Unity.3.0.1304.1 now supports Windows 8 Apps with the Microsoft.Practices.Unity.NetCore assembly. This is a reduced set of features compared with the full version of Unity. This blog demonstates how this IoC container could be used with a default Windows 8 App.

Step 1: Get Unity using nuget:

Step 2: Create a UnityHelper class which will be used to register the interfaces, classes:

using System;
using Microsoft.Practices.Unity;

namespace UnityTestWin8App
{
    public class UnityHelper
    {
        #region Unity Container
        private static Lazy<IUnityContainer> container = new Lazy<IUnityContainer>(() =>
        {
            var container = new UnityContainer();
            RegisterTypes(container);
            return container;
        });

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the configured Unity container.
        /// </summary>
        public static IUnityContainer GetConfiguredContainer()
        {
            return container.Value;
        }
        #endregion

        public static void RegisterTypes(IUnityContainer container)
        {
            // Your registration logic ...
            container.RegisterTypes(AllClasses.FromApplication(false,false),
                                    WithMappings.FromMatchingInterface,
                                    WithName.Default,
                                    WithLifetime.ContainerControlled
                                );
        }
    }
}

Step 3: Now create a locator class which will be used in all the views. This class will return the resolved instance registered in the UnityHelper.

using Microsoft.Practices.Unity;

namespace UnityTestWin8App
{

    public class Locator : IServiceLocator
    {
        private readonly IUnityContainer _container = UnityHelper.GetConfiguredContainer();

        public T Resolve<T>()
        {
            return _container.Resolve<T>();
        }
    }

    public interface IServiceLocator
    {
        T Resolve<T>();
    }
}

Step 4: A class instance can then be used in a Windows 8 App Page

public sealed partial class GroupedItemsPage : UnityTestWin8App.Common.LayoutAwarePage
    {
        private IData1Repository _data1Repository;

        public GroupedItemsPage()
        {
            IServiceLocator serviceLocator = new Locator();
            _data1Repository = serviceLocator.Resolve<IData1Repository>();

            this.InitializeComponent();
            
        }

And it can be used as follows:

 void ItemView_ItemClick(object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e)
        {
            _data1Repository.GetData1();
            _data1Repository.GetData2();
            // Navigate to the appropriate destination page, configuring the new page
            // by passing required information as a navigation parameter
            var itemId = ((SampleDataItem)e.ClickedItem).UniqueId;
            this.Frame.Navigate(typeof(ItemDetailPage), itemId);
        }

So what’s the advantage of this? We still have a direct coupling to the Locator class in the constructor of the views.

The main advantage is that the DataAccessLayer assembly uses only constructor injection and this can be tested or changed in the future as required. The IData1Repository is also resolved in the constructor so we could change the implementation if required by changing only the registration in the UnityHelper class and no where else.

namespace DataAccessLayer
{
    public class Data1Repository : IData1Repository
    {
        private readonly IFile1Repository _file1Repository;

        public Data1Repository(IFile1Repository file1Repository)
        {
            _file1Repository = file1Repository;
        }

        public string GetData1()
        {
            return _file1Repository.GetFileNameTest();
        }

        public string GetData2()
        {
            return "GetData2";
        }
    }
}

Code: https://github.com/damienbod/UnityWithWin8App

Limitations of Unity NetCore (Taken from msdn)

The UnityServiceLocator Class

This is because the Unity.Interception and Unity.Interception.Configuration assemblies are not compatible with Windows Store apps.

Links:
http://unity.codeplex.com/

http://unity.codeplex.com/discussions/455740