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Uno Platform app solution structure

This guide briefly explains the structure of an app created with the default Uno Platform app template. It's particularly aimed at developers who have not worked with multi-platform codebases before.

The project files in an Uno Platform app

Let's say we've created a new solution with the Uno Platform app template, call it HelloWorld. It will already contain the following projects:

  1. A HelloWorld.[Platform].csproj file for each platform that Uno Platform supports: UWP (Windows), Android, iOS, and WebAssembly (Web). This project is known as the head for that platform. It contains typical information like settings, metadata, dependencies, and also a list of files included in the project. The platform head builds and packages the binary executable for that platform.

The Android head is named Droid to avoid namespace clashes with the original Android namespace.

  1. A single HelloWorld.Shared.shproj file, plus an accompanying HelloWorld.Shared.projitems file. This shared project contains files that are shared between all of the heads.

The main reason the solution contains a shared project and not a cross-targeted library is related to a missing Visual Studio feature. At present time (VS16.1.x), building a head that references such a cross-targeted library implies that all target frameworks are built, leading to a slow developer inner loop.

Normally, your UI and business logic will go in the shared project. Bootstrapping code, packaging settings, and platform-specific code goes in the corresponding platform head. String resources normally go in the shared project. Image assets may go either in the shared project or under each head. Font assets must be placed under each head.

Uno Platform solution structure

Understanding shared projects

Clearly understanding how shared projects work is important to using Uno Platform effectively. A shared project in Visual Studio is really nothing more than a list of files. Let's repeat that for emphasis: a shared project is just a list of files. Referencing a shared project in an ordinary .csproj project causes those files to be included in the project. They're treated in exactly the same way as the files inside the project.

It's important to be aware that the code in a shared-project file is compiled separately for each platform head. This gives a great deal of flexibility, but it also means that shared code may work for one platform, but not another.

Handling dependencies

Since a shared project is just a list of files, it can't depend on other projects, NuGet packages, or system assemblies. Instead those dependencies must be added to the projects that are referencing the shared project.

For example, we decide we need to use the Json.NET library in our app. We install the NuGet package in our HelloWorld.Droid head, and add a class to our HelloWorld.Shared project:

using Newtonsoft.Json;

...

We run our app on Android and it works fine. But now the UWP head fails to compile because we forgot to install the NuGet package there. The solution in this case is to install the NuGet package in all the heads we're targeting.

Further information

See additional guides on handling platform-specific C# code and XAML markup in an Uno Platform project.