Get Started with MAUI and Xamarin

Grein
11/28/2022

Important

Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.

Learn more about support timelines and alternatives.

The App Center SDK uses a modular architecture so you can use any or all of the services.

Let's get started with setting up App Center .NET SDK in your app to use App Center Analytics and App Center Crashes. To add App Center Distribute to your app, have a look at the documentation for App Center Distribute.

1. Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that the following prerequisites are met:

Your project is set up in Visual Studio or Visual Studio for Mac.
You're targeting devices running iOS 11.0 or later or Android 5.0 (API level 21) or later.
You're not using any other SDK that provides Crash Reporting functionality.

Supported platforms:

MAUI iOS
MAUI Android
MAUI Windows
.NET 6.0 macOS
Xamarin.Android
Xamarin.iOS
Xamarin.Mac
Xamarin.Forms (iOS, macOS Android, UWP and Windows Desktop applications)

1.1 MAUI

Note

Currently there is no MAUI platform on the App Center portal. Please use Xamarin for iOS and Android and UWP for Windows.

1.2 About Xamarin.Android

Create an app on the App Center portal with the Android as the OS and Xamarin as the platform.

1.3 About Xamarin.iOS

Create an app on the App Center portal with iOS as the OS and Xamarin as the platform.

1.4 About Xamarin.Mac

Create an app on the App Center portal with macOS as the OS and Xamarin as the platform.

Warning

There is a known issue that prevents an app from being uploaded to the App Store. Follow the progress on github.

1.5 About Xamarin.Forms (iOS, macOS, Android, UWP and Windows Desktop)

Create 5 apps on the App Center – one for each OS.

You need to select Xamarin as the platform for Android, iOS and macOS applications (UWP and Desktop applications doesn't have a Xamarin option).

For the Windows Desktop and macOS applications you have to configure your project for compatibility with the Xamarin.Forms platform.

2. Create your app in the App Center Portal to obtain the App Secret

If you've already created your app in the App Center portal, you can skip this step.

Head over to appcenter.ms.
Sign up or log in and hit the blue button on the top right corner of the portal that says Add new and select Add new app from the dropdown menu.
Enter a name and an optional description for your app.
Select the appropriate OS and platform depending on your project as described above.
Hit the button at the bottom right that says Add new app.

Once you've created an app, you can obtain its App Secret on the Settings page on the App Center Portal. At the top right hand corner of the Settings page, click on the triple vertical dots and select Copy app secret to get your App Secret.

3. Add the App Center SDK to your solution

The App Center SDK can be integrated using Visual Studio or the Package Manager Console.

Note

App Center SDK uses strong-named assemblies for compatibility with applications that use strong-named sign.

Visual Studio for Mac

Open Visual Studio.
Click File > Open and choose your solution.
In the solution navigator, right-click the Packages section, and choose Add NuGet packages....
Search for App Center, and select App Center Analytics and App Center Crashes.
Click Add Packages.

Visual Studio for Windows

Open Visual Studio.
Click File > Open and choose your solution.
In the solution navigator, right-click References and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
Search for App Center, and install Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics and Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes packages.

Package Manager Console

Open the console in Visual Studio. To do this, choose Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console.
If you're working in Visual Studio for Mac, make sure you've installed NuGet Package Management Extensions. For this, choose Visual Studio > Extensions, search for NuGet and install, if necessary.
Type the following command in the console:

Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics
Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes

Now that you've integrated the SDK in your application, it's time to start the SDK and make use of the App Center services.

Note

If you use the App Center SDK in a portable project (such as Xamarin.Forms), you must install the packages in each of the projects: the portable, Android, and iOS ones. To do that, you should open each sub-project and follow the corresponding steps described in Visual Studio for Mac or Visual Studio for Windows sections.

4. Start the SDK

To use App Center, you must opt in to the module(s) that you want to use. By default, no modules are started and you must explicitly call each of them when starting the SDK.

4.1 Add the using statements

Add the appropriate namespaces in the following files:

MAUI and Xamarin.Forms - App.xaml.cs
Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac - AppDelegate.cs
Xamarin.Android - MainActivity.cs

using Microsoft.AppCenter;
using Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics;
using Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes;

4.2 Add the `Start()` method

4.2.1 MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

You need to create different applications for each platform on the App Center portal. For each app you will have a different app secret. Open the project's App.xaml.cs file and add the following line in the constructor (or in the OnStart() method for Xamarin.Forms).

