Can .NET MAUI Work with Aspire?

Show Notes

Can .NET MAUI and Aspire work together? Absolutely, and the development experience is worth exploring!

In the first episode of the TSJDEV Apps Podcast, Thomas Sebastian Jensen introduces a practical approach to combining .NET MAUI, ASP.NET Core, and Aspire.

Using the open-source TaskBoard project, we explore how Aspire can simplify local development, coordinate application components, and provide valuable diagnostics through its dashboard.

In this episode

• How Aspire fits into a .NET MAUI application.
• Coordinating a native frontend and ASP.NET Core backend.
• Understanding logs, traces, and metrics.
• What to consider when working with the preview MAUI integration.

Coming next

Why hardcoded API URLs can become a problem, and how service discovery helps.

TSJDEV Apps Podcast - Short Episodes. Big Developer Ideas.

Full Transcript

Have you ever worked on a mobile app with a separate backend and wished you could start and debug everything together?

Welcome to the TSJDEV Apps Podcast! Short Episodes. Big Developer Ideas.

I’m Thomas Sebastian Jensen, the TSJ behind TSJDEV Apps, and today we’re exploring an interesting combination: .NET MAUI and Aspire.

You might already know Aspire from ASP.NET Core applications. It helps developers coordinate multiple services, manage configuration, and understand what’s happening across their applications.

But what if we bring a native mobile app into that workflow?

That’s exactly what I explored in my TaskBoard project.

The application combines a .NET MAUI frontend, an ASP.NET Core Minimal API, and a SQLite database.

With Aspire, an AppHost coordinates the application components during development.

Instead of manually starting everything separately, we can bring the API and native client into one development workflow.

And there’s another advantage: observability.

The Aspire Dashboard brings together logs, traces, and metrics. So when a request from the mobile app takes longer than expected, we can investigate what’s happening across the client and backend.

There are some limitations, though. The MAUI integration is still in preview, and mobile devices may require additional configuration, including development tunnels.

But the possibilities are interesting!

Aspire doesn’t replace .NET MAUI. It makes the development environment around your application easier to manage.

And that brings us to an important question.

If our mobile app and backend can work together so nicely, why are we still hardcoding API addresses?

That’s exactly what we’ll explore in the next episode.

Find the complete article and source code in the show notes.

Stay curious, keep experimenting, and keep building!