Android Mad - Development Guide for Mobile App Development: .net multi-platform app ui

Showing posts with label .net multi-platform app ui. Show all posts

In this video, we will see the recap of .NET MAUI articles post on 2023. Supercharge your .NET MAUI projects by referring this articles.

DEV EXPRESS CHARTS IN .NET MAUI

December 04, 2023

Lottie animations in .NET MAUI

November 19, 2023

Transforming Labels into Hyperlinks with .NET MAUI

November 12, 2023

Mastering MVVM: A Deep Dive into .NET MAUI with MVVM Toolkit

October 28, 2023

Dev Express - Data Grid Control for .NET MAUI (Lifetime - Free plugin)

October 15, 2023

Data Grid Control for .NET MAUI (Free plugin to Sort, Filter & Show Data)

October 04, 2023

.NET MAUI - Swipe View

September 17, 2023

Flyout Page in .NET MAUI

July 21, 2023

.NET MAUI Barcode Scanner using IRONBARCODE

July 02, 2023

Dynamic Status Bar in .NET MAUI

June 18, 2023

Localisation in .NET MAUI

June 12, 2023

File Picker in .NET MAUI

May 29, 2023

Toast in .NET MAUI

May 21, 2023

Avatar View in .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

May 07, 2023

Signature Pad using .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

April 16, 2023

.Net MAUI - QR Code Generator

January 05, 2023

.Net MAUI - Zxing Barcode Scanner

January 10, 2023

Introduction

.NET MAUI, a cross-platform framework, empowers developers to build native mobile and desktop applications using C# and XAML. It enables the creation of apps that seamlessly operate on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, all from a unified codebase. This open-source platform is an advancement of Xamarin Forms, expanding its reach to desktop scenarios while enhancing UI controls for improved performance and extensibility.

In this article, we will see how we can implement Localisation in .NET MAUI project.

Advantages of Localisation

Localisation improves user experience by providing content and language that is culturally relevant and easily understandable to users in different regions, increasing engagement and satisfaction.
It expands market reach by making products or services accessible to a global audience, tapping into new markets and driving business growth.
Localisation helps build trust and credibility with international customers by demonstrating a commitment to their specific needs and preferences, fostering stronger relationships and customer loyalty.

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation

Screen Design:

As a first point, we need to implement the screen design as per our requirement. In this tutorial, we will use 3 controls - 2 labels, and button like in the following code block.

<?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"
             xmlns:resource="clr-namespace:MauiLocalization"
             x:Class="MauiLocalization.MainPage">

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

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

            <Label
                Text="{x:Static resource:LangResources.Helloworld}"
                SemanticProperties.HeadingLevel="Level1"
                FontSize="32"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />

            <Label
                Text="{x:Static resource:LangResources.WelcomeNote}"
                SemanticProperties.HeadingLevel="Level2"
                SemanticProperties.Description="Welcome to dot net Multi platform App U I"
                FontSize="18"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />

            <Button
                x:Name="CounterBtn"
                Text="Change to Tamil"
                SemanticProperties.Hint="Counts the number of times you click"
                Clicked="OnCounterClicked"
                HorizontalOptions="Center" />

        </VerticalStackLayout>
    </ScrollView>

</ContentPage>

Create RESX file

In this step, we will see the steps to create RESX file.

In the Solution Explorer, right-click on the project or folder where you want to add the RESX file.
Select "Add" from the context menu and then choose "New Item" or "New Folder" if you want to organize your resources in a separate folder.
In the "Add New Item" dialog box, search for "Resource File" or navigate to "General" -> "Text File" and name the file with the .resx extension.
Click the "Add" button to create the resource file.
We created two resources file. One is default and another one prefixed with the language code.
1. LangResources.resx
2. LangResources.ta.resx (Contains the resource equivalent in tamil)

RESX Files in XAML

To utilize your resources, you first need to import the XML namespace associated with them.

xmlns:resource="clr-namespace:MauiLocalization"

