Question

I want to achieve the following hierarchical navigation model in a WPF MVVM application:

ShellView
    Page1View
       Subpage1View
           Subpage2View
       Subpage3View
    Page2View
        ...

Meaning that on Shellview, I have buttons to activate/deactivate Page1View and Page2View. On Page1View has buttons to activate Subpage1View and Subpage3View and Subpage1View has a button to activate Subpage2View.

Where should the subpages be displayed ? Should the navigational model map to a view structure exacly ? I mean, I have a ContentControl (named ActiveItem) on ShellView, where Page1View and Page2View is displayed when activated. Should the Subpage1View be displayed on Shell’s ActiveItem ContentControl or on the parent view (Page1View) ?

1. If I should display a subpage on ShellView, then how to activate it properly ? Because the button to activate it is on Page1View not on shell.

2. If I should display a subpage on the parent view (Page1View), then I must create a ActiveItem ContentControl on Page1View and hide it before it’s needed. How ? Also I guess parent view scrollbars could become a problem.

Please advise!

Using Caliburn.Micro 1.3, .NET 4, WPF.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I threw a demo together. I’m not sure if it’s exactly what you’re looking for. The thing to remember is Screens and Conductors can contain Screens and/or Conductors. So nesting or doing complex screen composition is pretty straight forward.

This example has a ShellView with 2 buttons and a ContentControl. Page1ViewModel also has 2 buttons and a ContentControl.

Clicking Page1 or the Page2 button on the ShellView activates the appropriate Page. The same is true once a Page is activated, clicking on SubPage1 or SubPage2 activates the appropriate SubPage.

https://bitbucket.org/dbeattie/cmwpfnavsample/src