.NET MAUI apps
How to build a .NET MAUI app with codemagic.yaml
This guide will illustrate all of the necessary steps to successfully build and publish a .NET MAUI app with Codemagic. It will cover the basic steps such as build versioning, code signing and publishing.
You can find a complete project showcasing these steps in our sample projects repository.
Adding the app to Codemagic
The apps you have available on Codemagic are listed on the Applications page. Click Add application to add a new app.
- If you have more than one team configured in Codemagic, select the team you wish to add the app to.
- Connect the repository where the source code is hosted. Detailed instructions that cover some advanced options are available here.
- Select the repository from the list of available repositories. Select the appropriate project type.
- Click Finish: Add application
Creating codemagic.yaml
In order to use codemagic.yaml
for build configuration on Codemagic, it has to be committed to your repository. The name of the file must be codemagic.yaml
and it must be located in the root directory of the repository. Detailed explanation can be found here.
If you prefer to write your codemagic.yaml
file from scratch, you can start with this minimal configuration.
workflows:
sample-workflow:
name: Codemagic Sample Workflow
max_build_duration: 120
instance_type: mac_mini_m2
codemagic.yaml
file. If you are building for both the Android and iOS, simply enter both workflows as:workflows:
android-workflow-id:
name: Android Sample Workflow
# .......
# .......
# .......
ios-workflow-id:
name: iOS Sample Workflow
# ......
Scan for the codemagic.yaml
file by selecting a branch to scan and clicking the Check for configuration file button at the top of the page. Note that you can have different configuration files in different branches.
Install .NET SDK
In order to build .NET apps in Codemagic, you first need to install the .NET SDK. The easiest way to do it is by downloading and running the official Install script.
environment:
vars:
DOTNET_PATH: $CM_BUILD_DIR/dotnet
DOTNET: $CM_BUILD_DIR/dotnet/dotnet
scripts:
- name: Install .NET SDK
script: |
wget https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
chmod +x dotnet-install.sh
./dotnet-install.sh --install-dir $DOTNET_PATH
Install MAUI
Once you have the .NET SDK installed, you can proceed to install the required .NET workloads.
scripts:
- name: Install MAUI
script: |
$DOTNET nuget locals all --clear
$DOTNET workload install android maui \
--source https://aka.ms/dotnet6/nuget/index.json \
--source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
scripts:
- name: Install MAUI
script: |
$DOTNET nuget locals all --clear
$DOTNET workload install ios maui \
--source https://aka.ms/dotnet6/nuget/index.json \
--source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
Code signing
All applications have to be digitally signed before they are made available to the public to confirm their author and guarantee that the code has not been altered or corrupted since it was signed.
Generating a keystore
You can create a keystore for signing your release builds with the Java Keytool utility by running the following command:
keytool -genkey -v -keystore codemagic.keystore -storetype JKS \
-keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -alias codemagic
Keytool then prompts you to enter your personal details for creating the certificate, as well as provide passwords for the keystore and the key. It then generates the keystore as a file called codemagic.keystore in the directory you’re in. The key is valid for 10,000 days.
Uploading a keystore
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, and go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
- Open Android keystores tab.
- Upload the keystore file by clicking on Choose a file or by dragging it into the indicated frame.
- Enter the Keystore password, Key alias and Key password values as indicated.
- Enter the keystore Reference name. This is a unique name used to reference the file in
codemagic.yaml
- Click the Add keystore button to add the keystore.
For each of the added keystore, its common name, issuer, and expiration date are displayed.
Note: The uploaded keystore cannot be downloaded from Codemagic. It is crucial that you independently store a copy of the keystore file as all subsequent builds released to Google Play should be signed with the same keystore.
However, keep the keystore file private and do not check it into a public repository.
Referencing keystores in codemagic.yaml
To tell Codemagic to fetch the uploaded keystores from the Code signing identities section during the build, list the reference of the uploaded keystore under the android_signing
field.
Add the following code to the environment
section of your codemagic.yaml
file:
workflows:
android-workflow:
name: Android Workflow
# ....
environment:
android_signing:
- keystore_reference
Default environment variables are assigned by Codemagic for the values on the build machine:
- Keystore path:
CM_KEYSTORE_PATH
- Keystore password:
CM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD
- Key alias:
CM_KEY_ALIAS
- Key alias password:
CM_KEY_PASSWORD
These values will be passed to the build command to properly code sign the app.
