Xamarin Mobile Application Development For Android

Develop, test, and deliver fully-featured Android applications using Xamarin About This Book Build and test multi-view Android applications using Xamarin.Android Work with device capabilities such as location sensors and the camera A progressive, hands-on guide to develop stunning Android applications using Xamarin Who This Book Is For If you are a C# developer who wants to develop Android apps and enhance your existing skill set, then this book is ideal for you. Good working knowledge of C#, .NET, and object-oriented software development is assumed. What You Will Learn Build a multi-view, orientation-aware Android application with navigation Lay out content using the LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, and TableLayout layout managers Use a ListView (AdapterView) and Adapter to build a view that is populated from server data Consume REST web service to perform GET, UPDATE, DELETE operation Use Android SQLite for data persistence and caching Capture the current location of a device, determine the street address, and integrate with the map app Test, debug, and deploy an Android app In Detail Technology trends come and go, but few have generated the excitement, momentum, or long-term impact that mobile computing has. Mobile computing impacts people's lives at work and at home on a daily basis. Many companies and individual developers are looking to become a part of the movement but are unsure how to best utilize their existing skills and assets. The Xamarin suite of products provides new opportunities to those who already have a significant investment in C# development skills and .NET code bases, and would like to enter into this new, exciting world. This example-oriented guide provides a practical approach to quickly learn the fundamentals of Android app development using C# and Xamarin.Android. It will lead you through building an Android app step-by-step with steadily increasing complexity. Beginning with an overview of the Android and Xamarin platforms to provide you with a solid understanding of the underlying platform, we gradually walk through building and testing a Points of Interest Android app using C# and the Xamarin.Android product. You will learn to create ListView and add detail view to your Android application. You will handle application behaviors on orientation changes, before learning the different techniques to manage resources and layouts to support multiple screen sizes. You will then access a SQLite database in a cross-platform way and add location features to your application. Finally, you will add camera integration to your application and deploy your app to the various Android app stores. Style and approach An example-oriented, comprehensive guide to gain an understanding of both the Android and Xamarin platforms.

Xamarin Mobile Application Development is a hands-on Xamarin.Forms primer and a cross-platform reference for building native Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps using C# and .NET. This book explains how to use Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS to build business apps for your customers and consumer apps for Google Play and the iTunes App Store. Learn how to leverage Xamarin.Forms for cross-platform development using the most common UI pages, layouts, views, controls, and design patterns. Combine these with platform-specific UI to craft a visually stunning and highly interactive mobile user experience. Use Xamarin.Forms to data bind your UI to both data models and to view models for a Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) implementation. Use this book to answer the important question: Is Xamarin.Forms right for my project? Platform-specific UI is a key concept in cross-platform development, and Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS are the foundation of the Xamarin platform. Xamarin Mobile Application Development will cover how to build an Android app using Xamarin.Android and an iOS app using Xamarin.iOS while sharing a core code library. SQLite is the database-of-choice for many Xamarin developers. This book will explain local data access techniques using SQLite.NET and ADO.NET. Build a mobile data access layer (DAL) using SQLite and weigh your options for web services and enterprise cloud data solutions. This book will show how organize your Xamarin code into a professional-grade application architecture. Explore solution-building techniques from starter-to-enterprise to help you decouple your functional layers, manage your platform-specific code, and share your cross-platform classes for code reuse, testability, and maintainability. Also included are 250+ screenshots on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone and 200+ C# code examples with downloadable C# and XAML versions available from Apress.com. This comprehensive recipe and reference book addresses one of the most important and vexing problems in the software industry today: How do we effectively design and develop cross-platform mobile applications?

This second Preview Edition ebook, now with 16 chapters, is about writing applications for Xamarin.Forms, the new mobile development platform for iOS, Android, and Windows phones unveiled by Xamarin in May 2014. Xamarin.Forms lets you write shared user-interface code in C# and XAML that maps to native controls on these three platforms.