Then, you can access your strings by using the [x:Static](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/xaml/xaml-basics/xaml-markup-extensions#the-xstatic-markup-extension) markup extension, treating them as properties.
```
Text="{x:Static resource:LangResources.Helloworld}"
```

Language Update

Add click event to the button to change language based on the language code of the resource file.

private void OnCounterClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
	if (CounterBtn.Text.Contains("Tamil"))
	{
		LangResources.Culture = new CultureInfo("ta");
		CounterBtn.Text = "Change to English";
	}
	else
	{
		LangResources.Culture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
		CounterBtn.Text = "Change to Tamil";
	}
	App.Current.MainPage = new MainPage();
}

Here, "App.Current.MainPage = new MainPage();" is used to refresh page once the language changed

Then, we will add the below block in the page constructor to retain the language change once the button clicked and page refreshed.

if (LangResources.Culture != null && LangResources.Culture.TwoLetterISOLanguageName.Contains("ta"))
{
	CounterBtn.Text = "Change to English";
}
else
{
	CounterBtn.Text = "Change to Tamil";
}

Full Code:

Demo

Android:

Download Code:

You can download the code from GitHub. If you have any doubts, feel free to post a comment. If you liked this article, and it is useful to you, do like, share the article & star the repository on GitHub.

References
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/extensions/resources

.NET MAUI is a powerful platform for building cross-platform mobile applications, and with the right tools and resources, it's easy to implement Avatar View to your app. In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the steps for adding Avatar View in .NET MAUI using .NET MAUI Community Toolkit.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

.NET MAUI Community Toolkit is the key to achieve drawing in our App is to use Community.ToolKit.Maui NuGet package. It is a collection of reusable elements such as animations, behaviors converters, among others, for developing applications for iOS, Android, macOS and WinUI using MAUI.

Install .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

Install .NET MAUI Community Toolkit nuGet package on your .NET MAUI application.
Now initialize the plugin. Go to your MauiProgram.cs file. In the CreateMauiApp method, place in the .UseMauiApp<App>() line and just below it add the following line of code.

var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
builder
	.UseMauiApp<App>()
	.UseMauiCommunityToolkit()
	.ConfigureFonts(fonts =>
	{
		fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Regular.ttf", "OpenSansRegular");
		fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Semibold.ttf", "OpenSansSemibold");
	});

A graphical representation known as an avatar is connected to a particular user in order to identify them. This is frequently utilised in programmes that we use every day, therefore it's crucial that you have access to the tools that will enable you to accomplish it. This tutorial will teach you how to quickly and easily construct the.NET Maui Community Toolkit AvatarView!

Add the following namespace in the xaml file.

xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:CommunityToolkit.Maui.Views;assembly=CommunityToolkit.Maui"

Once the namespace added, you have to add the AvatarView tag with the properties that we required like below.

<toolkit:AvatarView Text="AM"
					FontSize="30"
                    TextColor="White"
                    BackgroundColor="Green"
                    BorderColor="White"
                    BorderWidth="5" 
                    HeightRequest="150"
                    WidthRequest="150"                                
                    CornerRadius="120"
                    ImageSource="dotnet_bot.png"/>

AvatarView’s properties

Text: This property help to set the text to the view
ImageSource: This property help to set the image to the view
CornerRadius: Determines the shape of the control. The properties can be set in the below ways.
Sample 1: CornerRadius="120"
Sample 2: CornerRadius="120,40,120,40"

Full Code:

Demo

Download Code:

.NET MAUI is a powerful platform for building cross-platform mobile applications, and with the right tools and resources, it's easy to add signature pad functionality to your app. In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the steps of signature pad in .NET MAUI using .NET MAUI Community Toolkit.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

Install .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

Install .NET MAUI Community Toolkit nuGet package on your .NET MAUI application.
Now initialize the plugin. Go to your MauiProgram.cs file. In the CreateMauiApp method, place in the .UseMauiApp<App>() line and just below it add the following line of code.

var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
builder
	.UseMauiApp<App>()
	.UseMauiCommunityToolkit()
	.ConfigureFonts(fonts =>
	{
		fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Regular.ttf", "OpenSansRegular");
		fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Semibold.ttf", "OpenSansSemibold");
	});

DrawView is a class provided by Community.Toolkit.Maui which is responsible for providing a surface that allows drawing lines through touch or mouse interaction.

