In the months since we released the Dotfuscator 6 beta, we’ve been hard at work finishing the feature set, fixing issues, and putting on the final touches in preparation for the full release. Now, we are happy to announce the full availability of Dotfuscator 6!
We are designing this generation of Dotfuscator for modern .NET applications, built using modern .NET tools and practices. To that end, Dotfuscator Professional 6.0 has cross-platform support for building under .NET Core and Mono on Windows, Mac, and Linux. While Dotfuscator has long had support for processing apps that target Mono or (more recently) .NET Core, this is the first release where Dotfuscator’s build components can run under .NET Core 2.1+ or Mono on Windows, Mac, and Linux. For example, Dotfuscator can now run from the dotnet command line, Visual Studio for Mac, or on an Azure DevOps Services or Visual Studio App Center Mac-based Xamarin build for iOS or Android. During the beta period, we wrote more about Dotfuscator’s Mac and Dotfuscator’s Xamarin support.
Since this is a major release, we are removing some long-deprecated features tied to the historical architecture of the .NET platform. The biggest of these changes is the removal of the Visual Studio integrated UI (i.e. .dotfuproj projects) in favor of our MSBuild Targets (which now have cross-platform support!). We introduced the new MSBuild Targets in 2018 and they have been a clear improvement for our users – they make it easier to start using Dotfuscator, easier to integrate it into the build, and easier to maintain the integration. If you are using the Visual Studio integrated UI, now is the time to migrate your project
We have also revamped Dotfuscator’s product activation workflow, featuring a smooth integration with PreEmptive’s website and services for license key management. The Activation section of the user guide provides more information.
If you are upgrading from Dotfuscator 4.x, please review the changelog for more details about the changes that might affect your upgrade.
If you are a Dotfuscator 6 beta user, thank you for trying it out and giving us your feedback!
We hope you like the direction we are going in with Dotfuscator 6—we are looking forward to even more improvements in the version 6 timeframe. Try it out now, and let us know what you think!