Avalonia

Develop Desktop, Embedded, Mobile and WebAssembly apps with C# and XAML. The most popular .NET UI client technology

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wpf

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WPF is a .NET Core UI framework for building Windows desktop applications.

Xamarin.Forms

5,609

Xamarin.Forms is no longer supported. Migrate your apps to .NET MAUI.

An advanced, composable, functional reactive model-view-viewmodel framework for all .NET platforms that is inspired by functional reactive programming. ReactiveUI allows you to abstract mutable state away from your user interfaces, express the idea around a feature in one readable place and improve the testability of your application.

awesome-xamarin-forms

1,245

A curated list of awesome Xamarin.Forms libraries and resources

Quick Overview

Avalonia is a cross-platform UI framework for .NET, providing a flexible and powerful toolkit for building desktop applications. It allows developers to create native-looking applications that run on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and WebAssembly using a single codebase.

Pros

Cross-platform compatibility, supporting desktop, mobile, and web platforms
Modern, XAML-based UI design with support for custom controls and styling
Active community and regular updates
Good performance and native-like look and feel on different platforms

Cons

Smaller ecosystem compared to more established frameworks like WPF or Xamarin
Learning curve for developers new to XAML-based UI development
Limited third-party control libraries compared to other UI frameworks
Documentation can be incomplete or outdated in some areas

Code Examples

Creating a simple window with a button:

using Avalonia;
using Avalonia.Controls;
using Avalonia.Markup.Xaml;

public class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void InitializeComponent()
    {
        AvaloniaXamlLoader.Load(this);
    }
}

Defining the UI layout using XAML:

<Window xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="Avalonia Example">
    <StackPanel>
        <TextBlock Text="Hello, Avalonia!" />
        <Button Content="Click Me!" Click="Button_Click" />
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

Handling button click event:

public void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    var messageBox = MessageBoxManager.GetMessageBoxStandardWindow(
        "Hello",
        "You clicked the button!",
        ButtonEnum.Ok);
    messageBox.Show();
}

Getting Started

Install the Avalonia templates:
```
dotnet new -i Avalonia.Templates
```

Create a new Avalonia application:

dotnet new avalonia.app -o MyAvaloniaApp

Navigate to the project directory and run the application:
```
cd MyAvaloniaApp
dotnet run
```

This will create and run a basic Avalonia application. You can then start modifying the XAML and C# files to build your UI and add functionality.

Competitor Comparisons

wpf

7,228

WPF is a .NET Core UI framework for building Windows desktop applications.

Pros of WPF

Mature and well-established framework with extensive documentation and community support
Rich set of built-in controls and layout options
Seamless integration with other .NET technologies and Windows-specific features

Cons of WPF

Limited to Windows platforms, lacking cross-platform support
Steeper learning curve due to its complexity and XAML-based approach
Slower development and update cycle compared to more modern frameworks

Code Comparison

WPF:

<Window x:Class="MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="450" Width="800">
    <Grid>
        <Button Content="Click me" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Avalonia:

<Window xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="450" Width="800">
    <Grid>
        <Button Content="Click me" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

The code comparison shows similarities in XAML structure between WPF and Avalonia, with minor differences in namespace declarations. Avalonia aims to provide a familiar experience for WPF developers while offering cross-platform capabilities.

Xamarin.Forms

5,609

Xamarin.Forms is no longer supported. Migrate your apps to .NET MAUI.

Pros of Xamarin.Forms

Mature ecosystem with extensive documentation and community support
Native UI controls for each platform, ensuring a native look and feel
Seamless integration with platform-specific APIs and features

Cons of Xamarin.Forms

Limited to mobile and desktop platforms (iOS, Android, UWP)
Performance can be slower compared to native development
Steeper learning curve for developers new to mobile development

Code Comparison

Xamarin.Forms:

<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml">
    <StackLayout>
        <Label Text="Welcome to Xamarin.Forms!" />
        <Button Text="Click me" Clicked="OnButtonClicked" />
    </StackLayout>
</ContentPage>

Avalonia:

<Window xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
    <StackPanel>
        <TextBlock Text="Welcome to Avalonia!" />
        <Button Content="Click me" Click="OnButtonClicked" />
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

Both frameworks use XAML for UI definition, but Avalonia's syntax is more similar to WPF, while Xamarin.Forms has its own specific syntax. Avalonia offers a more flexible approach for cross-platform desktop development, while Xamarin.Forms is primarily focused on mobile platforms with some desktop support.

ReactiveUI

8,218

Pros of ReactiveUI

Focuses on reactive programming paradigms, making it easier to handle complex UI interactions and data flows
Provides a robust set of tools for managing application state and UI updates
Offers cross-platform support for various .NET platforms, including Xamarin and WPF

Cons of ReactiveUI

Steeper learning curve, especially for developers new to reactive programming concepts
May introduce unnecessary complexity for simpler applications
Requires additional setup and configuration compared to traditional MVVM frameworks

Code Comparison

ReactiveUI:

public class ViewModel : ReactiveObject
{
    private string _searchTerm;
    public string SearchTerm
    {
        get => _searchTerm;
        set => this.RaiseAndSetIfChanged(ref _searchTerm, value);
    }
}

Avalonia:

public class ViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    private string _searchTerm;
    public string SearchTerm
    {
        get => _searchTerm;
        set => SetProperty(ref _searchTerm, value);
    }
}

While both frameworks support MVVM patterns, ReactiveUI emphasizes reactive programming techniques, whereas Avalonia focuses on providing a cross-platform UI framework with a more traditional approach to data binding and property changes.

