This is an experiment for hosting an ASP.NET Core inside a MAUI app.
ASP.NET Core in MAUI is a highly requested feature (currently the 3rd most commented issue in dotnet/aspnetcore). Support for hosting an HTTP server opens new opportunities for MAUI apps:
- Share files with desktop computers on the same network over HTTP.
- Host a web GUI control panel to remote control the mobile app (Start/stop/Record/Pause/Take photo etc)
- Expose APIs (RESTful, gRPC, or SignalR) that other devices can use to interact with the mobile app.
The repository contains a sample app that uses .NET 8, MAUI and ASP.NET Core. Hacks are required to include ASP.NET Core DLLs in the app because the Microsoft.AspNetCore.App framework reference is unsupported on mobile targets: net8.0-android, net8.0-ios, net8.0-maccatalyst.
Solution projects:
MauiApp- The MAUI app. It hosts an ASP.NET Core server. Logging from the server is output to the UI. The app responds to commands sent to the server.MauiApp.Web- A project that contains the ASP.NET Core server. The MAUI app project references this.Client.SignalR- A SignalR client used to call the MAUI app.Client.Auth- A RESTful client that authenticates with the mobile server app and calls APIs that require authorization.ConsoleWebAppHost- A console app that referencesMauiApp.Webto test hosting the ASP.NET Core server outside of MAUI.
The mobile app exposes two endpoints: http://localhost:5000, https://localhost:5001. Use Android Debug Bridge (adb) to forward local ports to the Android emulator:
adb forward tcp:5000 tcp:5000
adb forward tcp:5001 tcp:5001
