Welcome to the Sands of MAUI—newsletter-style points devoted to bringing collectively newest .NET MAUI content material related to builders.
A particle of sand—tiny and innocuous. However put numerous sand particles collectively and we now have one thing huge—a power to reckon with. It’s the smallest grains of sand that always add as much as kind huge seashores, dunes and deserts.
Most .NET builders are excited with .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI)—the evolution of contemporary .NET cross-platform developer expertise.
Going ahead, builders will probably be empowered with the .NET MAUI expertise stack and steady tooling to construct native cross-platform apps for cellular/desktop from single shared codebase.
Whereas it could take an extended flight to achieve the sands of MAUI island, developer pleasure round .NET MAUI is sort of palpable with all of the created content material. Just like the grains of sand, every bit of reports/article/documentation/video/tutorial/livestream contributes
in the direction of developer data in .NET MAUI and we develop a group/ecosystem prepared to study and assist.
Sands of MAUI is a humble try to gather all of the .NET MAUI awesomeness in a single place. This is what’s noteworthy for the week of August 28, 2023:
Migration Information to .NET MAUI
.NET MAUI is the evolution of contemporary .NET cross-platform growth stack, permitting builders to achieve cellular and desktop kind elements from single shared codebase. For people sustaining apps written with Xamarin.Kinds, Might 2024 is when official help
stops—now could be a good time to begin the migration to .NET MAUI. There are clearly many issues and James Montemagno has
produced a complete video—the Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI migration guide.
James begins off with a number of the key issues as builders plot the migration to .NET MAUI—understanding how dependencies transfer ahead to fashionable .NET runtimes could be necessary. The built-in Improve Assistant in Visible Studio could be a stable
start line to start the improve, and James showcases migrating an actual espresso app over to .NET MAUI.
After the Improve Assistant does its finest, there could also be compilation errors with variations in underlying frameworks—builders can sort things one after the other, and look to reuse fonts, pictures and different sources.
Each app is exclusive and there could also be variations in platform particular code or dependency service injection, however there’s loads of documentation and steering for builders on their migration journey.
VS Code Extension for .NET MAUI
.NET MAUI sports activities stable tooling with Visible Studio on each Home windows and macOS, however there’s all the time the will to go together with light-weight tooling—lowers the barries to entry. Visible Studio Code continues to be the uber-popular lightweight code editor,
working constantly throughout Home windows/macOS/Linux.
There’s huge information for VS Code followers and Leomaris Reyes wrote up an article—getting began with the brand new .NET MAUI Extension for Visible Studio Code.
The .NET MAUI Extension for VS Code rides on C# Dev Package—the light-weight, editor-first expertise that augments C# growth in VS Code with a Answer Explorer, native Check Explorer, AI-powered code authoring and extra. Paired with C# Dev Package,
the .NET MAUI extension for VS Code gives builders with instruments to develop/debug/deploy cross-platform .NET cellular/desktop apps with VS Code on Home windows, macOS and Linux.
Leomaris talks by means of how builders can set up the .NET MAUI Extension for VS Code, create new .NET MAUI apps and debug/deploy on chosen simulators. Whereas early days with some limitations, the .NET MAUI Extension for VS Code guarantees seamless .NET
cross-platform growth—an ideal begin to welcome .NET MAUI growth on VS Code.
Chat UI for .NET MAUI
Whereas .NET MAUI gives a beautiful basis for contemporary .NET cross-platform growth, severe builders know the necessity to increase the UI stack—no level attempting to recreate the wheel when engineering is pricey. Telerik UI for .NET MAUI can
assist—probably the most complete UI part library for polished performant UI controls that work seamlessly throughout cellular and desktop.
On this age of AI, Chatbots can increase the consumer expertise and Rossitza Fakalieva wrote up an article—supporting pure conversational move between people and Chatbots with Telerik UI for .NET MAUI Chat.
One of many issues that defines us as people is the way in which we talk and course of data—fashionable apps ought to exude human-like UI that may mimic a pure dialog move. Telerik UI for .NET MAUI features a Chat UI part for cross-platform
.NET MAUI apps—the objective is to equip builders with intuitive, polished and customizable UI to pair with Chatbot providers for augmented UX.
Rossi begins with the fundamentals of tips on how to embody Telerik Chat UI part in .NET MAUI apps, earlier than diving into the person UI controls that assist with higher chat dialog UX. Faster chat experiences demand consumer picks as an alternative of typing—the
Telerik Chat UI part obliges with quite a lot of picker UI, like Calendar, Clock, Playing cards and extra.
With wealthy contextual Playing cards, Instructed Actions, Typing indicator, Localization, DataBinding/MVVM Assist and varied fashion customization APIs, the Telerik UI for .NET MAUI Chat gives builders all of the ammunition to construct wealthy chat experiences, with
straightforward integration with any fashionable Chatbot service.
Plugins for .NET MAUI
.NET MAUI packs quite a bit as a developer framework—a unified stack with steady tooling to construct native cross-platform apps for cellular/desktop kind elements. Whereas .NET MAUI gives unified UI/characteristic abstractions in C#/XAML, the truth is native cellular
platforms have an enormous API canvas. Plugins are the reply when builders want to tug off one thing native and abstractions make Plugins reuseable by different builders.
After constructing just a few himself, Gerald Versluis desires to encourage fellow builders to construct Plugins on their very own and produced a video—build .NET MAUI Plugins with a free template.
There are some complexities in constructing a Plugin—builders must know the underlying native platforms and set up their code effectively to make the Plugin a reusable NuGet package deal. Gerald desires to assist—say hey to the brand new Plugin.Maui.Function
Plugin Template.
With the open supply Plugin Template, builders ought to have an excellent start line—Gerald walks by means of tips on how to create a Plugin repository and alter up the default names from the Template. After NuGet metadata and Licence updates, builders have
to do the precise work of implementing native platform performance as a cross-platform Plugin—Gerald’s Plugin Template is right here to assist get began. Cheers.
Suggestions for Migration to .NET MAUI
Whereas Xamarin/Xamain.Kinds has loved an excellent run, the writing is on the wall for these supporting manufacturing apps—the time emigrate to .NET MAUI is now. Microsoft continues to spend money on tooling and steering for the improve—nevertheless, there
is not any denying the handbook work concerned for builders, particularly for giant tasks.
Fortunately, with as many of us doing it, there’s assist from the developer group and Mitchel Sellers wrote up an article—tips for migrating from Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI.
Mitch shares some very actual ideas for people shifting from Xamarin.Kinds to .NET MAUI—upgrading current tasks to Xamarin.Kinds 5.0 first is really useful. Previous to migration may also be a good time to do some codebase cleanup—eradicating unused
code, fixing construct warnings, eradicating feedback and extra. The Improve Assistant can assist fairly a bit, however builders are effectively served operating the software on particular person tasks for granular management.
After Improve Assistant does its factor, builders could need to test any modified code, repair warnings and ensure tasks construct. Whereas non-compulsory, one of many greatest advantages of migrating to .NET MAUI is likely to be switching to the Single Challenge structure—pictures,
fonts, types and different sources change into reusable and a lot simpler to handle.
Whereas there are handbook steps and gotchas, migrations from Xamarin.Kinds to .NET MAUI profit from stable documentation, steady tooling and useful developer group.
That is it for now.
We’ll see you subsequent week with extra superior content material related to .NET MAUI.
Cheers, builders!
#Sands #MAUI #Concern
