Book Image

Mastering Xamarin UI Development - Second Edition

By : Steven F. Daniel

Book Image

Mastering Xamarin UI Development - Second Edition

By: Steven F. Daniel

Overview of this book

This book will provide you with the knowledge and practical skills that are required to develop real-world Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms applications. You’ll learn how to create native Android app that will interact with the device camera and photo gallery, and then create a native iOS sliding tiles game. You will learn how to implement complex UI layouts and create customizable control elements based on the platform, using XAML and C# 7 code to interact with control elements within your XAML ContentPages. You’ll learn how to add location-based features by to your apps by creating a LocationService class and using the Xam.Plugin.Geolocator cross-platform library, that will be used to obtain the current device location. Next, you’ll learn how to work with and implement animations and visual effects within your UI using the PlatformEffects API, using C# code. At the end of this book, you’ll learn how to integrate Microsoft Azure App Services and use the Twitter APIs within your app. You will work with the Razor Templating Engine to build a book library HTML5 solution that will use a SQLite.net library to store, update, retrieve, and delete information within a local SQLite database. Finally, you will learn how to write unit tests using the NUnit and UITest frameworks.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Conventions used

Free Chapter

Setting Up Visual Studio for Mac

Setting Up Visual Studio for Mac

Downloading and installing Visual Studio for Mac

Exploring the Microsoft Visual Studio for Mac IDE

Understanding the Xamarin mobile platform

Creating a Xamarin project for both iOS and Android

Using and setting Breakpoints in your code

Using the Visual Studio for Mac built-in debugger

Building a PhotoLibrary App Using Android

Building a PhotoLibrary App Using Android

Creating a native Android app using Visual Studio for Mac

Creating and implementing the PhotoLibrary Activity class

Implementing Material Design in the PhotoLibrary app

Setting up camera and photo album permissions

Launching the Photo Library app using the Android emulator

Building a SlidingTiles Game Using Xamarin.iOS

Building a SlidingTiles Game Using Xamarin.iOS

Creating a native iOS app using Visual Studio for Mac

Creating the SlidingTiles user interface using Storyboards

Implementing the game logic for our SlidingTiles Game

Working with and applying animations to your app

Launching the SlidingTiles game using the iOS simulator

Creating the TrackMyWalks Native App

Creating the TrackMyWalks Native App

Creating the TrackMyWalks project solution

Creating and implementing our data model

Creating the WalksMainPage interface using XAML

Implementing the WalksMainPage code using C#

Creating the WalkEntryPage interface using XAML

Implementing the WalkEntryPage code using C#

Creating the WalkTrailInfoPage interface using XAML

Implementing the WalkTrailInfoPage code using C#

Creating the WalkDistancePage interface using XAML

Implementing the WalkDistancePage code using C#

Updating the TrackMyWalks.iOS AppDelegate

Updating the TrackMyWalks.Android MainActivity

Creating the SplashPage interface using XAML

Implementing the SplashPage code using C#

Launching TrackMyWalks using the iOS simulator

MVVM and Data Binding

MVVM and Data Binding

Understanding the MVVM architectural pattern

Creating and implementing the BaseViewModel

Creating the WalksMainPageViewModel using C#

Creating the WalkEntryPageViewModel using C#

Creating the WalkTrailInfoPageViewModel using C#

Creating the WalkDistancePageViewModel using C#

Launching the TrackMyWalks app using the iOS simulator

Navigating Within the Mvvm Model

Navigating Within the Mvvm Model

Understanding the Xamarin.Forms Navigation API

Differences between the Navigation and ViewModel approaches

Creating and implementing the NavigationService interface

Creating and implementing the NavigationService class

Updating the BaseViewModel to use the navigation service

Updating the WalksMainPageViewModel using C#

Updating the WalksMainPage code-behind using C#

Updating the WalkEntryPageViewModel using C#

Updating the WalkEntryPage code-behind using C#

Updating the WalkTrailInfoPageViewModel using C#

Updating the WalkTrailInfoPage code-behind using C#

Updating the WalkDistancePageViewModel using C#

Updating the WalkDistancePage code-behind using C#

Updating the SplashPage code-behind using C#

Updating the App.xaml class to use the navigation service

Adding Location-based Features Within Your App

Adding Location-based Features Within Your App

Creating and using platform-specific services within your app

Creating and implementing the ILocationService interface

Creating and implementing the LocationService class

Updating the WalkEntryPageViewModel using C#

Updating the WalkDistancePageViewModel using C#

Creating the CustomMapOverlay class using C#

Updating the WalkDistancePage user interface using XAML

Updating the WalkDistancePage code-behind using C#

Creating and implementing the CustomMapRenderer (iOS)

