How to organize MVVM files in solution

Question

I'm fairly new to the MVVM concept but like a lot of the flexibility it gives me so far. However, I'm struggling to find a good way to manage my code. I have several classes that are just sitting in a folder in my solution such as xxxView.cs, xxxViewModel.cs, yyyView.cs, yyyViewModel.cs, zzzView.cs, zzzViewModel.cs you get the idea. It has started to crowd my solution, making it harder to find the files I'm looking for. Is there some standard way to organize these files? Do I create a View and ViewModel folder to separate and clean up the solution or have people found a better way?

Answer 1

We use separate projects for

• View
• ViewModel
• Model

And within those projects, we'll potentially add folders to provide additional structure.

The View project references ViewModel, and the ViewModel project references the Model.

Images often receive their own folder. So far, resource dictionaries, converters, and extended objects have been placed in the main project folder for the layer.

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An alternative is to have "major application areas" as projects. Then you have either have V / VM / M folders within each area or you just place the related MVVM files in the area project folder.

I don't like this approach as much since I'll frequently have to work on multiple Views at a time so I end up navigating through a lot more project structure than I would like.

This approach kind of limits re-use when it comes to resource dictionaries or similar. The cross-referencing of projects can become difficult to maintain. However, creating a dedicated "common resource" project would be an approach to easing this problem.

Answer 2

If you don't want separate projects, at least separate the different parts with project folders and namespaces.

I use a different pattern. I keep related view, viewmodel, and model in the same assembly, separated by namespace. Each new relationship creates a new assembly.