Porting Xamarin.Forms Barcode QR Code Scanner to .NET MAUI

Previously, we created a Xamarin.Forms Barcode QR code scanner for Android and iOS. Xamarin.Forms is not the end for developing cross-platform mobile apps in C#, because .NET MAUI is on the way. Microsoft mentions that .NET MAUI is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, and it supports both mobile and desktop development. Since .NET MAUI is coming soon, this article will show you how to implement .NET MAUI barcode QR code scanner by porting Xamarin.Forms project.

Porting Steps for .NET MAUI Barcode QR Code Scanner

Although you can refer to Migrating from Xamarin.Forms (Preview), to avoid encountering lots of build errors, it is better to create a new .NET MAUI project and migrate project configuration and code step by step.

*.csproj File Updates

To create a .NET MAUI project, you need to install Visual Studio 2022 Preview beforehand.

A new .NET MAUI project scaffold contains templates for Windows, macOS, Tizen, Android and iOS. We only keep Android and iOS frameworks in csproj file.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

	<PropertyGroup>
		<TargetFrameworks>net6.0-android;net6.0-ios</TargetFrameworks>
		<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
		<RootNamespace>BarcodeQrScanner</RootNamespace>
		<UseMaui>true</UseMaui>
		<SingleProject>true</SingleProject>
</Project>

NuGet Package Installation

.NET MAUI NuGet packages

  • SkiaSharp

    SkiaSharp is used to draw pictures and overlay. We install SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls instead of SkiaSharp.Views.Forms via NuGet Package Manager.

  • Barcode.NET.Mobile

    Barcode.NET.Mobile is a binding library for Dynamsoft Barcode Reader Mobile SDK. It is a substitution for Dynamsoft Xamarin Barcode Reader SDK, because Xamarin NuGet packages are not compatible with .NET MAUI projects. You will suffer from build errors if you use Xamarin Barcode Reader SDK for iOS.

    Xamarin .NET MAUI compatibility issue

Code Updates

Migrating code from Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI is not as easy as expected. Let’s go through the changes.

Invoke platform code

To invoke specific platform APIs, we use interface in Xamarin.Forms.

public interface IBarcodeQRCodeService
{
    Task<int> InitSDK(string license);
    Task<BarcodeQrData[]> DecodeFile(string filePath);
}

Whereas in .NET MAUI, we use partial classes and partial methods.

public partial class BarcodeQRCodeService
{
    public partial void InitSDK(string license);
    public partial BarcodeQrData[] DecodeFile(string filePath);
}

The corresponding implementation is as follows:

Xamarin.Forms

public class BarcodeQRCodeService: IBarcodeQRCodeService
{
    Task<int> IBarcodeQRCodeService.InitSDK(string license)
    {
        ...
        TaskCompletionSource<int> taskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<int>();
        taskCompletionSource.SetResult(0);
        return taskCompletionSource.Task;
    }

    Task<BarcodeQrData[]> IBarcodeQRCodeService.DecodeFile(string filePath) 
    {
        ...
TaskCompletionSource<BarcodeQrData[]> taskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<BarcodeQrData[]>();
        taskCompletionSource.SetResult(output);
        return taskCompletionSource.Task;
    }
}

.NET MAUI

public partial class BarcodeQRCodeService
{
    public partial void InitSDK(string license)
    {
        ...
    }

    public partial BarcodeQrData[] DecodeFile(string filePath)
    {
        BarcodeQrData[] output = null;
        ...
        return output;
    }
}

Change namespaces for content pages

The content page template is different between Xamarin.Forms and .NET MAUI.

MAUI content page

The xmlns is changed to http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui and the xmlns:skia is changed to clr-namespace:SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls;assembly=SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls.

Xamarin.Forms

xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
xmlns:skia="clr-namespace:SkiaSharp.Views.Forms;assembly=SkiaSharp.Views.Forms"

.NET MAUI

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
xmlns:skia="clr-namespace:SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls;assembly=SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls"

Change namespaces for custom renderers

We also need to change the namespaces for custom renderers.

Android

- using Xamarin.Forms;
- using Xamarin.Forms.Platform.Android.FastRenderers;
+ using Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Compatibility;
+ using Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Compatibility.Platform.Android.FastRenderers;

iOS

- using Xamarin.Forms;
- using Xamarin.Forms.Platform.iOS;
+ using Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Compatibility;
+ using Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Handlers.Compatibility;

Register handlers

The final step is to configure SkiaSharp and custom renderers in MauiProgram.cs to make them work.

using Microsoft.Maui.Controls.Compatibility.Hosting;
using SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls.Hosting;

namespace BarcodeQrScanner;

public static class MauiProgram
{
	public static MauiApp CreateMauiApp()
	{
		var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
		builder.UseSkiaSharp()
			.UseMauiApp<App>()
			.ConfigureFonts(fonts =>
			{
				fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Regular.ttf", "OpenSansRegular");
				fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Semibold.ttf", "OpenSansSemibold");
			}).UseMauiCompatibility()
            .ConfigureMauiHandlers((handlers) => {
                
#if ANDROID
                handlers.AddCompatibilityRenderer(typeof(CameraPreview), typeof(BarcodeQrScanner.Platforms.Android.CameraPreviewRenderer));
#endif

#if IOS
				                        handlers.AddHandler(typeof(CameraPreview), typeof(BarcodeQrScanner.Platforms.iOS.CameraPreviewRenderer));
#endif
			});


		return builder.Build();
	}
}

.NET MAUI Issues

AVCaptureDevice.DevicesWithMediaType returns null

If you try to use AVCaptureDevice.DevicesWithMediaType to get the iOS camera devices, you will find it returns null in .NET MAUI. You can use AVCaptureDevice.Devices to return all the devices and then filter the ones you want.

- var videoDevices = AVCaptureDevice.DevicesWithMediaType(AVMediaTypes.Video.ToString()); 
+ AVCaptureDevice[] videoDevices = AVCaptureDevice.Devices;

Label text cannot display full string

This issue is weird. The default text length seems to affect the label text display. A temporary workaround is to set the default text with many spaces.

<Label FontSize="18"
                FontAttributes="Bold"
                x:Name="ResultLabel"
                   Text="                                        "
                   TextColor="Red"
                HorizontalOptions="Center"
               VerticalOptions="Center"/>

Source Code

https://github.com/yushulx/maui-barcode-qrcode-scanner