Creating and implementing the CustomMapRenderer (Android)

Enabling background location updates and permissions

Launching the TrackMyWalks app using the iOS simulator

Customizing the User Interface

Customizing the User Interface

Customizing the DataTemplate in the WalksMainPage

Applying padding and margins to XAML layouts

Creating and implementing Styles in your App

Creating and using PlatformEffects in your app

Creating and implementing ValueConverters in your app

Launching the TrackMyWalks app using the iOS simulator

Working with Animations in Xamarin.Forms

Working with Animations in Xamarin.Forms

Creating and using Simple Animations in Xamarin.Forms

Creating and using Easing Functions in Xamarin.Forms

Creating and implementing your own Custom Animations

Creating and implementing Entrance Animations

Launching the TrackMyWalks app using the iOS simulator

Working with the Razor Templating Engine

Working with the Razor Templating Engine

Understanding the Razor templating engine

Building a BookLibrary app using the Razor templating engine

Adding the SQLite-net NuGet package to our solution

Creating and implementing the BookLibraryListing page

Creating and implementing the BookLibraryAddEdit page

Updating the Book Library cascading style sheet (CSS)

Updating the WebViewController class using C#

Launching the BookLibrary app using the iOS simulator

Incorporating Microsoft Azure App Services

Incorporating Microsoft Azure App Services

Understanding the Microsoft Azure App services platform

Setting up and configuring Microsoft Azure App services

Adding the Newtonsoft.Json NuGet package to our solution

Updating the WalkDataModel for our TrackMyWalks app

Creating and implementing the RestWebService interface

Creating and implementing the RestWebService class

Updating the BaseViewModel class to include our RestWebService

Updating the WalksMainPage code-behind using C#

Updating the WalkEntryPage user interface using XAML

Launching the TrackMyWalks app using the iOS simulator

Making Our App Social Using the Twitter API

Making Our App Social Using the Twitter API

Creating and registering the TrackMyWalks app with the Twitter Developer Portal

Creating and implementing the TwitterAuthDetails class

Creating and implementing the TwitterWebService interface

Creating and implementing the TwitterWebService class

Creating and implementing the TwitterSignInPageViewModel using C#

Creating and implementing the user interface for the TwitterSignInPage

Creating and implementing the TwitterSignInPageRenderer (iOS)

Updating the WalksMainPage code-behind using C#

Updating the WalkDistancePage user unterface using XAML

Registering the TwitterSignInPage within the App.xaml class

Launching the TrackMyWalks app using the iOS simulator

Unit Testing Your Xamarin.Forms Apps

Unit Testing Your Xamarin.Forms Apps

Creating the Unit Testing project within the TrackMyWalks solution

Running unit tests within the Visual Studio for Mac IDE

Creating a UITest project within the TrackMyWalks solution

Updating the WalksMainPage code-behind using C#

Adding the Xamarin.Test Cloud.Agent NuGet package

Running UITests within the Visual Studio for Mac IDE

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Downloading and installing Visual Studio for Mac

In this section, we will take a look at how to download and install Microsoft Visual Studio for Mac as well as the Xamarin Platform SDKs for both the iOS and Android platforms.

Installing Visual Studio for Mac and Xamarin

Before we can begin developing applications for the Xamarin platform, we will need to download Visual Studio for Mac. Simply follow these steps:

Open your browser and type in https://www.visualstudio.com/.
Next, hover your mouse cursor over the Download for Mac button and click on the Community 2017 for Mac menu option to proceed:

Downloading Visual Studio Community 2017 for Mac

Next, once the Visual Studio for Mac installer has been downloaded, double-click on it to display Visual Studio for Mac – Installation.

Then, click on the Continue button to proceed to the next step in the wizard, which can be seen in the following screenshot:

Visual Studio for Mac - Installation

Next, ensure that the checkboxes for Android, iOS, and macOS, as well as .NET Core, have been selected under the Platforms group and ensure that the checkbox for Xamarin Workbooks & Inspector has been selected under the Tools group, which can be seen in the following screenshot:

Choosing Visual Studio for Mac Platform Components

Next, click on the Install and Update button to proceed to the next step in the wizard and begin installing the Visual Studio for Mac IDE along with the Xamarin platform SDK and tools, which can be seen in the following screenshot:

Visual Studio for Mac Downloading Components

Finally, Visual Studio for Mac - installation will proceed to download and begin installing the Microsoft Visual Studio for Mac IDE, as well as downloading the components for the platforms that you have selected.

Now that you have installed the Microsoft Visual Studio for Mac IDE and the Xamarin Platform SDK, as well as the tools for both the iOS and Android platforms, our next step is to explore some of the features of the Visual Studio for Mac IDE, which we will be covering in the next section.