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watchOS

Legacy

Getting started the legacy watchOS app done in .NET MAUI.

Requirements​

Follow the iOS Setup.

In order for everything to work properly devices are needed. On simulators the synchronization won't work (and some other parts may not work as well). Also, have Bluetooth enabled if possible to ease the sync between devices and the debugging communication.

It's recommended to read the Watch Architecture as well.

macOS Setup​

Having followed the macOS setup of iOS, no additional configuration is needed given that when the project is opened in Xcode it will automatically have the provisioning profiles set up.

Debugging​

There are two parts from where to debug:

  • From Visual Studio for Mac (the iOS app)
  • From Xcode (the watchOS app)

For now, there is no way to debug both apps (iOS and watchOS) at the same time given that from MAUI there is no access to debug information of the watchOS app and from Xcode an iOS stub app is installed on the iPhone to debug it. So, at the moment of debugging one needs to choose which part to have information about, therefore whether to debug from VS4M or from Xcode.

caution

When debugging from Xcode the MAUI iOS app will be replaced with the stub one from Xcode. So any configuration on the iOS app will be lost (like server urls)

When debugging from VS4M, uninstall the previous watchOS app (if any) from the Apple Watch in between builds to have it always up to date (there are times that if one doesn't uninstall the previous watchOS app it doesn't get updated)

tip

If one needs to get the logs or use the Console app to see the logs from the watch then one needs to install the sysdiagnose profile for watchOS from Apple Developer site here into the paired iPhone and after that restart both devices in order for the logs to work.

Building​

Given that the MAUI iOS app needs the output of the build of Xcode, one needs to build the watchOS app from Xcode first and then from VS4M build the iOS app to run it on the device.

The output of Xcode build is stored in a location pretty similar to the next one that is configured in the iOS.csproj:

<PropertyGroup>
    <WatchAppBuildPath Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">$(Home)/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/bitwarden-cbtqsueryycvflfzbsoteofskiyr/Build/Products</WatchAppBuildPath>

It's highly likely that the folder bitwarden-cbtqsueryycvflfzbsoteofskiyr won't be the same on every Mac. So one needs to change that part in iOS.csproj to the one created automatically by Xcode locally.

To know exactly which is the path: Open the Project in Xcode -> Go to Product -> Show Build Folder in Finder.

This needs to be improved to have a fixed location or an easier way to get it automatically.

caution

One needs to take special attention to target the same platform on both IDEs. Therefore when running on a device, target the device both in Xcode and on VS4M when building so that the watchOS app is bundled correctly. Also one needs to make sure that "bitwarden WatchKit app" scheme is selected.

Synchronization​

There is no way to debug the synchronization completely at the same time for the reasons aforementioned.

So one can debug one end (iOS) or the other (watchOS).

If needed to check something on both ends "at the same time" (like to check why a message is not sent/arrived), one needs to use console logging or adapt part of the MAUI code to the iOS stub app on Xcode and debug the synchronization from Xcode.