Xamarin - Integrating Blazor with Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin is a powerful platform that enables developers to create mobile applications for Android, iOS and Windows using C# and .NET. It provides a rich set of UI controls, animations and graphics to create visually stunning and feature-rich mobile applications.

Blazor is a web framework which uses C# and Razor syntax to build interactive web UIs. It enables developers to run .NET code directly in the browser using WebAssembly. By integrating Blazor with Xamarin.Forms, developers can create hybrid mobile applications with rich web-based UIs.

This tutorial explains how to integrate Blazor with Xamarin.Forms.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

• Visual Studio 2019 or later installed.
• The latest version of .NET Core SDK.

Steps

1. Create a new Xamarin.Forms project.

   Open Visual Studio, and create a new Xamarin.Forms project.

2. Add a Blazor WebAssembly project to the solution.

   Right-click on the solution in the Solution Explorer and add a new project of the type Blazor WebAssembly App.

3. Add the Blazor project to the Xamarin.Forms project.

   In the Solution Explorer, right-click on the Xamarin.Forms project and select Add > Existing Project. Browse to the Blazor project and select it.

4. Add a reference to the Blazor project from the Xamarin.Forms project.

   In the Solution Explorer, expand the Xamarin.Forms project, right-click on Dependencies and select Add Reference. Select the Blazor project from the project list.

5. Create a new Content Page in the Xamarin.Forms project.

   Right-click on the Xamarin.Forms project and select Add > New Item. Select the Content Page template and name the page BlazorPage.xaml.

6. Add a WebView control to the BlazorPage.xaml.

   Add the following XAML code to the BlazorPage.xaml:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
   <ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
                xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
                x:Class="XamarinDemo.BlazorPage">
       <WebView x:Name="webView" VerticalOptions="FillAndExpand" HorizontalOptions="FillAndExpand" />
   </ContentPage>
   

7. Add the Blazor application URL to the WebView control.

   Open the code-behind file for the BlazorPage.xaml in Visual Studio. Add the following code to the constructor:

    public BlazorPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
   
        webView.Source = new Uri("http://localhost:5000");
    }
   

   This sets the URL of the Blazor application to http://localhost:5000.

8. Run the application.

   Build and run the application. The WebView control should display the Blazor application's interface within the Xamarin.Forms application.

Explanation

The steps shown above would have helped you integrate and run the Blazor application within Xamarin.Forms. In brief, a Blazor WebAssembly project was added to the Xamarin.Forms project and the two were linked. The BlazorPage.xaml file was created and configured with a WebView control and a corresponding code-behind file. The Blazor application URL was then set to the WebView control.

Use

The integration of Blazor with Xamarin.Forms makes it possible to create powerful hybrid mobile applications with visually stunning web-based interfaces. Blazor simplifies web development by using the same programming language (C#) and UI rendering approach (Razor) used for Xamarin.Forms. Furthermore, you can share code between the Blazor and Xamarin.Forms projects, making it possible to create cross-platform applications that leverage the best of both worlds.

Important Points

• Ensure you have the latest version of Visual Studio and .NET Core SDK installed.
• The Blazor WebAssembly project should be added to the Xamarin.Forms solution and should be linked to the Xamarin.Forms project.
• The Blazor page should be created and a WebView control added to the page.
• The Blazor application URL should be set to the WebView control in the code-behind file.

Summary

This tutorial provided an explanation of how to integrate a Blazor application with a Xamarin.Forms application. It provided a step-by-step guide of the necessary tasks to build the application and explained how this integration provides a way to create powerful hybrid mobile applications with visually stunning web-based interfaces.