Xamarin cross-platform application development : develop production-ready applications for iOS and android using xamarin

Develop production-ready applications for iOS and Android using Xamarin Overview Write native iOS and Android applications with Xamarin Add native functionality to your apps such as push notifications, camera, and GPS location Learn various strategies for cross-platform development In Detail Developing a mobile application for just one platform is becoming a thing of the past. Companies expect their apps to be supported on both iOS and Android, whilst leveraging the best native features of both. Xamarins tools help solve this requirement by giving developers a single toolset to target both platforms. «Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development» is a step-by-step guide for building professional applications for iOS and Android. The book walks you through building a chat application, complete with a backend web service and native features such as GPS location, camera, and push notifications. This book begins with iOS and Android application fundamentals, then moves on to sharing code, and eventually digs deeper into native functionality. By the end of the book, readers will have successfully built a cross-platform application ready for submitting to app stores. You will gain an in-depth knowledge about the concepts of building cross platform applications. «Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development» also covers native iOS and Android APIs, unit testing, building a real web service with Windows Azure, push notifications, interacting with the camera and GPS, leveraging Java and Objective-C libraries, and finally app store submission. Towards the end of the book you will feel confident in developing your own Xamarin applications. «Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development» will teach you everything you need to know to develop an end-to-end, cross-platform solution with Xamarin. What you will learn from this book Familiarize yourself with Apples MVC design pattern Understand the Android activity lifecycle Share C# code across platforms Implement a web service with Azure Mobile Services Deploy and debug your application on mobile devices Call native Objective-C or Java libraries from C# Use Xamarin.Mobile for camera, contacts, and location Submit your app to the Apple App Store and Google Play Approach «Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development» is an end-to-end walk-through tutorial on developing applications for both iOS and Android. It offers clear and detailed explanations of each stage in the process, making it easier for you to master the creation of stable, production-ready, cross-platform apps. Who this book is written for This book is for C# developers who are interested in mobile application development. If you have experience with desktop or web applications, this book will serve as a great tool to give you a head start with cross-platform development. Cover; Copyright; Credits; About the Author; About the Reviewers; www.PacktPub.com; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: Xamarin Setup; The Xamarin tools; Installing Xcode; Installing Xamarin; Setting up the Android emulator; Enrolling in the iOS Developer Program; Registering as a Google Play developer; Summary; Chapter 2: Hello Platforms!; Building your first iOS application; Understanding Apple's MVC pattern; Using Xcode and storyboards; Building your first Android application; Android activities; Xamarin's Android designer; Summary; Chapter 3: Code Sharing Between iOS and Android Learning the MVVM design patternComparing project organization strategies; Working with portable class libraries; Using preprocessor statements; Simplifying dependency injection; Implementing Inversion of Control; Summary; Chapter 4: XamChat a Cross-platform App; Describing our sample application concept; Developing our model layer; Writing a mock web service; Writing the ViewModel layer; Implementing our LoginViewModel class; Implementing our RegisterViewModel class; Implementing our FriendViewModel class; Implementing our MessageViewModel class; Writing unit tests Setting up a new project for unit testsWriting assertions; Summary; Chapter 5: XamChat for iOS; Understanding the basics of an iOS app; Using UINavigationController; Implementing the login screen; Using segues and UITableView; Adding a friends list screen; Adding a list of messages; Composing messages; Summary; Chapter 6: XamChat for Android; Introducing Android Manifest; Adding a login screen; Using ListView and BaseAdapter; Implementing the friends list; Composing messages; Summary; Chapter 7: Deploying and Testing on Devices; iOS provisioning; Android device settings Understanding the linkerUnderstanding AOT compilation; Avoiding common memory pitfalls; Summary; Chapter 8: Web Services with Push Notifications; Learning Windows Azure; Setting up your Azure account; Exploring Azure Mobile Services; Creating tables and scripts; Adding a backend to XamChat; Updating the data types for Azure Mobile Services; Adding the Xamarin component; Using the Apple Push Notification service; Setting up proper provisioning; Setting up your provisioning profile; Setting up a certificate signing request; Making client-side changes for push notifications Implementing Google Cloud MessagingSummary; Chapter 9: Third-party Libraries; The Xamarin Component Store; Porting existing C# libraries; Objective-C bindings; Java bindings; Summary; Chapter 10: Contacts, Camera, and Location; Introducing Xamarin.Mobile; Accessing contacts; Retrieving contacts on Android; Looking up GPS location; Implementing GPS location on Android; Accessing the photo library and camera; Accessing photos on Android; Summary; Chapter 11: App Store Submission; Following the iOS App Store Review Guidelines; Submitting an app to the iOS App Store

In Detail

Developing a mobile application for just one platform is becoming a thing of the past. Companies expect their apps to be supported on both iOS and Android, whilst leveraging the best native features of both. Xamarins tools help solve this requirement by giving developers a single toolset to target both platforms.

"Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development" is a step-by-step guide for building professional applications for iOS and Android. The book walks you through building a chat application, complete with a backend web service and native features such as GPS location, camera, and push notifications.

This book begins with iOS and Android application fundamentals, then moves on to sharing code, and eventually digs deeper into native functionality. By the end of the book, readers will have successfully built a cross-platform application ready for submitting to app stores. You will gain an in-depth knowledge about the concepts of building cross platform applications.

"Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development" also covers native iOS and Android APIs, unit testing, building a real web service with Windows Azure, push notifications, interacting with the camera and GPS, leveraging Java and Objective-C libraries, and finally app store submission. Towards the end of the book you will feel confident in developing your own Xamarin applications.

"Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development" will teach you everything you need to know to develop an end-to-end, cross-platform solution with Xamarin.

Approach

"Xamarin Cross-platform Application Development" is an end-to-end walk-through tutorial on developing applications for both iOS and Android. It offers clear and detailed explanations of each stage in the process, making it easier for you to master the creation of stable, production-ready, cross-platform apps.

Who this book is for

This book is for C# developers who are interested in mobile application development. If you have experience with desktop or web applications, this book will serve as a great tool to give you a head start with cross-platform development.