I’ve just upgraded my Simple MVVM Toolkit to support Silverlight 5.0 and Windows Phone 7.1! You can download the latest version here and take it for a spin – or get it from the Visual Studio Extensions Gallery by opening Visual Studio and selecting Extensions Manager from the Tools menu. Before you run the installer, however, you should install the prerequisites, which now include Silverlight 5 Tools and Toolkit, Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 (this will be replaced by the Blend 5 SDK when it comes out), and the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.
You can still use the toolkit to develop MVVM apps for Silverlight 4 if you wish, and the Visual Studio project templates include versions for both Silverlight versions – 4 and 5. The project templates for a plain vanilla Silverlight apps, as well as Silverlight apps using WCF RIA Services, allow you to choose which version of Silverlight you want to use. You still get all the source code, supporting libraries, and an abundance of samples. If you have questions or comments, feel free to post them on the project discussion board. And if you’re getting up to speed on MVVM with the toolkit, be sure to check out the Getting Started screencast. Then when you’re ready, watch the Real-World screencasts.
I’ve also updated the NuGet packages for Simple MVVM Toolkit. To get those, install the NuGet package manager from the Extensions Manager command under the Tools menu, then search for “SimpleMvvm” and select a package to install, depending on the type of project you have: WPF, Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 or Silverlight 5. I preserved the existing Silverlight package for SL4, but I added a new package, Silverlight5, for SL5. The packages used to include the entire installer but now only contain the binaries and a readme text file. While I encourage most folks to run the installer to get the code snippets and Visual Studio templates, there are cases where all you want is the toolkit DLL and its supporting assemblies. In that case, installing the NuGet package would be your preferred route. Otherwise, run the full installer from the CodePlex site and you’ll get the entire Simple MVVM Toolkit experience.
Enjoy!
Tony Sneed's Blog 
Hi Tony,
Thanks ….
Nitin Sonawane
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the update with Simple MVVM Toolkit for Silverlight 5.0, Windows Phone 7.1.
Nitin Sonawane.
Hi Tony,
Thank you for the Simple MVVM Toolkit for Silverlight 5.0.
I’d like to get your comment for my concern.
I found your SimpleMvvmRiaServices-v5.0 project template does not have the authentication service that is built in Silverlight Business Application project template. Current my project is based on this Silverlight Business Application project. If I want to apply your Simple MVVM framework to my current project, what is best the best way? Maybe one way is to import required references such as SimpleMvvmToolkit to the current project and modify the current code.Other way is to create new project using your SimpleMvvmRiaServices-v5.0 and migrate current my project code to new project. I’m not sure what is best way to apply your Simple MVVM framework to my current project that is based on the Silverlight Business Application template.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Moonam
I would suggest using the SimpleMvvmRiaServices-v5.0 template to create your project, then add the AuthenticationService class generated by the standard Biz app template. You’ll also need to bring in part of web.config that indicate the auth mode and membership provider. Then bring in the client pieces from the Biz app that perform user authentication and registration with a login screen. Hope this helps …
Hi Tony,
Thank you so much for your kind comments.
Best regards,
Moonam
Hi Tony,
Is there any restriction to use tag under the simple MVVM framework? When I use under the simple MVVM framework, it is not displayed on the screen. I saw you also only used tags without tag in the ProductDetailView.xaml. Please confirm where I can use tag under the simple MVVM framework. I’d like to biding the data with DataForm.
Thanks,
Moonam
I’m not sure what you mean by “tag”? Gan you be more specific or give an example?
Hi Tony,
I wrote a xml tag in my previous post and your blog’s comment box hided the xml tag automatically. If you provide a edit or delete function in your comment box, It will be good to the your visitors.
My question was whether I can use “DataForm” tool under the simple MVVM framework. It seems it is not allowed. If it is not allowed, what is best way to bind data to “Form”?
Best regards,
Moonam
Using the Data Form with the toolkit is allowed. What makes you think it is not allowed?
Hi Tony,
It was the version mismatch issue in my project. After I replaced the DataFrom Toolkit. It works fine. Thank you for your reply again.
Best regards,
Hi Tony,
I’m gratefull to your great effort of silverlight.
And, btw, you r really a handsome guy….
e…I ‘m prepare a WPF program about the production of furnace, I wonder if I could use simple mvvm toolkit asusual…
In this program I can’t use RIA service anymore…and there will be a great mount of data to read,
maybe you can give me some suggestions!
best wishes!
Hi there! Simple MVVM Toolkit works great with WPF. But as you know, RIA Services does not. 😦 What you will need to do is create a WPF app using the toolkit project template for WPF (it’s under “Windows, Mvvm” category when creating a new project in Visual Studio). Then add a WCF service to the solution and use that to communicate with your database. The best example of how to do this is ‘Part 1’ and ‘Part 2’ under Simple-Mvvm-Main folder in the samples folder (you will need to unzip the samples zip file). These are Silverlight projects, but they use WCF instead of RIA services, so they are a good guide to follow – just use WPF instead of Silverlight and you should be fine. 🙂
Hi tony! Thank you 4 your suggestion, I will try!
And, you know, I ‘m a learner to this domain, I have a question that the difference between mvvm tookit and Prism, wot I really care is the performance, you know more affluent.
Look forward to your reply!
oh, btw, I will to be in in favor of both mvvm tookit and you!
Wish you happy forever!
Hi Tony,
I have a question about the DataPager in SimpleMVVMRiaService. I set the source of DataPage(Source=”{Binding Path=Products}”) and ItemSource of DataGrid (ItemsSource=”{Binding Path=Products}”. The DataGrid works but the DataPager did not work correctly. It did not divide the page. After searching, I found someone tried to solve the DataPager issue with MVVM using PageEntityCollectionView Object. But I’m not sure it will work with SimpleMVVMRiaService. Could you recommend a solution that solves this issue.
Best regards,
Moonam
Trying using the PagedCollectionView, as demonstrated in this blog post: http://www.riaservicesblog.com/Blog/post/Advanced-Paged-Collection-View.aspx
Thank you so much!
I am having installing the SimpleMVVM toolkit. I have installed the prerequisites and the installer appears to run correctly. I have tried it with the package installer and also allowed VS 2010 SP1 to install it with the extension manager. I am gettiing consistent results on more than one computer, Windows 7 64bit. I do not see the extension registered in Visual Studio, and the templates do not appear when I try to create a new project. My focus here is WPF. Is there a way to troubleshoot this?
Thank You!
Mark Peterson
In Visual Studio go to Tools, Options, Projects and Solutions. There you will see locations for where the templates are located. You can either change the location to where to templates were installed, or copy the templates from the install location and place them where Visual Studio wants to find them. See this discussion thread: http://simplemvvmtoolkit.codeplex.com/discussions/266227
The references are controlled by a registry setting. Use RegEdit to find the key and check its path. See this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306149
You may have a different installation location for Visual Studio and the toolkit installer wasn’t able to make the adjustment. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Tony
Thanks, it’s showing up now!
Would you ever consider a VB version of SimpleMVVM?
Thanks for your help,
Mark
The templates and code snippets are C#, but if you or someone would like to port them to VB I’d be happy to incorporate them.
Cheers,
Tony