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

Introduction


Even the greatest of apps will have no value if nobody can use them. All apps get their true value through the fact that they help users to perform a task. Great apps are a delight to use and provide the functionality to perform a task well. However, if no user has access to the app, the app is pointless.

The process of publishing an app on an app store is not just a matter of uploading the package for the users to download. Publishing involves adding polish to the finer, and not necessarily functional or even directly related, areas of the app.

An app can provide all the functionality to perform a task well. It can run well on the user's device. But, if the app only supports a single language or a single type of device, the app is actually very limited. Not all users speak the same language, and not all users use the same device. Android is one of the most popular operating systems because it runs on millions of different devices, and users expect the app to both look great and...