Integrate Prism Region Management and Navigation with MVVMLight

Question

In my current project I am using the MVVMLight framework.

I am experiencing some difficulties with the navigation between views. Currently, I am using DataTemplates to navigate between Views. However, every time one navigates to another view, this view is recreated. Also, I am using nested views. In all, I feel that I need a more advanced framework to manage view-based navigation.

I was thinking to use Prism view-based navigation. I would like to define Regions with the Prism RegionManager; Register my views to regions; and subsequently execute navigation requests.

How can I integrate the Prism RegionManager with the MVVMLight framework?

Ultimately, I want to be able to do the following:

public class NavigationViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    private readonly IRegionManager _regionManager;

    // Constructor
    public NavigationViewModel(IRegionManager regionManager)
    {
        _regionManager = regionManager;
    }

    ...

    // Navigate
    private void ExecuteNavigationCommand(string ViewName)
    {
        _regionManager.RequestNavigate(RegionNames.ContentRegion, ViewName);
    }
}

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

Edit:

I have created a NavigationService that implements the following interface:

public interface INavigationService
{
    RelayCommand<string> NavigateCommand { get; }
    List<String> History { get; }
    Dictionary<String, UserControl> Views { get; }

    void AddView(UserControl view, RegionName region);
    void RemoveView(UserControl view);
    void ResetView(UserControl view);
    UserControl GetView(Type viewType);
    void NavigateRequest(Type viewType);
}

This NavigationService is injected to my ShellViewModel via MVVMLight's SimpleIoC. In the ShellViewModel I register my navigatable views as follows:

// Add navigatable view instances and corresponding region
_navigationService.AddView(new HomeView(), RegionName.MainRegion);
_navigationService.AddView(new QuickscanView(), RegionName.MainRegion);
_navigationService.AddView(new PartsView(), RegionName.MainRegion);
_navigationService.AddView(new NavigationView(), RegionName.NavigationRegion);
_navigationService.AddView(new StatusbarView(), RegionName.StatusRegion);

Subsequently, I can set views to my predefined regions as follows:

// Set Navigation and Statusbar
this.NavigationRegion = _navigationService.GetView(typeof(NavigationView));
this.StatusRegion = _navigationService.GetView(typeof(StatusbarView));

Also, I can navigate content in my MainContent as follows:

// Navigate to HomeView in MainRegion
_navigationService.NavigateRequest(typeof(HomeView));

The NavigationService is binded to the menu buttons via a public property of INavigationService as follows:

<Button Text="Results"
    Command="{Binding NavigationService.NavigateCommand}"
    CommandParameter="{Binding ResultsNavigateParameter}"/>