Silverlight Prism Series - part 1

Prism Framework provides a very good solution for creating Modular applications in Silverlight.

First of we need to download Prism Framework from the Microsoft site

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=4922.

The dlls would be downloaded as shown below:



I guess it would help if one has bit of understanding of how MEF works . Since that would make life easier.

Well lets start. Here I would demonstrate a simple working example of Prism Implementation.

Create a new Silverlight Library Project and named it as FirstHello.

Just add a view First.xaml.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <TextBlock Text="HelloWorld" FontSize="26" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"  />
</Grid>
 
Create a new Module.
 
public class Module : IModule
    {       
        #region IModule Members
 
        private IRegionManager regionManager;
        IUnityContainer container;
        public void Initialize()
        { 
            if (this.regionManager.Regions.ContainsRegionWithName("FirstHello"))
            {
                this.regionManager.Regions["FirstHello"].Add(this.container.Resolve<First>());
            }
        }
 
        public Module(IRegionManager regionManager, IUnityContainer container)
        {
            this.container = container;
            this.regionManager = regionManager;
        }         
        #endregion       
    }
 
The Module implements the Imodule Interface.
 
namespace Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity
{
    // Summary:
    //     Defines the contract for the modules deployed in the application.
    public interface IModule
    {
        // Summary:
        //     Notifies the module that it has be initialized.
        void Initialize();
    }
} 
 
Similarly lets add a another Silverlight library project. 

Second.xaml is the View.
 
<UserControl x:Class="SecondHello.View.Second"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400">
   
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <TextBlock Text="GreetingWorld" FontSize="26" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"  />
    </Grid>
</UserControl> 

The next Module looks as: 

   public class Module1 : IModule
    {
        #region IModule Members 
        private IRegionManager regionManager;
        IUnityContainer container;
        public void Initialize()
        { 
            if (this.regionManager.Regions.ContainsRegionWithName("SecondHello"))
            {
                this.regionManager.Regions["SecondHello"].Add(this.container.Resolve<Second>());
            }
        }
 
        public Module1(IRegionManager regionManager, IUnityContainer container)
        {
            this.container = container;
            this.regionManager = regionManager;
        } 
        #endregion    
    } 

Let us create a new Silverlight Project SLPrismPart1.
 
Lets Create a Bootstrapper.
 
   public class Bootstrapper : UnityBootstrapper
    {
        protected override DependencyObject CreateShell()
        {
            Shell shell = new Shell();
            Application.Current.RootVisual = shell;
            return shell;
        } 
        protected override IModuleCatalog CreateModuleCatalog()
        {
            ModuleCatalog modules = new ModuleCatalog();
            modules.AddModule(typeof(FirstHello.Module));
            modules.AddModule(typeof(SecondHello.Module1));
            return modules;
        } 
    }
 
The Bootstrapper class extends the UnityBootstrapper class. The UnityBootstrapper class looks as below:


          
The Bootstrapper class looks as follows:
 
   public class Bootstrapper : UnityBootstrapper
    {
        protected override DependencyObject CreateShell()
        {
            Shell shell = new Shell();
            Application.Current.RootVisual = shell;
            return shell;
        } 
        protected override IModuleCatalog CreateModuleCatalog()
        {
            ModuleCatalog modules = new ModuleCatalog();
            modules.AddModule(typeof(FirstHello.Module));
            modules.AddModule(typeof(SecondHello.Module1));
            return modules;
        } 
    } 

The xaml Shell which would display both our Modules will look as follows:
 
<UserControl xmlns:toolkit="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation/toolkit"  x:Class="SLPrismPart1.Shell"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:Regions="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Regions;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400"> 
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" ShowGridLines="True">       
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition/>
                <ColumnDefinition/>
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <Grid.RowDefinitions >
                <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
                <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
            </Grid.RowDefinitions>       
            <TextBlock Text="Sample MVVM Hello World Application" FontSize="16" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Grid.Row="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2"/>  
           
            <ContentControl Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" x:Name="FirstHello" Regions:RegionManager.RegionName="FirstHello"  HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
            <ContentControl Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" x:Name="SecondHello" Regions:RegionManager.RegionName="SecondHello" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Center"/>       
    </Grid>
</UserControl> 

The Application_Startup in the App.xaml will look as follows :
 
  private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
        {
            Bootstrapper bootStrapper = new Bootstrapper();
            bootStrapper.Run();
        }

We are done lets give it a run:



In my next post I would go more indepth into the Prism Framework. Thanks. Happy coding.