Assembly References Getting Added to Every Platform in .NET MAUI

Question

In the MAUI application, If you add an assembly reference to one Platform, it gets added to every Platform.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create a new .NET MAUI App
2. Under same solution created an Android Class Library project(<TargetFramework>net7.0-android</TargetFramework>)
3. Right-click on Maui main project Dependencies
4. Add a new project reference (a local DLL, not a NuGet package)
5. Observe the reference was also added to every Platform dependencies (Android, iOS, maccatalyst)

Even if i add Condition like : **Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net7.0-android'"**or Condition="$(TargetFramework.Contains('-android')) != false ", It did not work.

I am in the lasted Visual Studio for MAC. 

Answer 1

Hello, The condition statement you set is correct, and you can refer to the following full item group: (AndroidCustomLibrary is the name of an Android Class Library project)

<ItemGroup >
      <Reference Include="AndroidCustomLibrary" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net7.0-android'"><!--or Condition="$(TargetFramework.StartsWith('net7.0-android'))"-->
        <HintPath>..\AndroidCustomLibrary\obj\Debug\net7.0-android\AndroidCustomLibrary.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
    </ItemGroup>

It's the default behavior that the reference was also added to every Platform dependency. However, it's not available when you use the namespace. When I type using AndroidCustomLibrary; in MainPage, there will be a warning button that shows it's not available on iOS and Maccatalyst. For this, you can try conditional compilation:

#if ANDROID  
using AndroidCustomLibrary;  
#endif

Or sending feedback with VS, please see Report a problem or suggestions for Visual Studio for Mac Best Regards, Wenyan Zhang

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