Installing the MVVM Light Toolkit manually

in Programming / MVVM Light Toolkit

Jump to: Prerequisites / Getting the goods / Unblocking the files / Installing the binaries / Installing the templates for VS08 / Installing the templates for VS10 / Installing the templates for VS10 Express / Installing the snippets for VS08 / Installing the snippets for VS10 / Installing the snippets for VS10 Express / Installing the templates for Blend 3 / Installing the templates for Blend 4 / Verifying the installation / Should you have a problem / License / Documentation

For more information about the toolkit in general, please refer to the Get Started page on my website.

Prerequisites

For Windows Presentation Foundation 4, you need to install
- For development: Visual Studio 2010
- To run the applications: .NET 4 (automatically installed when you install Visual Studio 2010).
- (strongly recommended) Expression Blend 4 to design the application.
For Silverlight 4, you need to install
- For development: Visual Studio 2010
- For development: Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2010
- To run the applications: Silverlight 4 (automatically installed when you install the Silverlight tools for Visual Studio).
- (strongly recommended) Expression Blend 4 to design the application.

For Windows Phone 7, you need to install
- (optional) For development: Visual Studio 2010
- Windows Phone Developer Tools
- (strongly recommended) Expression Blend 4 to design the application.
- Microsoft Expression Blend Add-in Preview for Windows Phone

For Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5SP1, you need to install
- For development: Visual Studio 2008 and the Service Pack 1
- To run the applications: .NET 3.5 SP1 (automatically installed when you install Visual Studio 2008).
- (strongly recommended) Expression Blend 3 to design the application.
For Silverlight 3, you need to install
- For development: Visual Studio 2008 and the Service Pack 1
- For development: Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
- To run the applications: Silverlight 3 (automatically installed when you install the Silverlight tools for Visual Studio).
- (strongly recommended) Expression Blend 3 to design the application.

Getting the goods

All the necessary files – for a stable version or for the latest and greatest alpha/beta release can be loaded here below:

Stable version

The current stable version is V3 SP1.

Important note for Windows Phone developers: If you work with the developer tools beta, you must install this hotfix on top of V3 SP1.

The source code for V3 can be downloaded on the Codeplex site.

Important note: Unblocking the files

When a file is downloaded in Windows Vista or Windows 7, it is marked as unsafe by the file system. If the file is a Zip file (like the ones you download here), you must unblock the Zip file before you unpack it. To do this, follow the steps:

Locate the downloaded Zip file.
Right click on the file and select Properties from the context menu.
In the Properties dialog, in the General tab, click the Unblock button

Installing the binaries

Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the file and choose Extract All.
Change the “Files will be extracted to this folder” field to “C:”

Confirm that you want to merge the files into the Program Files folder. You might have to provide permission for this operation.

In other operating systems, use your favorite method to extract the zipped binaries. The target folder should be:
C:\Program Files\Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft)\Mvvm Light Toolkit\Binaries

Installing the templates for Visual Studio 2008

In Visual Studio, check the location from which templates are loaded:
Tools / Options / Projects and Solutions

Copy the path without the ProjectTemplates folder from “User project templates location”.
For example, in the example above, copy D:\Visual Studio 2008\Templates
Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Paste the copied path into the “Files will be extracted to this folder” field.

Press the Extract button. Confirm that you want to merge the folders (and maybe overwrite files, if you had a previous version installed). You might have to provide permission for this operation.

Installing the templates for Visual Studio 2010

Important note for Windows Phone developers: If you work with the developer tools beta, you must install this hotfix on top of V3 SP1.

Visual Studio 2010 supports WPF3, WPF4, SL3, SL4 and Windows Phone 7 solutions. Follow the steps to install the corresponding templates.

In Visual Studio, check the location from which templates are loaded:
Tools / Options / Projects and Solutions

Copy the path without the ProjectTemplates folder from “User project templates location”.
For example, in the example above, copy D:\Visual Studio 2010\Templates
Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Paste the copied path into the “Files will be extracted to this folder” field.

Installing the templates for Visual Studio 2010 Express (Phone edition)

Important note for Windows Phone developers: If you work with the developer tools beta, you must install this hotfix on top of V3 SP1.

Visual Studio 2010 Express (phone edition) supports Windows Phone 7 solutions. Follow the steps to install the corresponding templates.

Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Select your "My Documents" folder as the target for the extraction. On Windows 7, it is c:\users\[username]\Documents.

Press the Extract button. Confirm that you want to merge the folders (and maybe overwrite files, if you had a previous version installed).

