Downloading Prism
July 1st, 2009
Prism is amazing. It was pretty much made by geniuses. Unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to figure out 1) where to download it and 2) what to do with it after you’ve downloaded it. This is a guide that shows you how to get up and running with Silverlight Prism:
1. (optional) Go to the Prism Codeplex site. Look for the download. However, it’s a trick. The Prism code is actually on MSDN.
2. Go to the MSDN site. Where you’ll find 3 confusing links. Unless you’re interested in multi-targeting (sharing source between Silverlight and WPF sites), all you need is the first one. Download the “CompositeApplicationGuidance-xxx.exe” file.
3. Launch the .exe and select a folder. The Prism source will be extracted there. Be patient. This will take a few minutes.
4. Browse to the folder with the source. Notice the help file. This file has a lot of great information about Prism.
5. Dive into the “CAL” folder. Probably stands for “Composite Application Library”, but no one knows for sure 
6. Select the “CompositeApplicationLibrary.sln” file. *Don’t* select the “Desktop” version (this is for WPF).
7. Close the “Desktop” folder in the solution. This is for the WPF source.
8. Consider whether you want a debug or release version of the libraries. One handy trick is to create a debug build, and then make sure that the Prism source stays in its present folder. That way, whenever you’re debugging your applications, you’ll be able to see Prism Source information on the call stack.
9. Build the Solution.
10. Navigate to the “..\CAL\Silverlight\Composite.UnityExtensions\Bin\Debug” (or, if a release build, “..\Bin\Release”).
This folder has the 5 key Prism assemblies:
- Microsoft.Practices.Composite.dll
- Microsoft.Practices.Composite.Presentation.dll
- Microsoft.Practices.Composite.UnityExtensions.dll
- Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation.dll
- Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll
Update (thanks to Ian Smith)
11. The pdf documentation for Prism can be found here
(thanks to Ian for the screenshot):
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12 Comments Add your own
1. DotNetShoutout&hellip | July 1st, 2009 at 7:53 pm
How to Find, Download and Build Prism for Silverlight…
Thank you for submitting this cool story – Trackback from DotNetShoutout…
2. Steve Robbins | July 2nd, 2009 at 3:29 am
I agree the location (and name!) of PRISM/Composite Application Guidance/Composite Application Library is rather confusing. It’s actually more confusing finding it than it is using it
One thing I would say though, your comment “Probably stands for Composite Application Library, but no one knows for sure.” – It’s called the Composite Application Library in MSDN, so that’s a fair bet
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd458861.aspx
3. admin | July 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 am
Thanks! You’re absolutely right. I was aiming a bit of sarcasm at the Prism guys for their folder naming, but it was pretty dry
I’ll try to clarify a bit in the post.
4. Why Shouldn’t I use PRI&hellip | July 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am
[...] MORE confusing than using the damn thing! There is actually a whole article on Sparking Client on How to Find, Download and Build Prism for Silverlight, which speaks [...]
5. Glenn Block | July 22nd, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Maybe not commonly known, but the url http://www.microsoft.com/prism gets you to the pages where you can download.
6. Ian Smith | August 4th, 2009 at 5:46 am
The point the ‘Where is it?’ post misses AND the microsoft.com/prism link misses is the documentation in pdf form is ONLY at the Codeplex URL.
This is a 305 page book. A very well written book with colour diagrams and very small print. One that most of us want to read as a book NOT as a wretched chm file or seemingly endless html pages. If you’ve got a color printer you want the pdf version but they hide that away on the Codeplex site so you need to go there first.
If you don’t read the book you end up as I did over the weekend hearing ‘experts’ saying PRISM is more poor P&P implementation that doesn’t deliver what’s needed. Experts who tell you guidelines on not just WHAT to use and WHEN but more importantly when NOT to use it.
The “book” does exactly that. It does it upfront right on page 5. It does it again for each and every pattern it describes. But of course we’re developers we don’t read books right?! Microsoft should just give us the software and it should just do what we want it to do! We shouldn’t have to actually THINK about what we need to do and plan it out!
7. admin | August 4th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Thanks Ian! updated.
8. Finding Unity is all but &hellip | December 5th, 2009 at 3:27 am
[...] After trying for a while to figure out how it all sort of works, I found this page at Sparkling Client – Downloading Prism. [...]
9. Nick | February 2nd, 2010 at 12:07 am
I believe my studio installation may be broken because when I open the solution file (I want WPF only and that’s the one I open) I get, “The project type is not supported by this application”. Why oh why does MS release it like this? Why not just hand over the DLL’s? Is there a super-mystic reason?
10. admin | February 2nd, 2010 at 9:08 am
The Prism team is aware of the problem. I would expect that the next version of Prism is much easier to install
11. Andy | March 24th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Thanks for this great post, the Telerik examples for salesdashboard include the prism stuff but nothing is signed. I like to sign all code so I was able to pull down the prism code and sign it.
12. Peter | April 21st, 2010 at 4:40 am
Thanks for the great post. In my opinion.. It should’nt be the way to install it in the future.
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