AppCenter.Start("ios={Your App Secret};macos={Your App Secret};android={Your App Secret};uwp={Your App Secret};windowsdesktop={Your App Secret}", typeof(Analytics), typeof(Crashes));

If you need to start App Center services separately, you should:

Configure or start it with the App Secret.
If the code can be called multiple times, check if the App Center is already configured.
Start the required service(s) without the App Secret.

AppCenter.Configure("ios={Your App Secret};macos={Your App Secret};android={Your App Secret};uwp={Your App Secret};windowsdesktop={Your App Secret}");
if (AppCenter.Configured)
{
    AppCenter.Start(typeof(Analytics));
    AppCenter.Start(typeof(Crashes));
}

4.2.2 Xamarin.Android

Note

In case you're using the HockeyApp SDK for Android, make sure to initialize the HockeyApp SDK AFTER the App Center SDK.

Open the project's MainActivity.cs file and add the Start() call inside the OnCreate() method

AppCenter.Start("{Your App Secret}", typeof(Analytics), typeof(Crashes));

Note

If your application has background services or multiple entry points like a broadcast receiver, exported activities or content providers, it's recommended to start AppCenter in the Application.OnCreate callback instead.

4.2.3 Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac

Note

It isn't possible to have more than one active crash reporting SDK in your app. Disable the other SDKs' crash reporting functionality to make sure App Center can catch the crashes.

Open the project's AppDelegate.cs file and add the Start() call inside the FinishedLaunching() method

AppCenter.Start("{Your App Secret}", typeof(Analytics), typeof(Crashes));

Note

If using Crashes, you must call this method in the UI/main thread and avoid starting background tasks until the Start method returns. The reason is that any null reference exception caught from another thread while Crashes is initializing may trigger a native crash and ignore the catch clause. Once the AppCenter.Start method returns, it's safe to try/catch null reference exceptions again. You can read more about the cause of this timing issue in the Signals and third-party crash reporters article.

Warning

It's not recommended to embed your App Secret in source code.

Important

The curly braces show where to place the actual app secrets, don't put curly braces in the Start call.

Note

For an iOS application, it isn't possible to have more than one active crash reporting SDK in your app. Disable the other SDKs' crash reporting functionality to make sure App Center can catch the crashes.

4.3 Replace the placeholder with your App Secret

Make sure to replace {Your App Secret} text with the actual value for your application. The App Secret can be found on the Getting Started page or Settings page on the App Center portal.

The Getting Started page contains the above code sample with your App Secret in it, you can copy-paste the whole sample.

The example above shows how to use the Start() method and include both App Center Analytics and App Center Crashes.

If you don't want to use one of the two services, remove the corresponding parameter from the method call above.

Unless you explicitly specify each module as parameters in the start method, you can't use that App Center service. In addition, the Start() API can be used only once in the lifecycle of your app – all other calls will log a warning to the console and only the modules included in the first call will be available.

For example - If you want to onboard to App Center Analytics, you should modify the Start() call as follows:

4.3.1 MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

AppCenter.Start("ios={Your App Secret};macos={Your App Secret};android={Your App Secret};uwp={Your App Secret};windowsdesktop={Your App Secret}", typeof(Analytics));

4.3.2 Xamarin Native

AppCenter.Start("{Your App Secret}", typeof(Analytics));

Great, you're all set to visualize Analytics and Crashes data on the portal that the SDK collects automatically.

Look at the documentation for App Center Analytics and App Center Crashes to learn how to customize and use more advanced functionalities of both services.

To learn how to get started with in-app updates, read the documentation of App Center Distribute.

Note

Using the portable APIs from Xamarin Forms, you'll see APIs from all modules, however not all those APIs are supported on the UWP and Windows Desktop platforms and are doing nothing when running on your UWP and Windows Desktop applications. In particular UWP and Windows Desktop doesn't support the following module: Distribute. Any method with a return type would return either null (for objects), 0 (for numbers), or false (for booleans) on UWP and Windows Desktop application.

5. Backup rules (Android only)

Note

Apps that target Android 6.0 (API level 23) or higher have Auto Backup automatically enabled.

