# How to use Mapbox in your .NET iOS app

## **Overview**

[**Mapbox**](https://www.mapbox.com/) is a well-known service for maps and location and it provides its SDKs for multiple platforms from the web to the mobile. Within the mobile, there are SDKs for Android, iOS, ReactNative and Flutter, but none for Xamarin/.NET iOS.

Recently, I successfully created and published [**the NuGet package**](https://www.nuget.org/packages/MapboxMapsObjC.iOS/) for integrating Mapbox iOS SDK to your Xamarin.iOS and/or .NET iOS app.

```plaintext
dotnet add package MapboxMapsObjC.iOS --version 11.4.0
```

In this blog, I will guide you through the steps to use that mentioned NuGet package in a .NET iOS app.

> ***TLTR; You can access the full quickstart example from*** [***this GitHub repo***](https://github.com/tuyen-vuduc/dotnet-mapbox-quickstart)***.***

## Prerequisites

* Visual Studio for Mac or Visual Studio on Windows
    
* .NET 8.0.100
    
* .NET for iOS workload
    

## **Steps**

> ***Assumption: You already have a .NET iOS app. If not, you can just create a new empty .NET iOS app to follow this guide.***

### 1/ Config your `MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN`

Mapbox iOS SDK is distributed privately via Mapbox's CDN which we can configure SPM/CocoaPods to download or download directly the artifacts with a `MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN`. To know how to generate that token, please check out [the official guide from Mapbox](https://docs.mapbox.com/ios/maps/guides/install/).

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689652994872/36225840-dfc5-46ea-a9e4-9fc54ed8d652.png align="center")

Xamarin.iOS/.NET iOS doesn't work with SMP/Cocoapods, but we can leverage [Xamarin.Build.Download package](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xamarin.Build.Download) to help us download the artifacts using Direct Download approach when building the app by following these steps:

* Generate/grab `MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN` from [**your Mapbox account**](https://account.mapbox.com/) page
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689553829929/aa7af92e-16aa-43ea-9ef2-549490c255cd.png?auto=compress,format&format=webp align="left")
    
* Amend your `.csproj` file with the following lines
    

```xml
<PropertyGroup>
	<MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN>YOUR_MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN</MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN>
</PropertyGroup>
```

> ***NOTE:***`MAPBOX_DOWNLOADS_TOKEN`***is a sensitive data item, it shouldn't be committed to our git repository. We should put it in an ignored file, but still understandable by the compiler.***

### **2/ Add**`Mapbox iOS SDK for .NET` to your project

* Open NuGet Package Manager
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689653606105/999e8fbf-3e19-4901-a5f0-1d4d16b8686e.png align="left")
    
* Search for the package `MapboxMapsObjC.iOS`
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689653724804/32297bda-c226-4371-91c9-a4a6bf3b31f8.png align="center")
    
* Add it to your project
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689653782851/916dad92-67e2-45e8-874c-c50ef2681f95.png align="center")
    
* Try to build the project
    
    > ***A successful build means you did it well by far***
    

### 3/ Configure `mapbox_access_token`

To work with Mapbox APIs, we have to generate a personalized access token from [**our Mapbox account page**](https://account.mapbox.com/) and then put it into our project to use

* Generate/grab the access token
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689629809872/bee32c30-7025-4533-b653-eb5f227dbb59.png?auto=compress,format&format=webp align="left")
    
    > ***You can use the default public token for this tutorial. If you want more control over what scopes to be used, please create a new token***
    
* Put the generated access token into `Info.plist`
    
    ```plaintext
    <key>MBXAccessToken</key>
    <string>YOUR_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN</string>
    ```
    
    > ***NOTE:***`mapbox_access_token` is a sensitive data item, it shouldn't be committed to our git repository. We should put it in an ignored file, but still understandable by the compiler.
    

### 4/ Add `MapView` control to your app

* Create `MapboxViewController`
    

```csharp
public class MapboxViewController : UIViewController
{
}
```

* Add `MapView` instance with default options in `ViewDidLoad`
    

```csharp
public override void ViewDidLoad()
{
    base.ViewDidLoad();

    // Use all default options
    var options = MapInitOptionsFactory.CreateWithResourceOptions(
        null, null, null, null, null
        );

    var mapView = MapViewFactory.CreateWithFrame(View.Bounds, options);
    mapView.AutoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleHeight;

    View.AddSubview(mapView);
}
```

* Change `RootViewController` in `AppDelegate.cs` file
    

```csharp
public override bool FinishedLaunching (UIApplication application, NSDictionary launchOptions)
{
	// create a new window instance based on the screen size
	Window = new UIWindow (UIScreen.MainScreen.Bounds);

	Window.RootViewController = new MapboxViewController();

	// make the window visible
	Window.MakeKeyAndVisible ();

	return true;
}
```

* Check the result
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689656380924/ff769ee3-d64e-43d6-8a4f-445bfaaade9f.png align="left")
    

## **Wrap up**

I just guided you on how to use Mapbox in a .NET iOS project. You can do the same steps for a Xamarin.iOS project.

I want to port all native examples to .NET iOS, but it'll be a time-consuming task. Single me will last for a very long time. I hope the community can contribute to [**this GitHub repo**](https://github.com/tuyen-vuduc/dotnet-mapbox-quickstart) and/or to their repos.