[Enhancement] Built-in unified Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) APIs

[LITTOMA]

In Xamarin Forms, there is no built-in unified BLE APIs.
If I want to write an APP uses BLE functions, I have to write platform-specific code (or using a 3rd party plugin).
BLE is a fundamental function, and as a multi-platform framework, I think MAUI should have unified APIs for it.

[davidortinau]

BLE is not on our roadmap for .NET 6. We are discussing bringing Essentials together with Forms in dotnet/maui as there's a growing overlap and interdependence.

Still, BLE is such a complex topic I'm not sure it'll ever be something we bake into this product. Shiny seems to be filling this need presently.

[aritchie]

It's how you ask it. If you keep complaining that Microsoft won't do something for you after they've already said "we're not doing it", that truly is entitlement. MAUI is already free and open source. The team is known to be understaffed. They can spend their time better elsewhere. They also get to decide where their time is spent best since they're the ones funding the project. I need something for my business that isn't available in a form I need, I write it and in a lot of cases, I give it away as open source for others to potentially benefit. But you do you - keep complaining, offering nothing to improve the situation, and telling people to "grow up"

[nexxuno]

And yet again keep asking for something to a big corporation, i e. Showing interest, is the only way to hope for some first party plugin. We are asking Microsoft, I don't think they are so touchy about how you ask things, if they are maybe they shouldn't be the ones deciding priorities. They should just gather interest and decide priorities, who cares if someone is not nice enough...

Your libraries are good but some official support would be better (and could be built on what you already developed).

[ChrisKarle]

I have reread this thread several times. I am absolutely struggling to see what you found inappropriate. Several people articulated their position that BLE support should be included in MAUI, and one person called the documentation for your BLE library as "awful". Instead of asking the commenter what they feel you could improve or saying "sorry, I do this for free, but you can pay me to help you because I need to keep my lights on too", you decided to call everyone asking for BLE support as entitled, unprofessional, and rude (which nobody was being any of those things)... and you continued to further berate the particular commenter criticizing your documentation. You also throw in a little drama/hyperbole too, "to go to this level of public complaint... shows a real poor attitude". Your post served no other purpose than to claim you could help people, called everyone names, then you took your ball and went home. I do not find that to be mature behavior.

Let me clarify. I am telling you to "grow up". I apologize if it sounds harsh, but I cannot think of something better. I do not care what reasons that Microsoft has for not adding BLE support to MAUI. Again, let us be adults here. Microsoft is a business; they do not do anything out of the kindness of their heart. If they want me to use MAUI (thus increasing their influence), they need to offer something I can use to get my work done better or cheaper than someone else. This included not creating dependencies on external projects that can stopped being maintained (always fun to update a project in 5 years). I also do not care if someones project becomes irrelevant because Microsoft natively adds its functionality to MAUI. This is the adult world, and I need to get stuff done. There is no need to berate people when you receive some criticism regarding your project. There is also no reason to call people entitled, unprofessional, and rude for simply asking for something they need to get their work done. If we keep asking, maybe it's important and Microsoft should listen.

[aritchie]

you called everyone names

Nope. Just a select few whether they know they are acting entitled or not, is I guess a point of view. Be nice, be kind, be constructive - this is a free product with a very limited team who are under a lot of stress already.

I am absolutely struggling to see what you found inappropriate

It is easy for you to take no offence. You haven't put anything out publicly that I can see. I didn't ask to have my stuff recommended, nor did I ask for feedback. I give it away in hopes that it helps people and I put quite a bit of work into it, but there are comments like "awful", "wrong patterns", etc. all from people who seemingly consume and not give back. What an age we've come to where people complain about free things. Don't use it then....

I see people saying how MAUI isn't really cross platform because Microsoft won't built BLE (right now anyhow). Again, it's how you ask. +1's aren't the issue. I don't think you will understand this standpoint, so we may as well agree to disagree at this point.

This is the adult world, and I need to get stuff done

There is no official support from any other cross platform framework (Flutter, React Native, etc). You will be in the same boat no matter what xplat platform you go to. +1 the topic and move on.

Let me clarify. I am telling you to "grow up". I apologize if this sounds harsh

I don't need your apology or your recommendation. I don't know you so it doesn't carry any weight. I would hope people in general see why I'm saying what I'm saying. Some definitely do and some don't. That's fine.

