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.

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Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Conventions used
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
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
Summary
2
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
Summary
3
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
Summary
4
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
Summary
5
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
Summary
6
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
Summary
7
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
Summary
8
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
Summary
9
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
Summary
10
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
Summary
11
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
Summary
12
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
Summary
13
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
Summary
14
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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To get the most out of this book

The minimum requirement for this book is an Intel-based Macintosh computer running macOS High Sierra 10.13. We will be using Visual Studio Community 2017, which is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used for creating Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms applications using C# 7, as well as Xcode 9.4.1 to compile our iOS app and run it within the simulator.

Almost all the projects that you create with the help of this book will work and run on the iOS simulator. However, some projects will require an actual iOS or Android device to work correctly. You can download the latest versions of Visual Studio Community 2017 and Xcode from here:

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

  1. Log in or register to our website using your e-mail address and password.
  2. Hover the mouse pointer on the SUPPORT tab at the top.
  3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
  4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box.
  5. Select the book for which you're looking to download the code files.
  6. Choose from the drop-down menu where you purchased this book from.
  7. Click on Code Download.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

  • WinRAR / 7-Zip for Windows
  • Zipeg / iZip / UnRarX for Mac
  • 7-Zip / PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-Xamarin-UI-Development-Second-Edition. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

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