Customizing AppStart

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Custom IMvxAppStart

When an MvvmCross application starts by default it shows the View associated with a single ViewModel type.

This default behaviour is configured in Initialize in App.cs using:

RegisterAppStart<FirstViewModel>();

Sometimes you want to do custom checks or logic when starting up your app. To do that you need to change a couple of things.

A typical App.cs file would look like:

public class App : MvxApplication
{
	public override void Initialize()
	{
		CreatableTypes()
			.EndingWith("Service")
			.AsInterfaces()
			.RegisterAsLazySingleton();
			
		RegisterAppStart<LoginViewModel>();
	}
}

To use a custom AppStart class change it to:

public class App : MvxApplication
{
	public override void Initialize()
	{
		CreatableTypes()
			.EndingWith("Service")
			.AsInterfaces()
			.RegisterAsLazySingleton();
			
		RegisterCustomAppStart<AppStart>();
	}
}

Now create an AppStart.cs file and add the following code:

public class AppStart : MvxAppStart
{
	private readonly IAuthenticationService _authenticationService;

	public MvxAppStart(IMvxApplication application, IMvxNavigationService navigationService, IAuthenticationService authenticationService) : base(application, navigationService)
	{
		_authenticationService = authenticationService;
	}
	
	protected override void NavigateToFirstViewModel(object hint = null)
	{
		try
		{
			// You need to run Task sync otherwise code would continue before completing.
			var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
			Task.Run(async () => tcs.SetResult(await _authenticationService.IsAuthenticated()));
			var isAuthenticated = tcs.Task.Result;

			if (isAuthenticated)
			{
				//You need to Navigate sync so the screen is added to the root before continuing.
				NavigationService.Navigate<HomeViewModel>().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
			}
			else
			{
				NavigationService.Navigate<LoginViewModel>().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
			}
		}
		catch (System.Exception exception)
		{
			throw exception.MvxWrap("Problem navigating to ViewModel {0}", typeof(TViewModel).Name);
		}
	}
}

Launching using a protocol - e.g. from a Push notification or from an email link

MvxAppStart will call Startup on the MvxApplication. This enables you to do initialization on the UI Thread.

public class App : MvxApplication
{
	public override void Startup()
	{
		//Do things on the UI Thread
	}
}

There is also a typed version of the Startup available. To use that your App class needs to extend MvxApplication<TParameter> where TParameter is the type you expect to receive from the operating system. Note that the ViewModel you navigate to needs to extend IMvxViewModel<TParameter> This is especially useful when receiving parameters from the native platform, like push notifications. When you already know the type of the incoming object you can set the type on the class. Otherwise set object as type and perform checks to discover which type it is.

public class App : MvxApplication<TParameter>
{
	public override void Initialize()
	{
		RegisterAppStart<SomeViewModel, TParameter>();
	}

	public override TParameter Startup(TParameter parameter)
	{
		//Do custom logic with the hint received.
		return parameter;
	}
}