Is WPF ready for prime time?

I mentioned “UI framework” as a requirement, and that has caused discussion – good!! :)

I’ve never thought you could build a real app (web, windows, etc) without putting some effort into designing and building a “UI framework” for the app.

This might mean something as complex and powerful as CAB or Prism. Or it might mean defining 3-4 interfaces and a unified shell that interacts with user controls that implement those interfaces.

In other words, I’m not saying you need “the framework to rule them all”, but you do need some structure.

This was true for Windows Forms, and is true for WPF. It was true for Web Forms as well imo. I’m not so sure it is true for ASP.NET MVC, because MVC actually is such a framework. But it is true for Silverlight, and is arguably more important there.

So sure, if you need the power of something like Prism, and can deal with the complexity, then you should look at that – though only if you actually want/need composite UI concepts.

Or if you want a single-document concept with attachable notes and clear navigation, you should hire Billy Hollis to deliver his training, because that’s the kind of framework he built for his last client – and it is really smooth – but is not a “framework” in the sense of being independent from the app they built.

And I rather favor that latter approach. Instead of finding or creating the “framework to rule them all”, and dealing with the complexity that invariably comes with that sort of framework, I’d rather take a minimalist approach and create the bare minimum necessary to support the specific UI requirements of my app or organization.

If you want an MDI style app, create the shell and interface support for MDI and be done with it. If you want an Outlook style app, create the shell and interface support for that and be done with it.

This stuff isn’t usually that hard if your scope is limited to the needs of your app, or your organization. Where it gets hard and complex is when you want a general purpose framework that supports numerous UI styles. Or if you really do have complex UI requirements like a true composite layout, where Prism comes into play.

Look at Chapter 19 in Expert 2008 Business Objects for example. In that chapter (and in PTWpf) I create a mini-framework for WPF. Just a base class for user controls and a shell form that knows how to interact with those controls in a consistent manner. Probably not quite enough for a real application, but not that far off either. And I designed/created that functionality in less than a day’s work. Given some decent UI requirements (in the broad sense around navigation, etc) and a couple weeks you should be able to create nearly any UI framework you’d need (assume existing expertise in WPF).

To be clear though, I expect to spend that same time at the start of a Windows Forms project too – because I want the same kind of “framework” support to get consistent navigation and UI interaction across a WinForms application as well.

Rocky