UIP Application Block

I have started reading the details about the application block (User Interface Process Application Block - Version 2). The block aims to allow you to more easily implement MVC applications where the transitions between views is flexible. The block states that it wants to make it easier to "Add new pages", etc.

The block implements much of this very well. The views are, however, coupled to the controller. On page 60 of the PDF that comes with the block it indicates "to add navigations to your view call the methods defined within your controller." This has several negative side effects.

Firstly, it is now difficult to add new views into the application. If additional steps are added to a user interface process, this requires changes to the existing views, and controller, and the addition of the new view.

Secondly, you cannot use a single view for multiple tasks. In some cases it may be possible for a single view to participate in multiple tasks. If the controller is directly called from the view this is not easy to implement.

Ideally we should be able to decouple the view from the controller. This in itself will be a complex addition as there is some coupling required between these entities. The controller is currently decoupled from the view. However, operations of the controller will require information from the view.

How this can be decoupled must be considered carefully.