The Windows Bridge for iOS (also referred to as WinObjC) is a Microsoft open-source project that provides an Objective-C development environment for Visual Studio and support for iOS APIs. The bridge allows you to create Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that will run on many Windows devices by re-using your Objective-C code and iOS APIs alongside Windows 10 features like Cortana and Windows Notifications.
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To use the bridge you'll need:
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Windows 10, build 10586 or higher. Validate your version number here.
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Visual Studio 2017 with Windows developer tools. Visual Studio 2017 Community is available for free here.
Ensure the following individual components are selected during installation. Selecting the Universal Windows Platform development workflow should give most of the below
NOTE: Please also install the Mobile development with .NET workflow option (Xamarin Tools) due to a bug in Nugetizer (See Issue 5026)
(Click to Expand)
- Visual Studio Core Editor
- Nuget Package Manager
- C# and Visual Basic Roslyn compilers
- Static analysis tools
- Windows 10 SDK (10.0.14393.0)
- Visual Studio C++ core features
- VC++ 2017 v141 toolset (x86, x64)
- Visual C++ compilers and libraries for ARM
- Visual C++ runtime for UWP
- Windows 10 SDK (10.0.10240.0)
- Windows 10 SDK (10.0.10586.0)
- MSBuild
- Windows Universal CRT SDK
- Standard Library Modules
- VC++ 2015.3 v140 toolset (x86,x64)
- Windows Universal C Runtime
To get started with an existing Xcode Project, you will also need:
- Chocolatey, a package manager for windows. See how to install the latest version here
- winobjc-tools, the command line tools for WinObjC. Run the below command from powershell (Admin) to get the latest version:
choco upgrade winobjc-tools
(more information about this command and its options can be found here. If you want to use develop packages add --pre to the command.)
When using the bridge, the first thing you'll want to do is generate a Visual Studio solution from your Xcode project:
- Open Windows PowerShell (type powershell in the Start Menu to find it) and navigate to your Xcode project directory using the cd command. Note: use the directory containing your .workspace or .xcodeproj folder.
C:\> cd C:\MyProject
- Run the vsimporter tool. This will generate the Visual Studio Solution:
C:\MyProject> vsimporter.exe
- Open the generated Visual Studio solution with the command:
C:\MyProject> MyProject.sln
For more detailed step by step instructions on how to import a project, see the Quick Start Tutorial page of the wiki. For vsimporter options and known issues, check the Using vsimporter wiki page.
After importing your project, we strongly suggest using the App Analysis Tool to have a better understanding of the compatibility of your app with the bridge.
A great way to learn more about the bridge and its features is building and running the samples of the SDK, which contain many code examples. We recommend starting with the WOCCatalog sample app, which demonstrates an assortment of iOS and XAML UI controls:
- Clone the repo.
- Navigate to the samples/WOCCatalog directory of the bridge SDK
- Double-click on the WOCCatalog-WinStore10.sln solution to open it in Visual Studio
- In Visual Studio, right-click on the WOCCatalog (Universal Windows) project
- Select Set as StartUp project
- Use Ctrl-F5 to build and run the app
For more detailed step by step instructions, see the Quick Start Tutorial page of the wiki.
The following resources will help you get started. For more information, check out:
- Wiki, for documentation and tutorials
- Development Roadmap, detailing our highest priorities
- App Analysis Tool, to evaluate the compatibility of your app with the bridge
- Website on Windows Dev Center, for evaluation virtual machines
- Quick Start Challenge, for a quick hands-on introduction to the bridge
- FAQ, with common questions and issues
- The iOS Bridge Samples Repo, for sample apps and code using the bridge
There are many ways to contribute to the Windows Bridge for iOS:
- Submit bugs & issues and help us verify fixes as they are checked in.
- Review source code changes.
- Submit a bug fix or feature implementation via pull request.
- Follow @WindowsDev on Twitter and join the discussion using the #WinObjC hashtag.
- Engage with other users and developers on StackOverflow and tag your questions with WinObjC.
See our contribution guidance in the wiki for more details on how to contribute to the project.
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.
Additional Visual Studio Components Needed for Contributors:
- C# and Visual Basic
- Visual Studio SDK
- .NET Framework 4.6 targeting pack
- C++ Profiling Tools
If you want to build the bridge from source instead, you'll also need to install Git LFS before cloning the repo. For more detailed instructions, see the Building From Source wiki page.
If you're having trouble downloading & installing the bridge, see the Known Issues section below and check our FAQ.
See Microsoft's privacy statement for more information.
For details on our planned features and future direction sort the list of issues by milestone and refer to our roadmap.
- Do not use the Download ZIP option via the "Clone or download" button at the top of the page. You will not be able to build the bridge using the resulting .zip file. See "I'm getting errors after downloading the bridge through the "Download ZIP" button on Github. What should I do?" for more information.