Steps to upgrade my Xamarin Forms app to .net MAUI using MAC

Question

Steps to upgrade my Xamarin Forms app to .net MAUI using MAC

Raghavendra G R 121

Hi,

I'm trying to upgrade my Xamarin Forms app to .net MAUI using Mac, but i'm unable to add ".net upgrade assistant" into my nuget extension. Could someone please help me with the steps on how to upgrade using Mac system.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Raghavendra

Answer 1

Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 23,306 Microsoft Vendor

Hello,

For now, there is not the GUI and Visual Studio extension for macOS, you can upgrade your apps using the CLI version of the .NET Upgrade Assistant.

Step by Step:

Open Terminal and install the .NET Upgrade Assistant by the following command:

dotnet tool install -g upgrade-assistant

Go to the folder where your Xamarin project is located

% cd XXX/yourproject

Run the upgrade-assistant upgrade command:

% upgrade-assistant upgrade

(Optional) If you get an error "Cannot find a tool in the manifest file that has a command named 'upgrade-assistant", you need to add ~/.dotnet/tools to your PATH environment. Then run the upgrade-assistant upgrade command again.

export PATH=$PATH:~/.dotnet/tools

Select the project you want to upgrade as described in the Upgrade with the CLI tool doc. Pay attention to upgrading the Xmairn.iOS/Xamarin.Android project before Xamarin.Forms.
Configure Android project and iOS project manually.
(Optional) You might need to change some Namespace, color, layout manually, see Manually upgrade a Xamarin.Forms app to a multi-project .NET MAUI app - .NET MAUI | Microsoft Learn.

Best Regards,

Wenyan Zhang

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Raghavendra G R 121 Reputation points

2023-10-05T09:27:54.1566667+00:00

@Wenyan Zhang Thank you.

With this is was able to upgrade my main project. Is there any steps to how to migrate this upgraded core project into a new .net Maui project which will compile on the new .net Maui platform.
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 23,306 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-10-06T08:24:27.93+00:00

For this, it's recommended that you create a new empty MAUI project, and then copy the file into this new project.
Raghavendra G R 121 Reputation points

2023-10-12T12:33:18.99+00:00
@Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.)
Couple of questions i have.. Please help me with those.

Do i need to upgrade ProjectName.iOS and ProjectName.Android(In place) and only after that i should upgrade my main target(Side By Side)..?

When you say copy all files what exactly you mean.

is there any video reference which as all aspect of migration.
Raghavendra G R 121 Reputation points

2023-10-12T12:39:12.43+00:00
@Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.)
I have couple question, please help me with those.

When you upgrade, Initially do we need to upgrade both ProjectName.iOS and ProjectName.Android(in place) and post that we should upgrade the main project(side by Side)?

What exactly do we need to copy, there is a very blurred tutorial all over.. no proper defined steps.

Please help me with a video reference if any which covers with all the aspect of the migration.
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 23,306 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-10-13T09:42:53.2733333+00:00

For your first question, you are wondering about step 5, right? In your existing Xamarin solution, there are a Xamarin.Forms project, a Xamrin.iOS project and a Xamarin.Android project (maybe a UWP/Mac Cocoa project), you can upgrade these projects separately. (I mean run upgrade-assistant upgrade command three times for different projects)

After that, you could get a multi-project .NET MAUI app. And there are probably some errors or warnings, and then you could modify the existing multi-project MAUI project manually.

For the second question, you could copy the existing upgrade Pages/Handlers/platform codes and so on, then past them to your new empty MAUI project. Generally, you also should manually update some APIs, Layouts or other changes. It depends on your real project and your needs. (For this, it's recommended that you upgrade your Xamarin.Forms app to a single project .NET MAUI app)

And you can refer to

Manually upgrade a Xamarin.Forms app to a multi-project .NET MAUI app - .NET MAUI | Microsoft Learn

Manually upgrade a Xamarin.Forms app to a multi-project .NET MAUI app - .NET MAUI | Microsoft Learn

If you have any specific questions during the upgrading process, please feel free to create a new thread and attach the error message, and then we can work together to figure it out.

Raghavendra G R 121

When i run 'upgrade-assitnant upgrade' i get the below errors.

Error-1(iOS):
file.cs AppDelegate.designer.cs...
       error: Could not find document for file 
'/EmployeeApp/EmployeeApp.iOS/AppDelegate.designer.cs' under target project 
workspace.
Failed
 
Error-2(iOS):
file.cs MultiLineLabelRendererIOS.cs...
       error: Could not find document for file 
'EmployeeApp/EmployeeApp.iOS/Renders/MultiLineLabelRendererIOS.cs' under target
project workspace.
Failed
 
Error-3(Android):
file.cs buildUpdate.cs...
       error: Could not find document for file 
'EmployeeApp/EmployeeApp.Android/buildUpdate.cs' under target project 
workspace.
Failed
 
Error-4(Android):
file.cs Activity.cs...
       error: Could not find document for file 
'EmployeeApp/EmployeeApp.Android/Activity.cs' under target project workspace.
Failed
 
Error-5(Android):
file.cs BigPictureActivity.cs...
       error: Could not find document for file 
'EmployeeApp/EmployeeApp.Android/BigPictureActivity.cs' under target project 
workspace.
Failed

Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 23,306 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-10-16T07:58:24.74+00:00

When running the command for iOS project, you got two errors, and then you got three errors when running the command for Android project, right? Usually, AppDelegate doesn't have a .designer.cs file. And I'm not sure how the classes you defined. Can you migrate an empty Xamarin.Forms app to MAUI? Would you mind sharing a minimal reproducible Xamarin sample with me so that I can test?
Raghavendra G R 121 Reputation points

2023-10-17T04:26:31.2066667+00:00

Fresh xamarin-forms project i was able to build without any error, only with my ongoing project i'm facing the error. Really stuck..!
Minimal reproducible Xamarin sample could be difficult has its 5years code.. There are lot of dependencies.
Raghavendra G R 121 Reputation points

2023-10-17T07:24:26.3133333+00:00

@Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.)
What i could figure out is the above mentioned errors are because of the files generated(Somehow) but not linked or referenced into the project.
Not sure if its system created files and should be kept in reference..
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 23,306 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-10-18T05:54:51.1366667+00:00

Since I cannot get the sample and it's hard to investigate and narrow down the real reason. For your scenario, it is recommended to open a support ticket for this. Please contact our paid phone support at MS Support. You will get 1:1 support on that.

Answer 2

Bruce (SqlWork.com) 48,711

be sure you read the Visual Studio for Mac retirement notice:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-for-mac-retirement-announcement/

to determine if you want to stay with Xarmin/Maui development environment rather than swift/swiftui

Steps to upgrade my Xamarin Forms app to .net MAUI using MAC

2 answers

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