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)

Introducing the Android Manifest


All Android applications have an XML file called the Android Manifest, which declares basic information about the app, and is named AndroidManifest.xml. This is very similar to the Info.plist file on iOS, except Xamarin also provides C# class attributes for placing common settings in the Android manifest. There is also a nice UI for editing the manifest under Project Options | Android Application.

The most important settings, shown in the following screenshot, are as follows:

  • Application name: This is the title of your application, which is displayed below the icon. It is not the same as the name selected on Google Play.

  • Package name: This is just like on iOS, your app's bundle identifier. It is a unique name to identify your application. The convention is to use the reverse domain style with your company name at the beginning; for example, com.jonathanpeppers.xamsnap. It must begin with a lower case letter and contain at least one character within.

  • Application...