into:
I click a button in my menu and a view is registered with a region and displayed in my DocumentPane
I click the close button in AvalonDock to close the tab and remove the view
I click the same menu button to add it back again
I receive the error:
"Specified element is already the
logical child of another element.
Disconnect it first."
So... this tells me that something is lingering that I need to remove, but I cannot figure out where it is. Heres some code from my RegionAdapter:
private void OnViewsCollectionChanged(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e, IRegion region, Pane regionTarget)
{
if (e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add)
{
foreach (object item in e.NewItems)
{
UIElement view = item as UIElement;
if (view is ITabViewInfo)
{
if (view != null)
{
DockableContent newContentPane = new DockableContent()
{
Content = item,
Title = ((ITabViewInfo)view).TabViewTitle,
Icon = new Image()
{
Source = new BitmapImage(((ITabViewInfo)view).TabViewIcon)
}.Source,
IsCloseable = ((ITabViewInfo)view).IsCloseable,
HideOnClose = ((ITabViewInfo)view).IsHideOnClose
};
newContentPane.Closed += (contentPaneSender, args) =>
{
Debug.WriteLine("Removing view from region", "Prism");
region.Remove(item);
};
regionTarget.Items.Add(newContentPane);
newContentPane.Activate();
}
}
}
} else if (e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove) {
regionTarget.Items.Clear();
}
}
From my debug lines, the DocumentPane and region views are properly being destroyed... when I click to add the item back to the view, I get the above error message on the line that does:
Content = item,
Heres the code from my module that runs when the menu button is pressed:
if (_regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"].Views.Any(m => m.GetType() == typeof(Views.ClassicFrontierView)))
{
Debug.WriteLine(_regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"].Views.Count());
}
else
{
Debug.WriteLine("Adding view to region", "Prism");
_regionManager.RegisterViewWithRegion("MainRegion", typeof(Views.ClassicFrontierView));
}
Any idea what I'm missing?
Do you create a new View each time or you trying to show existing View several times? If second is correct I would try this:
else if (e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Remove) {
foreach (DockableContent content in regionTarget.Items)
content.Content = null;
regionTarget.Items.Clear();
}
Instead of handling the Closed event (which may have lost a reference to the underlying view), I handle the Closing event.
This worked, however, when I tried to re-open the tab, it was displaying the same instance. After reading this In Composite WPF (Prism), what is the difference between IRegion.Add and IRegionManager.RegisterViewWithRegion? I changed this:
_regionManager.RegisterViewWithRegion("MainRegion", typeof(Views.ClassicFrontierView));
to this:
_regionManager.Regions["MainRegion"].Add(new Classic.Views.ClassicFrontierView());
I still have to do some research with Prism / avalondock to make sure there will be no memory leaks, but as of now it appears to be working.
You likely need to remove it from regionTarget as well.
You can use Snoop to see what hasn't been removed from the Visual Tree and then attempt to find which container you need to remove your element from. Other possibilities are things like an unfrozen Icon image, etc.