introduction to xamarin.forms 2.x

Craig Dunn@conceptdev

Xamarin.Forms 2.x

Why Xamarin?

Thousands of iOS and Android APIs

Public web APIs

Backend integrations

Third party libraries

Memory, CPU and network constraints

App Complexity

Write Everything in C#C# Now Runs on 2.6+ Billion

Devices

“With Xamarin, developers combine all of the productivity benefits of C#, Visual Studio and Windows Azure with the flexibility to quickly build for multiple device targets.”

Microsoft and Xamarin

S. Somasegar, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

Anything you can do in Objective-C, Swift, or Javacan be done in C# and Visual Studio with Xamarin.

Native Performance

Xamarin.iOS does full Ahead Of Time (AOT) compilation to produce an ARM binary for Apple’s App Store.

Xamarin.Android takes advantage of Just In Time (JIT) compilation on the Android device.

Xamarin’s Unique Approach

Shared C# codebase • 100% native API access • High performance

iOS C# UI

Windows C# UIAndroid C# UI

Shared C# Mobile

C# Server

Linux/MonoCoreCLRAzure

Shared C# Client/Server

Code SharingStatsMac

iOS

Android

Windows Phone

iCircuit

Touch Draw

86%

14%

72%

28%

70%

30%

61%

39%

88%

12%

76%

24%

90%

10%

Build native UIs for iOS, Android, Windows, and Windows Phone from a single, shared C# codebase.

Meet Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin + Xamarin.Forms

Traditional Xamarin Approach

With Xamarin.Forms:More code-sharing, all

native

iOS C# UI Windows C#

UIAndroid C# UI

Shared C# Backend

Shared UI Code

Shared C# Backend

What’s included ✓ 40+ Pages, layouts, and controls (Build from code behind or XAML)✓ Two-way data binding✓ Navigation✓ Animation API✓ Dependency Service✓ Messaging Center✓ Effects✓ Templating✓ Windows 10 (UWP) and more to come…

Shared C# Backend

Shared UI Code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><TabbedPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml" x:Class="MyApp.MainPage"><TabbedPage.Children><ContentPage Title="Profile" Icon="Profile.png"> <StackLayout Spacing="20" Padding="20" VerticalOptions="Center"> <Entry Placeholder="Username" Text="{Binding Username}"/> <Entry Placeholder="Password" Text="{Binding Password}" IsPassword="true"/> <Button Text="Login" TextColor="White" BackgroundColor="#77D065" Command="{Binding LoginCommand}"/> </StackLayout></ContentPage><ContentPage Title="Settings" Icon="Settings.png"> </ContentPage></TabbedPage.Children>

Native UI from shared code

Layouts

Pages

Stack Absolute Relative Grid ContentView

ScrollView

Frame

Content MasterDetail

Navigation

Tabbed Carousel

ActivityIndicator BoxView Button DatePicker Editor

Entry Image Label ListView Map

OpenGLView Picker ProgressBar SearchBar Slider

Stepper TableView TimePicker WebView EntryCell

ImageCell SwitchCell TextCell ViewCell

Controls

Other open-source librariesCocosSharp – game engineUrhoSharp – 3D graphics, 2D graphics, & gamesSkiaSharp – 2D graphics

Xamarin.Forms Ecosystem

Xamarin.Forms 2.x

Xamarin.Forms 2.0

✓ XAML compilation✓ Android AppCompat✓ ListViewCachingStrategy✓ PanGestureRecognizer

joins Tap and Pinch ✓ Windows 10 (UWP) Preview in addition to WinRT

XAML Compilation

✓ Surface mark up errors at compile time✓ Improves performance✓ Opt-in (may change)

[assembly:XamlCompilation (XamlCompilationOptions.Compile)]

https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/xamarin-forms/platform-features/android/appcompat/

Android AppCompat

ListViewCachingStrategy

✓ Improves scrolling performance✓ Old behaviour is currently the default (but likely to change)

Windows Support✓ WinRT APIs for Windows Phone 8.1✓ WinRT APIs for Windows 8.1✓ Universal Windows Platform for Windows 10

X Windows Phone 8 (Silverlight) will be deprecated

Xamarin.Forms 2.1✓ Control Templates✓ DataTemplateSelector✓ Effects

X BindableProperty.Create<TDeclarer,TPropertyType> has been deprecated

Control Templates I

Control Templates II

Data Templates

Effects I✓ Custom renderer “lite”✓ Change properties on the native control✓ Optional✓ “stringly-typed”

X No methods or eventsX No replacing the control

Effects IIentry.Effects.Add (Effect.Resolve ("Xamarin.BorderEffect"));

Xamarin.Forms vNext

Xamarin – Your Complete Mobile Solution

DESIGN – DEVELOP - INTEGRATE

TEST MONITOR

LEARN

Get Started Todayxamarin.com

Thank You! Questions?Craig Dunn

[email protected]

conceptdev.blogspot.com

@conceptdev

introduction to xamarin.forms 2.x

Software