building real world apps with xamarin.forms

www.xam-consulting.com www.michaelridland.commichael@xam-consulting.com

Building ‘real-world’ apps

with Xamarin.Forms

michael@xam-consulting.com www.xam-consulting.com www.michaelridland.com

Michael Ridland

Xamarin Consultant / Founder

@ Xam Consulting (xam-consulting.com)

Xamarin Specialists - We work with Xamarin

all day and night.

Developed Apps WITHOUT Xamarin.Forms

Developed Apps WITH Xamarin.Forms

My experiences and tips.

Good Parts

Fast and Easy (Generally)

good features/extensibility points - custom renderers,

message centre etc.

Anything you can do in a Native app you can do in

Xamarin.Forms

Not Good Parts

At the moment it still stuffers from common denominator. e.g.

Save and Cancel are different on Android, iOS and WP.

The coverage of UI elements isn’t huge

Tiny Cuts - No Bordering, Padding, Radius, ToolBarButtons only

on rightside, Only TapGestureRegonizers, Picker not databound

Missing extensibility points, when tapping into Framework (unless

you do a fully custom page/viewcontroller)

Tip - Don’t fight the Framework

‘I want Cancel here because that’s how I do it in iOS’…

‘I want swipe cell because that’s how I do it in iOS’…

If you use Xamarin.Forms, try not to bring in pre conceptions of how you

want your UI to be. You can build nice UI’s with Xamarin.Forms but you

just need to be within it’s constraints and no swipe cells.

33,000

BIG? 40,000 (Forms)4,000+

It’s 3-10 times more expensive

but you can still do anything that you can do in Native

Tip - Style with StackLayout and BoxView

Tip - Prototype

• Prototype your app in Xamarin.Forms.. see if it’s going to work…

• Traditional Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android is still great if you want a

amazing experience on all platforms.

Tip - MessagingCentre

• Publish/Subscribe

• Great for communicating between different parts of app, especially

between the Forms API and Native API

• Don’t overdo it (can be abused like a goto statement)

Tip - Device.StartTimer

Tip - Bindable Property Code Template

public static readonly BindableProperty $Name$Property

= BindableProperty.Create<$owner$, $type$>(p => p.$Name$, default($type$));

public $type$ $Name$ {

get { return ($type$)GetValue($Name$Property); }

set { SetValue($Name$Property, value); }

Tip - Use a Mvvm

Preferable one with a Convention over Configuration.

Tip - Layer Views using AbsoluteLayout

Tip - Easy dialogs with Acr-Xamarin-Forms

Easily add Alerts/Prompts/Loading Dialogs using Acr

(https://github.com/aritchie/acr-xamarin-forms)

- It’s in nuget

Tip - Fill the gaps with Xamarin.Forms.Labs

What else is there?

- More UI elements

- HybridWebView can be useful when used with Razor!

- INetwork service get the InternetConnectionStatus (WIFI)?

- Photo library/take a photo

- Extended TextFields - Fonts and Border properties

- + More

Labs Demo

Warning - Don’t try labs on your first day.

Warning 2 - It can be broken and part implemented

Tip - Use the Source

Xamarin.Forms Source (Can use Assembly browser in XS)

XLabs Source

* The #1 documentation for Custom Renderers!

Yes! (Probably)

There’s some sucky parts, but it’s still better than every other option.

Should I use Xamarin.Forms?

Tip - Hire Me ;) - www.michaelridland.com

All your pain goes away ….

Live Coding - Rolling your own Mvvm

Michael Ridland

michael@xam-consulting.com

www.michaelridland.com

building real world apps with xamarin.forms

source code

shared code

native apps

xam consulting xamconsulting

website stuffdeveloped

swipe cells

website stuffmy experiences

good partsat

Mobile

animações com xamarin.forms

introduction to xamarin.forms

xamarin.forms: native ios, android, and windows phone apps

tenxer apps llc mobile apps for real estate agents

2 xamarin.forms

navigation in xamarin.forms

sqlite in xamarin.forms

introduction to xamarinany real company, organization,...

xamarin.forms [french]

building xamarin.forms mobile apps using xaml ·...

arcgis runtime sdk for .net: building apps · overview –...

extendiendo xamarin.forms

native ios, android apps using xamarin.forms ...

novedades xamarin.forms 2

real estate apps

real-time travel apps

xamarin.forms introduction

adaptando apps xamarin.forms a tabletas

diving into xamarin.forms

xamarin - microsoft · assumptions and expectations...