Xamarin Mobile Application Development is a hands-on Xamarin.Forms primer and a cross-platform reference for building native Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps using C# and .NET. This book explains how to use Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS to build business apps for your customers and consumer apps for Google Play and the iTunes App Store. Learn how to leverage Xamarin.Forms for cross-platform development using the most common UI pages, layouts, views, controls, and design patterns. Combine these with platform-specific UI to craft a visually stunning and highly interactive mobile user experience. Use Xamarin.Forms to data bind your UI to both data models and to view models for a Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) implementation. Use this book to answer the important question: Is Xamarin.Forms right for my project? Platform-specific UI is a key concept in cross-platform development, and Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS are the foundation of the Xamarin platform. Xamarin Mobile Application Development will cover how to build an Android app using Xamarin.Android and an iOS app using Xamarin.iOS while sharing a core code library. SQLite is the database-of-choice for many Xamarin developers. This book will explain local data access techniques using SQLite.NET and ADO.NET. Build a mobile data access layer (DAL) using SQLite and weigh your options for web services and enterprise cloud data solutions. This book will show how organize your Xamarin code into a professional-grade application architecture. Explore solution-building techniques from starter-to-enterprise to help you decouple your functional layers, manage your platform-specific code, and share your cross-platform classes for code reuse, testability, and maintainability. Also included are 250+ screenshots on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone and 200+ C# code examples with downloadable C# and XAML. This comprehensive recipe and reference book addresses one of the most important and vexing problems in the software industry today: How do we effectively design and develop cross-platform mobile applications?

Master the skills required to develop cross-platform applications from drawing board to app store(s) using Xamarin About This Book Learn to deliver high-performance native apps that leverage platform specific acceleration, complied for native performance Learn development techniques that will allow you to use and create custom layouts for cross-platform UI Gain the knowledge needed to become more efficient in testing, deploying, and monitoring your applications Implement application life cycle management concepts to manage cross-platform projects Who This Book Is For Mobile application developers wanting to develop skills required to steer cross-platform applications using Xamarin. What You Will Learn Share C# code across platforms and call native Objective-C or Java libraries from C# Submit your app to the Apple App Store and Google Play Use the out-of-the-box services to support third-party libraries Find out how to get feedback while your application is used by your users Create shared data access using a local SQLite database and a REST service Test and monitor your applications Gain memory management skills to avoid memory leaks and premature code cycles while decreasing the memory print of your applications Integrate network resources with cross-platform applications Design and implement eye-catching and reusable UI components without compromising on nativity in mobile applications 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 iOS, Android and Windows Phone, while leveraging the best native features on all three platforms. Xamarin's tools help ease this problem by giving developers a single toolset to target all three platforms. The main goal of this course is to equip you with knowledge to successfully analyze, develop, and manage Xamarin cross-platform projects using the most efficient, robust, and scalable implementation patterns. Module 1 is a step-by-step guide to building real-world applications for iOS and Android. The module walks you through building a chat application, complete with a backend web service and native features such as GPS location, camera, and push notifications. Additionally, you'll learn how to use external libraries with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms. Module 2 provide you recipes on how to create an architecture that will be maintainable, extendable, use Xamarin.Forms plugins to boost productivity. We start with a simple creation of a Xamarin.Forms solution, customize the style and behavior of views for each platform. Further on, we demonstrate the power of architecting a cross-platform solution. Next, you will utilize and access hardware features that vary from platform to platform with cross-platform techniques. You will master the steps of getting the app ready and publishing it in the app store. The last module starts with general topics such as memory management, asynchronous programming, local storage, networking, and platform-specific features. You will learn about key tools to leverage the pattern and advanced implementation strategies. Finally, we show you the toolset for application lifecycle management to help you prepare the development pipeline to manage and see cross-platform projects through to public or private release. After the completion of this course, you will learn a path that will get you up and running with developing cross-platform mobile applications and help you become the go-to person when it comes to Xamarin. Style and approach This course will serve as comprehensive guide for developing cross-platform applications with Xamarin with a unique approach that will engage you like never before as you create real-world cross-platform apps on your own.

Develop, test, and deliver fully-featured Android applications using XamarinAbout This Book• Build and test multi-view Android applications using Xamarin.Android• Work with device capabilities such as location sensors and the camera• A progressive, hands-on guide to develop stunning Android applications using XamarinWho This Book Is ForIf you are a C# developer who wants to develop Android apps and enhance your existing skill set, then this book is ideal for you. Good working knowledge of C#, .NET, and object-oriented software development is assumed.What You Will Learn• Build a multi-view, orientation-aware Android application with navigation• Lay out content using the LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, and TableLayout layout managers• Use a ListView (AdapterView) and Adapter to build a view that is populated from server data• Consume REST web service to perform GET, UPDATE, DELETE operation• Use Android SQLite for data persistence and caching• Capture the current location of a device, determine the street address, and integrate with the map app• Test, debug, and deploy an Android appIn DetailTechnology trends come and go, but few have generated the excitement, momentum, or long-term impact that mobile computing has. Mobile computing impacts people's lives at work and at home on a daily basis. Many companies and individual developers are looking to become a part of the movement but are unsure how to best utilize their existing skills and assets. The Xamarin suite of products provides new opportunities to those who already have a significant investment in C# development skills and .NET code bases, and would like to enter into this new, exciting world.This example-oriented guide provides a practical approach to quickly learn the fundamentals of Android app development using C# and Xamarin.Android. It will lead you through building an Android app step-by-step with steadily increasing complexity.Beginning with an overview of the Android and Xamarin platforms to provide you with a solid understanding of the underlying platform, we gradually walk through building and testing a Points of Interest Android app using C# and the Xamarin.Android product. You will learn to create ListView and add detail view to your Android application. You will handle application behaviors on orientation changes, before learning the different techniques to manage resources and layouts to support multiple screen sizes. You will then access a SQLite database in a cross-platform way and add location features to your application. Finally, you will add camera integration to your application and deploy your app to the various Android app stores.Style and approachAn example-oriented, comprehensive guide to gain an understanding of both the Android and Xamarin platforms.