Installing the snippets for Visual Studio 2008

In Visual Studio, check the location from which snippets are loaded:
Tools / Code Snippets Manager / My Code Snippets

Copy the path from “Location”.
For example, in the example above, copy D:\Visual Studio 2008\Code Snippets\Visual C#\My Code Snippets
Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Paste the copied path into the “Files will be extracted to this folder” field.

Installing the snippets for Visual Studio 2010

In Visual Studio, check the location from which snippets are loaded:
Tools / Code Snippets Manager / My Code Snippets

Copy the path from “Location”.
For example, in the example above, copy D:\Visual Studio 2010\Code Snippets\Visual C#\My Code Snippets
Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Paste the copied path into the “Files will be extracted to this folder” field.

Installing the snippets for Visual Studio 2010 Express (phone edition)

In Visual Studio Express, make sure that the menu Tools / Settings / Expert Settings is checked.
Check the location from which snippets are loaded:
Tools / Code Snippets Manager / My Code Snippets

Copy the path from “Location”.
For example, in the example above, copy C:\Users\Laurent\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Code Snippets\Visual C#\My Code Snippets
Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Paste the copied path into the “Files will be extracted to this folder” field.

Installing the templates for Expression Blend 3

Expression Blend 3 supports only WPF3.5SP1 and SL3 solutions. Follow the steps to install the corresponding templates.

Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Select your "My Documents" folder as the target for the extraction. On Windows 7, it is c:\users\[username]\Documents.

Press the Extract button. Confirm that you want to merge the folders (and maybe overwrite files, if you had a previous version installed).

Installing the templates for Expression Blend 4

Important note for Windows Phone developers: If you work with the developer tools beta, you must install this hotfix on top of V3 SP1.

Expression Blend 4 supports WPF3.5SP1, WPF4, SL3, SL4 and Windows Phone 7 solutions. Follow the steps to install the corresponding templates.

Save the zip file locally (V3).
Unblock the files
Right click on the zip file and select Extract All.
Select your "My Documents" folder as the target for the extraction. On Windows 7, it is c:\users\[username]\Documents.

Press the Extract button. Confirm that you want to merge the folders (and maybe overwrite files, if you had a previous version installed).

Verifying the installation

Visual Studio 2008 / Visual Studio 2010 / Visual Studio Express (phone edition)

Start Visual Studio.
Select File / New Project
You should see the MVVM Light project templates under Visual C# / My templates in the New Project dialog box.
Create a new MVVM Light application.
Open the References folder in the Solution explorer.
Make sure that the DLLs GalaSoft.MvvmLight.dll, GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.dll and System.Windows.Interactivity are referenced correctly (no warning sign).
For WPF4, the DLLs are named GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WPF4.dlland GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll
For SL4, the DLLs are named GalaSoft.MvvmLight.SL4.dll and GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.SL4.dll
For Windows Phone 7, the DLLs are named GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WP7.dll and GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WP7.dll

In VS 2008

In VS 2010

In VS 2010 Express (phone edition)

Expression Blend 3 / Expression Blend 4

Start Expression Blend.
Select File / New Project
You should see the MVVM Light project templates under Visual C# / My templates in the New Project dialog box.
Create a new MVVM Light application.
Open the References folder in the Solution explorer.
Make sure that the DLLs GalaSoft.MvvmLight.dll, GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.dll and System.Windows.Interactivity are referenced correctly (no warning sign).
For WPF4, the DLLs are named GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WPF4.dlland GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll
For SL4, the DLLs are named GalaSoft.MvvmLight.SL4.dll and GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.SL4.dll
For Windows Phone 7, the DLLs are named GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WP7.dll and GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WP7.dll

MVVM Light V3 in Blend 3

MVVM Light V3 in Blend 4

Should you have a problem

If you have any problem during the installation, please contact me at laurent@galasoft.ch.

License

The MVVM Light Toolkit is distributed under the MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Documentation

I am working on documenting the features of the framework, and building samples. Some is already available on the Get Started page, in the "tutorials" section (by myself and by other users too). More documentation is in the works, so please be patient, stay tuned to my blog, and in the mean time you can create new MVVM Light applications in Visual Studio or Expression Blend, execute them (in WPF and in Silverlight) and then check the code to see what features are available. Make sure to check the design time experience that the Toolkit offers into Expression Blend too.

Thanks a lot for your interest in the MVVM Light Toolkit, and for your patience waiting for new versions and documentation!

Happy coding!

Laurent