Can we create native iOS XCFramework & Android jar files using c# maui code base?

Question

Team,

Our plan is to generate iOS XCFramework & Android jar files using c# maui code base to re-use the functionality written in c#.

How to generate such libraries.

When I tried to generate the library using VS for Mac, I got dll & pdb files, not .xcFramework in iOS.

Can you help how to generate them.

Answer 1

Hello,

This is not feasible. C# libraries are not compiled into XCFramework and Jar formats. If you have a need to reference C# in a native project, you can search for how to call the methods in the Dll on the respective platform.

For native platform development with references to MAUI, it is more recommended that you create native .Net Android and iOS apps. In Visual Studio they are called Android Applition and iOS Application. Afterwards, you can embed references to MAUI in your native project with this document.

• Native embedding

Best Regards,

Alec Liu.

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Answer 2

What is your target audience for the libraries? Maui produces C native libraries with the C calling conventions. If you want to use them from native tools you should produce wrappers.

For Maui projects, you should produce a Maui nuget package. this would include the dll plus binding libraries for IOS and Android.

For android Java/Kotlin you should create a Java/Kotlin wrapper that calls the native library. this you could bundle into a jar file (including the dll(s)).

for IOS Swift/Objective-C you should produce Swift wrapper for your library (the Swift code should also support Objective-C entry points if want the library usable by Objective-C). you can then build and sign a XCFramework bundle.