At this point, let's be adults and agree to disagree. You have no public profile that I can see here on github, so you have the satisfaction of your words not really carrying weight outside of this very anonymous set of posts.

[ChrisKarle]

@aritchie You seem to labor under the assumption that you have been somehow granted certain authority or privilege.

1.) People can make comments regarding your project without requiring permission or solicitation from you. The commenter called your documentation "awful". Yes, it would have been better if they cited examples or even created a pull request, but this does not excuse your behavior.

2.) I do not understand your focus on the number of public repositories that I or someone else may have. It has no relevance regarding my petition to add a native Bluetooth API to MAUI, nor does it prohibit me from criticizing your behavior. Your opinion on such matters does not sit higher than anyone else's.

3.) Again, I do not care the reasons that some functionality is not present. I do not mean this to be callous, as we all have our priorities. We are not pestering some 1 or 2 person development team. We are asking a 2 trillion dollar company with 220,000 employees.

If it was not for your behavior, I would have simply +1 the topic and moved on. Now, come back with whatever final word that you feel is important. I'm done here.

[salarcode]

Meanwhile we can use libraries, here is a one that recently got MAUI support:

InTheHand.BluetoothLE and InTheHand.Net.Bluetooth
Source: https://github.com/inthehand/32feet

[LITTOMA]

good enough.

[gfmoore]

Not really because until you can set bluetooth permissions it's useless. And guess what, there is currently no code to do that in Maui.

[salarcode]

We need to define custom permissions for each platform separately. Have a look here:
https://github.com/dotnet/maui/tree/main/src/Essentials/src/Permissions

Update: check the git gist in comment below

[LITTOMA]

The 32feet library cannot discover any BLE device on a Andorid device. Not even I have granted permissions.

[jfversluis]

Just because something is not (yet) surfaced in .NET MAUI doesn't mean you can't do it.

1. You can implement your own way of requesting the Bluetooth permissions
2. The current Permissions API is pretty extensible and you can just add your own to that: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/maui/platform-integration/appmodel/permissions?view=net-maui-7.0&tabs=ios#extending-permissions

[salarcode]

I have created a custom permission for android which follows the specs about permissions.
Hope this helps
https://gist.github.com/salarcode/da8ad2b993e67c602db88a62259d0456

[LITTOMA]

nice

[gfmoore]

Not only nice, but brilliant. I did have a couple of queries which I've posted on your code page, but honestly friend you will have made many people very happy now and as Maui get used more in the future. Why MS couldn't have implemented this....

But how did you know how to do this? I followed the documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/platform-integration/appmodel/permissions?tabs=android#extending-permissions
and could get the location part working, but could see that somehow code needed to be written using that template, but I had no idea how to do this.

[salarcode]

@gfmoore I had a look here where I could see how other permissions are implemented from MAUI team: https://github.com/dotnet/maui/tree/main/src/Essentials/src/Permissions
I have replied to you on the github gist page about other question.

[gfmoore]

Cheers :)

[TimoKinnunen]

Bluetooth LE is a headache, take a look here https://github.com/TimoKinnunen/MauiXAMLBluetoothLE. This is a good starting point to bring Bluetooth LE (Plugin.BLE) closer to .Net MAUI, I think.

[orwo1]

@davidortinau @jfversluis
Is there any update on this issue?
Is there going to be a Bluetooth permission built in Maui?

[jfversluis]

Probably this comment from this same discussion is relevant here: #277 (reply in thread)

Additionally in the meantime, this one was merged so they should be available in .NET 8: #12413

[orwo1]

The content merged in .Net 8, is it only Android Bluetooth permission,
or will it be cross platform and support iOS as well?

[jfversluis]

Just the permission. We don't have any plans to include this on the roadmap for .NET 8

[filipoff2]

Guys manage your expectations :)

I would be extremely happy if team could focus on multi platform app UI, a specially on UI part which is name 🗡️ :P
Not more and not less.

Thanks

[gfmoore]

My expectations are that I will not be using maui. It's not fit for my purpose. Sad really. :(

[TimoKinnunen]

Android operating system does not have a uniform way of granting permissions through it's history of versions. And that has technicians at Microsoft to handle in some way. And Microsoft does amazing work with MAUI!