This article represents the second installment of the XAML for Beginners series, which elucidates the concept of declarative markup in the context of defining UI in .NET applications. All articles within this series are accessible from here.
The initial article focused mainly on introducing XAML and its building blocks.
In this article, the focus will be on the following:
Starting a new series entitled XAML for Beginners elucidates the concept of declarative markup to define UI in .NET applications. All articles within this series can be accessed from here.
The second installment of this series is now available to read here.
XAML is an acronym that stands for eXtensible Application Markup Language. It was first introduced in 2006, accompanying the initial release of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) alongside .NET 3.0.
The principal objective of this methodology is to segregate the UI design from the program logic. This separation allows the design team to focus solely on the UI, while the program logic can be developed and evaluated independently. Consequently, these components can be integrated into a unified system.
The MVVM design pattern is an exemplary framework for accomplishing this. However, XAML also supports the code-behind approach.
This article is part of the MVVM – Made Easy series, focusing on handling UI events with ViewModel commands.
This series comprises articles that provide insights into working with the MVVM design pattern, to make it a delightful experience. All the articles in this series can be accessed from here – MVVM – Made Easy
The View serves as the user interface, while the ViewModel is composed of Properties and Commands that encapsulate the underlying logic. This architectural layering offers the distinct advantage of enabling independent development and testing of both components. Data Binding functions as the cohesive element that interlinks these two layers.
An event represents a significant mechanism for notifying state changes, such as a button click, to other components that have a vested interest in the occurrence.
The receiver component is capable of responding to the event by subscribing to it through a method whose signature corresponds with the delegate of the event ensuring type safety. And that method is generally referred to as an event handler.
However, the challenge emerges during the testing of the ViewModel, as the event is closely intertwined with the View. Business logic can’t be independently tested.
This article is part of the MVVM – Made Easy series, with a focus on the initial preview release of v8.4 of the CommunityToolkit.Mvvm (aka Microsoft MVVM Toolkit) NuGet package, which includes support for Partial Properties.
Update as of Dec 2024: The v8.4 stable release is now available. For further details, please refer to this blog post.
Here are the links to other articles in this series.
Support for Partial Properties is one of most sought after features in the MVVM toolkit as it allows to define custom access modifier for property accessors and makes code more readable. The need for an analyzer to track the usage of a field instead of a (generated) property is no longer necessary.
This November, join David, Rachel, and a special guest (probably Stephan Arnas) as they discuss the latest developments in the realm of .NET MAUI during the monthly community standup preceding .NET Conf 2024 next week.
Consult the article titled Getting Started with Syncfusion’s .NET MAUI Toolkit to start using this free and open-source toolkit, with support within the All-in-One MAUI Templates for the initial setup.
The exciting news is that the second set of 5 controls is nearing its release.
Remember to join live on Thu, Nov 7 at 18:00 UTC. Click the link to access the timing in your local or preferred time zone. Note, that it’s an hour behind 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.
.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 release features two prominent enhancements:
The TitleBar support for MacCatalyst is in progress. Track here.
This article will delve into the details of HybridWebView.
Back in February, an article was published on the efficient utilization of Item Templates through the use of script automation. The article, titled .NET MAUI – Item Templates – Made Easy on CLI and VS Code, provides a detailed focus on this topic.
That article addressed two issues:
Now, the namespace resolution issue has been partially supported within the .NET SDK, eliminating the requirement for additional script files. A PR was submitted to the .NET Templating source repository, underwent review, and was subsequently merged into the main branch. This enhancement was then included in the release of .NET 9 Preview 6.
Firstly, .NET MAUI 9 Preview 5 has just been released. The changelog can be found here. Notably, a new Blazor Hybrid Web template has been introduced in this version.
In short, this new template abstracts the Razor components into a distinct Razor Class Library (RCL). Furthermore, it provides the ability to create Blazor Web projects within the same solution and refers to the shared RCL.
The concept of abstracting the Razor components is already facilitated by the Hybrid project templates within the All-in-One template pack.
dotnet new mauiapp -o MyApp -dp Hybrid -rcl
Will review the modifications and cover them in a distinct article.
As we all know .NET MAUI is an evolution of Xamarin.Forms. The underlying architecture transitioned from Renderers to Handlers. The project structure is unified. But for the projects that are getting migrated and developers coming from Xamarin.Forms background would feel at home with the classic multi-project solution structure.
To effectively support this, the All-in-One project templates introduced an option to abstract the Shared components as a separate .NET MAUI Class Library.
This article provides a comprehensive guide on leveraging the Maps feature from the .NET MAUI Community Toolkit in a WinUI 3 App through the robust Embedding feature.
The CommunityToolkit.Maui.Maps NuGet package provides access to Bing Maps through a WebView on Windows. The Handler definitions for the Windows platform for the .NET MAUI Maps feature are hosted in this package.
To ensure the Maps feature functions correctly on the native WinUI 3 App, it is imperative to slightly adjust the feature initialization in the MAUI pipeline.