Creating the App Store Connect API key
Signing iOS applications requires Apple Developer Program membership.
It is recommended to create a dedicated App Store Connect API key for Codemagic in App Store Connect. To do so:
- Log in to App Store Connect and navigate to Users and Access > Integrations » App Store Connect API.
- Click on the + sign to generate a new API key.
- Enter the name for the key and select an access level. We recommend choosing
App Manager
access rights, read more about Apple Developer Program role permissions here. - Click Generate.
- As soon as the key is generated, you can see it added to the list of active keys. Click Download API Key to save the private key for later. Note that the key can only be downloaded once.
Adding the App Store Connect API key to Codemagic
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, go to Team integrations > Developer Portal > Manage keys.
- Click the Add key button.
- Enter the
App Store Connect API key name
. This is a human readable name for the key that will be used to refer to the key later in application settings. - Enter the
Issuer ID
andKey ID
values. - Click on Choose a .p8 file or drag the file to upload the App Store Connect API key downloaded earlier.
- Click Save.
Adding the code signing certificate
Codemagic lets you upload code signing certificates as PKCS#12 archives containing both the certificate and the private key which is needed to use it. When uploading, Codemagic will ask you to provide the certificate password (if the certificate is password-protected) along with a unique Reference name, which can then be used in the codemagic.yaml
configuration to fetch the specific file.
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
- Open iOS certificates tab.
- Upload the certificate file by clicking on Choose a .p12 or .pem file or by dragging it into the indicated frame.
- Enter the Certificate password and choose a Reference name.
- Click Add certificate
If you have added the App Store Connect API key to Codemagic, you can also generate a new Apple Development
or Apple Distribution
certificate.
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
- Open iOS certificates tab.
- Click Generate certificate.
- Provide a Reference name for the certificate.
- Choose the Certificate type.
- Select the App Store Connect API key to use.
- Click Create certificate.
Once the certificate has been created, Codemagic will allow you to download the certificate and provides the password for it.
After downloading, please follow the steps in the Upload certificate tab to upload the certificate to Codemagic.
Note: Apple limits the number of Apple Distribution
certificates to 3. If you have already reached the maximum number of certificates, the following error will be displayed:
There is a problem with the request entity - You already have a current Distribution certificate or a pending certificate request.
Similar errors can also arise in rarer cases with Apple Development
certificates. To resolve the error, either remove some old certificate from the Apple Developer Portal or upload an existing certificate manually.
Existing signing certificates previously generated by Codemagic can be automatically fetched from Apple Developer Portal based on your team’s App Store Connect API key.
Fetching a certificate that was not generated by Codemagic is not possible because each certificate is linked with a private signing key to which Codemagic has no access.
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
- Open iOS certificates tab.
- Click Fetch certificate.
- Select a certificate from the Development certificates or Distribution certificates list.
- Click Fetch selected.
Adding the provisioning profile
Codemagic allows you to upload a provisioning profile to be used for the application or to fetch a profile from the Apple Developer Portal.
The profile’s type, team, bundle id, and expiration date are displayed for each profile added to Code signing identities. Furthermore, Codemagic will let you know whether a matching code signing certificate is available in Code signing identities (a green checkmark in the Certificate field) or not.
com.example.app
, the matching profiles are the ones with com.example.app
and com.example.app.*
as bundle identifier.You can upload provisioning profiles with the .mobileprovision
extension, providing a unique Reference name is required for each uploaded profile.
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
- Open iOS provisioning profiles tab.
- Upload the provisioning profile file by clicking on Choose a .mobileprovision file or by dragging it into the indicated frame.
- Enter the Reference name for the profile.
- Click Add profile.
You can automatically fetch the provisioning profiles from the Apple Developer Portal based on your team’s App Store Connect API key. The bundle identifier is listed for every available profile along with it’s name.
The profiles are displayed grouped by category: Development profiles
, Ad Hoc profiles
, App Store profiles
, and Enterprise profiles
. For each selected profile, it is necessary to provide a unique Reference name, which can be later used in codemagic.yaml
to fetch the profile.
- Open your Codemagic Team settings, go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
- Open iOS provisioning profiles tab.
- Click Fetch profiles
- Select the desired profile(s) and enter a Reference name for each one.
