Layouts

Cross-platform layouts for MAUI applications to simplify dealing with templates and BindinginContext in XAML.

Can be added to your project using .UseNaluLayouts() on your app builder.

ViewBox

ViewBox is a lightweight replacement for ContentView class which is still based on the legacy Xamarin Compatibility.Layout. You can simply use ViewBox as base class of your custom views instead of using ContentView.

This class also provides a ContentBindingContext property that allows you to bind the content to a property of the ViewBox's binding context. This helps to fulfill interface segregation principle.

On top of that, ViewBox offers the possibility to clip the content to the bounds of the view through IsClippedToBounds property.

<nalu:ViewBox ContentBindingContext="{Binding SelectedAnimal}"
              IsVisible="{Binding IsSelected}">
    <views:AnimalView x:DataType="models:Animal" />
</nalu:ViewBox>

TemplateBox

Similarly to ViewBox this component holds a view based on DataTemplate or DataTemplateSelector.

<nalu:TemplateBox ContentTemplate="{StaticResource AnimalTemplate}" ContentBindingContext="{Binding CurrentAnimal}" />

<nalu:TemplateBox ContentTemplate="{StaticResource AnimalTemplateSelector}" ContentBindingContext="{Binding CurrentAnimal}" />

You can also project the content into the template (like you usually do with ContentPresenter).

The following example will display Projected => I'm here!.

<nalu:TemplateBox>

    <nalu:TemplateBox.ContentTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <HorizontalStackLayout>
                <Label Text="Projected => " />
                <nalu:TemplateContentPresenter />
            </HorizontalStackLayout>
        </DataTemplate>
    </nalu:TemplateBox.ContentTemplate>

    <Label Text="I'm here!" />

</nalu:TemplateBox>

ToggleTemplate

Usually to switch between views we use IsVisible property, but this is not always the best solution. Using IsVisible still creates the view in the visual tree applying all the bindings (performance impact). ToggleTemplate is a TemplateBox that generates a content view based on a boolean value and a corresponding DataTemplate (or even DataTemplateSelector).

<nalu:ToggleTemplate Value="{Binding HasPermission}"
                     WhenTrue="{StaticResource AdminFormTemplate}"
                     WhenFalse="{StaticResource PermissionRequestTemplate}" />

This can also be used with one single expensive template:

<nalu:ToggleTemplate Value="{Binding ShowExpensiveTemplate}"
                     WhenTrue="{StaticResource ExpensiveTemplate}" />

ExpanderViewBox

ExpanderViewBox is a custom view that fully displays or collapses its content by animating the size transition.

You can use +Infinity collapse size to enable size-change animations.

This component is also useful for scenarios where you want to show or hide additional information dynamically or if you want to build an accordion control.

Here's an example of how we can use it to build a section that can be expanded or collapsed through a button only when the content exceeds the CollapsedHeight.

private void ToggleExpended(object? sender, EventArgs e)
{
    TheExpander.IsExpanded = !TheExpander.IsExpanded;
}

<VerticalStackLayout>

    <!-- This button is only visible when the expander's content is bigger than the collapsed size. -->
    <Button Text="Toggle expanded"
            Clicked="ToggleExpended"
            IsVisible="{Binding Path=CanCollapse,
                                Source={x:Reference TheExpander},
                                x:DataType=nalu:ExpanderViewBox}"/>

    <nalu:ExpanderViewBox x:Name="TheExpander"
                          BackgroundColor="Coral"
                          CollapsedHeight="200">

        <VerticalStackLayout VerticalOptions="Start">
            <Label Text="List of my friends" />
            <!--
                The height of this stack layout depends on the number of friends,
                so the height will change at runtime and may or may not exceed the collapsed height. 
            -->
            <VerticalStackLayout BindableLayout.ItemsSource="{Binding Friends}"
                                 BindableLayout.ItemTemplate="{StaticResource FriendTemplate}" />
        </VerticalStackLayout>

    </nalu:ExpanderViewBox>

</VerticalStackLayout>

You can even use ExpanderViewBox as a CollectionView's ItemTemplate to animate the size change of each item.

private void ScrollToMe(object? sender, EventArgs e)
{
    TheCollectionView.ScrollTo((sender as BindableObject)?.BindingContext);
}

<CollectionView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}"
                x:Name="TheCollectionView">
    <CollectionView.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate x:DataType="pageModels:MyItem">
            <nalu:ViewBox Padding="16,8">
                <Border StrokeShape="RoundRectangle 12"
                        BackgroundColor="Coral">
                    <VerticalStackLayout>
                        <nalu:ExpanderViewBox CollapsedHeight="126"
                                              IsExpanded="{Binding IsExpanded}">
                            <VerticalStackLayout Padding="16,8">
                                <Label Text="{Binding Name}" FontSize="Large"/>
                                <Label Text="{Binding Description}"/>
                            </VerticalStackLayout>
                        </nalu:ExpanderViewBox>
                        <Button Text="Toggle"
                                BackgroundColor="Coral"
                                TextColor="Black"
                                Clicked="ScrollToMe"
                                Command="{Binding ToggleCommand}"/>
                    </VerticalStackLayout>
                </Border>
            </nalu:ViewBox>
        </DataTemplate>
    </CollectionView.ItemTemplate>
</CollectionView>

Magnet

Magnet is a powerful constraint-based layout that allows you to create complex layouts with ease by defining constraints.

The documentation is not yet available here, but you can look at this presentation.

Keep in mind this layout is in alpha/preview state so its API may be subject to change.

Here's a performance comparison between GridLayout and MagnetLayout considering two scenarios:

1. Dynamic measure: All the views keep chaining their size on each measure pass (rare case)
2. Constant measure: The views always return the same size (very common)

for (var i = 0; i < _iterations; i++)
{
    var result = _layoutManager.Measure(500, 500);
    _layoutManager.ArrangeChildren(new Rect(Point.Zero, result));
}

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Gen0	Allocated
GridLayoutPerf	2.332 ms	0.0206 ms	0.0183 ms	222.6563	1.78 MB
MagnetLayoutPerf	6.747 ms	0.0444 ms	0.0393 ms	273.4375	2.21 MB
GridLayoutConstantMeasurePerf	1.388 ms	0.0221 ms	0.0207 ms	166.0156	1.33 MB
MagnetLayoutConstantMeasurePerf	2.756 ms	0.0211 ms	0.0176 ms	218.7500	1.75 MB

As we can see Magnet is about 2 times slower than Grid but it provides a lot of flexibility and power. So it's up to you to decide whether to use Magnet or the standard MAUI layouts.

On a common page with a few views, the performance impact is negligible while the flexibility gain is huge in comparison.

Inside a CollectionView template is probably better to use MAUI layouts, but that still needs to be verified with real data considering that you may be forced to use nested layouts to achieve the same result and that also comes with a non-negligible performance cost.

Important:

• in a CollectionView template, make sure your Stage property references a MagnetStage defined outside the template (aka Resources)
• at the moment it is not supported to change the MagnetStage content at runtime