UI design using MVVM pattern

Question

I'm trying to choose the best way to implement this UI in MVVM manner. I'm new to WPF (like 2 month's) but I have huge WinForms experience.

The ListBox here act's like a TabControl (so it switches the view to the right), and contains basically the Type of item's displayed in tables. All UI is dynamic (ListBox items, TabItems and Columns are determined during run-time). The application is targeting WPF and Silverlight.

Classes we need for ViewModel:

public abstract class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged {}
public abstract class ContainerViewModel : ViewModel
{
    public IList<ViewModel> Workspaces {get;set;}
    public ViewModel ActiveWorkspace {get;set;}
}
public class ListViewModel<TItem> where TItem : class
{
    public IList<TItem> ItemList { get; set; }
    public TItem ActiveItem { get; set; }
    public IList<TItem> SelectedItems { get; set; }
}
public class TableViewModel<TItem> : ListViewModel<TItem> where TItem : class
{
    public Ilist<ColumnDescription> ColumnList { get; set; }
}

Now the question is how to wire this to View.

There are 2 base approaches I can see here:

• With XAML: due to lack of Generics support in XAML, I will lose strong typing.
• Without XAML: I can reuse same ListView<T> : UserControl.

Next, how to wire data, I see 3 methods here (with XAML or without doesn't matter here). As there is no simple DataBinding to DataGrid's Columns or TabControl's TabItems the methods I see, are:

• Use DataBinding with IValueConverter: I think this will not work with WPF|Silverlight out of the box control's, as some properties I need are read-only or unbindable in duplex way. (I'm not sure about this, but I feel like it will not work).

• Use manual logic by subscribing to INotifyPropertyChanged in View: ViewModel.PropertyChanged+= ....ViewModel.ColumnList.CollectionChanged+= ....

• Use custom controll's that support this binding: Code by myself or find 3d party controls that support this binding's (I don't like this option, my WPF skill is too low to code this myself, and I doubt I will find free controls)

---

Update: 28.02.2011 Things get worser and worser, I decided to use TreeView instead of ListBox, and it was a nightmare. As you probably guess TreeView.SelectedItems is a readonly property so no data binding for it. Ummm all right, let's do it the old way and subscribe to event's to sync view with viewmodel. At this point a suddenly discovered that DisplayMemberPath does nothing for TreeView (ummmm all right let's make it old way ToString()). Then in View's method I try to sync ViewModel.SelectedItem with TreeView's:

private void UpdateTreeViewSelectedItem()
{
    //uiCategorySelector.SelectedItem = ReadOnly....

    //((TreeViewItem) uiCategorySelector.Items[uiCategorySelector.Items.IndexOf(Model.ActiveCategory)]).IsSelected = true;
    // Will not work Items's are not TreeViewItem but Category object......

    //((TreeViewItem) uiCategorySelector.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromItem(Model.ActiveCategory)).IsSelected = true;
    //Doesn't work too.... NULL // Changind DataContext=Model and Model = new MainViewModel line order doesn't matter.
    //Allright.. figure this out later...
}

And none of methods I was able to think of worked....

And here is the link to my sample project demonstrating Control Library Hell with MVVM: http://cid-b73623db14413608.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/MVVMDemo.zip

Answer 1

Maciek's answer is actually even more complicated than it needs to be. You don't need template selectors at all. To create a heterogeneous tab control:

1. Create a view model class for each type of view that you want to appear as tab items. Make sure each class implements a Text property that contains the text that you want to appear in the tab for its item.

2. Create a DataTemplate for each view model class, with DataType set to the class's type, and put the template in the resource dictionary.

3. Populate a collection with instances of your view models.

4. Create a TabControl and bind its ItemsSource to this collection, and add an ItemTemplate that displays the Text property for each item.

Here's an example that doesn't use view models (and that doesn't implement a Text property either, because the objects I'm binding to are simple CLR types), but shows how template selection works in this context:

<Page
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
  xmlns:coll="clr-namespace:System.Collections;assembly=mscorlib">
  <DockPanel>  
   <DockPanel.Resources>
        <coll:ArrayList x:Key="Data">
          <sys:String>This is a string.</sys:String>
          <sys:Int32>12345</sys:Int32>
          <sys:Decimal>23456.78</sys:Decimal>
        </coll:ArrayList>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type sys:String}">
          <TextBlock Text="{Binding}"/>
        </DataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type sys:Int32}">
          <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
           <TextBlock>This is an Int32:</TextBlock>
           <TextBlock Text="{Binding}"/>
          </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
        <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type sys:Decimal}">
          <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
           <TextBlock>This is a Decimal: </TextBlock>
           <TextBlock Text="{Binding}"/>
          </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
   </DockPanel.Resources>
    <TabControl ItemsSource="{StaticResource Data}">  
      <TabControl.ItemTemplate>
       <DataTemplate>
        <TextBlock Text="{Binding}"/>
       </DataTemplate>
      </TabControl.ItemTemplate>
    </TabControl>
  </DockPanel>
</Page>

Of course in a real MVVM application those DataTemplates would use UserControls to map each type to its view:

<DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type my:ViewModel}">
   <my:View DataContext="{Binding}"/>
</DataTemplate>

Answer 2

Maciek and Robert already gave you some ideas on how to implement this.

For the specifics of binding the columns of the DataGrid I strongly recommend Meleak's answer to that question.

Similar to that you can use attached properties (or Behaviors) and still maintain a clean ViewModel in MVVM.

I know the learning curve for WPF is quite steep and you're struggling already. I also know that the following suggestion doesn't help that and even makes that curve steeper. But your scenario is complex enough that I'd recommend to use PRISM.

Answer 3

I wrote an article and a sample application with source code available, where I discuss and show the problems I have mentioned here and how to solve them.

http://alexburtsev.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/mvvm-pattern-in-silverlight-and-wpf/

Answer 4

In order to connect your ViewModel to your View you need to assign the View's DataContext. This is normally done in the View's Constructor.

public View()
{
    DataContext = new ViewModel();
}

If you'd like to see your view model's effect at design time, you need to declare it in XAML, in the View's resources, assign a key to it, and then set the target's DataContext via a StaticResource.

<UserControl
xmlns:vm="clr-namespace:MyViewModels
>
    <UserControl.Resources>
         <vm:MyViewModel x:Key="MyVM"/>
    </UserControl.Resources>
    <MyControl DataContext={StaticResource MyVM}/>
</UserControl>

(The above is to demonstrate the design-time trick works)

Since you're dealing with a scenario that includes a container such as the TabControl I'd advocate considering the following things :

• Hold your child ViewModels in a Property of type ObservableCollection
• Bind the TabControls ItemsSource to that property
• Create a new View that derives from TabItem
• Use a template selector to automatically pick the type of the view based on the type of the view model.
• Add IDisposable to yoour child ViewModels and create functionality to close the views.

Hope that helps a bit, if you have further questions let me know.