- Click Download selected. (scroll down if necessary)
Referencing certificates and profiles in codemagic.yaml
To fetch all uploaded signing files matching a specific distribution type and bundle identifier during the build, define the distribution_type
and bundle_identifier
fields in your codemagic.yaml
configuration. Note that it is necessary to configure both of the fields.
workflows:
ios-workflow:
name: iOS Workflow
# ....
environment:
ios_signing:
distribution_type: app_store # or: ad_hoc | development | enterprise
bundle_identifier: com.example.id
Note: If you are publishing to the App Store or you are using TestFlight to distribute your app to test users, set the distribution_type
to app_store
.
When using a third party app distribution service such as Firebase App Distribution, set the distribution_type
to ad_hoc
When defining the bundle identifier com.example.id
, Codemagic will fetch any uploaded certificates and profiles matching the extensions as well (e.g. com.example.id.NotificationService
).
Configure scripts to build the app
Add the following scripts to your codemagic.yaml
file in order to prepare the build environment and start the actual build process.
In this step you can also define the build artifacts you are interested in. These files will be available for download when the build finishes. For more information about artifacts, see here.
Build versioning
If you are going to publish your app to App Store Connect or Google Play, each uploaded artifact must have a new version satisfying each app store’s requirements. Codemagic allows you to easily automate this process and increment the version numbers for each build. For more information and details, see here.
In .NET MAUI, app version and build number are determined by ApplicationDisplayVersion
and ApplicationVersion
properties set either in the .csproject
file or passed via command line. Using Codemagic CLI, you can easily fetch the latest published build version from the respective store and automatically increment it for each new build.
Code signing
In order to code sign the app, the appropriate properties must be configured either in the csproject
file or passed via command line.
Android
When using the default Codemagic code signing method (codesigning identities), the required environment variables will already be available for use in command line arguments.
iOS
When using the default Codemagic code signing method (codesigning identities), the correct certificate and provisioning profile will be automatically prepared. However, since the dotnet build command requires referencing the signing certificate and the provisioning profile by name, two additional script commands are necessary to get those values. Alternatively, you can enter the correct values as strings manually.
Build script example
This is an example of the final script, including build versioning, code signing and the app building steps.
scripts:
- name: Build the app
script: |
LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER=$(google-play get-latest-build-number --package-name "$PACKAGE_NAME")
if [ -z $LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER ]; then
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
else
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$(($LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER + 1))
fi
cd src
$DOTNET publish -f net6.0-android \
-c Release \
-p:AndroidKeyStore=True \
-p:AndroidSigningKeyStore=$CM_KEYSTORE_PATH \
-p:AndroidSigningKeyAlias=$CM_KEY_ALIAS \
-p:AndroidSigningKeyPass=$CM_KEY_PASSWORD \
-p:AndroidSigningStorePass=$CM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD \
-p:ApplicationVersion=$UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER \
-p:ApplicationDisplayVersion="1.0.0" \
-o ../artifacts
artifacts:
- /Users/builder/clone/artifacts/*Signed.aab
scripts:
- name: Build the app
script: |
LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER=$(app-store-connect get-latest-testflight-build-number "$APP_STORE_APPLE_ID")
if [ -z $LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER ]; then
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
else
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$(($LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER + 1))
fi
CERT_NAME=$(keychain list-certificates | jq -r '.[] | .common_name')
PROFILE_NAME=$(find ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles -name "*.mobileprovision" -execdir sh -c '/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "print :Name" /dev/stdin <<< $(security cms -D -i {})' \;)
cd src
$DOTNET publish -f net6.0-ios \
-c Release \
-p:BuildIpa=True \
-p:ApplicationDisplayVersion="1.0.0" \
-p:ApplicationVersion=$UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER \
-p:RuntimeIdentifier=ios-arm64 \
-p:CodesignKey="$CERT_NAME" \
-p:CodesignProvision="$PROFILE_NAME" \
-o ../artifacts
artifacts:
- ./artifacts/*.ipa
Publishing
Codemagic offers a wide array of options for app publishing and the list of partners and integrations is continuously growing. For the most up-to-date information, check the guides in the Configuration > Publishing section of these docs. To get more details on the publishing options presented in this guide, please check the Email publishing, the Google Play Store publishing and the App Store Connect.
