For non-contextual tabs, my favorite approach for this problem is to dynamically load components (via reflection for instance) that include XAMLs with binding to commands and VMs (or controllers) that include the command implementations and perform that command bindings.
For contextual tabs, my favorite approach is to include a dictionary of Model to ViewModel mappings, then activate/deactivate contextual tabs by name, that were loaded using the above approach (and pass the correct data context to them - the view model).
Pseudo code should be more or less like this (depending on what your frameworks implement and what you have to implement yourself):
// Deserialize UI controllers from configuration files
// Each controller should act as view-model for its UI elements
// Register controllers with UI Manager
foreach controller in config.UiControllers uiManager.AddController(controller);
void UiManager.AddController(UiController controller)
{
// Load controller's tool windows
foreach toolWindow in contoller.toolWindows
{
toolWindow.LoadResources();
toolWindow.DataContext = controller;
mainWindow.AddToolWindow(toolWindow, contoller.PreferedUiRegion);
}
// Load controller's toolbars
foreach toolBar in controller.ToolBars
{
toolBar.DataContext = controller;
mainWindow.AddToolBar(toolBar);
}
// Load controller's contextual toolbar groups
foreach group in controller.ContextualToolBarGroups
{
group.DataContext = controller;
mainWindow.AddContextualToolBarGroupr(group);
}
// Load view models for specific model types
foreach item in controller.ViewModelsDictionary
{
this.RegisterViewModelType(item.ModelType, item.ViewModelType, item.ViewType);
}
}
void UiManager.OnItemSelected(Object selectedItem)
{
var viewModelType = GetViewModelTypeFromDictionary(selectedItem);
var viewType = GetViewTypeFromDictionary(selectedItem) ?? typeof(ContentPresentor);
var viewModel = Reflect.CreateObject(viewModelType);
var view = Reflection.CreateObject(viewType);
viewModel.Model = selectItem;
view.DataContext = viewModel;
// Enable activation of contextual tab group on activate of view (if user clicks on it)
view.OnActivatedCommandParameter = viewModel.ContextualTabGroupName;
// This command should ask mainWindow to find contextual tab group, by name, and activate it
view.OnActivatedCommand = ModelActivatedCommand;
mainWindow.DocumentArea.Content = view;
}
