Aspire is now the talk of the town. You can build and orchestrate all the dependencies from one single place. In fact, it’s stack streamlined. Learn more about Aspire here.
This article discusses how to integrate .NET MAUI, Microsoft’s cross-platform UI framework, with Aspire.
Aspire supports .NET by default, but since .NET MAUI is designed for multi-targeting from a single project, it presents a minor issue. I’ll offer a workaround until it’s officially supported (coming soon).
For this, I’m using .NET 10 File-based Apps for simplicity. Aspire v9.5 supports this new feature. Consult this article to know more about C# File-apps.
.NET MAUI 9 - Workload update to support Apple Xcode 26
Following its annual release cadence, Apple formally announced its updated hardware and software during the Apple Event in early September.
The OS version numbers are now all v26 to avoid confusion. This includes the updated developer tool, Apple Xcode, which is also at v26.
Regardless of the development framework, apps submitted to the App Store must always target the most recent iOS SDK. Hence, support for the latest version of Xcode is crucial.
.NET MAUI has announced its support for Apple Xcode 26 in the Stable channel of the .NET 9 SDK. More details here.
C# – Preprocessor Directives are highly useful for writing code that can be compiled conditionally, depending on factors like the target framework, target platform, or build configuration.
For example:
#if NET9_0_OR_GREATER
// The code within this block will execute only on .NET 9 or higher
#endif
#if ANDROID
// The code within this block will execute only on the Android OS
#endif
#if DEBUG
// The code within this block will execute only in Debug mode
#endif
C# – Ignored Directives have a similar syntax but are ignored by the compiler because they are for tooling.
The real purpose of this feature is to execute a C# source file directly from the CLI. It doesn’t need a project file. Now, even the plain console app requires a project file, despite the much-simplified top-level statements feature.
Not confined to .NET MAUI, the XAML Live Preview functions as an invaluable tool for inspecting the UI and its associated properties in XAML apps overall.
However, it is imperative that the app be connected to the debugger, is it not? Yes, that is prior to the intro of the debugger-detached XAML Live Preview in VS2022, v17.13 Preview 1.0.
Yesterday, during the .NET MAUI session at .NET Conf 2024(YouTube clip linked), David and Rachel provided an insightful overview of its functionality.
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.
Undoubtedly, CommunityToolkit.Mvvm, aka Microsoft MVVM Toolkit, has recently become one of the most popular NuGet packages among MVVM developers.
It effectively abstracts away the boilerplate code, enabling developers to concentrate exclusively on the task.
However, after the release of package version 8.3 and later, while building the project referencing this Toolkit has encountered failures, accompanied by perplexing error messages like System.TypeInitializationException or Found conflicts between different versions of 'WinRT.Runtime' that could not be resolved. when targeting the Windows 10 platform.
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.
