CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wpfoutlook-addincaliburn.micro
floatingfrisbee
floatingfrisbee

Reputation: 938

How can I instantiate the window/view that implements Caliburn Micro's IShell interface inside an Outlook Task Pane

I have a desktop application that is based on the Caliburn Micro framework. Everything works great. Now I am trying to port the same app into Outlook as a plugin.

In the desktop app, based on an entry inside app.xaml, Caliburn knows where to find the bootstrapper and instantiates it.

In case of the Outlook plugin, I've created an overridden bootstrapper that I instantiate explicitly inside ThisAddIn.ThisAddIn_Startup(). This one of course does not use the Application object.

I can even invoke a particular view using code similar to this

var windowManager = IoC.Get<IWindowManager>();
windowManager.ShowDialog(new MyViewModel());

And that will cause the view associated with the view model to be shown in a modal window on top of Outlook (hence validating that Caliburn Micro is able to find a view from a view model inside my Outlook plugin)

What I haven't figured out how to do is instantiate the Shell so that I can start using its functionality.

My expectation was that since my bootstrapper derives from BootStrapper, and I have registered my shell view model implementation with the MEF container as exporting IShell, Caliburn will automatically instantiate the shell view model and start using it. That is not happening.

My goal is to get the shell loaded inside my plugin's task pane as the container for other views that I will be loading based on user actions.

Any ideas or tips on how I can get this to work? In general has anyone got a shell implementation loading inside an Outlook or Office plugin's task pane?

Thanks!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 585

Answers (1)

McDonnellDean
McDonnellDean

Reputation: 1087

Do you mean instantiate via Bootstrapper<Shell>. This uses the Window Manager underneath but I don't think that extends to outlook. There is nothing stopping you using the same code above to initialize your shell manually, composition will handle the rest of the application.

IoC.Get, by default calls Activator.CreateInstance so it is possible your problem is with MEF. The method that drives opening the Shell DisplayRootViewFor() calls this line.

 windowManager.ShowWindow(IoC.GetInstance(viewModelType, null), null, settings);

If MEF is not hooked up properly it will fail causing your shell not to load.

Upvotes: 3

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