Add the following namespace in the xaml file.

xmlns:mct="clr-namespace:CommunityToolkit.Maui.Views;assembly=CommunityToolkit.Maui"

Once the namespace added, you have to add the DrawingView tag with the properties that we required like below.

<mct:DrawingView x:Name="DrawBoard"
                    LineColor="Black"
                    LineWidth="5" 
                    HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand"
                    VerticalOptions="FillAndExpand"
                    HeightRequest="250"
                    IsMultiLineModeEnabled="True"
                    DrawingLineCompleted="DrawBoard_DrawingLineCompleted"
                    BackgroundColor="AliceBlue"/>

DrawingView’s properties

WidthRequest and HeightRequest: These properties help to set the width and height respectively.
Keep in mind that you must add both properties to your DrawingView in order for it to be displayed correctly in your app.
LineColor: It’s the color of the drawing line.
LineWidth: It’s the width of the drawing line.
IsMultiLineModeEnabled: By default, the DrawingView allows only one stroke to be drawn at a time. The IsMultiLineModeEnabled property allows you to change this and draw multiple lines at once. It receives Bool values. To activate it you need to set the value to True.

Cleaning the DrawView:

If you want to clear the DrawView, add the following
```
DrawBoard.Lines.Clear();
```

The clear function can be called using the button click event and can be called like below

<Button Text="Clear Board" 
                    Clicked="Button_Clicked"/>

void Button_Clicked(System.Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
	DrawBoard.Lines.Clear();
}

Previewing the signature or drawing from DrawView:

Add an Image control to your XAML.

<Image x:Name="ImageView"
       WidthRequest="200"
       HeightRequest="200"/>

Add an event for DrawingLineCompleted in the code behind.

private void DrawBoard_DrawingLineCompleted(System.Object sender, CommunityToolkit.Maui.Core.DrawingLineCompletedEventArgs e)
{
	ImageView.Dispatcher.Dispatch(async() =>
	{
		var stream = await DrawBoard.GetImageStream(300, 300);
		ImageView.Source = ImageSource.FromStream(() => stream);
	});
}

Full Code:

Demo

Download Code:

.NET MAUI is a powerful platform for building cross-platform mobile applications, and with the right tools and resources, it's easy to add barcode scanning functionality to your app. In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the steps of implementing a barcode scanner in .NET MAUI using the ZXing.Net.MAUI plugin.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

The successor to ZXing.Net.Mobile: barcode scanning and generation for .NET MAUI applications. First, we need to add the ZXing.Net.MAUI library to our project as a dependency. To do this, open the NuGet Package Manager and search for "ZXing.Net.MAUI". Install the package in your .NET MAUI project.

Install ZXing.Net.MAUI

Install ZXing.Net.MAUI NuGet package on your .NET MAUI application. Make sure to initialize the plugin first in your MauiProgram.cs, see below

// Add the using to the top
using ZXing.Net.Maui;

// ... other code 

public static MauiApp Create()
{
    var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
    builder
    .UseMauiApp&lt;App&gt;()
    .UseBarcodeReader(); // Make sure to add this line

return builder.Build();
}

Now we just need to add the right permissions to our app metadata. Find below how to do that for each platform.

Android

For Android go to your "AndroidManifest.xml" file (under the Platforms\Android folder) and add the following permissions inside of the "manifest" node.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

iOS

For iOS go to your "info.plist" file (under the Platforms\iOS folder) and add the following permissions inside of the "dict" node:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app uses barcode scanning to...</string>

Make sure that you enter a clear and valid reason for your app to access the camera. This description will be shown to the user.

