First Steps with Telerik UI for .NET MAUI in Visual Studio Code

In this tutorial, you will create a simple .NET MAUI application and enhance it by adding a Telerik UI for .NET MAUI control. You will achieve this by using Visual Studio Code (on Windows or Mac) and utilizing the Telerik NuGet source that lets you download and install Telerik controls.

Prerequisites

• To download the Telerik UI for .NET MAUI packages, you need a Telerik account. If you don't have one, you can create one for free.
• To create the app, you need Visual Studio Code with the .NET MAUI extension and the .NET and .NET MAUI workloads.

Step 0: Start Your Free Trial

• If you already have an active license for Telerik UI for .NET MAUI, skip this step and continue with Step 1.

• If you don't have an active license, follow the steps below to activate your free trial:

  1. Download the MAUI Installer and start the installation.

  2. Make sure that Telerik UI for .NET MAUI is selected and continue with the setup.

  3. Log in with your Telerik account and complete the installation.

  After the successful installation of .NET MAUI, the MAUI Installer activates your 30 day free trial. The installer also downloads your license key file, so you can skip the next step and continue with Step 2: Create a New MAUI Project.

Step 1: Download Your License Key File

To download and install your Telerik license key file:

1. Go to the License Keys page in your Telerik account.
2. Click the Download License Key button.
3. Save the telerik-license.txt file to:
   • (on Windows) %AppData%\Telerik\telerik-license.txt.
   • (on Mac or Linux) ~/.telerik/telerik-license.txt.

This will make the license key available to all Telerik .NET apps that you develop on your local machine.

Step 2: Create a New MAUI Project

In this step, you will create a basic .NET MAUI project as a starting point for your application development, and then run it:

1. Open Visual Studio Code and select Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P. Enter .NET: New Project... in the input field.

2. Select the .NET MAUI App option.

3. Enter a name for your app.

4. Select an empty folder for your project. If the folder is not empty, the file explorer opens again.

5. Wait for Visual Studio Code to create the project and complete its configuration.

6. Choose the Debug Target:

   6.1. Open a C# or XAML file, for example, App.xaml.

   6.2. Click the curly brackets symbol { } in the bottom right corner of Visual Studio Code.

   • If you are working on a Mac machine, select My Mac.

   • If you are working on a Windows machine, select Local Machine.

     

7. Press F5 to start a debug session. If Visual Studio Code prompts you to select a debugger, select C#.

If you encounter any issues creating the basic project, see the complete guide in Microsoft's .NET MAUI documentation.

Step 3: Add the Telerik NuGet Server

Telerik maintains a NuGet feed with official UI for .NET MAUI releases and service packs. These packages are available for registered users with an active trial or commercial license. Adding the Telerik NuGet server as a source lets you download and install Telerik packages containing controls and utilities. As Visual Studio Code does not offer a built-in NuGet packet manager, use .NET CLI to add a new package source.

As the Telerik NuGet server requires authentication, the first step is to obtain an API key that you will use instead of a password. Using an API key instead of a password is a more secure approach, especially when working with .NET CLI or the NuGet.Config file.

1. Go to the API Keys page in your Telerik account.

2. Click Generate New Key +.

   

3. In the Key Note field, add a note that describes the API key.

4. Click Generate Key.

5. Select Copy and Close. Once you close the window, you can no longer copy the generated key. For security reasons, the API Keys page displays only a portion of the key.

6. Store the generated NuGet API key as you will need it in the next steps. Whenever you need to authenticate your system with the Telerik NuGet server, use api-key as the username and your generated API key as the password.

API keys expire after two years. Telerik will send you an email when a key is about to expire, but we recommend that you set your own calendar reminder with information about where you used that key: file paths, project links, AzDO and GitHub Action variable names, and so on.

Next, use the command below to add the Telerik NuGet source using .NET CLI. Replace the NuGet API key placeholder with the API key that you generated.

bash

dotnet nuget add source https://nuget.telerik.com/v3/index.json --name TelerikNuGetFeed --username api-key --password <YOUR-NUGET-API-KEY> --store-password-in-clear-text

See Microsoft's security best practices for more information on how to securely store your NuGet source credentials.

