Xamarin Migration from Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI

Introduction

Xamarin is a popular cross-platform mobile application development framework that allows developers to build mobile apps using a shared codebase. Xamarin.Forms is a part of the Xamarin toolkit that allows for creating user interfaces using XAML and C#. However, with the advent of .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI), Xamarin.Forms will eventually be deprecated, and developers will have to migrate to .NET MAUI to continue creating cross-platform mobile applications using .NET.

Why Migrate to .NET MAUI?

There are several reasons why a Xamarin.Forms developer should migrate to .NET MAUI:

• New Features: .NET MAUI brings several new features such as built-in animations, a simplified layout architecture, and a new MVU (Model-View-Update) pattern.

• Multi-platform Support: .NET MAUI will support the creation of cross-platform applications not only for iOS and Android but also for macOS, Windows, and Linux. This will save a lot of development time as developers won't have to switch between different technology stacks for different platforms.

• Backwards Compatibility: .NET MAUI is built on top of Xamarin.Forms and will provide backward compatibility with existing Xamarin.Forms applications.

• Community Support: It is expected that .NET MAUI will have a larger user community and a more active development team, which will eventually lead to better support, documentation, and plugins.

Migration Process

Migrating from Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI is a step-by-step process that involves the following stages:

1. Update Dependencies: Update all dependencies, including Visual Studio and .NET to the required versions.

2. Migrate Project to .NET Standard: Migrate your Xamarin.Forms project to .NET Standard to ensure that it's compatible with .NET MAUI.

3. Replace Xamarin.Forms with .NET MAUI: Replace all instances of Xamarin.Forms with .NET MAUI in your project. You will have to change the namespaces of your classes, including those of your views and view models.

4. Update Platform-Specific Code: Update any platform-specific code that you have written to be compatible with .NET MAUI.

5. Fix Compatibility Issues: Fix any compatibility issues arising from the migration process. These could include changes in the APIs and minor code changes that may be required for the app to function properly on different platforms.

Summary

In conclusion, migrating from Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI is a necessary step for Xamarin.Forms developers to take to stay up-to-date with the latest features and support. While the migration process can be time-consuming, it is essential to ensure that your apps are compatible with the newest cross-platform mobile app development framework from Microsoft. With .NET MAUI, developers will benefit from several new features and multi-platform support, leading to potentially better app development for cross-platform mobile applications with .NET.