OpenSilver 3.2 has been released, and can now be used to create WPF applications for mobile platforms. The open-source alternative to Silverlight is capable of running large, complex legacy applications, as well as newly written C# and XAML applications.

OpenSilver was first released in 2021 at the same time as Microsoft ceased support for Silverlight. It uses Mono for WebAssembly and Microsoft Blazor so developers can use C#, XAML, and .NET for client-side Web development.

The new version extends WPF applications to mobile platforms and beyond via OpenSilver's new .NET MAUI Hybrid integration. The extension can be used to deploy WPF-compatible applications to iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, and Web browsers from a single codebase. The new version also includes many WPF compatibility improvements including right-to-left support, WPF-like event bubbling, advanced animations, and enhanced virtualization. 

OpenSilver 3.2 uses .NET MAUI Hybrid to compile C# to native code while rendering UI through Webview. The developers say the approach resembles Blazor Hybrid but maintains XAML as the UI language instead of switching to HTML. Applications can be deployed to multiple platforms by adding platform-specific projects to the solution. An ASP.NET project serves as the entry point for web browsers (a capability available in previous versions), while the new MAUI project serves as the entry point for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac deployments. For Linux targeting, developers can add a Photino project as an additional entry point.

To demonstrate the new capabilities, Userware (creator of OpenSilver) has released two open-source sample applications. The first is a full-featured task management app in production that includes native Calendar integration and is available on App Store, Google Play, and other platforms. The second is the updated "OpenSilver Showcase" app, which contains numerous small samples demonstrating native API integration including sensors, vibration, location, flashlight, notifications, file access, and share sheet functionality. Both applications are available on GitHub for developers to explore.

OpenSilver 3.2 is available now. 

More Information

OpenSilver website

Source code on GitHub

XAML.IO Webpage

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