Step 4: Install the Telerik UI for .NET MAUI Controls

After configuring the Telerik NuGet source, install Telerik UI for .NET MAUI:

1. Navigate to your project's root directory.

2. Use .NET CLI to install the NuGet package:

   bash

   dotnet add package Telerik.UI.for.Maui

Step 5: Add the Telerik Namespace and Register the Controls

To use the controls in the Telerik UI for .NET MAUI library, add the Telerik namespace:

1. In the MainPage.xaml file, locate the root element at the top.

2. Paste the Telerik namespace below the last already available namespace:

   XAML

   xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2022/xaml/maui"

To visualize the Telerik controls, register them in the MauiProgram.cs file of your project:

1. In the MauiProgram.cs file, add the following using statement:

   C#

   using Telerik.Maui.Controls.Compatibility;

2. In the CreateMauiApp method, call the UseTelerik extension method:

   C#

   <!-- Code omitted for brevity -->
   .UseMauiApp<App>()
   .UseTelerik()
   <!-- Code omitted for brevity -->

Step 6: Add a Telerik UI Component

In this step, you will replace the Button control in Microsoft's project template with a Telerik control. The Telerik UI for .NET MAUI TemplatedButton that you will use gives you full control over the Button's content.

To add the TemplatedButton control to the application:

1. Delete the existing Button and its event handler:

   1. In the MainPage.xaml file, locate the Button with x:Name="CounterBtn" and delete it.
   2. In the MainPage.xaml.cs code-behind, locate the OnCounterClicked event handler and delete it.

2. In the MainPage.xaml file, add the Telerik UI for .NET MAUI TemplatedButton and set its content to a string:

   XAML

   <telerik:RadTemplatedButton x:Name="templatedButton"
   	                        Content="My TemplatedButton Content" />

After adding the basic TemplatedButton and setting the initial content, you can hit F5 to confirm that the app is running. In the next steps, you will configure the control by adding some interactivity.

Step 7: Add Custom Content to the TemplatedButton

In this step, you will edit the code-behind file by adding logic that makes the TemplatedButton interactive: clicking the button will change its content and show a loading indicator for two seconds.

1. In the MainPage.xaml file, set the new content of the TemplatedButton:

   • Change the content inside the button by removing the string and defining a Grid, which lets you organize the content in a structured layout.

   • In the Grid, add a BusyIndicator control and adjust its styling options.

   • In the Grid, add a label control for the loading indicator.

     XAML

     <telerik:RadTemplatedButton x:Name="templatedButton">
     	<telerik:RadTemplatedButton.Content>
     		<Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto, *" HorizontalOptions="Center">
     			<telerik:RadBusyIndicator x:Name="busy"
     							AnimationContentHeightRequest="16"
     							AnimationContentColor="#80CBC4"
     							AnimationContentWidthRequest="16"
     							AnimationType="Animation4"
     							IsVisible="{Binding IsBusy,Source={x:Reference busy}}"
     							Margin="0, 0, 10, 0" />
     			<Label x:Name="loadingLabel" 
     		Grid.Column="1"
     		TextColor="{Binding Source={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type telerik:RadTemplatedButton}}, Path=TextColor}" 
     		Text="Load Content" />
     		</Grid>
     	</telerik:RadTemplatedButton.Content>
     </telerik:RadTemplatedButton>

2. In the MainPage.xaml.cs file, add a new member method within the MainPage class. This new method adds the logic that controls the content of the button:

   C#

   private async void OnTemplatedButtonClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
   	this.busy.IsBusy = true;
   	this.loadingLabel.Text = "Loading Data";
   	await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2));
   	this.busy.IsBusy = false;
   	this.loadingLabel.Text = "Data is Loaded";
   }

3. Finally, set the Clicked event and add some styles to the TemplatedButton. Use the various appearance options provided by the component, for example, TextColor, Background, BorderBrush, and so on:

   XAML

   <telerik:RadTemplatedButton x:Name="templatedButton"
   							TextColor="Black"
   							Background="#FAFAFA"
   							BorderBrush="LightGray"
   							BorderThickness="1"
   							Clicked="OnTemplatedButtonClicked"
   							HorizontalOptions="Center">
   	<telerik:RadTemplatedButton.Content>
   		<Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto, *" HorizontalOptions="Center">
   			<telerik:RadBusyIndicator x:Name="busy"
   										AnimationContentHeightRequest="16"
   										AnimationContentColor="#80CBC4"
   										AnimationContentWidthRequest="16"
   										AnimationType="Animation4"
   										IsVisible="{Binding IsBusy,Source={x:Reference busy}}"
   										Margin="0, 0, 10, 0" />
   			<Label x:Name="loadingLabel" 
   					Grid.Column="1"
   					TextColor="{Binding Source={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type telerik:RadTemplatedButton}}, Path=TextColor}" 
   					Text="Load Content" />
   		</Grid>
   	</telerik:RadTemplatedButton.Content>
   </telerik:RadTemplatedButton>

To run the application, press F5. Congratulations, you created your first app with Telerik UI for .NET MAUI controls!

Next Steps

• Telerik UI for .NET MAUI Installation Approaches
• Restoring NuGet Packages in Your CI Workflow

See Also

• System Requirements
• Telerik UI for .NET MAUI Product Page
• Using a Telerik Theme