Microsoft Xamarin

What  is  Xamarin ?

Xamarin is a tool which used to develop the cross platform. It mishap the problems that face by developers when developing the cross platform apps.

The main problems faces by developers with out cross platforms are:

Different user interface paradigms

In these days there are two major phones and tabs platform dominate phones and iPads which are run in ios operating system and varieties of phone and tabs which are run on android operating system. There is another mobile platform which not so popular as ios and android that is Microsoft’s Windows  phones. Now a day’s Software developer’s optimum strategy is to develop in more than one platform. But due to different user interface paradigms it becomes difficult. Navigation throughout the application and pages, different ways of presenting data ,different ways of displaying menu are different in each mobile platforms.

Different development environment

Their different IDE for all these mobile platforms and there are different from each other. Xcode on Mac for develop the ios ,  Android  studio for develop the android , Visual studio for develop the windows.

Different programming interface

In many cases, the three platforms all implement similar types of user-interface objects but with different names.

Different programming languages

Programmers have some kind of flexibility to chosen the programming language to three platforms. But in generally each platform is closely associated with particular programming language. Objective C for ios, Java for android , C # for windows.

Due to Xamarin overcome those problems Xamarin become the most suitable tool for developing the mobile apps. In here you can use C# for ios,Android, Universal Windows apps. And interface design for all three platforms can be accomplished within the XAML based framework in Xamarin forms.

Why  is  Xamarin ?

Native Application

Native design is preferred solution for any application.Xamarine studio enables the code completion in C#. It provide the advantages of native UI  and  access to specific device features .Code sharing across platform is a breeze with Xamarin and it shorten the development cycle.

Easy collaboration and sharing the app logic

This is one main reason why Xamarin become must use cross platform development tool for developing the mobile apps. Application logic underlying the UI layer, like input validation, web service calls , database interaction  and back-end enterprise integrations are coded once in C#. 75% of code can be shared across various operating systems. This saves the time.

Seamless API Integration Capability

In here code can be shared between ios , Android  and Windows using Portable Class Libraries(PCL)and appropriate application architecture with Xamarin . Their unique binding technology enables them to provide support for new features soon after they introduce in the device’s operating system.

Xamarin Component Store

Developers can choose from host of free or paid components which include UI controls, cross platforms libraries, and third party web services to apps with just a few lines of code. The component Store is built right into Xamarin studio and Xamarin’s Visual Studio extension.


Read More About Xamarin

Why Xamarin.Forms is more better than Xamarin?

Xamarin

• Create one UI per  platforms.
• Cross platform development process is much slower.
• Need to learn all native UI frameworks.
• Having duplicate codes.

Xamarin.Forms 

• Create one UI for all platforms.
• Cross platform development process is  fast.
• No need to learn all native UI frameworks.
• Use basic components which are available in platforms.

Due to these reason using Xamarine.Forms rather than using Xamarin is more effective in developments.

Introducing Xamarin.forms

Xamarin introduce Xamarin.forms which allows you to write user-interface code that can be compiled in iOS, Android  and Windows platforms.

Xamarin.forms Supports five distinct platforms :

· iOS for programs that run on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

· Android for programs that run on Android phones and tablets.

· The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) for applications that runs under Windows 10 or Windows 10 Mobile.

· The Windows Runtime API of Windows 8.1

· The Windows Runtime API of Windows Phone 8.1

Generally Xamarin.forms  application in Visual Studio consists of five projects for each of five platforms there is another project which contain common code. But the five of these platforms are typically quite it consists just little startup code.

The PCL (Portable Class Library) or SAP(Shared Asset Project ) consist of bulk of application including the user-interface  code.

Xamarine.Forms.Core and  Xamarin.Forms.Xaml libraries implement the Xamarin . Forms API. Depending on the platform, Xamarin.Forms. Core then makes use of one of the Xamarin.Forms.Platform libraries. These libraries are mostly a collection of classes called renders that transform the Xamarin.Forms user-interface objects into the platform-specific user interface

Development  Environment of Xamarin.

