WPF User Control hell with MVVM and Dependency Properties

Question

This is what I\'m trying to do:

• I\'m writing a UserControl that I want to be consumed by other developers.

• I want end users to be able

Answer 1

You should separate the two use cases:

1. The (user) control that will be consumed by other developers.
2. The user control that will be consumed by your application.

Importantly, the latter depends on the former - not vice versa.

Use case 1 would use dependency properties, template bindings, all the things that go into making a regular WPF control:

MyControl.cs:

public class MyControl : Control
{
    // dependency properties and other logic
}

Generic.xaml:

You would then define use case 2 as:

MyViewModel.cs:

public class MyViewModel : ViewModel
{
    // properties and business logic
}

MyView.xaml:

Best of both worlds with a clean separation. Other developers depend only on the control, which could (and probably should) be in a completely different assembly than your view model and view.