VijayAnand.FormsTemplates 1.8.0

Prefix Reserved
This package has a SemVer 2.0.0 package version: 1.8.0+sha.df9e030.
There is a newer version of this package available.
See the version list below for details. 
dotnet new install VijayAnand.FormsTemplates::1.8.0
This package contains a .NET Template Package you can call from the shell/command line.

CLI Project and Item Templates for developing Xamarin.Forms App that runs on iOS, Android, and Windows

Project template for Xamarin.Forms 5 Class Library and is named as formsclasslib

Class library project template take the below optional parameters to override its target framework and to include the officially supported Xamarin.CommunityToolkit, Xamarin.CommunityToolkit.Markup, Xamarin.Essentials, CommunityToolkit.Mvvm (aka Microsoft MVVM Toolkit), VijayAnand.Toolkit.Markup (the Shared Toolkit) or all NuGet packages:

  • -f | --framework - Default value is netstandard2.0
  • -asp | --all-supported-packages - Default value is false
  • -it | --include-toolkit - Default value is false
  • -im | --include-markup - Default value is false
  • -ie | --include-essentials - Default value is false
  • -imt | --include-mvvm-toolkit - Default value is false
  • -ist | --include-shared-toolkit - Default value is false

Explicit option:

  • -iei | --include-essentials-interfaces - Default value is false

Note: The NuGet package version being added out-of-the-box are v2.0.x for the Xamarin Toolkit packages, v1.8.x for the Xamarin.Essentials package, and v8.2.x for the MVVM Toolkit package.

Item Template Name
ContentPage (XAML) forms-page
ContentPage (C#) forms-page-cs
ContentView (XAML) forms-view
ContentView (C#) forms-view-cs
ResourceDictionary (XAML) forms-resdict
ShellPage (XAML) forms-shell
ShellPage (C#) forms-shell-cs

To install the template NuGet package, use the below .NET CLI command:

dotnet new install VijayAnand.FormsTemplates

If you've already installed this package, then it can be updated to the latest version with the below command:

dotnet new update --check-only

dotnet new update

Use the below .NET CLI command to create the project, pages, and views out these templates:

dotnet new formsclasslib -o MyApp.Core

Library target framework override:

dotnet new formsclasslib -o MyApp.Core -f netstandard2.1

Option to include NuGet packages:

dotnet new formsclasslib -o MyApp.UI -it -im -ie -iei -imt -ist

In a single parameter (Essentials Interfaces is an exception, to be explicitly mentioned):

dotnet new formsclasslib -o MyApp.UI -asp -iei

NuGet Central Package Management (CPM) feature:

For now, this is supported only on CLI. Can be used in combination with other parameters too.

dotnet new formsclasslib -o MyApp.UI -cpm

Item Template options:

Here, -n denotes the name of the Page/View that is to be created (for Pages/Shell/Views, don't need to suffix the type like HomePage, OrderView, AppShell and file extension .xaml / .cs, it will be added automatically) (Can also be specified as --name in the expanded form).

Just mention only the name of the item that is to be created. Item Type and File Extension would be automatically added.

Note: If name parameter is not provided, the .NET CLI template engine will take the current folder name in the context as its name.

And -na denotes the namespace under which the file is to be created (Can also be specified as --namespace in the expanded form).

While working with .NET 7 or higher SDK, the namespace parameter in short notation needs to be passed as -p:na (i.e., it needs to be prefixed with -p:).

Page:

dotnet new forms-page -n Login -na MyApp.Views

dotnet new forms-page-cs -n Home -na MyApp.Views

View:

dotnet new forms-view -n Card -na MyApp.Views

dotnet new forms-view-cs -n Order -na MyApp.Views

Shell:

dotnet new forms-shell -n App -na MyApp

dotnet new forms-shell-cs -n Mobile -na MyApp

Resource Dictionary:

With C# code-behind file:

dotnet new forms-resdict -n DefaultTheme -na MyApp.Themes

Without C# code-behind file - Xaml only (The option to be specified is -xo or --xaml-only):

dotnet new forms-resdict -n DarkTheme -na MyApp.Themes -xo

  • .NETStandard 2.0

    • No dependencies.

NuGet packages

This package is not used by any NuGet packages.

GitHub repositories

This package is not used by any popular GitHub repositories.