Windows

Windows is not supported at this time for barcode scanning. You can however use the barcode generation. No extra permissions are required for that. For more information on permissions, see the Microsoft Docs.

Using ZXing.Net.Maui

If you're using the controls from XAML, make sure to add the right XML namespace in the root of your file, e.g:

xmlns:zxing="clr-namespace:ZXing.Net.Maui.Controls;assembly=ZXing.Net.MAUI"

<zxing:CameraBarcodeReaderView
  x:Name="cameraBarcodeReaderView"
  BarcodesDetected="BarcodesDetected" />

Full Code of MainPage.xaml:

Configure Reader options

cameraBarcodeReaderView.Options = new BarcodeReaderOptions
{
  Formats = BarcodeFormats.OneDimensional,
  AutoRotate = true,
  Multiple = true
};

Toggle Torch

cameraBarcodeReaderView.IsTorchOn = !cameraBarcodeReaderView.IsTorchOn;

Flip between Rear/Front cameras

cameraBarcodeReaderView.CameraLocation
  = cameraBarcodeReaderView.CameraLocation == CameraLocation.Rear ? CameraLocation.Front : CameraLocation.Rear;

Handle detected barcode(s)

protected void BarcodesDetected(object sender, BarcodeDetectionEventArgs e)
{
  foreach (var barcode in e.Results)
    Console.WriteLine($"Barcodes: {barcode.Format} -> {barcode.Value}");
}

Full code of MainPage.xaml.cs

Demo

Full Code:

Download Code:

In this tutorial, we will see how to use the local storage preferences in the .Net MAUI application. Preferences is stores data in key-value pairs and can be easily managed via the Preferences class from Microsoft.Maui.Storage namespace.

Note:If we uninstall the app, will remove all local preferences.

Platform differences

Preferences are stored natively, which allows you to integrate your settings into the native system settings.

Android:All data is stored into Shared Preferences. If no sharedName is specified, the default Shared Preferences are used. Otherwise, the name is used to get a private Shared Preferences with the specified name.
iOS/macOS:NSUserDefaults is used to store values on iOS devices. If no sharedName is specified, the StandardUserDefaults are used. Otherwise, the name is used to create a new NSUserDefaults with the specified name used for the NSUserDefaultsType.SuiteName.
Windows:ApplicationDataContainer is used to store the values on the device. If no sharedName is specified, the LocalSettings are used. Otherwise the name is used to create a new container inside of LocalSettings. LocalSettings restricts the preference key names to 255 characters or less. Each preference value can be up to 8K bytes in size, and each composite setting can be up to 64 K bytes in size.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

Boolean
Double
Int32
Int64
Single
String
DateTime

In the below statement, will the get the value from existing preference or if preference value is not there automatic or return the default value.

For dropping preference key and value, clear and remove are used. For example, if you are switching to a different user or logging out, this will assist in clearing all preference key and value. We can use remove preference to get rid of a specific key preference in a mobile device.

In Solution Explorer, click MainPage.xaml and replace the page content with what is shown below:
Open the MainPage.xaml.cs file and the page content as shown below:

Full Code:

Download Code:

In this tutorial, we will see how to display the local notification from the .Net MAUI application. For this, we are using the "Plugin.LocalNotification" plugin which is compatible with Xamarin.Forms and .Net MAUI. To know more, visit here.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

Open Nuget Manager, search "Plugin.LocalNotification" and install the plugin.
To show the notification, open your *.xaml.cs file and add namespace "Plugin.LocalNotification" by including "using Plugin.LocalNotifications;"
In Solution Explorer, click MainPage.xaml and replace the page content with what is shown below:
Open the MainPage.xaml.cs file and the page content as shown below:
Title: Notification Title
Description: Notification Description
Subtitle: Notification Subtitle for collapsed view
Schedule: DateTime value to show the notification after the mentioned schedule
Repeat: DateTime value to repeat the notification after the mentioned frequency

Demo:

Full Code:

Download Code:

In this tutorial, we will see how to capture screenshots on cross platforms using .Net MAUI. The name "Screenshots" indicates, the image that is the screen of our device allows us to capture the exact situation we want in the application when we use it.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

To take a screenshot, .NET MAUI provides us with the IScreenshot interface which is exposed by the Screenshot.Default component in the Microsoft.Maui.Media namespace.
In Solution Explorer, click MainPage.xaml and replace the page content with what is shown below:
Open the MainPage.xaml.cs file and the page content as shown below:
IsCaptureSupported: Returns a bool value – Gets a value indicating whether the capturing screenshots are supported.
CaptureAsync: Returns an ISscreenshotResult. – It is responsible for taking screenshots of the current application. Therefore, we can get various information about it, such as width and height.
Stream: IScreenshotResult also has a Stream property that is used to convert the screenshot to an image object.
Assign the derived stream value to the image control as ImageSource.
To know more about animations, please visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/animation/easing

Demo:

Full Code:

Download Code:

In this tutorial series, we will see how to use animations in .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI), this animation classes target different properties of visual elements, with a typical introductory animation progressively changing a property from one value to another over a period of time.

Quick Links:

Project Setup
Implementation
Demo
Full Code
Download Code

Project Setup:

Launch Visual Studio 2022, and in the start window click Create a new project to create a new project.
In the Create a new project window, select MAUI in the All project types drop-down, select the .NET MAUI App template, and click the Next button:
In the configure your new project window, name your project, choose a suitable location for it, and click the Next button:
In the Additional information window, click the Create button:
Once the project is created, we can able to see the Android, iOS, Windows and other running options in the toolbar. Press the emulator or run button to build and run the app

Implementation:

Basic animations can be created with extension methods provided by the ViewExtensions class, in the Microsoft.Maui.Controls namespace, which operate on VisualElement objects.
In Solution Explorer, click on MainPage.xaml. Add Title="Main Page" to ContentPage and replace the content of the page to what is shown below:
Open MainPage.xaml.cs file and the content of the page to what is shown below:
.NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) includes an Easing class that enables you to specify a transfer function that controls how animations speed up or slow down as they're running.
The animation extension methods in the ViewExtensions class allow an easing function to be specified as the final method argument:
To know more about animations, please visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/animation/easing

Mobile App Development Guide

DEV EXPRESS CHARTS IN .NET MAUI

Lottie animations in .NET MAUI

Transforming Labels into Hyperlinks with .NET MAUI

Mastering MVVM: A Deep Dive into .NET MAUI with MVVM Toolkit

Dev Express - Data Grid Control for .NET MAUI (Lifetime - Free plugin)

Data Grid Control for .NET MAUI (Free plugin to Sort, Filter & Show Data)

.NET MAUI - Swipe View

Flyout Page in .NET MAUI

.NET MAUI Barcode Scanner using IRONBARCODE

Dynamic Status Bar in .NET MAUI

Localisation in .NET MAUI

File Picker in .NET MAUI

Toast in .NET MAUI

Avatar View in .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

Signature Pad using .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

.Net MAUI - QR Code Generator

.Net MAUI - Zxing Barcode Scanner

Introduction

Advantages of Localisation

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation

Screen Design:

Create RESX file

RESX Files in XAML

Language Update

Full Code:

Demo

Download Code:

References

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation:

Install .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

AvatarView’s properties

Full Code:

Demo

Download Code:

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation:

Install .NET MAUI Community Toolkit

DrawingView’s properties

Cleaning the DrawView:

Previewing the signature or drawing from DrawView:

Demo

Download Code:

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation:

Install ZXing.Net.MAUI

Android

iOS

Windows

Using ZXing.Net.Maui

Configure Reader options

Toggle Torch

Flip between Rear/Front cameras

Handle detected barcode(s)

Demo

Full Code:

Download Code:

Platform differences

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation:

Full Code:

Download Code:

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation:

Demo:

Full Code:

Download Code:

Quick Links:

Project Setup:

Implementation:

Demo:

Full Code: