Deep Dive in Xamarin.Forms

JamesMontemagnoDeveloper Evangelist, Xamarin

james@xamarin.com http://motzcod.es @JamesMontemagno

DESIGN – DEVELOP -‐ INTEGRATE TEST MONITOR

LEARN

Native User Interfaces Native API Access Native Performance

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-John Gruber

http://daringfireball.net/2015/05/facebook_instant_articles

iOS WindowsAndroid

Objective-CXcode

C#Visual Studio

JavaAndroid Studio

No shared code • Many languages & development environments • Multiple teams

App Generator

LuaJavascript

ActionscriptHTML+CSS

Limited native API access • Slow performance • Poor user experience

Shared C# codebase • 100% native API access • High performance

iOS C# UI Windows C# UIAndroid C# UI

Shared C# Mobile

Shared F# codebase • 100% native API access • High performance

iOS F# UI Windows F# UIAndroid F# UI

Shared F# Mobile

Microsoft.Phone Microsoft.Networking Windows.Storage Windows.Foundation Microsoft.Devices

System.Data System.Windows System.Numerics System.Core System.ServiceModel

System.Net System System.IO System.Linq System.Xml

MapKit UIKit iBeacon CoreGraphics CoreMotion

System.Data System.Windows System.Numerics System.Core System.ServiceModel

System.Net System System.IO System.Linq System.Xml

Text-to-speech ActionBar Printing Framework Renderscript NFC

System.Data System.Windows System.Numerics System.Core System.ServiceModel

System.Net System System.IO System.Linq System.Xml

Xamarin.iOS does full Ahead Of Time (AOT) compilation to produce an ARM binary for Apple’s App Store.

Xamarin.Android takes advantage of Just In Time (JIT) compilation on the Android device.

.NET

C# Compileand Link .APK

Bindings

RunsNatively

IL+

JIT

✓Always Up-to-Date•••••

•••••

Mac

iOS

Android

Windows Phone

Calca iCircuit Touch Draw

86%

14%

72%

28%

77%

23%

70%30%

61%39%

94%

6%

88%

12%

76%

24%

90%

10%

Traditional Xamarin Approach

With Xamarin.Forms:More code-sharing, all native

iOS C# UI Windows C# UIAndroid C# UI

Shared C# Backend

Xamarin.Forms

Shared C# Backend

✓ 40+ Pages, layouts, and controls(Build from code behind or XAML)

✓ Two-way data binding✓ Navigation✓ Animation API✓ Dependency Service✓ Messaging Center

Shared C# Backend

Shared UI Code

Which Xamarin approach is best for your app?

Xamarin.Forms is best for: Xamarin.iOS / Xamarin.Android is best for:

• Data entry apps

• Prototypes and proofs-of-concept

• Apps that require little platform-specific functionality

• Apps where code sharing is more important than custom UI

Learn more: xamarin.com/forms Learn more: xamarin.com/platform

• Apps that require specialized interaction

• Apps with highly polished design

• Apps that use many platform-specific APIs

• Apps where custom UI is more important than code sharing

<?xml version="1.0"  encoding="UTF-­‐8"?><TabbedPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"x:Class="MyApp.MainPage">

<TabbedPage.Children><ContentPage Title="Profile"  Icon="Profile.png">

<StackLayout Spacing="20" Padding="20"VerticalOptions="Center">

<Entry Placeholder="Username"Text="{Binding  Username}"/>

<Entry Placeholder="Password"Text="{Binding  Password}"IsPassword="true"/>

<Button Text="Login"  TextColor="White"BackgroundColor="#77D065"Command="{Binding  LoginCommand}"/>

</StackLayout></ContentPage><ContentPage Title="Settings"  Icon="Settings.png">

<!-­‐-­‐ Settings -­‐-­‐></ContentPage></TabbedPage.Children>

Layouts

Pages

Stack Absolute Relative Grid ContentView ScrollView Frame

Content MasterDetail Navigation Tabbed Carousel

ActivityIndicator BoxView Button DatePicker Editor

Entry Image Label ListView Map

OpenGLView Picker ProgressBar SearchBar Slider

Stepper TableView TimePicker WebView EntryCell

ImageCell SwitchCell TextCell ViewCell

Xamarin.Forms Ecosystem

Windows Xamarin.FormsStackPanel StackLayout

TextBox Entry

ListBox ListView

CheckBox Switch

ProgressBar ActivityIndicator

Grid Grid

Label Label

Button Button

Image Image

Date/TimePicker Date/TimePicker

Windows Xamarin.Forms

DataContext BindingContext

{Binding Property} {Binding Property}

ItemsSource ItemsSource

ItemTemplate ItemTemplate

DataTemplate DataTemplate

Shared C# Backend

What if we didn’t have to write this code?

What if we could access it from shared code?

UI+APIs UI + APIsUI + APIs

BatteryGPSLightsNotificationsSettingsText To Speech

BatteryGPSLightsNotificationsSettingsText To Speech

BatteryGPSLightsNotificationsSettingsText To Speech

TextToSpeech

Speak(“Hello World”);

AVSpeechSynthesizer SpeechSynthesizer

Common API

Get Started Todayxamarin.com

xamarin.com/university

Unrivaled Mobile Development

Training

Live unlimited mobile development training from mobile experts, in your time-zone, on your schedule, and as often as you'd like.

https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/TripExpenses.Forms

http://tryappservice.azure.comhttps://components.xamarin.com/view/azure-mobile-services

http://github.com/xamarin/plugins

http://developer.xamarin.com

Thank you.

JamesMontemagnoDeveloper Evangelist, Xamarin

james@xamarin.com http://motzcod.es @JamesMontemagno

Questions?