Transitioning from Application's MainPage to Window's Page
This article analyzes a significant change introduced in .NET MAUI 9, specifically the deprecation of the Application’s MainPage property, which has been replaced by the Window’s Page property.
The MainPage has existed since the inception of Xamarin.Forms, at which time it functioned as a single-window UI framework.
Nevertheless, the design of .NET MAUI incorporates the concept of a Window to effectively support Desktop form factors, including WinUI and Mac Catalyst.
November is set to be an exceptionally significant month for .NET developers globally, as a new version of .NET will be officially released during its annual event, .NET Conf. Similar to previous years, this year’s event will also be conducted virtually, allowing participation online. The highly anticipated .NET 9 is scheduled for release during this conference, which will take place over three days from Tue, Nov 12, 2024, to Thu, Nov 14, 2024. Please mark your calendars accordingly.
Quite like .NET 7, .NET 9 is also a short-term support (STS) release, which will be supported for 18 months till mid-May 2026. Even-numbered releases are LTS whereas odd-numbered are STS. More details on the release lifecycle are here. The support for .NET 6 (the previous LTS release) ends (more details here), with .NET 7 already out of support, and .NET 8, the current LTS release, has another 2 years of support till early Nov 2026.
.NET Release Schedule
Due to the underlying external dependencies, the support policy of .NET MAUI differs significantly from .NET, each major release will be supported only for 18 months. So, if you’re using .NET MAUI 8, support will cease by mid-May 2025 (in another 6 months). Hence, it’s necessary to plan for your app migration to .NET MAUI 9. An article has already been published detailing the comprehensive features of .NET MAUI 9.
Syncfusion.Maui.Toolkit NuGet package - A collection of free and open-source .NET MAUI controls
Yesterday, Syncfusion, a prominent vendor of software components, announced its dedication to contributing to .NET MAUI and the release of the initial set of free and open-source controls for .NET MAUI, which is now available as a NuGet package titled Syncfusion.Maui.Toolkit.
Microsoft has gladly welcomed Syncfusion’s open-source contributions, a gesture seen as a positive step for .NET MAUI confirming the ongoing commitment to the cross-platform framework.
Syncfusion is utilizing its proficiency in developing software components to collaborate with Microsoft, with the objective of significantly enhancing .NET MAUI. Their team is already making a noteworthy impact.
.NET MAUI 9 is the next major version of the cross-platform application UI framework. An article detailing the significant features of this version has already been published and can be accessed here.
This October, join David and Rachel as they discuss the latest developments in the realm of .NET MAUI during the monthly community standup.
Remember to join live on Thu, Oct 3 at 17:00 UTC. Click the link to access the timing in your local or preferred time zone.Note, that it’s back to its usual schedule.
Update: The community links for this month’s standup will be updated here.
Happy coding. Stay connected as we continue to learn and share the experiences from this exciting journey of being a .NET developer.
Following its annual release cadence, Apple formally announced its updated hardware and software during the Apple Event in early September.
iOS and iPadOS have been upgraded to v18, while macOS has been elevated to v15, codenamed Sequoia. Additionally, the dev tool Apple Xcode has been updated to v16.
Regardless of the development framework, apps submitted to the App Store must always target the most recent iOS SDK. Therefore, support for the latest version of Xcode is crucial.
.NET MAUI has announced its support for Apple Xcode 16 in the stable channel of .NET 8 SDK. More details here.
.NET 9, the next major version of .NET following the annual release cadence, will be a Short-Term Support (STS) release, which will be supported for 18 months from release.
This release is packed with a broad set of features. The primary highlight is the support for Native AOT across app models.
In this article, we’ll explore the high-level features of .NET MAUI 9.
This September, the .NET MAUI monthly community standup discusses the.NET MAUI 9 release enhancements. The HybridWebView and amazing TitleBar for Windows are just the tip of the iceberg.
Remember to join live on Thu, Sep 5 at 17:30 UTC. Click the link to access the timing in your local or preferred time zone.Note, that it’s half an hour behind the usual schedule.
Update: The community links for this month’s standup are here.
Happy coding. Stay connected as we continue to learn and share the experiences from this exciting journey of being a .NET developer.
In February, an article was published discussing the use of VS Code as a tool for developing .NET MAUI apps, following the announcement of the retirement of Visual Studio for Mac.
The support for Visual Studio for Mac will be discontinued by the end of this month.
