The IViewResolver

As we have already wrote when we spoke about Runtime Conventions Radical utilizes by default a view first approach, that even if is completely replaceable with a ViewModel first approach, must be understood.

The main and only entry point used to resolve views is IViewResolver interface whose role is to resolve a view instance given a view type:

IViewResolver service; //injected by the IoC engine
var viewUsingGenerics = service.GetView<SampleView>();
var viewUsingType = service.GetView( typeof( SampleView ) );

At runtime when the GetView method is called the default built-in view resolver does the following things:

  1. goes to the IoC container and resolves an instance of the requested view type;
  2. if the view already has a DataContext it assumes that the view is a singleton and has been already resolved once and immediately returns the resolved view;
  3. Otherwise, using the conventions:
  4. Using the ResolveViewModelType convention determines the type of the associated ViewModel;
  5. Resolves, via the container, the ViewModel;
  6. Set the relation View – ViewModel;
  7. Set the ViewModel as the DataContext of the View;
  8. Attaches to the View the required behaviors;
  9. Returns the view to the caller;

How to use the IViewResolver in our application

The typical usage of the view resolver in the application is to open/show another view, the easiest way is to declare a dependency on the resolver in our component:

class SampleViewModel
{
    readonly IViewResolver service;

    public SampleViewModel( IViewResolver service )
    {
        this.service = service;
    }

    public void ShowAView()
    {
        var myView = this.service.GetView<MyView>();
        myView.Show();
    }
}

We are using the simplest possible approach in order to keep the sample complexity really low.

Notes

  • In the above sample we are violating the MVVM pattern because we are dealing with a view within the ViewModel, in the chapter related to the MessageBroker we’ll see how to avoid this mix.
  • A view does not require a view model to work properly, the IViewResolver can resolve views that don't have view models;