Book Image

Xamarin: Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development

By : George Taskos, Jonathan Peppers, Can Bilgin
Book Image

Xamarin: Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development

By: George Taskos, Jonathan Peppers, Can Bilgin

Overview of this book

Developing a mobile application for just one platform is becoming a thing of the past. Companies expect their apps to be supported on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, while leveraging the best native features on all three platforms. The primary goal of this course is to equip you with the knowledge to successfully analyze, develop, and manage Xamarin cross-platform projects using the most efficient, robust, and scalable implementation patterns. Module 1 is a step-by-step guide to building real-world applications for iOS and Android. The module walks you through building a chat application, complete with a backend web service and native features such as GPS location, camera, and push notifications. Additionally, you'll learn how to use external libraries with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms. Module 2 provide you recipes on how to create an architecture that will be maintainable, extendable, use Xamarin.Forms plugins to boost productivity. We start with a simple creation of a Xamarin.Forms solution, customize the style and behavior of views for each platform. Further on, we demonstrate the power of architecting a cross-platform solution. Next, you will utilize and access hardware features that vary from platform to platform with cross-platform techniques. In the last and the final Module, you will learn about essential tools to leverage the pattern and advanced implementation strategies. We'll show you the toolset for application lifecycle management to help you prepare the development pipeline to manage and see cross-platform projects through to public or private release. After the completion of this course, you will learn a path that will get you up and running with developing cross-platform mobile applications and help you become the go-to person when it comes to Xamarin. This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: ?Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development - Second Edition by Jonathan Peppers ?Xamarin Cross-Platform Development Cookbook by George Taskos ?Mastering Cross-Platform Development with Xamarin by Can Bilgin
Table of Contents (6 chapters)

Chapter 5. Networking

In this chapter, we will take a detailed look at the networking capabilities of Xamarin applications and various service integration scenarios. The chapter also includes real-world examples on how to use local storage for data caching on connected app scenarios. It is divided into the following sections:

  • Connected apps
  • Web services
  • Push notifications
  • SignalR
  • Patterns and best practices
  • Platform-specific concepts
  • Cloud integration

Connected apps

Mobile applications by definition should be as lightweight and resource-efficient as possible. You cannot expect to package media and other content into the application and then distribute the app or create an extravagant size of storage for user data, especially with applications whose main purpose is to provide user access to related content or store and manipulate the data.

For instance, while dealing with cross-platform projects, one of the easiest ways to create unified business logic and storage is to create a web service...