Book Image

Xamarin Mobile Development for Android Cookbook

By : Matthew Leibowitz
Book Image

Xamarin Mobile Development for Android Cookbook

By: Matthew Leibowitz

Overview of this book

Xamarin is used by developers to write native iOS, Android, and Windows apps with native user interfaces and share code across multiple platforms not just on mobile devices, but on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Developing apps with Xamarin.Android allows you to use and re-use your code and your skills on different platforms, making you more productive in any development. Although it’s not a write-once-run-anywhere framework, Xamarin provides native platform integration and optimizations. There is no middleware; Xamarin.Android talks directly to the system, taking your C# and F# code directly to the low levels. This book will provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to be part of the mobile development era using C#. Covering a wide range of recipes such as creating a simple application and using device features effectively, it will be your companion to the complete application development cycle. Starting with installing the necessary tools, you will be guided on everything you need to develop an application ready to be deployed. You will learn the best practices for interacting with the device hardware, such as GPS, NFC, and Bluetooth. Furthermore, you will be able to manage multimedia resources such as photos and videos captured with the device camera, and so much more! By the end of this book, you will be able to create Android apps as a result of learning and implementing pro-level practices, techniques, and solutions. This book will ascertain a seamless and successful app building experience.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Xamarin Mobile Development for Android Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Using custom views with layouts


One of the most important parts is the user interface, as it is the most visible part of an app. When we create apps for Android devices, sometimes we may need to create custom views.

How to do it...

Creating a new UI control involves creating a new type, inheriting either directly or indirectly from one of the View types. Here's how it's done:

  1. If we want to create more advanced button control, we must create a new type inheriting from the Button type. We also need to ensure that the namespace is user friendly as it will be used in the layout files:

    namespace XamarinCookbook.Views {
      public class TimedButton : Button {
      }
    }
  2. Now we can implement the functionality that this button provides:

    public int Interval { get; set; }
    
    private async void OnClicked(object sender, EventArgs e) {
      // disable the button for several seconds
      if (Interval > 0) {
        Enabled = false;
        await Task.Delay(Interval * 1000);
        Enabled = true;
      }
    }
  3. As this control can be created...