MVVM Light

At Daemon Games we decide to try and use MVVM Light in our next project. We are planning on building a Silverlight client and hope that this framework will help us. Today I am starting the process of reviewing the framework to see how we can leverage it in our project.

A quick search of the net turns up the home on Codeplex. Click the download link and you get a 5MB zip file that contains the seven zip files shown below.

The documentation directs you to follow the installation instructions on the Gala Soft web site. Gala Soft has done a great job of documenting the prereq's and the installation steps. I won't repeat them here.

The installation is straight forward and the steps are well documented. As the directions for each supported environment are all listed on the same page, be sure you pay attention to which installation you are reading. Included with the installation directions is verification that you have done everything correctly. You will verify the installation by creating your first MVVM app and checking that the DLL references are present without warnings. As your reward you can run a nice little app that welcomes you to MVVM Light.

Included in the installation are templates for WP7, Silverlight and WPF. Following the installation directions and the verification you are directed to some supporting documentation.

I'm starting with Laurent Bungion's presentation at Mix 2010. It starts out a bit slow but I am happy to know that I will be doing "MVVM in a SLOOB with SLUT". I mean, who can say no to that. Being new to MVVM slow is what I need. Laurent's first example is a Silverlight application linking to a WCF service returning a customer list. The demonstration contrasts MVVM with a non MVVM app, concentrating on how to increase Blend-ability. Blend-ability being the ability to visualize data while working in Expression Blend. Later he moves on to Commands and Messaging. The pace is about right for me as I am just learning many of these principals. 

Tonight I am only able to get through about half the presentation. As soon as I can get back to this I will post more. So far so good. MVVM looks like it will provide much of what we need and will give us some real advantages moving forward. I am anxious to learn more.