Note

If you already have a custom file with backup rules, switch to the third step.

If you use auto-backup to avoid getting incorrect information about devices, follow the next steps:

5.1. For Android 11 (API level 30) or lower.

Create appcenter_backup_rule.xml file in the Resources/xml folder.

Open the project’s AndroidManifest.xml file. Add the android:fullBackupContent attribute to the <application> element. It should point to the appcenter_backup_rule.xml resource file.

android:fullBackupContent="@xml/appcenter_backup_rule"

Add the following backup rules to the appcenter_backup_rule.xml file:

<full-backup-content xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
      <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="AppCenter.xml"/>
      <exclude domain="database" path="com.microsoft.appcenter.persistence"/>
      <exclude domain="database" path="com.microsoft.appcenter.persistence-journal"/>
      <exclude domain="file" path="error" tools:ignore="FullBackupContent"/>
      <exclude domain="file" path="appcenter" tools:ignore="FullBackupContent"/>
  </full-backup-content>

5.2. For Android 12 (API level 31) or higher.

Create appcenter_backup_rule.xml file in the Resources/xml folder.

Open the project’s AndroidManifest.xml file. Add the android:dataExtractionRules attribute to the <application> element. It should point to the appcenter_backup_rule.xml resource file.

android:dataExtractionRules="@xml/appcenter_backup_rule"

Add the following backup rules to the appcenter_backup_rule.xml file:

<data-extraction-rules xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
    <cloud-backup>
        <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="AppCenter.xml"/>
        <exclude domain="database" path="com.microsoft.appcenter.persistence"/>
        <exclude domain="database" path="com.microsoft.appcenter.persistence-journal"/>
        <exclude domain="file" path="error" tools:ignore="FullBackupContent"/>
        <exclude domain="file" path="appcenter" tools:ignore="FullBackupContent"/>
    </cloud-backup>
    <device-transfer>
        <exclude domain="sharedpref" path="AppCenter.xml"/>
        <exclude domain="database" path="com.microsoft.appcenter.persistence"/>
        <exclude domain="database" path="com.microsoft.appcenter.persistence-journal"/>
        <exclude domain="file" path="error" tools:ignore="FullBackupContent"/>
        <exclude domain="file" path="appcenter" tools:ignore="FullBackupContent"/>
    </device-transfer>
</data-extraction-rules>

Deila með

Get Started with MAUI and Xamarin

1. Prerequisites

1.1 MAUI

1.2 About Xamarin.Android

1.3 About Xamarin.iOS

1.4 About Xamarin.Mac

1.5 About Xamarin.Forms (iOS, macOS, Android, UWP and Windows Desktop)

2. Create your app in the App Center Portal to obtain the App Secret

3. Add the App Center SDK to your solution

Visual Studio for Mac

Visual Studio for Windows

Package Manager Console

4. Start the SDK

4.1 Add the using statements

4.2 Add the `Start()` method

4.2.1 MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

4.2.2 Xamarin.Android

4.2.3 Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac

4.3 Replace the placeholder with your App Secret

4.3.1 MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

4.3.2 Xamarin Native

5. Backup rules (Android only)

5.1. For Android 11 (API level 30) or lower.

5.2. For Android 12 (API level 31) or higher.

Athugasemdir

Fleiri tilföng

Deila með

Get Started with MAUI and Xamarin

1. Prerequisites

1.1 MAUI

1.2 About Xamarin.Android

1.3 About Xamarin.iOS

1.4 About Xamarin.Mac

1.5 About Xamarin.Forms (iOS, macOS, Android, UWP and Windows Desktop)

2. Create your app in the App Center Portal to obtain the App Secret

3. Add the App Center SDK to your solution

Visual Studio for Mac

Visual Studio for Windows

Package Manager Console

4. Start the SDK

4.1 Add the using statements

4.2 Add the Start() method

4.2.1 MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

4.2.2 Xamarin.Android

4.2.3 Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac

4.3 Replace the placeholder with your App Secret

4.3.1 MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

4.3.2 Xamarin Native

5. Backup rules (Android only)

5.1. For Android 11 (API level 30) or lower.

5.2. For Android 12 (API level 31) or higher.

Athugasemdir

Fleiri tilföng

4.2 Add the `Start()` method