MVVM Basics with Caliburn.Micro

Presented by Stefan Nuxoll, Lithium PC

Overview

• What is MVVM (And why do I care?)

• Getting Started (What is Caliburn.Micro?)

• Slides are Pointless (Let’s write some code!)

• Hello, World is Boring (Let’s do something real)

• Review / Q&A

Assumptions

• This is an intermediate (200) level presentation

• Working knowledge of C# and .Net needed

• You do NOT need to know what IoC or Convention-over-configuration mean

• You do NOT need to know XAML

• Though it will help

What is MVVM?And why do you care?

MVVM Explained

• Model-View-ViewModel

• Data is pulled by UI, not pushed to it

• Complete separation between interface and code

MVVM Relationships

ViewModel

View Model

Benefits of MVVM

• Testable!

• UI/UX developers can focus on their job

• Cleaner, more maintainable code

Getting StartedWhat is Caliburn.Micro?

What is Caliburn.Micro?

• Fully featured MVVM framework

• Utilizes IoC and convention-over-configuration

• Fully customizable and extremely flexible

• Under 3K LoC (lean and easy to modify)

• Supports WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone and Windows RT

• Available at http://caliburnmicro.codeplex.com

Why use Caliburn.Micro?

• Don’t reinvent the wheel

• Conventions and Actions

• Built-in support for IoC (typically the MEF)

• Already has support for all major .net environments

Slides are PointlessLet’s write some code!

Before We Begin

• Sample code and presentation are available online

• We will be starting from scratch

• If you’ve got Visual Studio on your laptop, feel free to follow along

Creating the Project

• Create a new WPF application

• Install Caliburn.Micro from NuGet

• Configure bootstrapper

Demonstration

Wiring It Up

• Create our first View

• Create our first ViewModel

• Demonstrate Data Binding and Actions

Demonstration

Hello, World is BoringLet’s do something real

Let’s Talk to Netflix

• Anyone know what Odata is?

• Odata is a great idea with a so-so implementation

• Somebody saw SOAP and WSDL and said “What the fuck is this?”

• Think of it as SOAP-but-better (not exactly high praise)

• .Net 3.5 and higher have native support, integrates with LINQ

• Netflix has an Odata endpoint, making our lives easier

Okay, Let’s *ACTUALLY* Talk to Netflix

• Done complaining about Odata

• Add service reference in visual studio

• Create a helper class to handle querying Netflix

• .Net’s Odata support works with LINQ (easy peasy!)

Demonstration

User Interface

• Search box

• Results list

• Let’s show cover art too

Demonstration

Holy CrapI understood all that (I think)

MVVM Review

• Cleaner, more readable code

• Modular, testable

• Separation of UI from code

• Means UI/UX developers don’t need to know jack about programming

• Pull, not push

• Stop creating a ton of controls in code-behind, let the UI handle all that

Q&A

• You don’t actually have questions, do you?

• Fine, I guess I’ll answer them.