#Xamarin Emulator Android Portable Class Library#
#Xamarin Emulator Android Free Xamarin Starter#
#Xamarin Emulator Android Mac And Host#

Certain aspects of the code base are platform specific, for example the UI layer, forcing programmers to develop them repeatedly for each platform.With MicrosoftвЂ™s recent acquisition of Xamarin, it is likely to become a better supported, integrated and essential part of a cross-platform strategy for Microsoft and developers.In 2014, Xamarin introduced Xamarin Forms (XF). Using Xamarin, developers can target Android, iOS and Windows (Mobile) 10, using a single industry standard language, C#. Thanks to all of SitePointвЂ™s peer reviewers for making SitePoint content the best it can be!Xamarin aims to provide a solution to allow companies and developers develop natively and cross-platform.

Should I Use Xamarin Forms or Xamarin?Xamarin maps 100% of the APIs of iOS and Android. The disadvantages are that you dependent on another layer of abstraction which could introduce bugs and issues dependent on Xamarin to fix whenever a new version of a platform is available for developers. Should I Use Xamarin or Native?The advantage to using Xamarin is the ability to share code between different platforms whilst harnessing the power of C# features and frameworks such as Async-Await, LINQ and Reactive Extensions. Developers with a background in XAML related technologies, such as WPF (used to develop Windows desktop applications) or Windows Phone / Windows Store applications, will feel at home, since many of the concepts are similar. Using this approach, applications get a native user experience, controls and patterns familiar to their users.XAML makes the creation of the UI declarative and succinct in comparison to creating the UI by code, but itвЂ™s not required to get started. XF renders those instructions into platform-specific code and user experiences.

Xamarin Emulator Android Free Xamarin Starter

Note that Xamarin Forms is not offered with the free Xamarin Starter Edition. Xamarin offers a trial period and I urge you to use it to follow this tutorial. To use Xamarin, you need to acquire a license. If your application is a complex, you should consider if Xamarin Forms is right for your needs.Now that the context is set, letвЂ™s jump into coding your first XF application.ThereвЂ™s a small issue to get out of the way. With Xamarin Forms the extra abstraction layer hinders your ability to get pixel perfect design implementation and there is a slight hit on performance (especially on Android, which Xamarin are rigorously improving).

Xamarin Emulator Android Mac And Host

Under templates, locate the Visual C# node and select the Cross-Platform option. The final project you will be creating is available on GitHub.In Visual Studio 2015, create a new project via the File Menu. Another option is to use a Mac and host Windows in a virtual machine.In this tutorial IвЂ™m going to use Visual Studio, but Xamarin Studio will allow you to complete the same steps, as I am not using any Visual Studio specific features.Download Xamarin and install it. Apple requires a Mac to build iOS applications, and Microsoft requires a machine running Windows to build for its platforms.To help, Xamarin provides a build agent that you can install on a Mac machine and use to build iOS applications on a Windows machine.

This is out of scope of this tutorial.Select Blank App (Xamarin.Forms Portable), which will create a solution consisting of 4 projects, one per platform and a PCL library which can be referenced from all these platform specific projects. UI Test App (Xamarin.UITest / Cross вЂ“ Platform) вЂ“ This template will create a project using XamarinвЂ™s UI automated testing feature. Class Library (Xamarin.Forms) вЂ“ This template will create a class library which can be referenced from any Xamarin.Forms project. I will discuss the differences below. Blank App (Xamarin.Forms Portable / Xamarin.Forms Shared) вЂ“ These templates will create two flavors of a Xamarin Forms solution. These project types are out of scope for this tutorial.

Xamarin Emulator Android Portable Class Library

Using the Shared option you are most likely to use macros to define code that is platform specific. While both options are viable, PCL makes it easier to develop and keep your code cleaner. The compiler will enforce usage of types that are common for every member of the PCL configuration.If possible, always use the portable option. A PCL can be referenced from each project. All items are considered part of the platform specific projects, creating a single point where changes have an effect over the rest of the projects.When using the Portable option, Visual Studio creates a project for each platform and a portable class library (PCL).

For this tutorial you will create the following application:The application has two separate pages and the built-in NavigationPage will be used to navigate between them. Creating an ApplicationYou are now ready to start coding your first application with XF. MainPage is a property of the App object, created when the application starts and is the root object of any Xamarin Forms application.I will not be discussing the generated code in the platform specific projects, this will be covered in future platform specific tutorials. Microsoft also provides an Android emulator and there is the unrecommended Android emulator provided by the Android Toolkit installation.Found in the PCL project, App.cs contains the current output code :The Text and HorizontalTextAlighnment properties horizontally center the text with the value Welcome to Xamarin Forms!. Xamarin provides an Android emulator as a separate download. Xamarin.Forms is installed into the solution via nuget, and this allows the Xamarin.Forms team to release updates on a regular basis.When running on Windows, starting the Windows specific project should be the easiest, but setting up the Android project is more complex and requires setting up a physical device or emulator.

But first you need to define the article object. To keep things simple the list of articles is hard coded into the app, as performing HTTP operations is beyond the scope of this tutorial.Start by adding a Model layer into the application.The Model layer will contain the list of articles displayed in the list. The NavigationPage will allow a user to navigate back to the list of articles. Clicking on a list item will navigate to a page containing a WebView control that displays the contents of the article.