Getting Started with Uno Platform: First Steps and Configuration Choices

Getting Started with Uno Platform: First Steps and Configuration Choices

by | Mar 13, 2025 | netcore, Uno Platform

For the past two weeks, I’ve been experimenting with the Uno Platform in two ways: creating small prototypes to explore features I’m curious about and downloading example applications from the Uno Gallery. In this article, I’ll explain the first steps you need to take when creating an Uno Platform application, the decisions you’ll face, and what I’ve found useful so far in my journey.

Step 1: Create a New Project

I’m using Visual Studio 2022, though the extensions and templates work well with previous versions too. I have both studio versions installed, and Uno Platform works well in both.

Step 2: Project Setup

After naming your project, it’s important to select “Place solution and project in the same directory” because of the solution layout requirements. You need the directory properties file to move forward. I’ll talk more about the solution structure in a future post, but for now, know that without checking this option, you won’t be able to proceed properly.

Step 3: The Configuration Wizard

The Uno Platform team has created a comprehensive wizard that guides you through various configuration options. It might seem overwhelming at first, but it’s better to have this guided approach where you can make one decision at a time.

Your first decision is which target framework to use. They recommend .NET 9, which I like, but in my test project, I’m working with .NET 8 because I’m primarily focused on WebAssembly output. Uno offers multi-threading in Web Assembly with .NET 8, which is why I chose it, but for new projects, .NET 9 is likely the better choice.

Step 4: Target Platforms

Next, you need to select which platforms you want to target. I always select all of them because the most beautiful aspect of the Uno Platform is true multi-targeting with a single codebase.

In the past (during the Xamarin era), you needed multiple projects with a complex directory structure. With Uno, it’s actually a single unified project, creating a clean solution layout. So while you can select just WebAssembly if that’s your only focus, I think you get the most out of Uno by multi-targeting.

Step 5: Presentation Pattern

The next question is which presentation pattern you want to use. I would suggest MVUX, though I still have some doubts as I haven’t tried MVVM with Uno yet. MVVM is the more common pattern that most programmers understand, while MVUX is the new approach.

One challenge is that when you check the official Uno sample repository, the examples come in every presentation pattern flavor. Sometimes you’ll find a solution for your task in one pattern but not another, so you may need to translate between them. You’ll likely find more examples using MVVM.

Step 6: Markup Language

For markup, I recommend selecting XAML. In my first project, I tried using C# markup, which worked well until I reached some roadblocks I couldn’t overcome. I didn’t want to get stuck trying to solve one specific layout issue, so I switched. For beginners, I suggest starting with XAML.

Step 7: Theming

For theming, you’ll need to select a UI theme. I don’t have a strong preference here and typically stick with the defaults: using Material Design, the theme service, and importing Uno DSP.

Step 8: Extensions

When selecting extensions to include, I recommend choosing almost all of them as they’re useful for modern application development. The only thing you might want to customize is the logging type (Console, Debug, or Serilog), depending on your previous experience. Generally, most applications will benefit from all the extensions offered.

Step 9: Features

Next, you’ll select which features to include in your application. For my tests, I include everything except the MAUI embedding and the media element. Most features can be useful, and I’ll show in a future post how to set them up when discussing the solution structure.

Step 10: Authentication

You can select “None” for authentication if you’re building test projects, but I chose “Custom” because I wanted to see how it works. In my case, I’m authenticating against DevExpress XAF REST API, but I’m also interested in connecting my test project to Azure B2C.

Step 11: Application ID

Next, you’ll need to provide an application ID. While I haven’t fully explored the purpose of this ID yet, I believe it’s needed when publishing applications to app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Step 12: Testing

I’m a big fan of testing, particularly integration tests. While unit tests are essential when developing components, for business applications, integration tests that verify the flow are often sufficient.

Uno also offers UI testing capabilities, which I haven’t tried yet but am looking forward to exploring. In platform UI development, there aren’t many choices for UI testing, so having something built-in is fantastic.

Testing might seem like a waste of time initially, but once you have tests in place, you’ll save time in the future. With each iteration or new release, you can run all your tests to ensure everything works correctly. The time invested in creating tests upfront pays off during maintenance and updates.

Step 13: CI Pipelines

The final step is about CI pipelines. If you’re building a test application, you don’t need to select anything. For production applications, you can choose Azure Pipelines or GitHub Actions based on your preferences. In my case, I’m not involved with CI pipeline configuration at my workplace, so I have limited experience in this area.

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You should now have a shiny new Uno Platform application in your IDE.

This post only covers the initial setup choices when creating a new Uno application. Your development path will differ based on the selections you’ve made, which can significantly impact how you write your code. Choose wisely and experiment with different combinations to see what works best for your needs.

