Book Image

Xamarin 4.x Cross-Platform Application Development - Third Edition

By : Peppers
Book Image

Xamarin 4.x Cross-Platform Application Development - Third Edition

By: Peppers

Overview of this book

Xamarin is a leading cross-platform application development tool used by top companies such as Coca-Cola, Honeywell, and Alaska Airlines to build apps. Version 4 features significant updates to the platform including the release of Xamarin.Forms 2.0 and improvements have been made to the iOS and Android designers. Xamarin was acquired by Microsoft so it is now a part of the Visual Studio family. This book will show you how to build applications for iOS, Android, and Windows. You will be walked through the process of creating an application that comes complete with a back-end web service and native features such as GPS location, camera, push notifications, and other core features. Additionally, you’ll learn how to use external libraries with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms to create user interfaces. This book also provides instructions for Visual Studio and Windows. This edition has been updated with new screenshots and detailed steps to provide you with a holistic overview of the new features in Xamarin 4.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Connecting Visual Studio to a Mac for iOS development

iOS development requires Xcode running on Mac OS X. Luckily, Xamarin has made remote development possible from a Windows PC.

To connect your PC to a Mac:

  1. First open or create a Xamarin.iOS project.
  2. Visual Studio will automatically prompt Xamarin Mac Agent Instructions.
  3. Follow the detailed instructions and screenshots in Visual Studio to enable remote login on your Mac.
  4. A Xamarin Mac Agent dialog should appear with your Mac's address listed.
  5. Click Connect... and enter your username and password for your Mac.

When connected, you should see something like the following screenshot:

Connecting Visual Studio to a Mac for iOS development

Once connected, you can simply press the play button to debug your project against the iOS simulator or an iOS device of your choice. All the features in Visual Studio you expect will also work with iOS development: break points, mouse-over evaluation, add watch, and so on.