MSDN: Mobile Development with .NET

Explore the powerful capabilities of the .NET ecosystem for building modern, cross-platform mobile applications. From native experiences to shared UI and business logic, .NET provides the tools and frameworks you need to succeed.

Introduction to .NET Mobile Development

The .NET platform offers several compelling options for developing mobile applications that can run on iOS, Android, and Windows. Whether you're targeting specific platforms with native performance or aiming for maximum code reuse, .NET has you covered.

Key Frameworks and Technologies:

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI): The evolution of Xamarin.Forms, .NET MAUI enables you to build native mobile and desktop apps with a single, shared codebase. Design your UI once and deploy it everywhere.
Xamarin: A mature and powerful framework for building cross-platform native apps with C# and .NET. Leverage platform-specific UI and achieve native performance.
Blazor Hybrid: Integrate Blazor web UI into native mobile applications. Share UI components and business logic between your web and mobile apps.

Getting Started with .NET MAUI

This section guides you through setting up your development environment and creating your first .NET MAUI application.

Install Visual Studio: Ensure you have the latest version of Visual Studio with the ".NET Multi-platform App UI development" workload installed.
Create a New Project: In Visual Studio, select "Create a new project," then search for ".NET MAUI App."
Understand the Project Structure: Familiarize yourself with the project's core files, including platform-specific folders and shared UI code.

Basic App Example (XAML)

Here's a simple example of a button that increments a counter when tapped:

                    
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             x:Class="MyMauiApp.MainPage"
             BackgroundColor="{DynamicResource SecondaryColor}">

    <ScrollView>
        <VerticalStackLayout
            Spacing="25"
            Padding="30,0"
            VerticalOptions="Center">

            <Image
                Source="dotnet_bot.png"
                SemanticProperties.Description="Cute dot net bot waving"
                HeightRequest="200"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />

            <Label
                Text="Hello, .NET MAUI!"
                SemanticProperties.HeadingLevel="Level1"
                FontSize="32"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />

            <Label
                Text="Welcome to .NET MAUI!"
                SemanticProperties.HeadingLevel="Level2"
                SemanticProperties.Description="Welcome message in the app"
                FontSize="18"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />

            <Button
                x:Name="CounterBtn"
                Text="Click me"
                SemanticProperties.Hint="Counts the number of times you have clicked"
                Clicked="OnCounterClicked"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />
        </VerticalStackLayout>
    </ScrollView>

</ContentPage>
                    
                

C# Code-Behind

                    
namespace MyMauiApp;

public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
{
    int count = 0;

    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void OnCounterClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        count++;
        CounterBtn.Text = $"Clicked {count} times";

        SemanticScreenReader.Announce(CounterBtn.Text);
    }
}
                    
                

Advanced Topics

Dive deeper into topics like data binding, navigation, accessing native APIs, performance optimization, and publishing your applications to the app stores.

Explore More Tutorials