Issue 187

KYM PHILLPOTTS

Happy Holidays

It is the last issue before Christmas, so from myself and the other WeeklyXamarin editors, I just wanted to wish you a happy holiday!!!

As for myself, I am spending some time with my family in Barcelona enjoying Spanish culture. Whatever you are doing over the holidays, have fun, be safe and enjoy time with family and friends...

But for now, onto the links.

NEWS

November 2018 Xamarin and Azure Office Hours Recap

Matt Soucoup has been listening to the community via Office Hours and in the blog post, he shares the feedback he has been hearing. Very interesting stuff.

November 2018 Xamarin and Azure Office Hours Recap by Matt Soucoup

Hello Microsoft Learn / Good Bye Xamarin University

Xamarin University is incorporating their material into the Microsoft Learn platform where they will become free for the community.

Hello Microsoft Learn / Good Bye Xamarin University by Luis Matos

CODE

Unique Device & App Installation Identifiers for Mobile Apps

James Montemagno discusses the challenges, limitations, and implementation of creating a unique device or application identifier for their mobile app.

Unique Device & App Installation Identifiers for Mobile Apps by James Montemagno

Explicit interface implementation

Ed Freeman discusses what Explicit Interface implementation is all about and some possible "real world" scenarios.

Explicit interface implementation by Ed Freeman

TOOLS

Visual Studio 2019 Preview .NET Productivity

The first preview of Visual Studio 2019 is now available. In this post I’ll cover some of the productivity improvements for .NET developers we’re most excited about. For a complete list, check out the release notes.

Visual Studio 2019 Preview .NET Productivity by Kendra Havens

Open anything in VS Code using a MacOS quick action

Jim Bennet uses Automator to add some quick action menus into his Mac environment. Specifically, an "Open in VS Code" menu option, but this is a great tutorial for creating your own as well.

Open anything in VS Code using a MacOS quick action by Jim Bennett

XAMARIN FORMS

5 Reasons Why The Xamarin.Forms Shell Will Increase Your Productivity.

Hello friends, Xamarin.Forms 4.0 Preview was made available for some time already, and it has several features which I’m excited about. These features where announced months ago, but the one which caught my attention was the Xamarin.Forms Shell.

5 Reasons Why The Xamarin.Forms Shell Will Increase Your Productivity. by Doumer

Two ListViews on the Same Page?!? No Way!

Ever since the dawn of time, when Steve Jobs walked on stage and introduced the iPhone, we've been told not to use two ListView's on the same Xamarin.Forms page. And it's true, you shouldn't. Two things scrolling around on the same page on a phone's small screen isn't the best user experience. So, what's a developer who needs to display multiple sets of data to do?

Two ListViews on the Same Page?!? No Way! by Matthew Soucoup

Unboxing Xamarin.Forms Shell in Visual Studio 2019

Nick Randolph has been writing a few blog posts where he digs into all the new hotness of Visual Studio 2019. In this post, he has a look at the new Xamarin.Forms Shell offering.

Unboxing Xamarin.Forms Shell in Visual Studio 2019 by Nick

Refresh Indicator for ListView Color in Xamarin.Forms

Gerald needed to change the color of the spinner which is shown when you pull to refresh on a ListView. Unfortunately, it's not available by default. So, he added it so other people could benefit as well. What a legend!

Refresh Indicator for ListView Color in Xamarin.Forms by Gerald

Adding TitleColor to Your Picker in Xamarin.Forms

If you have always wanted to give the title of your Picker control a color, this is your lucky day! A pull request is merged that will let you do just that. It introduces a new property on the Picker control that allows you to set the TitleColor.

Adding TitleColor to Your Picker in Xamarin.Forms by Gerald

Cross-Platform Development - Introducing the Xamarin.Forms Shell

In this special Connect edition of MSDN Magazine, David Ortinau introduces a new part of the Xamarin Forms puzzle... Xamarin.Forms Shell.

Cross-Platform Development - Introducing the Xamarin.Forms Shell by David Ortinau

Bluetooth devices with .NET and Xamarin.Android

Ever needed to detect what Bluetooth devices are available? In this post, Jeremy shows all the steps needed to successfully use the Bluetooth hardware on your Android phone with .NET.

How to detect nearby Bluetooth devices with .NET and Xamarin.Android by Jeremy Lindsay

Android bottom tabs with badges

Depechie discusses how to create a custom renderer for an Android Xamarin.Forms app that customises a bottom tab to include notification badges.

Xamarin forms – Android label less bottom tabs with badges by Depechie

AI

Cognitive Services and Xamarin.Forms: Creating Smart Applications

Cognitive Services + Xamarin.Forms = Smart Applications. Today we are seeing how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to improve the experience offered to users from different contexts.

Cognitive Services and Xamarin.Forms: Creating Smart Applications by Luis Matos

NUGET OF THE WEEK

Presenting HttpTracer Library

Often it is useful to be able to trace the traffic going through your app for http requests. Here is a nuget package that will help you do exactly that.

Presenting HttpTracer Library by danielcauser

PODCASTS & VIDEOS

Prism for Xamarin.Forms – Create your first application

Brian Lagunas has created some videos to get you started with Prism.

This videos show you how to create your very first Xamarin.Forms application using Prism for Xamarin.Forms with the help of the Prism Template Pack.

Also be sure to check out: Prism – Using DelegateCommands

Prism for Xamarin.Forms – Create your first application by Brian Lagunas

Best Practices for User Interface Automation

This week, James is joined by friend of the show Sweeky Satpathy, Software Engineer on the Mobile Customer Advisory Team, who shows how to be successful writing user interface tests for Xamarin iOS and Android applications.

Best Practices for User Interface Automation by James Montemagno

Merge Conflict 128 - Professional Application Performance Monitoring

This week we bring on an expert in application performance monitoring to tell us all of the things we are doing right, wrong, and ways to improve to have the best application and server experience for our users.

128: Professional Application Performance Monitoring by soundbite.fm

RELEASES

Accessing Native Features the Cross-Platform Way with Xamarin.Essentials

Every mobile application requires access to native functionality. When developing native mobile apps with Xamarin, developers are able to integrate deeply into iOS and Android since Xamarin exposes every API directly in C# to access these features.

And now Xamarin.Essentials is here to help you out. It's reached a stable release!

Accessing Native Features the Cross-Platform Way with Xamarin.Essentials by James Montemagno