How to create a Launch Screen for iOS now that the iOS Designer has been deprecated

Grime 786

I know and understand that the iOS designer has been deprecated as of Visual Studio 16.9 and Visual Studio for Mac 8.9.
My question now is... How do you now make an iOS Launch Screen?
Do I have to do it on the Mac?
Can it be done in VS 2019 on the Mac?
Should it be done in Xcode?
Can I then transfer it all back to the PC to polish it off?
I need a bit of hand-holding here.

Accepted answer

Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-27T05:22:08.463+00:00

@Jovano , @Junior Jiang-MSFT , @Brian Conrad
I have successfully created an iOS launch screen in VS 2019 on a PC WITHOUT programming it on the Mac (although the laptop WAS paired with the Mac). Thanks goes to @KhaiFMsia over on Forums.Xamarin.com.

Solution: the launch screen storyboard is simply an XML file. All I wanted to do was to centre an image. Nothing fancy.

@KhaiFMsia gave me his generic launch screen storyboard as a text file (attached) 72460-ios-launchscreen.txt

Open this with a text editor and change the TWO instances of:
image="Icon-60.png"
to whatever image you load into your project.

I also edited the
color key="backgroundColor"
line to be
<color key="backgroundColor" red="1" green="1" blue="1" alpha="1" colorSpace="calibratedRGB"/>
so the background colour is white.

Save the file, then in VS 2019. right click on your storyboard, (mine is LaunchScreen.storyboard) and select Open With..., then select XML (Text) Editor. Replace the existing XML code with your new code, save and build.

That simple. Hooray!
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Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-27T09:34:48.083+00:00

AND the app has been submitted for review at the app store.
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5 additional answers

Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-16T06:42:23.09+00:00

Thankyou @Junior Jiang-MSFT . At least that's a start - we should code iOS apps directly on a Mac. Great!
Storyboards should be done on the Mac. Great!
Doesn't work!

This from VS 2019

This from Xcode

Why is it this difficult?
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Junior Jiang-MSFT 11 Reputation points

2021-02-16T07:27:35.22+00:00

Okey, what's the version of Visual Studio and Xcode you are used?
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Junior Jiang-MSFT 11 Reputation points

2021-02-16T02:59:03.117+00:00

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

We recommend doing any iOS UI specific work on a Mac now, so if you’re creating Xamarin.iOS controls, you should be within VS Mac or Xcode. You have to have a Mac paired to use the designer/generate the designer.cs files anyways - is there a way you can remote desktop into that Mac to do iOS specific UI work? Also - we are supporting iOS Hot Restart with Xamarin.Forms apps so if you start to migrate over to Xamarin.Forms UIs you can build and debug onto a physical iPhone without the Mac connected at all. Still doesn’t let you do storyboards, but you wouldn’t need them with Xamarin.Forms except for the launch screen!

Best Regards,

Junior Jiang

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Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-16T07:51:00.57+00:00

@Junior Jiang-MSFT :

On the Mac:
MacOS Catalina Version 10.15.7
Visual Studio for Mac Community Version 8.8.8 (build 12)
Xcode Version 12.4 (12D4e)
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Junior Jiang-MSFT 11 Reputation points

2021-02-16T09:51:16.077+00:00

Do you have a try with creating the StoryBoard from Xcode, and then copy it to Visual Studio, then whether it can open with Xcode?

Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-16T11:56:59.393+00:00

@Junior Jiang-MSFT
I have no experience with Xcode. I use Xamarin because I don't need to.
If I am to use Xcode I will need specific instructions.

Junior Jiang-MSFT 11 Reputation points

2021-02-17T02:30:34.86+00:00

My test is ok, and its environment is:

MacOS Big Sur 11.2.1
Visual Studio for Mac Community Version 8.8.9
Xcode Version12.4(12D4e)

I will suggest that also use the latest version of MacOS to check.

Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-02-20T00:03:52.33+00:00

Looks like a good reason to raise the price of my iOS apps due to all the new extra work involved. Like so much of the Apple's tools they seem to hearken back to the 1980s. The designer is not the most intuitive tool. Here is one tutorial:
creating-a-new-storyboard-in-xcode-and-making-it-the-main-one-black-screen-in-s

Problem is this defeats the utility of using Xamarin on Windows.

Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-21T02:52:10.26+00:00

@Brian Conrad , Supposing I was able to make a launch screen in Xcode (which I haven't), how do I get it back into VS?

Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-21T03:05:11.667+00:00

@Junior Jiang-MSFT , I have updated MacOS to Big Sur Version 11.2.1
When I right click on my Launchscreen.Storyboard and select Open With > Xcode Interface Builder, I notice the error messages have changed format:

After waiting a couple of minutes, Xcode does open and looks like this:

Can I get simple, straightforward instructions on how to add a single image centered on the screen from this.

Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-02-21T19:49:51.577+00:00

Since I added iOS to my app support back in 2018 I have always used the Storyboard designer when it worked on Windows VS 2019. So the only thing I was concerned about last week was my Storyboard logo not showing up but now it does. The only thing I needed to change was the logo which contains the copyright notice extending it to this year. I suspect at some point Xamarin crew will get the launch screen designer working remotely again on Windows. To do this on the small screen of a low MacBook Air was daunting.

Essentially it is just drag and drop your graphic for the screen (a PNG) and place it where you want. And that's it. Doesn't seem to work any different than when available on the Windows side. As it was I was using a pre VS version 16.8.x and the designer worked on Windows and accepted the change. Updating to the latest VS broke a lot of things but not in code fortunately. Some things improved in the newer Xcode .

Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-02-21T21:45:52.903+00:00

As for getting the Storyboard back to VS on Windows I saved the test storyboard to the desktop on the Mac and logged into the Mac from Windows and copied the storyboard file over (it's just an XML file the same as previously used). You'll need to have your graphic on hand too. Seems that dragging and dropping a test graphic doesn't quite work on the Mac so will get into that later.

Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-22T00:00:49.023+00:00

@Brian Conrad - I'm not holding my breath. I bet nothing happens before Maui comes out.

Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-02-25T03:34:06.963+00:00

If you run Xcode and have it create their default "Hello World" app in the left column where the Info.plist items are displayed and add a Launchscreen.storyboard. Put a graphic (in my case I just used a Xamarin logo) in the Resources folder and where it says Image click the plus then enter the name of that PNG (i.e. "XamarinLogo.png"). Build and run. By default it will come up centered. What is not so transparent though I saved the project to Desktop is the LaunchScreen.storyboard location. According to a 4 year old Stackoverflow post it's supposed to be in the Base.iproj folder but I'm not seeing that folder. But if I find the incantation to display the file then I'll report back. I don't like it when software development is turned into a game itself. Comparatively VS is so much more transparent than Xcode.

The launch screen is crucial because Xamarin is a player that loads a bunch of stuff at startup.
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Grime 786 Reputation points

2021-02-25T05:44:05.057+00:00

@Brian Conrad Thanks for giving me something!
I've attempted quite a few Xcode Hello World's in the past weeks. The Android version of this, my first app, was published back in December and has quite a few happy users.
The iOS version has to have a Launch Screen and it seems that Apple are just playing with us.
You said "Put a graphic in the Resource folder". I don't have a Resource folder.
What am I doing wrong?
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Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-02-26T01:06:17.45+00:00

In Xcode click on File and Add Files to <your project name> and select the image file from wherever you stored it (like Desktop in my test case). It will appear the list of files. The select Info.plist then Launch Screen and expand so that image name shows up and under Value type in the name of the image with the extension (like myimage.png). Build and run and you should the Launch Screen. Now what I'm searching for is where the full project is stored as apparently Apple loves to remodel quite a bit and it ain't where it used to be. I keep cheatsheets around because I'm not doing iOS apps everyday or even every week.

Junior Jiang-MSFT 11 Reputation points

2021-02-26T09:18:03.417+00:00

@Grime Hi, you need to create a Folder which named Resource below Main Solution Folder(LS3) manually. Then can Put a graphic in the Resource folder.

Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-02-26T21:05:46.393+00:00

It worked without the Resources folder by just using Add File.

Junior Jiang-MSFT 11 Reputation points

2021-03-01T06:50:06.62+00:00

@Brian Conrad Oh, that's great! Maybe now not need to create a Folder called Resources, just add file bellow root folder.

Brian Conrad 111 Reputation points

2021-03-01T20:19:00.713+00:00

Just to be clear that's with Xcode. In VS you need to put it in Resources but Xamerin creates a resource folder.
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