Version Downloads Last updated
1.10.0 60 8/22/2024
1.9.0 58 6/24/2024
1.8.0 48 6/21/2024
1.7.0 1,624 1/16/2024
1.6.0 160 1/12/2024
1.5.0 1,247 11/25/2023
1.4.4 90 9/25/2023
1.4.3 119 3/16/2023
1.4.2 1,157 11/23/2022
1.4.1 397 11/4/2022
1.4.0 361 11/1/2022
1.3.1 551 5/31/2022
1.3.0 441 5/2/2022
1.2.0 480 4/20/2022
1.1.0 467 2/25/2022
1.0.0 451 2/3/2022

Join me on Developer Thoughts (https://egvijayanand.in/), an exclusive blog for articles on Xamarin.Forms, .NET MAUI and Blazor.

What's new in ver. 1.8.0:
-------------------------
Introduced using the NuGet CPM feature from within Visual Studio IDE.

v1.7.0

1. An innovative generic item template, in XAML and C#, for creating items of any type.

And it is named forms-item and forms-item-cs

Both need one required parameter, -b / --base, the base type.

Optionally takes another parameter, -g / --generic, to specify the generic base type.

In addition, the XAML template takes one more parameter, -xo / --xaml-only, when defined, generates only the XAML definition.

Note: Namespace resolution in both XAML and C# file is left to the user as deriving them with the template is outside its scope.

Example:

dotnet new forms-item -n ThemePopup -b xct:Popup -p:na MyApp.Views

Output: ThemePopup.xaml and ThemePopup.xaml.cs

public partial class ThemePopup : Popup {}

dotnet new forms-item -n SearchPage -b FormsPage -g SearchViewModel -p:na MyApp.Views

Output: SearchPage.xaml and SearchPage.xaml.cs

public partial class SearchPage : FormsPage<SearchViewModel> {}

2. Introduced an item template to generate Page and its ViewModel in a single command, available for both XAML and C#.

The Page will be generated in the Views folder and ViewModel will be generated in the ViewModels folder.

Can also be overridden to generate in the same folder with the -sf | --same-folder option.

The ViewModels are generated with the base class titled BaseViewModel (implementation left to the user).

Including CommunityToolkit.Mvvm, an officially supported NuGet package, would be the best fit as it makes it easy to work with the MVVM design pattern.

And it's recommended to use this MVVM template from the project root. So that output is aligned to the folder structure.

Note: Don't suffix anything to the name, it'll be included automatically.

dotnet new forms-mvvm -n Login -p:na MyApp

dotnet new forms-mvvm-cs -n Search -p:na MyApp

Output structure:

XAML:

ViewModels
   LoginViewModel.cs
Views
   LoginPage.xaml
   LoginPage.xaml.cs

C#:

ViewModels
   SearchViewModel.cs
Views
   SearchPage.cs

v1.6.0:

1. Introduced an option to add a reference to Xamarin.Essentials.Interfaces NuGet package, an explicit option

2. Auto inclusion of the Type of the Item template that is created for Page, Shell, and Views

Just mention only the name of the item that is to be created. Item Type and File Extension would be automatically added.

dotnet new forms-page -n Home -p:na MyApp.Views

dotnet new forms-page-cs -n Settings -p:na MyApp.Views

dotnet new forms-view -n Card -p:na MyApp.Views

dotnet new forms-view-cs -n Order -p:na MyApp.Views

v1.5.0:

1. Introduced an option to add a reference to all supported NuGet packages by specifying a single parameter

-asp | --all-supported-packages -> The default value is false.

dotnet new formsclasslib -o FormsLib -asp

2. Option to reference the Shared Toolkit NuGet package

-ist | --include-shared-toolkit -> The default value is false.

dotnet new formsclasslib -o FormsLib -ist

3. Introduced an option to support the NuGet Central Package Management (CPM) feature

-cpm | --central-pkg-mgmt -> The default value is false.

dotnet new formsclasslib -o FormsLib -cpm

Note: For now, the CPM feature is only supported on CLI.

v1.4.4:

Package versions bumped to pull the latest stable version.

v1.4.3:

1. Package versions have been made dynamic to pull the latest stable version.

2. Added a new item template for Shell definition in C#

dotnet new forms-shell-cs -n AppShell -na MyLib

v1.4.2:

Little housekeeping to improve the reliability of the templates.

v1.4.1

Xamarin.Forms version bumped to 5.0.0.2515 (SR12).

Option to the choose the library target framework - .NET Standard 2.0 / 2.1

v1.4.0:

Included an option to add reference Xamarin.Essentials NuGet package during Xamarin.Forms class library creation.

Added new item templates for Forms Page and View in C#.

v1.3.1:

Included the IsExternalInit class definition to make use of C# 9.0 features such as Records.