Email publishing
If the build finishes successfully, release notes (if passed), and the generated artifacts will be published to the provided email address(es). If the build fails, an email with a link to build logs will be sent.
If you don’t want to receive an email notification on build success or failure, you can set success
to false
or failure
to false
accordingly.
workflows:
sample-workflow-id:
environment:
# ...
scripts:
# ...
publishing:
email:
recipients:
- user_1@example.com
- user_2@example.com
notify:
success: true
failure: false
Publishing to Google Play and App Store
Publishing apps to Google Play requires you to set up a service account in Google Play Console and save the content of the JSON
key file to a secure environment variable as explained above in Android Build Versioning steps 1-5.
Configuring Google Play publishing is simple as you only need to provide credentials and choose the desired track. If the app is in draft
status, please also include the submit_as_draft: true
or promote the app status in Google Play.
react-native-android:
# ...
publishing:
# ...
google_play:
credentials: $GCLOUD_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CREDENTIALS
track: internal
submit_as_draft: true
Codemagic enables you to automatically publish your iOS or macOS app to App Store Connect for beta testing with TestFlight or distributing the app to users via App Store. Codemagic uses the App Store Connect API key for authenticating communication with Apple’s services. You can read more about generating an API key from Apple’s documentation page.
Please note that:
- for App Store Connect publishing, the provided key needs to have App Manager permission,
- and in order to submit your iOS application to App Store Connect, it must be code signed with a distribution certificate.
The following snippet demonstrates how to authenticate with and upload the IPA to App Store Connect, submit the build to beta tester groups in TestFlight and configure releasing the app to App Store. See additional configuration options for App Store Connect publishing here.
# Integration section is required to make use of the keys stored in
# Codemagic UI under Apple Developer Portal integration.
integrations:
app_store_connect: <App Store Connect API key name>
publishing:
app_store_connect:
# Use referenced App Store Connect API key to authenticate binary upload
auth: integration
# Configuration related to TestFlight (optional)
# Optional boolean, defaults to false. Whether or not to submit the uploaded
# build to TestFlight beta review. Required for distributing to beta groups.
# Note: This action is performed during post-processing.
submit_to_testflight: true
# Optional boolean, defaults to false. Set to true to automatically expire
# previous build in review or waiting for review in Testflight before
# submitting a new build to beta review. Expired builds will no longer be available for testers.
# Note: This action is performed during post-processing.
expire_build_submitted_for_review: true
# Specify the names of beta tester groups that will get access to the build
# once it has passed beta review.
beta_groups:
- group name 1
- group name 2
# Configuration related to App Store (optional)
# Optional boolean, defaults to false. Whether or not to submit the uploaded
# build to App Store review. Note: This action is performed during post-processing.
submit_to_app_store: true
# Optional boolean, defaults to false. Set to true to cancel the previous
# submission (if applicable) when submitting a new build to App Store review.
# This allows automatically submitting a new build for review if a previous submission exists.
# Note: This action is performed during post-processing.
cancel_previous_submissions: true
# Optional, defaults to MANUAL. Supported values: MANUAL, AFTER_APPROVAL or SCHEDULED
release_type: SCHEDULED
# Optional. Timezone-aware ISO8601 timestamp with hour precision when scheduling
# the release. This can be only used when release type is set to SCHEDULED.
# It cannot be set to a date in the past.
earliest_release_date: 2021-12-01T14:00:00+00:00
# Optional. The name of the person or entity that owns the exclusive rights
# to your app, preceded by the year the rights were obtained.
copyright: 2021 Nevercode Ltd
# Optional boolean. Whether or not to release an App Store version update in phases.
# With this option turned on, your version update will be released over a 7-day period
# to a percentage of your users (selected at random by their Apple ID) with automatic
# updates turned on. Learn more from
# https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/update-your-app/release-a-version-update-in-phases.
# If not specified, then App Store version default phased release configuration is reused.
phased_release: true
Conclusion
Having followed all of the above steps, you now have a working codemagic.yaml
file that allows you to build, code sign, automatically version and publish your project using Codemagic CI/CD.
Save your work, commit the changes to the repository, open the app in the Codemagic UI and start the build to see it in action.
