An Introduction to Xamarin- for Cross-Platform Android Development

1. An I An Introduction to Xamarin ntroduction to Xamarin- - for C for Cross ross- -P Platform Android latform Android D Development evelopment Xamarin is an outstanding cross-platform natively backed UI toolkit for creating Android and iOS apps using Visual Studio. It can significantly save you a lot of time by enabling you to create an app with a single code base and flawlessly port it to multiple platforms without increasing development time. Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) introduced by Microsoft which is pretty common among PC users and android experts. Xamarin is a plugin for Visual Studio. Xamarin is one of the most popular cross-platform. It has many awesome features and allows the developers to code with C#, and that makes it somewhat easier to use. Since it is natively compiled, the performance cost is relatively less. When you

2. use Xamarin, you need to keep in mind to use the libraries in a way that can help you stay updated with the recent features. Xamarin takes time to adopt the current platform updates. Sometimes, there are some compatibility issues with some libraries also. Though, Xamarin is not the ‘official’ language and IDE for Android. Also, you need to consider that the app sizes are normally a bit bigger than they would otherwise. Apart from above small complains, Xamarin is certainly a perfect choice for your Android development. If you already know how to develop apps in Android Studio, then the evolution will be a simple thing. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Xamarin Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Xamarin Studio The IDE is a major key factor. A good IDE helps boost any development efforts. Xamarin offers the Xamarin Studio, which is a high-performance IDE that enables crafting; fixing, testing, and packaging applications tasks an easy thing. Platforms Supported by Xamarin Platforms Supported by Xamarin Xamarin provides three below choices: Visual Studio on Windows Visual Studio on Windows With Visual Studio, you can create iOS and Android apps natively on your Windows PC. But, you need to note that to test iOS applications, you require to access a networked Mac, which will offer the build and deployment services. Xamarin Studio on Windows Xamarin Studio on Windows Xamarin also has its own IDE: Xamarin Studio. Similar to Visual Studio, Xamarin Studio offers an incredible development environment to speed up your development effort. Xamarin Studio on a Mac Xamarin Studio on a Mac

3. If you are building applications for both iOS and Android, this one is a perfect choice. Xamarin Studio's firm integration with Xcode helps create designing and testing iOS applications effortlessly. Getting Started with Xamarin.Android Getting Started with Xamarin.Android Firstly, you need to install the Visual Studio Community Edition 2017 which is a simple and quick process. Once you have installed it, you need to click ‘New Project’ and probably you can see the option to choose ‘Android’ on the left under Templates > Visual C#. Now select ‘Blank App (Android)’. This will help you develop a native Android app. If you are unable to see that option there, then you are required to click ‘Open Visual Studio Installer’, where you can find extensions, add-ons, and more. Now go to the ‘Workloads’ tab, scroll it down and search for ‘Mobile Development With .NET’ which will help you install Xamarin and any other components you might looking for including the Android SDK, an Android emulator and more. You can also add other elements like Xamarin notebooks, the Android native development kit (NDK), the Java SE development kit, and more. For NDK, F# language support, and workbooks unchecking the boxes is recommend because this is a big download otherwise. You need not worry as a warning dialog box will pop up if you are removing anything that is required. Still, it is quite a big download approx 15 GB which is a drawback of using Xamarin. Finding your way around and Hello World Finding your way around and Hello World Once you are done with the above steps, you’ll be welcomed with a blank screen. In Solution Explorer, you can find the MainActivity.cs file probably on the right by default (if you are using Android Studio it is backward). This explorer presents all the files and folders that help build your project. You do not need to worry about these many numbers of files as you will not need to touch most of them. If you have

4. already worked on Android Studio, you can understand MainActivity.cs is similar to ‘ActivityMain.java’; it is basically where you handle the code of your app. Xamarin helps developers to get the benefit of the features that each platform offers. It also knows that the apps have many highly reusable components that can be shared across platforms. Xamarin allows developers to build a UI that is exclusive and then developing components that can be reused effortlessly on another platform. Since using diverse languages for various platforms could have made it complex, C# was chosen as it is a unifying language and simple to use. Xamarin is being used by millions of potential developers, just because of C# language and its simplicity, and versatility. Arka Softwares is a leading xamarin mobile app development company with experience of creating a number of innovative mobile applications throughout different domain. You can get in touch with us any time for your business needs.