A simple example of using dependency injection using Unity in WPF

Step 1: Create a new Visual Studio project

Step 2: Add the necessary Unity reference

Select Tools > NuGet Package Manager.

Type in the following command:

Install-Package Unity -Version 4.0.1

Unity website for NuGet can be found here:

https://www.nuget.org/packages/Unity/

Step 3: Remove the startup URL

In App.xaml get rid of the StartupUri value:

Step 4: Add the Model class / interface

IModel.cs

namespace DependencyInjection
{
   public interface IModel
   {
   }
}

Model.cs

namespace DependencyInjection
{
   public class Model : IModel
   {
      public Model()
      {
         Text = "Hello";
      }

      public string Text { get; set; }
   }
}

Step 5: Add the ViewModel class

To deal with the error that we receive in the XAML when a ViewModel has “No parameterless constructor defined for this object” – be sure to create a parameterless constructor that will call the standard constructor.

MainWindowViewModel.cs

namespace DependencyInjection
{
   public class MainWindowViewModel
   {
      private Model _model;

      public MainWindowViewModel()
      {
      }

      public MainWindowViewModel(Model model)
      {
         _model = model;
      }
   }
}

Step 6: Initialise the View Model on application startup

Here app.xaml.cs is modified as follows:

using System.Windows;
using Microsoft.Practices.Unity;

namespace DependencyInjection
{
   /// <summary>
   ///    Interaction logic for App.xaml
   /// </summary>
   public partial class App : Application
   {
      protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
      {
         base.OnStartup(e);

         IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer();
         container.RegisterType<IModel, Model>();

         var mainWindowViewModel = container.Resolve<MainWindowViewModel>();
         var window = new MainWindow {DataContext = mainWindowViewModel};
         window.Show();
      }
   }
}

And that is all there is to it.

On debugging notice that on startup the ViewModel is dependency injected with the Model: