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I am building Silverlight LoB app with WCF RIA services. Inorder to implement SL I looked at the available MVVM toolkits\frameworks. Application I am building is very light weight with 8-10 UI screens having typical list and detailed information (CRUD operations).

I tried using MVVM light but it doesn't readily support WCF RIA Service project template. Need to do some customization.

Then I came across this toolkit called Simple MVVM. It works fine and addresses my requirement.

But before I start implementing my application using this toolkit I would like to know if there are any limitations/known issues with it.

This site has comparison of MVVM frameworks but Simple MVVM is having low rating. This comparison was done with older version of Simple MVVM.

Any information in this regard would be helpful. Thank you.

Terrance
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Sandeep G B
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2 Answers2

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Jeremy just updated the stats for my Simple MVVM Toolkit, which has had over 5,000 downloads since I launched it on Jan 1, 2011. I designed it to support messaging, commands, async, modal dialogs, dependency injection for unit testing and, yes, WCF RIA Services.

I've published a simple getting started screen cast, as well as a two-part screen cast for using the toolkit with WCF RIA Services. The nice thing is that my toolkit comes with an easy installer and onine documentation, as well as a number of Visual Studio project templates, including one for RIA Services.

Go here to get the toolkit: Simple MVVM Toolkit.

Cheers, Tony Sneed

Anthony Sneed
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  • Three years after releasing Simple MVVM Toolkit, it's up to 41,000 downloads. In v5.5 I've added support for iOS and Android (Xamarin) as well as Portable Class Libraries for sharing view models across a variety of UI platforms (WPF, SL, Win Store, Win Phone). – Anthony Sneed Feb 06 '14 at 09:12
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Personally i would ignore that review site - Simple MVVM had only 21 downloads when the comparisons were done, which means it either isn't popular, or it was extremely new to the scene and still possibly in a state of rapid change and growth. The review also doesn't give any details on how the measurements were made, the scores could be someone's opinion based on a cursory look at the product.

If you find it suits your needs then use it. You may find some negative points at a later date, but there are very few (if any) toolkits or frameworks that don't have a problem with something, it is then up to you to exercise your elite development skills to work round the issue.

The key things IMO are how much support it gives you for messaging between components, if it has a ready made dialog service, and gives good support for dependency injection (i.e. if it includes an IoC container). Things like deep cloning and marshalling to the UI thread are relatively simple to write. Things like code snippets, project templates and a nice installer are just sugar coating and add little overall value, so don't read too much into it. The real big question is: how much time and effort does it save you every day that you are coding? That is the real test of its efficacy.

slugster
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  • Thanks slugster (+1). Yes, what you are suggesting is true; if it reduces my development effort I should go with it. There is support for messaging and regarding DI, I may have to use Unity for that purpose. I will keep the question as unanswered as I am looking for feedback/review comments from someone who has used this toolkit. More information available here http://simplemvvmtoolkit.codeplex.com/ – Sandeep G B Jun 09 '11 at 12:03
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    Here's an update on Simple MVVM Toolit v5.0, which supports VS 2013 for WPF, Silverlight, Windows Store and Windows Phone 8. http://blog.tonysneed.com/2013/11/08/simple-mvvm-toolkit-v-5-0-for-vs-2013/. Cheers, Tony – Anthony Sneed Nov 18 '13 at 13:44