.NET MAUI Installation and First Project

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is a modern framework developed by Microsoft that allows the development of Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS applications with a single codebase. Supporting the philosophy of "Write once, run anywhere," .NET MAUI offers developers performance, cross-platform support, and powerful toolsets. In this article, we will examine the steps for installing .NET MAUI and creating the first project in detail.

.NET MAUI Installation

To start developing applications with .NET MAUI, you first need to have the proper development environment ready. The latest version of Visual Studio 2022 (or later), .NET 7 or .NET 8 SDK, and the relevant workloads are required. Here are the steps for installing .NET MAUI on the Windows operating system:

1. Installing Visual Studio 2022

Download the Community, Professional, or Enterprise version from the official Visual Studio website and open the installation wizard. Select the "Mobile development with .NET" workload. You can also include the "Desktop development with .NET" option if you wish.

2. Installing .NET SDK and MAUI Workload

You can install the required .NET MAUI workload via the terminal (PowerShell or Command Prompt for Windows) using the following command:

dotnet workload install maui

To verify the installation, use the following command:

dotnet --list-sdks

Creating the First Project with .NET MAUI

Once the installation is complete, you can easily create your first .NET MAUI project. You can either start the project via the graphical interface in Visual Studio or create it from the command line. An example for creating the project via the command line:

dotnet new maui -n FirstMauiProject

This command creates a new .NET MAUI project named "FirstMauiProject." After switching to the project folder, you can run the application using the following commands:

cd FirstMauiProject
dotnet build
dotnet run

Example: Main Page Code Structure

In the generated project, the MainPage.xaml file contains a basic greeting code:

<ContentPage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui">
    <VerticalStackLayout>
        <Label 
            Text="Hello, .NET MAUI!" 
            VerticalOptions="Center" 
            HorizontalOptions="Center" />
    </VerticalStackLayout>
</ContentPage>

Conclusion: Cross-Platform Development with .NET MAUI

With this guide, you have successfully completed the steps for installing .NET MAUI and creating your first project. It is possible to develop modern, platform-independent applications with .NET MAUI. Now that your development environment is ready, you can start creating projects with the advantages of code sharing for different platforms and robust UI features.