Woof.Windows.Mvvm 5.0.1

Woof.Windows.Mvvm

About

WPF MVVM data binding made easy!

This is model to view model to view binder. Using this you don't mix your data retrieving code with data processing code and you don't mix both with UI. In MVVM the view is just XAML that defines the visual part only. Code behind is not used in XAML views at all. Models can be any data source. If it provides a collection of items, they can be fed to DataGrids and what not.

The best thing about this package - it can really make use of asynchronous streams to make the UIs snappy.

Binding views to data sources is maybe not very hard in WPF, but it's tedious and time consuming. Out of the box you get just some interfaces to implement. Well - they are partially implemented here, in the easiest configuration possible.

Another thing is we need interaction with the data in UI, we just don't want to implement it in views. That's what view models are for. The views should have no logic. The catch is the views trigger events, and they cannot be easily passed to view models.

I mean - without Woof.Windows.Mvvm. With this package it's easy.

Usage

Creatig a view model

To implement MVVM you need at least one view model (obviously). To create a view model just inerit from Woof.Windows.Mvvm.ViewModelBase.

If you want some data like in Excel, create ObservableList<T> Items in the view model like this:

public ObservableList<T> Items { get; } = new();

It's important to have it read-only and created in implicit constructor.

You see, the WPF controls observe observables, so when you add or remove items to the view model, the view will know that and will update automagically. (The ObservableList<T> will just trigger CollectionChanged event for you).

Disposable items? No problem, ObservableList<T> will dispose items when they are removed, replaced or just cleared from the list.

Do you want to bind the data "the other way", like using EDITABLE data grid?

Now that you have to implement yourself but it's still easy. Make each item implement INotifyPropertyChanged and just observer PropertyChanged events. You will know that the view changed an item and what part of the item was changed. It's up to your code to react to the change.

Creating the view

The view can be a control, page, window. Anything in XAML. To make the view load the data from the view model automatically first time it becomes visible use AutoLoadView control like this:

<woof:AutoLoadView x:Class="Your.View.Class.Name"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:woof="clr-namespace:Woof.Windows.Mvvm;assembly=Woof.Windows.Mvvm"
    xmlns:vm="clr-namespace:Your.View.Models.Namespace">
    <woof:AutoLoadView.DataContext>
        <vm:YourViewModelClass/>
    </woof:AutoLoadView.DataContext>
    
</woof:AutoLoadView>

AutoLoadView is a UserControl. Just an empty container that provide the data context to everything that's inside. What data context? Your view model, the class derived from ViewModelBase.

In order for automatic loading to work the view model must implement IGetAsync interface. Obviously this interface needs only one method to be implemented. Guess its name. The method, obviously - loads the data for the view from the model.

As it name and return type suggests - this should be done asynchronously, to prevent the UI from lagging while loading the data.

Here's where Woof.Windows.Mvvm shines!

public ValueTask GetAsync() {
    IAsyncEnumerable<T> data = MyModel.GetDataAsync();
    Items.Clear();
    Items.AddRangeAsync(data);
}

Let's say the data must be downloaded and it will take a while. Let's say you have like 100 rows, but only first 10 fits in the small window. The asynchronous code will start filling the view IMMEDIATELY, so your view will be filed with data while still loading the rest of it.

If your data source doesn't support asynchronous streams, just await for the complete result. The main UI thread won't be blocked so your app at least could be responsive and display a nice loding animation.

Passing events as commands

When you need an event to be passed from the view to the view model, here's how:

<MyControl>
    <woof:Mvvm.Events>
        <woof.MvvmEvent EventName="Loaded" Command="{Binding}">
    </woof.Mvvm.Events>
</MyControl>

Now, when you have overriden CanExecute() and Execute() in your view model, you will receive a special parameter. It will be of type MvvmEventData.

You can check it's name and optional data it provides and handle it in your view model.

To see how it works "live" just download the included demo project and play with it.

The data binding in WPF can be automated more than this, but know that it comes with a cost. You add automatics, but also code dependencies, code complexity and considerable time to configure the automation helpers.

It can be also automated less, so you don't use this package, but then you have to write a lot of boilerplate code to do the simplest data binding.

So here's the sweet spot. It can be used as a base for more advanced things.

The goal of this package is to be as simple and easy to use as it gets. If it still seems complicated - well... It just can't be done easier. Unless you would use a kind of box-application-generator, but then you will have zero control over how it works and what it does, 100% dependency on the tool and its dependencies.

Compatibility

The package is compatible with .NET 5.0 or newer. Windows. There's no WPF for Linux yet.

Disclaimer

Please report any bugs on project's GitHub page. If you claim your toolkit / data binder is better than this, please share, e-mail me: adam@codedog.pl and enlighten me with new ideas.

I specialize in back ends, I'm not into front ends and UIs. This tool is made for fellow backend specialists that want to minimize the time and effort put into UIs 😉

Woof Toolkit is a work in progress in constant development, however it's carefully maintained with production code quality.

Each Woof Toolkit package comes with FULL XML documentation. If you notice any undocumented part or a bug in documentation - please open an issue on the project's GitHub page.