Issue 145

GETTING STARTED

Getting Started Q&A

James answers all your questions about getting started with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms

Getting Started with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms Q&A by [James Montemagno]

CODE

Webviews and keeping your users engaged

Whether you’re displaying a simple “About” page or rendering content from an external source, pretty much every app ends up directing users to a web page at some point.

Keep Users Engaged with SFSafariViewController and Android Chrome Custom Tabs by Joe Meyer

Running an OSS Community Sprint

Adam gives a deep dive into what it means to contribute to Open Source Software (OSS). Spoiler: it's more than just submitting code.

Running an OSS Community Sprint - Xamarin Help by Adam Pedley

BUSINESS & MARKETING

PWAs vs Xamarin.Forms

There are lots of talk about Progressive Web Apps at the moment, Adam shares his views

PWAs vs Xamarin.Forms by [Adam Pedley]

Nick Randolph is thinking deeply about the cross-platform nature of apps and how to effectively architect them. In his latest article, he talks about Progressive Web Apps. But also, check out his last few articles where he was talked about the cross-platform landscape.

A roundup of Ad Platforms

Ads are sometimes a necessary evil. In this post, Artyom gives a roundup of the magnitude of platforms available.

Top App Install Ad Platforms 2017 by Artyom Dogtiev

ANDROID

Xamarin.Android and LUIS

Damien walks through creating a Xamarin.Android app that uses LUIS for Natural Language Processing.

Build a smart Android app with LUIS and Xamarin.Android - Cool Coders by Damien Doumer

IOS

A little tip for tracing your SQLite

A quick way to see what SQLite is doing under the covers.

SQLite & Material Design Frames on iOS by Marcos Cobeña Morián

XAMARIN FORMS

Add Tizen Projects to Your Xamarin.Forms Applications

Developing Xamarin.Forms applications with Tizen projects has never been so easy.

Add Tizen Projects to Your Xamarin.Forms Applications by Jay Cho

Some Connectivity Tips

Most apps are connected, so it's a good idea to build in a bit of resilience into your network calls. Adam, highlights some tips.

Resilient Network Connectivity In Xamarin.Forms by Adam Pedley

Refit your RESTful calls

Over the last few weeks Xamgirl has been putting out some good articles on simplifying your code to consume RESTful Web Services, this is part 3 of the series. I'd highly recommend having a look through all her posts.

Consuming a RESTful Web Service in Xamarin Forms using Refit (Part 3) by Charlin Agramonte

AI

Jim releases a Vision API Nuget package

I decided to make it easier to use models downloaded from CustomVision in a Xamarin.Forms app and created a NuGet package to help

Thanks Jim, we love you!

Identifying my daughters toys using AI - Part 5, Plugin for on-device models by Jim Bennett

PODCASTS & VIDEOS

Merge Conflict 86: Containerized Pod Development

It was only a matter of time before Frank and James started talking about Docker. And now is that time.

Merge Conflict 86: Containerized Pod Development by Frank Krueger & James Montemagno

New Lightning Lectures

Xamarin University has published some great new Lightning Lectures. These are just short videos on a particular topic. New releases are on Android JobScheduler by René Ruppert and .netstandard Multi-targeting by Jason Debouver. There is also so much other goodness in there for you to check out too!

Android Job Scheduler by René Ruppert

and

.netstandard Multi-targeting by Jason DeBoever

Yet Another Podcast with Matthew Robbins

Jesse Liberty interviews Matthew Robbins, the creator of the amazing tool mFractor

Yet Another Podcast #181 – Matthew Robbins on MFractor by Jesse Liberty

The Xamarin Show - Ink to Code

This week, James is joined by friend of the show George Matthews, manager at the Microsoft Garage, who shows us the amazing Garage Intern project: Ink to Code.

Drawing Apps to Life with Ink to Code by James on The Xamarin Show

RELEASES

UrhoSharp 1.8

UrhoSharp is a .NET API for building 3D experiences in your apps.

What’s New in UrhoSharp 1.8

UrhoSharp itself is powered by the open source Urho3D engine. UrhoSharp 1.8 represents the completion of our update of the Urho3D engine to match the Urho3D 1.7 release, which brings bug fixes and new features, such as:

Inverse kinematics
Bullet RaycastVehicle support
And much more!

Issue 145 2nd March 2018