Over 80 hands-on recipes to unleash full potential for Xamarin in development and monetization of feature-packed, real-world Android apps About This Book Create a number of Android applications using the Xamarin Android platform Extensively integrate your Android devices with other Android devices to enhance your app creation experience A comprehensive guide packed with real-world scenarios and pro-level practices and techniques to help you build successful Android apps Who This Book Is For If you are a Xamarin developer who wants to create complete Android applications with Xamarin, then this book is ideal for you. No prior knowledge of Android development is needed, however a basic knowledge of C# and .NET would be useful. What You Will Learn Install and use Xamarin.Android with Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio Design an app's user interface for multiple device configurations Store and protect data in databases, files, and on the cloud Utilize lists and collections to present data to the user Communicate across the network using NFC or Bluetooth Perform tasks in the background and update the user with notifications Capture and play multimedia, such as video and audio, with the camera Implement In-App Billing and Expansion Files and deploy to the store In Detail Xamarin is used by developers to write native iOS, Android, and Windows apps with native user interfaces and share code across multiple platforms not just on mobile devices, but on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Developing apps with Xamarin.Android allows you to use and re-use your code and your skills on different platforms, making you more productive in any development. Although it's not a write-once-run-anywhere framework, Xamarin provides native platform integration and optimizations. There is no middleware; Xamarin.Android talks directly to the system, taking your C# and F# code directly to the low levels. This book will provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to be part of the mobile development era using C#. Covering a wide range of recipes such as creating a simple application and using device features effectively, it will be your companion to the complete application development cycle. Starting with installing the necessary tools, you will be guided on everything you need to develop an application ready to be deployed. You will learn the best practices for interacting with the device hardware, such as GPS, NFC, and Bluetooth. Furthermore, you will be able to manage multimedia resources such as photos and videos captured with the device camera, and so much more! By the end of this book, you will be able to create Android apps as a result of learning and implementing pro-level practices, techniques, and solutions. This book will ascertain a seamless and successful app building experience. Style and approach This book employs a step-by-step approach to Android app creation, explained in a conversational and easy-to-follow style. A wide range of examples are listed to ensure a complete understanding of how to deploy competent apps on the Android market.

Leverage Xamarin.Forms to build iOS and Android apps using a single, cross-platform approach. This book is the XAML companion to the C# guide Xamarin Mobile Application Development. You'll begin with an overview of Xamarin.Forms, then move on to an in-depth XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) primer covering syntax, namespaces, markup extensions, constructors, and the XAML standard. XAML gives us both the power of decoupled UI development and the direct use of Xamarin.Forms elements. This book explores the core of the Xamarin.Forms mobile app UI: using layouts and FlexLayouts to position controls and views to design and build screens, formatting your UI using resource dictionaries, styles, themes and CSS, then coding user interactions with behaviors, commands, and triggers. You'll see how to use XAML to build sophisticated, robust cross-platform mobile apps and help your user get around your app using Xamarin.Forms navigation patterns. Building Xamarin.Forms Mobile Apps Using XAML explains how to bind UI to data models using data binding and using the MVVM pattern, and how to customize UI elements for each platform using industry-standard menus, effects, custom renderers, and native view declaration. What You Will Learn Create world-class mobile apps for iOS and Android using C# and XAMLBuild a XAML UI decoupled from the C# code behind Design UI layouts such as FrameLayout, controls, lists, and navigation patterns Style your app using resource dictionaries, styles, themes, and CSS Customize controls to have platform-specific features using effects, custom renderers, and native views Who This Book Is For XAML and C# developers, architects, and technical managers as well as many Android and iOS developers