Building Mobile Apps with .NET MAUI

Introduction to MAUI

If you have all the time and money in the world, you can build an Android app and an iOS app and maybe a Windows app in their native development environment. But what if you don't have all the time in the world? How can you write an app that works on Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS and Tizen? This is where MAUI comes in.

• Mobile Development Options and Problems
• A Uniform Way for Creating UIs
• Creating a .NET MAUI Project

Building the UI with XAML

XAML is the UI-language important for developers using the Microsoft developer stack. This module teaches students how to use the XAML language for building desktop and mobile applications, focusing on .NET MAUI.

• What is XAML?
• XAML versus Code
• Looking at XAML Basic Syntax
• Understanding XAML Attached Properties
• Nesting Controls
• Extending XAML through Markup Extensions
• Understanding Namespace Mapping
• Naming Elements

.NET MAUI Controls Overview

This module gives you an overview of what kinds of controls are available and how to compose them together.

• Examining the Class Hierarchy
• The Power of Composability
• Presentation Controls, Command Controls, Editing Controls
• Collection Controls
• The Trouble with Images
• Understanding Bindable Properties

Controlling the Layout

Modern hardware becomes more and more diverse: big screens, double screens, high resolutions, low resolutions, .... This does require some special up-front design. In this module, students will learn about the different controls to keep a nice UI on all devices.

• Absolute positioning using AbsoluteLayout
• Flexible positioning using FlexLayout
• Tabular positioning with Grid
• Stacking controls with StackLayouts
• Frames, Scrollview and Contentviews

Reusability with Resources

How to reuse objects like colors, sizes, etc. in your application? XAML has reuse built in. In this module, students will learn how to reuse objects for their applications.

• Reusing Objects through Resources
• Resource Inheritance
• Resource Dictionaries
• Theming your Application
• Multilingual Applications

Styles and Templates

How do you apply a style to your whole application? XAML makes this easy with styles and templates. In this module, students will learn how to quickly customize their whole application with styles and templates.

• Why we need Styles
• Default, Implicit and Explicit Styles
• Dynamic and Device styles
• Styling using CSS
• Theming an application
• Introduction to Control Templates
• Control Handlers
• Effects

Data Binding

In many cases, some data needs to be displayed to the user. Changes in data need to be validated and captured efficiently. In this module, students will learn how to use data binding to accomplish this.

• The Need for Data Binding
• Binding to Properties
• Converting Data for Data Binding
• Binding to Collections
• Understanding Source and BindingContext
• Cell Templates
• Data Templates
• Compiled Bindings
• Using BindableLayout

Building Adaptive and Scalable Layouts

Multiple screen-size, portrait-mode, landscape-mode. How do we make a screen that looks good, and which adapts when you turn your screen? You will learn all about it in this chapter.

• Fixed Versus Adaptive Layout
• Working with the ViewStateManager and Adaptive Triggers

Navigation

An application with only one screen? It happens, but most application have multiple screens. How do you jump between screens? How do you pass information between screens?

• Navigation in .NET MAUI
• NavigationPage, TabbedPage, FlyoutPage and Modal Pages
• Shell Applications
• Route-Based Navigation in Shell

Dealing with Different Platforms

The fact remains that you are developing for different platforms with different possibilities and a lot of differences. How can you deal with that?

• Shared Projects
• Dependency Injection
• Multi-Targeting Code
• Using Platform-Specific Controls

.NET MAUI Essentials

.NET MAUI already contains functionalities that help you overcome the differences on the different platforms. Some functionalities normally need to be implemented multiple times against the different platforms. In this chapter we will see a whole bunch of functionalities covered for you.

• Clipboard, Compass, Contacts, Device Info, Email
• File Picker, Geolocation
• Phone Dialer, Preferences, Secure Storage, Web Authenticator

Process Lifecycle Management

Applications start and stop constantly. Sometimes you need to save some state for fetching again later. We'll see how to do that here.

• When Apps Run
• Handling Resume, Suspend and Termination
• Supporting Different App Activation Scenarios
• Splash Screens

Storing Data

An application that downloads data to show you, every time you open it. How slow would that be? And what do you do with the entered data when you are offline? Storing data on the device itself might help you in those scenarios.

• Local Storage
• Working with SQLite
• Using Entity Framework Core

Consuming Web Services

How to talk to webservices for getting and sending data? You will learn all about it in this chapter.

• HttpClient and WebHttpRequest Class
• Serialization and Deserialization

Data Validation

User input needs to be validated. Are all required properties provided? Do the values match the format? In this chapter, you will see several options for validation.

• INotifyDataErrorInfo
• Data Annotations
• Validation through Events
• Validation Templates

MVVM

MVVM is a design pattern which is immensely popular with technologies relying on declarative databinding, like XAML.

• What is the MVVM Pattern?
• Using Commands instead of Event Handling
• Defining the Model
• Adding the ViewModel
• Binding the View to the ViewModel
• Using Behaviors

Notifications

Everybody hates those constant on-screen notifications. Learn how to be annoying in this module!

• Platform-specific Notification Mechanisms
• Local Notifications
• Push Notifications