Visual Studio for Mac 17.3 is now available

Jon Galloway

Today we released Visual Studio for Mac v17.3. This release includes User Secrets support, several new code fixes, Apple Developer Accounts, adds Task Window and Regular Expressions dialog implemented in native UI, and fixes for top reported user issues. We’re also releasing our first preview of Visual Studio for Mac 17.4, with preview support for .NET Multi-platform App UI.

To update now, use the Visual Studio > Check for Updates… menu in the IDE. If you aren’t using it yet, download it now:

This blog post summarizes the top changes in this release. You can check out the release notes to learn about all of the changes we’ve made.

Note: There are no 17.1 or 17.2 versions of Visual Studio 2022 for Mac. The minor version number was changed to 17.3 in order to match the version number of Visual Studio (on Windows) and address feedback that it’s confusing to have different sets of version numbers between products.

.NET Developer Productivity

User Secrets support

This release of Visual Studio for Mac includes support for the User Secrets manager. The Secret Manager is a recommended practice for storing sensitive information such as API keys, passwords, and database connections during development. The information is stored in a JSON file outside of your project path, so you won’t accidentally check the information into a public repository.

Screenshot of Visual Studio for Mac showing the "Manage User Secrets" context menu item.

Be more productive with new code fixes

We’ve introduced several new code fixes that will improve your coding experience. Let’s take a look at a few of them, starting with a new code fix for invalid constraints.

Screenshot of Visual Studio for Mac showing a code fix for a type constraint for type enum, suggesting "struct, System.Enum" instead.

There’s also a new refactoring that allows you to switch between top-level statements and the Program.Main style.

Screenshot of Visual Studio for Mac showing a code fix to convert a one line console app written as a top level statement to a Program.Main style.

.NET has a new attribute called the StringSyntaxAttribute which allows you to tell the compiler what kind of data a string represents such as JSON, Regex, or DateTime. Visual Studio for Mac now supports syntax highlighting based on the type of data that the string represents.

Screenshot of a code sample which includes a regular expression string. The regular expression has syntax highlighting and is displaying Intellisense for regular expression syntax.

Here’s an example showing syntax highlighting for a JSON string:

Screenshot of a code sample which includes a JSON string. The string has syntax highlighting.

Task Window and Regular Expressions dialog updated to native UI

We’ve updated the Task Window and Regular Expressions dialog to native UI, which provides better integration with macOS and improved accessibility support. The Task Window was removed in 17.0 while awaiting the migration to native UI, and we’re happy to add it back in this release.

Apple Developer Accounts

This release includes initial support for Individual AppStoreConnect accounts which are needed for non-Enterprise Apple Developers.

To add an AppStoreConnect account, open Visual Studio for Mac/Preferences and then select the “Apple Developer Accounts” item. In the “Apple Developer Accounts”, click the “Add Account” button and select “Add Individual Account” and enter the AppStoreConnect API Key information. Once the account is created, certificates and provisioning profiles can be accessed via the “View Details” button.

 

Visual Studio for Mac 17.4 Preview 1 is now available

Today, we’re also shipping the first preview of our next release – Visual Studio 2022 for Mac v17.4. You can install this release side-by-side with the v17.3 release – if you already have a preview version of Visual Studio for Mac on your machine, you can use the Visual Studio > Check for Updates… menu to update to this next preview as well. You can also install it using the preview installer:

In this first preview, we’re including the following features:

Preview support for MAUI & Xamarin

The 17.4 Preview 1 release improves our preview support for .NET Multi-platform App UI, enabling you to build, deploy, and debug .NET MAUI apps on iOS, macOS, and Android. This release includes XAML Hot Reload support for changing your UI and seeing the changes reflected in your running app.

Note: If you don’t already have .NET MAUI installed, you will have to redownload the Preview installer and select “.NET MAUI”. Once .NET MAUI is installed, you can find and create .NET MAUI apps from the templates.

Minimal API Scaffolder support

We’ve added support for the new scaffolder for ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs. This lets you quickly generate API Endpoints from a model class, with OpenAPI support and Entity Framework queries.

Screenshot of the Visual Studio for Mac "Add New Scaffolding" dialog, showing the "API with read / write endpoints" option selected.

Screenshot of Visual Studio for Mac's Add New Scaffolding dialog, showing the "API with read / write endpoints, using Entity Framework" option.

Modules View in Debugger Pad

During Visual Studio debugging, the new Modules window lists and shows information about the DLLs and executables (.exe files) your app uses.

Screenshot of Visual Studio for Mac showing the Modules Window.

Please keep sharing your feedback

Please continue to share your thoughts and keep sending those suggestions or problem reports! You can use the Help > Report a Problem or Help > Provide a Suggestion menus to share feedback, or go to the Visual Studio for Mac Developer Community site to vote for your favorites.