A simple approach to navigation with Model-View-ViewModel in Xamarin.Forms

Model-View-ViewModel is a widely used architectural pattern that helps you to separate UI from presentation logic responsibility. In your ViewModel you can provide data to the View through binding and handle the action by using commands, but what about the navigation? Who is responsible for showing another view?

The following schema show how the View, the ViewModel and the Model interact in the MVVM architecture:


source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh848246.aspx

In this post, we’ll see how the MVVM starts the navigation in a straightforward approach, based on the assumption that navigation from ViewModel is a “request of navigation”. The “request of navigation” is sent to the View, the real executor, by using a set of specific delegates.

Show Me The Code

Since in MVVM the ViewModel doesn’t know anything about the View, we need to notify the View when a request for navigation is in place. So, to do this, our implementation provides a ViewModelBase class that, by using a delegate, inform a subscriber (the View) that navigation has been requested.

public class ViewModelBase
{
    ...
    public Func<ViewModelBase, Task> OnNavigationRequest { get; set; }
  
    public Task NavigateTo<TViewModel>(TViewModel targetViewModel) where TViewModel : ViewModelBase
    {
        await OnNavigationRequest?.Invoke(targetViewModel);
    }
}

On the other side, the Page will register the delegate when appearing and will cancel when disappearing:

public class PageBase<TViewModel> : ContentPage, IView<TViewModel> where TViewModel:ViewModelBase,new()
{
    ...
    public TViewModel ViewModel
    {
        get { return GetValue(BindingContextProperty) as TViewModel; }
        set { SetValue(BindingContextProperty, value); }
    }
  
    protected override void OnAppearing()
    {
        base.OnAppearing();
        ViewModel.OnNavigationRequest = HandleNavigationRequest;
    }

    protected override void OnDisappearing()
    {
        base.OnDisappearing();
        ViewModel.OnNavigationRequest = null;
    }
}

So, you avoid getting navigation request when the Page is not active. Last, but not least, the delegate will look similar to the following code:

public class PageBase<TViewModel> : ContentPage, IView<TViewModel> where TViewModel:ViewModelBase,new()
{
    ...
    async Task HandleNavigationRequest(ViewModelBase targetViewModel)
    {
        var targetView = ViewResolver.GetViewFor(targetViewModel);
        targetView.BindingContext = targetViewModel;
        await Navigation.PushAsync(targetView);
    }
}

The ViewResolver is responsible for maps the ViewModel to the View in a 1:1 model:

internal static class ViewResolver
{
    public static Page GetViewFor<TargetViewModel>(TargetViewModel targetViewModel) where TargetViewModel : ViewModelBase, new()
    {
        var targetViewName = targetViewModel.GetType().Name.Replace("ViewModel", "Page");
        var definedTypes = targetViewModel.GetType().GetTypeInfo().Assembly.DefinedTypes;
        var targetType = definedTypes.FirstOrDefault(t => t.Name == targetViewName);
        return Activator.CreateInstance(targetType.AsType()) as Page;
    }
}

Obviously, feel free to write it as you prefer.

Ok, let’s use it!

Now, you will be able to start navigation in ViewModel by using the following code:

public class MyViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    ...
    public async Task DoSomething()
    {
        ...
        await NavigateTo(new OtherPageViewModel());
    }
}

Cool!

Conclusion

Let me know what do you think about this approach. You like it or you hate it? Anyway, you’ll find full code on my github repository.

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