During my learning journey with the Uno Platform, I’ve tried various settings—some worked well, others didn’t, but most will function if you understand what you’re doing. I’m still learning and taking a hands-on approach, relying on trial and error, occasional documentation checks, and GitHub Copilot assistance.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next post!

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Exploring the Uno Platform: Handling Unsafe Code in Multi-Target Applications

Exploring the Uno Platform: Handling Unsafe Code in Multi-Target Applications

by | Mar 5, 2025 | C#, dotnet, Uno Platform

Exploring the Uno Platform: Handling Unsafe Code in Multi-Target Applications

This last weekend I wanted to do a technical experiment as I always do when I have some free time. I decided there was something new I needed to try and see if I could write about. The weekend turned out to be a beautiful surprise as I went back to test the Uno platform – a multi-OS, multi-target UI framework that generates mobile applications, desktop applications, web applications, and even Linux applications.

The idea of Uno is a beautiful concept, but for a long time, the tooling wasn’t quite there. I had made it work several times in the past, but after an update or something in Visual Studio, the setup would break and applications would become basically impossible to compile. That seems to no longer be the case!

Last weekend, I set up Uno on two different computers: my new Surface laptop with an ARM type of processor (which can sometimes be tricky for some tools) and my old MSI with an x64 type of processor. I was thrilled that the setup was effortless on both machines.

After the successful setup, I decided to download the entire Uno demo repository and start trying out the demos. However, for some reason, they didn’t compile. I eventually realized there was a problem with generated code during compilation time that turned out to be unsafe code. Here are my findings about how to handle the unsafe code that is generated.

AllowUnsafeBlocks Setting in Project File

I discovered that this setting was commented out in the Navigation.csproj file:

<!--<AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>-->

When uncommented, this setting allows the use of unsafe code blocks in your .NET 8 Uno Platform project. To enable unsafe code, you need to remove the comment markers from this line in your project file.

Why It’s Needed

The <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks> setting is required whenever you want to use “unsafe” code in C#. By default, C# is designed to be memory-safe, preventing direct memory manipulation that could lead to memory corruption, buffer overflows, or security vulnerabilities. When you add this setting to your project file, you’re explicitly telling the compiler to allow portions of code marked with the unsafe keyword.

Unsafe code lets you work with pointers and perform direct memory operations, which can be useful for:

  • Performance-critical operations
  • Interoperability with native code
  • Direct memory manipulation

What Makes Code “Unsafe”

Code is considered “unsafe” when it bypasses .NET’s memory safety guarantees. Specifically, unsafe code includes:

  1. Pointer operations: Using the * and -> operators with memory addresses
  2. Fixed statements: Pinning managed objects in memory so their addresses don’t change during garbage collection
  3. Sizeof operator: Getting the size of a type in bytes
  4. Stackalloc keyword: Allocating memory on the stack instead of the heap

Example of Unsafe Code

Here’s an example of unsafe code that might be generated:

unsafe
{
    int[] numbers = new int[] { 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 };
    
    // UNSAFE: Pinning an array in memory and getting direct pointer
    fixed (int* pNumbers = numbers)
    {
        // UNSAFE: Pointer declaration and manipulation
        int* p = pNumbers;
        
        // UNSAFE: Dereferencing pointers to modify memory directly
        *p = *p + 5;
        *(p + 1) = *(p + 1) + 5;
    }
}

Why Use Unsafe Code?

There are several legitimate reasons to use unsafe code:

  1. Performance optimization: For extremely performance-critical sections where you need to eliminate overhead from bounds checking or other safety features.
  2. Interoperability: When interfacing with native libraries or system APIs that require pointers.
  3. Low-level operations: For systems programming tasks that require direct memory manipulation, like implementing custom memory managers.
  4. Hardware access: When working directly with device drivers or memory-mapped hardware.
  5. Algorithms requiring pointer arithmetic: Some specialized algorithms are most efficiently implemented using pointer operations.

Risks and Considerations

Using unsafe code comes with significant responsibilities:

  • You bypass the runtime’s safety checks, so errors can cause application crashes or security vulnerabilities
  • Memory leaks are possible if you allocate unmanaged memory and don’t free it properly
  • Your code becomes less portable across different .NET implementations
  • Debugging unsafe code is more challenging

In general, you should only use unsafe code when absolutely necessary and isolate it in small, well-tested sections of your application.

In conclusion, I’m happy to see that the Uno platform has matured significantly. While there are still some challenges like handling unsafe generated code, the setup process has become much more reliable. If you’re looking to develop truly cross-platform applications with a single codebase, Uno is worth exploring – just remember to uncomment that AllowUnsafeBlocks setting if you run into compilation issues!