4. Plugins, Templates, Libraries, and Files | Learning Xamarin studio

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Table Of Contents

Learning Xamarin studio

By : William Smith

4 (3)

Learning Xamarin studio

4 (3)

By: William Smith

Overview of this book

This book is intended for .NET developers with any level of experience and who are interested in building native applications without the hassle of becoming Objective-C or Java experts. Although it will be beneficial to have some development experience, particularly in .NET, Learning Xamarin help even a novice developer get past the headaches of setting up and customizing their new development environment so they can move on to producing high-quality native applications quickly.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Installing and Setting Up Xamarin Studio

1. Installing and Setting Up Xamarin Studio

Xamarin Studio pricing plans

Xamarin Studio platform options

Installing development components

Installing Xcode and the iOS SDK

Installing Xamarin Studio

Apple Developer Program

Google Play Developer Program

Setting up simulators and emulators

Improving AVD performance

Setting up test devices

Setting up source control

Additional resources for cross-platform developers

Summary

2. Learning and Customizing the XS Environment

2. Learning and Customizing the XS Environment

The Xamarin Studio IDE

Creating your first iOS application

Creating your first Android application

The Solution pad

Design pads

Information pads

Application, File, and Edit menus

View and Search menus

The Project menu

Build and Run menus

The Version Control menu

Tools, Window, and Help menus

Solution Options

Project Options

Environment preferences

Summary

3. Working with Xcode and the Android SDK

3. Working with Xcode and the Android SDK

Introduction to Xcode

Outlets and Actions

Adding a ViewController to our project

XIB, NIB, DESIGNER, and STORYBOARD files

Xamarin Studio Designer for iOS

Creating a storyboard in Xamarin Studio

Android SDK Manager

Xamarin Studio Designer for Android

Creating a Layout in Xamarin Studio

Summary

4. Plugins, Templates, Libraries, and Files

4. Plugins, Templates, Libraries, and Files

Installing the Visual Studio plugin

Creating an iPhone application in Visual Studio

Project templates

Libraries

Files

Summary

5. Working with Xamarin.Forms

5. Working with Xamarin.Forms

Requirements for using Xamarin.Forms

The Xamarin.Forms project templates

The components of Xamarin.Forms

The API design

The XAML design

Summary

6. Application Lifecycle

6. Application Lifecycle

The iOS application lifecycle

UIViewController lifecycle methods

The Android application lifecycle

The background state

Summary

7. Testing and Debugging

7. Testing and Debugging

The Xamarin debugger

Unit tests

Creating a unit test project

Simulators

Testing in an iOS simulator

Testing in an Android emulator

Device testing

TestFlight

Instruments

Device Monitor

Logs

Other testing considerations

Summary

8. Deployment

8. Deployment

Deploying iOS applications

Deploying Mac applications

Deploying Android applications

Summary

A. Images and Graphics Tables

A. Images and Graphics Tables

iOS application icons

iOS 3.5-inch Retina display screenshots

iOS 4-inch Retina display screenshots

iOS iPad screenshots

Mac OS X app screenshots

Android application icons

Android screenshots

Index

Index

Installing the Visual Studio plugin

Xamarin offers a series of plugins to develop iOS and Android applications from within Visual Studio. These plugins allow you to develop apps for iOS, Android, and Windows, all while taking advantage of the tools you're already familiar with. Moreover, you can run Visual Studio inside a Virtual Machine (VM) on your Mac, so you don't even need a second development machine.

In order to take advantage of the Visual Studio plugins, you first need a Business or Enterprise subscription to Xamarin as well as a copy of Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher. For Xamarin.iOS developers, you will also need a networked Mac to act as a build machine because Windows machines can't compile to native iOS code. Additionally, at the time of writing this, whenever you need to work with XIBs you will need to transfer your solution to the Mac and open it from Xamarin.

Since the Visual Studio plugin still requires a Mac for development, you might ask yourself whether there...

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