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)

Creating Hello World in Xamarin.Forms

To understand how a Xamarin.Forms application is put together, let's begin by creating a simple Hello World application.

Open Xamarin Studio and perform the following steps:

  1. Create a new Multiplatform | App | Forms App project from the new solution dialog.
  2. Name your solution something appropriate, such as HelloForms.
  3. Make sure Use Portable Class Library is selected.
  4. Click Next, then click Create.

Notice the three new projects that were successfully created:

  • HelloForms
  • HelloForms.Android
  • HelloForms.iOS

In Xamarin.Forms applications, the bulk of your code will be shared, and each platform-specific project is just a small amount of code that starts up the Xamarin.Forms framework.

Let's examine the minimum parts of a Xamarin.Forms application:

  • App.xaml and App.xaml.cs in the HelloForms PCL library -- this class is the main starting point of the Xamarin.Forms application. A simple property, MainPage, is set to the first page in the application. In the default...