VS Gallery comment --> Troubles starting up

[sasakrsmanovic]

[For purpose of tracking and resolving user issue, copy/pasting comment from VS Marketplace] User writes:

"
Unfortunately it looks like doesn't work anymore. You'll install, follow all instructions, download all it requires, check and fix all detected issues, and once you get it to build and run, it opens a console window for a few seconds, and then closes without any result.
The exported application contains a ton of files, very dirty export.
If you run it manually, it looks like it's able to run, but no debugging available in this case, of course (it also opens that console window in the background).
The project is interesting, because there isn't any good alternative from Microsoft, but it's just useless. So disappointing.
"

[jmonsuarez]

Hi, thanks for replying to my comment.
I'm using Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (26100.4061) and Visual Studio 2022 64 bit (17.14.1).

My first attempt installing UNO was using this link, but it lacks something that I can't identify.
Then uninstalling and trying again using this other link, finally started to show something. Also the weird console window is gone.

By the way, is the WSL console required to build for Linux? How can I run & debug the app on WSL? Haven't found any quick option in Visual Studio to do that.

I've created a default project using .net 9 and built for "Desktop".
It runs on Windows pretty well, that weird console window isn't showing anymore, and it takes forever to start the first time (compared to WinForms), but then it looks like it starts fast enough. I haven't tested performance, at least it runs.

I'm still not sure why the exported "Release" app contains 137 files (without any friendly organization), five folders, and total weight is more than 210MB (A similar WPF or WinForms app takes less than 1MB). That's just absurdly large for an app with a button and two labels, I'm definitely doing something wrong.
Maybe it works as Unity does, exporting the engine and then includes your content as an extra dll or package? Can't find any clear information about it (If that's the case, Unity takes only 30MB to 50MB for the engine, it still being too large).

I've tried to run this same .net 9 export on Linux, but it does nothing, it's just unable to start (No error messages or anything). I haven't found any special setting according to build for Linux so I assume it's not needed. I'm using Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS with .net 9 (9.0.106) and tried running the .exe file as a program just as Mono does.
Is there anything else that I'm missing in order to build for Linux? I'm haven't experience using WSL, so maybe that's the reason why I'm not being able to run or build for Linux.

I'm not there yet, but is it possible to build the Android APK directly from Visual Studio? Or does it requires something external as Android Studio?

Hope you can help me with this issues.
Thanks in advance and best regards.

[jeromelaban]

By the way, is the WSL console required to build for Linux? How can I run & debug the app on WSL? Haven't found any quick option in Visual Studio to do that.

Please take a look at the WSL documentation from visual studio.

I've created a default project using .net 9 and built for "Desktop".
It runs on Windows pretty well, that weird console window isn't showing anymore, and it takes forever to start the first time (compared to WinForms), but then it looks like it starts fast enough. I haven't tested performance, at least it runs.

Can you explain what the "weird console window" is? If you have a screenshot it would help.

I'm still not sure why the exported "Release" app contains 137 files (without any friendly organization), five folders, and total weight is more than 210MB (A similar WPF or WinForms app takes less than 1MB). That's just absurdly large for an app with a button and two labels, I'm definitely doing something wrong.
Maybe it works as Unity does, exporting the engine and then includes your content as an extra dll or package? Can't find any clear information about it (If that's the case, Unity takes only 30MB to 50MB for the engine, it still being too large).

This is a standard layout for a published standalone app, which includes the .NET runtime. It seems though that you're using an older version of Uno, which includes the WPF runtime as well. A blank app should be around 50 to 60MB.

It seems that you're looking for the single file feature, which is not yet supported by Uno.

I've tried to run this same .net 9 export on Linux, but it does nothing, it's just unable to start (No error messages or anything). I haven't found any special setting according to build for Linux so I assume it's not needed. I'm using Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS with .net 9 (9.0.106) and tried running the .exe file as a program just as Mono does.
Is there anything else that I'm missing in order to build for Linux? I'm haven't experience using WSL, so maybe that's the reason why I'm not being able to run or build for Linux.

There is a specific setup for linux to run.

I'm not there yet, but is it possible to build the Android APK directly from Visual Studio? Or does it requires something external as Android Studio?

Please see the publishing documentation.

[jmonsuarez]

Thank you so much for your quick reply.
I'm using the package "Uno Platform 6.0.37.37" I think it's the latest version available on the marketplace.

I'm not sure what do you mean with the Uno that includes the WPF platform, maybe it is, I'm not saying that I'm building Uno using WPF, I was making the comparison between the builds made with Uno and WinForms/WPF that are the platforms I'm most used to use as they're (at least partially) compatible with Mono (and runs directly on the Mono runtime).

Unfortunately I don't have any screenshot of the console window that I was seeing the first time, it's not showing anymore as I reinstalled from zero. I'm pretty sure it was my fault because didn't follow the good instructions.
I can remember that it showed one single line of text counting by a few seconds (5 or 6), then it shut down without any error message. I wasn't able to find anything about it on the internet, so I decided to start again.

I'll take a look at those documents, maybe I can get it to run. But the huge difference in weight is a very big issue on my industrial environment as I don't have powerful servers to use, they're small and with zero maintenance.
I was trying to migrate an already existing application to able to use .net 9, but it looks like this platform is not what I need. Keeping my current set up looks like the right thing for me, at least for now.

Thank you so much for your reply and recommendations, I'm not wasting your time any more. Your project is very promising, I'll try this again in a near future.
Best regards.

[sasakrsmanovic]

Thanks for response. Do note please we've seen projects of people using Uno even on Raspberry Pi , so you don't need powerful servers to run Uno Platform applications.

https://platform.uno/docs/articles/guides/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-intro.html

I understand you might have moved on from evaluating. But if you are ever interested in looking at Uno Platform again, we'd be happy to help troubleshoot your setup here, or at our Discord community - https://platform.uno/discord