Machines and related IDEs

If you’re going to develop in iPhones you need a Mac for this Purpose and after that you want to install Xcode in Mac and, of course, the Xamarin platform that includes the necessary libraries and Xamarin Studio. You can use Xamarine studio and Xamarin.Forms in development of iOS application in Mac.

Once you install the Xcode and Xamarin platform in Mac you can also installed Xamarine platform to the PC and programe to the iPhones using Visual Studio.

The PC and Mac should be connected through a network (Like Wi-Fi). Visual –Studio Communicate with Mac through a Secure Shell interface and use Mac to build the application and run the program.

Android programming also can be done in both Xamarin Studio on Mac or Visual Studio on PC.

When you installing Visual Studio 2015 > Custom > Select all following parts

If you want to target the Windows platforms, you’ll need Visual Studio 2015. You can target all the platforms in a single IDE by running Visual Studio 2015 on a PC connected to the Mac via a network.   

Devices and Emulators

In here we have capability to test our application on real phone connected to the machine using USB cable or can test the application through the emulator in the screen.

There are advantages and disadvantages in these testing methods. Emulator give us a idea about the size of  application and hoe the different forms are formed and a real phone testing is needed to check the complex touch interaction or response time.

When we consider the Mac those machines do not have the touch gesture, so you have to use mouse to simulate the touch. You also can connect a real iPhone to the device and check but you want to make it as a developer device.

Android emulators supplied by Google have tended to be slow and cranky, although they are often extremely versatile in emulating a vast array of actual Android devices. Fortunately,  Visual Studio now has its own Android emulator that works rather better. It’s also very easy to connect a real Android phone to either a Mac or PC for testing. All you really need do is enable USB Debugging on the device.

The Windows Phone emulators are capable of several different screen resolutions and also tend to run fairly smoothly, albeit consuming lots of memory. If you run the Windows Phone emulator on a touchscreen, you can use touch on the emulator screen. Connecting a real Windows Phone to the PC is fairly easy but requires enabling the phone in the Settings section for developing. If you want to unlock more than one phone, you’ll need a developer account. 

Installation

Before you writing the application Xamarin.forms you have to install the Xamarin platform to Mac , PC or both. After installing the platform your eager to create the application but before that you have to try to creating Xamarin projects for the ios , Android and Windows.

If you experience problem in iOS Xamarin, Xamarin Android and Xamarin Windows that is a not a problem of Xamarin.Forms before using the Xamarine.Forms  you have to solve that Problem.

Xamarin for MAC & Windows <<  (Click here)

Creating an iOS app

If you’re using Visual Studio, and if everything is installed correctly, you should be able to select

File > New > Project from the menu, and in the New Project dialog, from the left, select Visual C# and iOS and then Universal (which refers to targeting both iPhone and iPad), and from the template list in the center, select Blank App (iOS).

If you’re using Xamarin Studio, you should be able to select File > New > Solution from the menu, and in the New Project dialog, from the left, select iOS and then App, and from the template list in the center, select Single View App.

Creating an Android app

If you’re using Visual Studio, and if everything is installed correctly, you should be able to 

Select File > New > Project from the menu, and in the New Project dialog, from the left, select Visual C# and then Android, and from the template list in the center, select Blank App (Android).

If you’re using Xamarin Studio, you should be able to select File > New > Solution from the menu, and in the New Project dialog, from the left, select Android and App, and in the template list in the center, select Android App.

Give it a location and a name; build and deploy. If you can’t get this process to work, it’s not a Xamarin.Forms issue, and you might want to check the Xamarin.Android forums for a similar problem.

Creating a Windows App

In Visual Studio 2015, if everything is installed correctly, you should be able 

Select File > New > Project from the menu, and in the New Project dialog, at the left, select Visual C# and Windows.

Start Development using Xamarin.Forms