MAUI_JSON_TEST — GitHub Repository Search

A .NET MAUI sample app that searches GitHub repositories and renders the results in a GitHub-dark-themed list. Built as a training project for exploring MAUI fundamentals: MVVM data binding, calling a REST API, JSON deserialization with System.Text.Json, and app-wide theming with XAML resource dictionaries.

What it does

• Search GitHub repositories by keyword via the GitHub Search API (no authentication; subject to the unauthenticated rate limit of 10 search requests/minute).
• Sort results by stars, forks, help-wanted-issues, or updated (top 10 results shown).
• Tap a result to open the repository in the system browser.
• Search keyword and sort choice persist across app restarts (Preferences).
• Download progress bar while fetching; Snackbar with a Retry action on network failure.
• GitHub Dark UI throughout, using the Primer color palette (#0d1117 canvas, #161b22 cards, #58a6ff accent, #238636 buttons). The app forces dark mode regardless of system theme.

Project structure

MAUI_JSON_TEST/
├── MainPage.xaml(.cs)          # Single page: search bar, sort picker, results list
├── ViewModel/
│   └── MainViewModel.cs        # MVVM view model (INotifyPropertyChanged, ICommand)
├── Model/
│   ├── GitHubService/
│   │   └── Service.cs          # HttpClient call to the GitHub Search API
│   └── Pojo/
│       ├── Respond.cs          # Repository item DTO ([JsonPropertyName] mapping)
│       └── Owner.cs            # Repository owner DTO
├── Resources/Styles/
│   ├── Colors.xaml             # Color palette incl. GitHub Dark (Primer) colors
│   └── Styles.xaml             # Implicit control styles (dark values use the palette)
└── Platforms/                  # Android / iOS / Mac Catalyst / Windows bootstrap

There is no test project.

Tech stack

• .NET 8 (SDK 8.0.408 pinned in global.json)
• .NET MAUI, single-project targeting net8.0-android, net8.0-ios, net8.0-maccatalyst, and net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0 (Windows target only when building on Windows)
• CommunityToolkit.Maui — Snackbar
• System.Text.Json for deserialization

Getting started

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK 8.0.4xx
• MAUI workloads: dotnet workload install maui
• Platform tooling:
  • Android — Android SDK plus an emulator or device
  • iOS / Mac Catalyst — macOS with full Xcode installed (Command Line Tools alone are not enough; check xcode-select -p)
  • Windows — Visual Studio 2022 with the .NET MAUI workload

Build & run

dotnet restore

# Android
dotnet build MAUI_JSON_TEST/MAUI_JSON_TEST.csproj -f net8.0-android
dotnet build MAUI_JSON_TEST/MAUI_JSON_TEST.csproj -f net8.0-android -t:Run   # deploy to a running emulator/device

# Mac Catalyst (requires Xcode)
dotnet build MAUI_JSON_TEST/MAUI_JSON_TEST.csproj -f net8.0-maccatalyst -t:Run

# Windows (on Windows)
dotnet build MAUI_JSON_TEST/MAUI_JSON_TEST.csproj -f net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0 -t:Run

Or open MAUI_JSON_TEST.sln in Visual Studio / Rider, pick a target, and run.

Known limitations

• The Search button is disabled for queries containing spaces or non-ASCII characters, so multi-word and CJK searches are not possible.
• The search query is not URL-encoded before being appended to the request URL; characters like & or # will break the query.
• The progress bar only advances when the API response includes a Content-Length header; GitHub often streams chunked responses, in which case it stays at 0 until completion.
• Results are fixed at 10 per search with no paging.

Troubleshooting

• Missing workload errors → dotnet workload install maui
• Apple targets fail with "Could not find a valid Xcode app bundle" → install full Xcode and run sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app
• No results plus a Retry Snackbar right after several searches → you likely hit the unauthenticated GitHub rate limit; wait a minute and retry