[Enhancement] Bring back the XAML Previewer please!

[davepruitt]

Summary

The XAML Previewer for Xamarin Forms was removed from Visual Studio, and users are being directed to use XAML Hot Reload. However, the XAML Previewer is much more effective than XAML Hot Reload in the initial design phase of a user interface.

XAML Hot Reload requires the user to be running the app, and it also requires the user to navigate to the page-of-interest before being able to do any UI design work. XAML Hot Reload is more suited for debugging UI issues, not for actually designing the UI.

The XAML Previewer is an excellent design-time tool, and it should be brought back ASAP.

[ValonK]

Yeah that sucks :( I use Blend to Design the UI & Copy the finished Design to VS / Rider

[jfversluis]

I think a lot has been said and done around the previewer. For Xamarin.Forms definitely nothing will be happening anymore though so closing it here. For .NET MAUI you probably want to keep your eye on the Live Previewer! Thanks!

[Tronald]

I understand this issue is closed, but it should be known that eliminating the previewer has greatly slowed down initial design work for devs. While Hot-Reload is convenient, it is certainly not a replacement for the previewer. This is especially true considering how often Hot-Reload fails when making major changes to XAML (which often means we have to stop and rebuild, consuming more time).

We have given it some time now to see if we simply needed to adjust to the change. Sadly, it is generally agreed upon that the elimination of the Previewer was a flawed decision and we continue to be negatively impacted.

I hope "Live Previewer" for MAUI acts more like the XAML previewer and less like "Hot-Reload". Having to now run the project to view UI changes is a major regression of great IDE technology. The time and money lost is admittedly frustrating.

[davepruitt]

I 100% agree with you. Whoever made the decision to drop the XAML previewer made a serious mistake. Rather than drop it, they need to keep on improving it and bring it up to feature parity with the WPF XAML previewer. The XAML previewer is excellent for initial UI design work, and hot-reload does not replace it.

[programmation]

Like it or not, MAUI is competing in the same space as SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose, both of which have functional (and very good) previewers. I've used both and they improve the speed of development by orders of magnitude. I've said in private and in public that HotReload is good but nowhere near as good as a preview. The biggest thing about previews is that they enable development of components in isolation, so the whole app doesn't need to be working before you can start putting the UI together.

[jfversluis]

I appreciate the input here, but for Forms this definitely will not happen anymore. Please direct any effort to .NET MAUI where your input is appreciated and has more chance for success :)

[davepruitt]

I appreciate the input here, but for Forms this definitely will not happen anymore. Please direct any effort to .NET MAUI where your input is appreciated and has more chance for success :)

There's already a related issue open in .NET MAUI: dotnet/maui#3439

I'm happy to open another one. This is a serious oversight to not have a XAML designer/previewer in either .NET MAUI or Xamarin Forms.

[GuildOfCalamity]

How the hell does WinForms, WPF & UWP have a real-time designer and MAUI somehow does not?????
Is there no QA process at MS anymore? How could you ship VS2022 and not make sure this works... the designer was kind of buggy in VS2019 but I thought it would be completely improved by VS2022.

[Steven-L-42]

Hope MAUI is going to have this again.
Otherwise i cant understand the big step back.

I think Flutterflow is going to show us how this can work.
Also WinForms or WPF show us how big this improvement is.

Please bring us a Designer, Hot Reload cant replace this.

BRING US THE GREAT SH*T !

I wasting time while i need to rebuild everything, this steals so many hours.
How do you want to build apps efficient without a Designer?