Prism Template Pack 1.4: Now with MEF Support!

Quite a few folks have asked for MEF versions of the Prism templates. I’m happy to announce that the Prism Template Pack has now been updated to include MEF (as well as Unity) templates.You can download the latest version of the template pack (version 1.4) from here [Updated Link]. You can read the release notes here.

Remember to remove the .zip extension (leaving the .vsix extension!) before double-clicking to install the templates.

The Prism Template Pack now provides templates for a quick-start solution, a shell and a module, for both Silverlight and WPF, and in C# and Visual Basic.NET. That’s a grand total of 24 individual templates (!!), which is one reason why it took so long to release this update.

To make it easier to find the right template, I’ve added MEF and Unity categories under the Prism node. This approach isn’t ideal but it means you won’t have to parse a large flat list of templates. In the near future I’ll investigate moving to a wizard-based approach where you can choose between MEF and Unity, and other configuration options, using a wizard dialog. That should allow the templates to support more variations without exponentially increasing the number of templates .

As always, please let me know what you think.

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2011
  Oh, thank you!

• Anonymous
  March 06, 2011
  Great news David, awesome work with these templates. Thanks, Davide Zordan

• Anonymous
  March 08, 2011
  Just a heads up - for the "Prism Silverlight 4.0 QuickStart Solution (MEF)" template, I had to set "Copy Local" to false for the Microsoft.Practices.Prism reference in the modules in order for it to run. Other than that, beautiful!

• Anonymous
  March 11, 2011
  Great news David, awesome work with these templates. Thanks very much, Crystal.Ice

• Anonymous
  March 12, 2011
  Great work - allow to start with a "best practise structure" as a full working project. Thx a lot fpr that! Just a question - did you have a guideline to build a login for that. Just at the Moment i struggle araound, because only find "old" How To's for that. UR

• Anonymous
  March 20, 2011
  I get PathTooLongException when trying to install the templates, can I install it manually somehow? From log file: "Install Error : System.IO.PathTooLongException: C:Documents and SettingsDanielLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftVisualStudio10.0ExtensionsDavid HillPrism Template Pack1.4ProjectTemplatesVisualBasicPrismMEF1033Prism.Solution.SL.MEF.zip: PrismQuickStartSolution-Silverlight.vstemplate   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.ExtensionManagerService.BeginInstall(IInstallableExtension installableExtension, Boolean perMachine, AsyncOperation asyncOp)   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.ExtensionManager.ExtensionManagerService.InstallWorker(IInstallableExtension extension, Boolean perMachine, AsyncOperation asyncOp)"

• Anonymous
  March 23, 2011
  Great，Thanks Hope that the follow-up function to increase WCF RIA Services I'm always wrong every time data access (Sorry, my English is low)

• Anonymous
  April 03, 2011
  David, I get a 'Install Error : System.IO.PathTooLongException' on Windows XP. Can this be fixed? Thanks

• Anonymous
  April 20, 2011
  I have the path too long error as well, more than likely because I am forced to use Windows XP by my client. It absolutely amazes me that Microsoft hasn't fixed the underlying issue. I wish they would either fix Windows to increase the 260 MAX_PATH limit or fix the .Net wrapper to use long file names. Back to the issue at hand, the .vsix file is just a zip archive. As a workaround, simply unzip the archive and open the extension.vsix.manifest file in notepad. Try shortening either the Name or the Author field. For example, to get it to work, I shortened the name field, "Prism Template Pack", to "Prism TP" (since I would rather use the TP than do it by hand). After you rename, save the file and recreate the zip archive. Be sure to rename the zip archive with a .vsix extension.

• Anonymous
  April 21, 2011
  Scott: Thanks for posting a workaround to the path too long problem. I too am amazed that this problem still exists in this day and age :-) Anthony, Daniel: Hopefully Scott's workaround will get you unblocked. For the next release of the templates I'll shorten the path, though folks may still experience the problem if they've installed VS to a non-default path... Also, I think that changing the path might stop auto upgrade from working, so you'll probably have to uninstall previous versions of the templates before installing any newer versions... Thanks. David.

• Anonymous
  May 12, 2011
  Is there a template for WinPhone7 MEF QuicStart ?