Your final codemagic.yaml
file should look something like this:
workflows:
maui-ios:
name: Dotnet MAUI iOS
max_build_duration: 120
instance_type: mac_mini_m2
integrations:
app_store_connect: codemagic-api
environment:
ios_signing:
distribution_type: app_store
bundle_identifier: io.codemagic.maui.weather
vars:
DOTNET_PATH: $CM_BUILD_DIR/dotnet
DOTNET: $CM_BUILD_DIR/dotnet/dotnet
APP_STORE_APPLE_ID: 6444530615
BUNDLE_ID: "io.codemagic.maui.weather"
scripts:
- name: Install dotnet sdk
script: |
wget https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
chmod +x dotnet-install.sh
./dotnet-install.sh --install-dir $DOTNET_PATH
- name: Install MAUI
script: |
$DOTNET nuget locals all --clear
$DOTNET workload install ios maui \
--source https://aka.ms/dotnet6/nuget/index.json \
--source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
- name: Set Info.plist values
script: |
# Automatically fill out the encryption compliance setting
PLIST=$CM_BUILD_DIR/src/WeatherTwentyOne/Platforms/iOS/Info.plist
PLIST_BUDDY=/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy
$PLIST_BUDDY -c "Add :ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption bool false" $PLIST
- name: Set build version and build the app
script: |
LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER=$(app-store-connect get-latest-testflight-build-number "$APP_STORE_APPLE_ID")
if [ -z $LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER ]; then
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
else
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$(($LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER + 1))
fi
CERT_NAME=$(keychain list-certificates | jq -r '.[] | .common_name')
PROFILE_NAME=$(find ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles -name "*.mobileprovision" -execdir sh -c '/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "print :Name" /dev/stdin <<< $(security cms -D -i {})' \;)
cd src
$DOTNET publish -f net6.0-ios \
-c Release \
-p:BuildIpa=True \
-p:ApplicationDisplayVersion="1.0.0" \
-p:ApplicationVersion=$UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER \
-p:RuntimeIdentifier=ios-arm64 \
-p:CodesignKey="$CERT_NAME" \
-p:CodesignProvision="$PROFILE_NAME" \
-o ../artifacts
artifacts:
- ./artifacts/*.ipa
publishing:
app_store_connect:
auth: integration
maui-android:
name: Dotnet MAUI Android
max_build_duration: 120
instance_type: mac_mini_m2
environment:
android_signing:
- codemagic-key
groups:
- google_play
vars:
DOTNET_PATH: $CM_BUILD_DIR/dotnet
DOTNET: $CM_BUILD_DIR/dotnet/dotnet
PACKAGE_NAME: "io.codemagic.maui.weather"
scripts:
- name: Install dotnet sdk
script: |
wget https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
chmod +x dotnet-install.sh
./dotnet-install.sh --install-dir $DOTNET_PATH
- name: Install MAUI
script: |
$DOTNET nuget locals all --clear
$DOTNET workload install android maui \
--source https://aka.ms/dotnet6/nuget/index.json \
--source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
- name: Build
script: |
LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER=$(google-play get-latest-build-number --package-name "$PACKAGE_NAME")
if [ -z $LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER ]; then
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
else
UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER=$(($LATEST_BUILD_NUMBER + 1))
fi
cd src
$DOTNET publish -f net6.0-android \
-c Release \
-p:AndroidKeyStore=True \
-p:AndroidSigningKeyStore=$CM_KEYSTORE_PATH \
-p:AndroidSigningKeyAlias=$CM_KEY_ALIAS \
-p:AndroidSigningKeyPass=$CM_KEY_PASSWORD \
-p:AndroidSigningStorePass=$CM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD \
-p:ApplicationVersion=$UPDATED_BUILD_NUMBER \
-p:ApplicationDisplayVersion="1.0.0" \
-o ../artifacts
artifacts:
- /Users/builder/clone/artifacts/*Signed.aab
publishing:
google_play:
credentials: $GCLOUD_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CREDENTIALS
track: internal
submit_as_draft: true
Next steps
While this basic workflow configuration is incredibly useful, it is certainly not the end of the road and there are numerous advanced actions that Codemagic can help you with.
We encourage you to investigate Running tests with Codemagic to get you started with testing, as well as additional guides such as the one on running tests on Firebase Test Lab or Registering iOS test devices.
Documentation on using codemagic.yaml teaches you to configure additional options such as changing the instance type on which to build, or configuring builds to be automatically triggered on repository events.