Developing iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 applications with C#

Roy CornelissenIT Architect,Info Support

Willem MeintsDeveloper,Info Support

Roy CornelissenIT ArchitectInfo Support

Willem MeintsDeveloperInfo Support

Marcel de VriesTechnology ManagerInfo Support

Patterns ProofAgenda

Myths ALM

Setting the context

Windows PhoneVisual Studio, XAML and C#

iOSMonoDevelop, MonoTouch and C#

AndroidVisual Studio, Mono for Android and C#C#

Myth Busters

Common misconceptions

Myth: Apps built with C# are not native

C / C++Different CPU architectures

What is the meaning of “native”?• Different interpretations of “native”

Java

Objective-CC / C++

C# / Silverlight 3+

What is the meaning of “native”?

• Native = use the frameworks and libraries of the OS, regardless of the language or tools• Native = User experience 100% aligned with default OS device experience

DemoKnowledge Events app

3 native flavors

App Logic

Vendor tools “Magic Box” Hybrid

XCodeObjective-

C

WP7 Silverligh

tC#

Android SDKJava

Appcelerator Titanium

JavaScript > Native

PhoneGapHTML5 / CSS /

JS

Adobe AIRActionScript

AntennaRapid

Scripting Language

Service2Media

Lua

C#

Xamarin

MonoTouch

WP7 Silverlig

ht XamarinMono for Android

RhodesRuby + HTML

Sybase Unwired

“4GL” code gen Shared

language

Myth: Applications written with Mono are slow

Demo: Mandelbrot comparison

Text/Icon/PicMonoTouch

Objective-CText/Icon/Pic

Benoit Mandelbrot

Comparison Mono & Objective-C / Java

Speed upyour app

Develop wisely!

1.0

1.0

Application startup

Compute intensive

Service calls

UI interaction

Perceived performanceYes there is overheadNative-to-Managed causes overheadMono has a garbage collectorCPU-intensive: use LLVM compiler

But it’s no problemMost of us don’t build real time 3D gfx

Make the app feel fastKeep download size smallCut startup time by offloading tasks ASAPUse background tasks & activity indicators

…is in the eye of the beholder

Performance…

Even game developers choose Mono!

Delta engine

Myth: Mono cannot access all device capabilities

You can access all device capabilities!• For each platform there is a set of namespaces that

enable full device accessiOS

MonoTouch.CoreLocationMonoTouch.CoreMotionMonoTouch.AVFoundationMonoTouch.AddressBookMonoTouch.EventKit…

Android: Android.Hardware.SensorAndroid.LocationAndroid.BluetoothAndroid.Nfc…

Windows Phone: Microsoft.Devices.Sensors.GyroscopeMicrosoft.Devices.Sensors.AccelerometerMicrosoft.Devices.Sensors.CompassMicrosoft.Devices.Sensors.Motion…

Use device abstractions!

Myth: Code Sharing percentage between apps is very low because of the different implementations per device

Code Sharing

Reusable20%

Shared app logic20%Windows8

13%

iOS18%

WP712%

Android16%

Shared

65%

Specific35%

Per App

More on this later

As long as you do proper design

Myth: You do not have to know the different devices to build apps for all different platforms

Roy Cornelissen

Willem Meints

Marcel de Vries

Application Lifecycle Management

Managing cross platform development

Cross device solution setup

Same directory structure used by all solutions

• Shared implementation project

• Include files your project needs

• Exclude files that are device specific

Cross platform version control• Use TFS in the cloud• Use Local Workspaces• SVN model of Edit, Merge, check-in• No need to check out before edit

• Use Team Explorer Everywhere for Mac OS

• Added bonus: full support for Work Items, Build, etc.

Architecture & Design Patterns

How to maximize reuse between platforms

Define architecture for reuse

Define architecture for reuse

Services

Model

ControllerViewModel

Etc.

GPS

Storage

Motion sensors

View

Shared?

BridgeShared Platform specific

Services• What technology do you use to access data?• Should we use REST/WebApi?• Lot of hand coding since there is no standard way to generate

proxies• Should we do SOAP?• Good option, also provides out of the box support in the tools for

proxy generation• Proxy generation with SL tools, so we have full shared code base

cross stacks

• Use RIA services as back-end• Adds productivity for back-end and flexibility in endpoints• SOAP, JSON, OData

Callback pattern

Shared Controller

UIViewController

XAML View Activity

Web Services

SF

SF

SF

Model

GetActualEvents (Action<object> OnSuccess,

Action<Exception> OnFail)

PropertyChanged(“Events”);

public void OnFailed(Exception e){ // Do something with error}

public void OnSuccess(object data){ // Do something with data // Notify user}

Device Abstraction Patterns

The proof of the pudding is in the eating…

DemoBuilding an Event app

Lessons learned• Android == Wild Wild West of mobile• Test ALWAYS on MULTIPLE devices!• Mono Release cycle only small lag with

vendor tools• UX design essential for apps• Good design up front of the app essential for

code sharing• First attempt 10% code share • Now we achieve 70-80% code sharing!

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Roy Cornelissen@roycornelissen

Willem Meints@wmeints

Marcel de Vries@marcelv