awesome-xamarin-forms

1,245

A curated list of awesome Xamarin.Forms libraries and resources

Pros of awesome-xamarin-forms

Extensive collection of resources, libraries, and tools for Xamarin.Forms development
Community-driven and regularly updated with new content
Covers a wide range of topics, including UI controls, testing, and deployment

Cons of awesome-xamarin-forms

Not a framework itself, but a curated list of resources
Lacks direct code implementation or functionality
May include outdated or deprecated resources if not maintained frequently

Code Comparison

As awesome-xamarin-forms is a curated list and not a framework, a direct code comparison is not applicable. However, here's an example of how you might use a resource from the list in a Xamarin.Forms project:

// Using Xamarin.Forms
using Xamarin.Forms;

public class MainPage : ContentPage
{
    public MainPage()
    {
        Content = new Label { Text = "Hello, Xamarin.Forms!" };
    }
}

Avalonia, on the other hand, is a cross-platform UI framework. Here's a similar example in Avalonia:

// Using Avalonia
using Avalonia.Controls;

public class MainWindow : Window
{
    public MainWindow()
    {
        Content = new TextBlock { Text = "Hello, Avalonia!" };
    }
}

While awesome-xamarin-forms provides a wealth of resources for Xamarin.Forms development, Avalonia offers a different approach to cross-platform UI development with its own set of controls and paradigms.

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README

License
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ð About

Avalonia is a cross-platform UI framework for dotnet, providing a flexible styling system and supporting a wide range of platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and WebAssembly. Avalonia is mature and production ready and is used by companies, including Schneider Electric, Unity, JetBrains and GitHub.

Considered by many to be the spiritual successor to WPF, Avalonia UI provides a familiar, modern development experience for XAML developers creating cross-platform applications. While Avalonia UI is similar to WPF, it isn't a 1:1 copy, and you'll find plenty of improvements.

For those seeking a cross-platform WPF, we have created Avalonia XPF, enabling WPF applications to run on macOS and Linux with little to no code changes. Avalonia XPF is a commercial product and is licensed per-app, per-platform.

Blog

To see the latest announcements and read about the state of Avalonia, check out the Avalonia UI Blog.

Breaking Changes

You can also see what breaking changes we have planned and what our past breaking changes have been.

Awesome Avalonia

Awesome Avalonia is community-curated list of awesome Avalonia UI tools, libraries, projects and resources. Go and see what people are building with Avalonia!

ð Getting Started

See our Get Started guide to begin developing apps with Avalonia UI.

Visual Studio

The Avalonia Visual Studio Extension contains project and control templates that will help you get started, or you can use the .NET Core CLI. For a starter guide see our documentation.

JetBrains Rider

JetBrains Rider now has official support for Avalonia.

Code completion, inspections and refactorings are supported out of the box, for XAML previewer add https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugins/dev/14839 to plugin repositories and install AvaloniaRider plugin.

Avalonia Packages

Avalonia is delivered via NuGet package manager. You can find the packages here: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Avalonia/

Use these commands in the Package Manager console to install Avalonia manually:

Install-Package Avalonia
Install-Package Avalonia.Desktop

Showcase

See what others have built with Avalonia UI on our Showcase. We welcome submissions!

Bleeding Edge Builds

We also have a nightly build which tracks the current state of master. Although these packages are less stable than the release on NuGet.org, you'll get all the latest features and bugfixes right away and many of our users actually prefer this feed!

Learning

Documentation

Documentation can be found at https://docs.avaloniaui.net.

Tutorials

We also have a tutorial over there for newcomers.

Samples

We have a range of samples to help you get started.

Building and Using

See the build instructions here.

Contributing

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.

Please read the contribution guidelines before submitting a pull request.

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the code of conduct defined by the Contributor Covenant to clarify expected behavior in our community. For more information see the Code of Conduct.

Licence

Avalonia is licenced under the MIT licence.

Donate

Donating to the project is a fantastic way to thank our valued contributors for their hard work. Your donations are shared among our community and awarded for significant contributions.

If you need support see Commercial Support section below.

Donate with BTC or use Open Collective.

BTC: bc1q05wx78qemgy9x6ytl5ljk2xrt00yqargyjm8gx

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! ð [Become a backer]

Commercial Support

We have a range of support plans available for those looking to partner with the creators of Avalonia, enabling access to the best support at every step of the development process.

Please note that donations are not considered payment for commercial support agreements. Please contact us to discuss your needs first. team@avaloniaui.net

Avalonia XPF - Our cross-platform WPF

Unleash the full potential of your existing WPF apps with our cross-platform UI framework, enabling WPF apps to run on macOS and Linux without requiring expensive and risky rewrites.

Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI

Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.

Try Visual Copilot

Top Related Projects

Quick Overview

Pros

Cons

Code Examples

Getting Started

Competitor Comparisons

Pros of WPF

Cons of WPF

Code Comparison

Pros of Xamarin.Forms

Cons of Xamarin.Forms

Code Comparison

Pros of ReactiveUI

Cons of ReactiveUI

Code Comparison

Pros of awesome-xamarin-forms

Cons of awesome-xamarin-forms

Code Comparison

Convert designs to code with AI

README

ð About

Blog

Breaking Changes

Awesome Avalonia

ð Getting Started

Visual Studio

JetBrains Rider

Avalonia Packages

Showcase

Bleeding Edge Builds

Learning

Documentation

Tutorials

Samples

Building and Using

Contributing

Code of Conduct

Licence

Donate

Backers

Commercial Support

Avalonia XPF - Our cross-platform WPF

Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI

ð About

ð Getting Started