Open File Dialog MVVM

wpf mvvm openfiledialog
Jose picture Jose · Jun 25, 2009 · Viewed 46.1k times · Source

Ok I really would like to know how expert MVVM developers handle an openfile dialog in WPF.

I don't really want to do this in my ViewModel(where 'Browse' is referenced via a DelegateCommand)

void Browse(object param)
{
    //Add code here
    OpenFileDialog d = new OpenFileDialog();

    if (d.ShowDialog() == true)
    {
        //Do stuff
    }
}

Because I believe that goes against MVVM methodology.

What do I do?

Answer

Cameron MacFarland picture Cameron MacFarland · Jun 25, 2009

The best thing to do here is use a service.

A service is just a class that you access from a central repository of services, often an IOC container. The service then implements what you need like the OpenFileDialog.

So, assuming you have an IFileDialogService in a Unity container, you could do...

void Browse(object param)
{
    var fileDialogService = container.Resolve<IFileDialogService>();

    string path = fileDialogService.OpenFileDialog();

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(path))
    {
        //Do stuff
    }
}

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