Issue 170

KYM PHILLPOTTS

Another great week of Xamarin related material.

I'm really pleased to see so many articles written in Spanish, which is great for me because I'm trying to learn Spanish. If you don't speak Spanish (or you are as bad at it as I am, hit that translate button) :)

Enjoy the links, and have a great weekend.

CODE

Demystifying the SDK Project

Coming to grips with new project structures and the internals.

Demystifying the SDK Project by Dan-Siegel

Multi-Targeting: Where Did My Files Go? Fixing .NET Core 2.1 SDK Issues

James Montemagno talks through Multi-Targeting and some common problems and solutions.

Multi-Targeting: Where Did My Files Go? Fixing .NET Core 2.1 SDK Issues by James Montemagno

DESIGN

Burger menu: Love it or hate it?

Some people love 'em, some people hate 'em. That's right, we are talking about Hamburger buttons. This article talks through the pro's and cons.

Burger menu: Love it or hate it? by Simon Fairhurst

OPEN SOURCE

Become an Open Source Contributor

You may think that open source is not for you. After all, it has always been a developer-dominant ecosystem. But code is by no means the only thing a piece of software is made of. Open source is first and foremost about community. Whether you’re a designer, developer, writer, doctor, or lawyer, there are many paths to the open source world.

Make Something Great: Become an Open Source Contributor by Dougal MacPherson

TESTING

An Introduction to UITest

Our very own Luce Carter has an excellent getting started article on UITest. Sure, you might have hundreds of Unit Tests but have you tested how your application is experienced by your users on different devices.

UI Testing is a set of tests that check the user interactions and ensure the app performs as expected when interacted with, including correct data bindings and appropriate components.

An Introduction to UITest by Luce Carter

ANDROID

Xamarin.Android maps – adding high-resolution map images

Some sage tips from Daniel about using high-resolution overlays and images with Android Maps.

Xamarin.Android maps – adding high-resolution map images by dhindrik

Android 8 adaptative (vector) icons

Android 8.0 (API level 26) introduces adaptive launcher icons, which can display a variety of shapes across different device models. This article will help you get started

Android 8 adaptative (vector) icons by Diego Ponce de León

Getting Started with Android Pie

Google recently released Android Pie for developers to enhance their apps and build new experiences with. Previously, Microsoft released an Android 9.0 Preview for Xamarin.Android and as of today, you can download the stable support for Android Pie inside Xamarin.Android 9.

Getting Started with Android Pie by Mark McLemore

IOS

Exploring New iOS 12 ARKit Capabilities With Xamarin

There are new ARKit capabilities. ARKit, which debuted last year in iOS 11, has matured over the past year and in iOS 12 is much more flexible than it was previously. In this article, Larry O'Brien will introduce the changes (along with some scary maths)

Exploring New iOS 12 ARKit Capabilities With Xamarin by Larry O'Brien

XAMARIN FORMS

Animated Vector Drawable for Android with Xamarin.Forms

There are several techniques to animate UI elements in Android applications created with Xamarin.Forms. ViewExtensions and Custom Animations can be used to animate views directly from C# code. Both techniques provide a nice cross-platform solution for animating UI elements.

Animated Vector Drawable for Android with Xamarin.Forms by Rik Driever

Elmish Xamarin Forms - Part 1

Interested in getting started with Elmish? Check out this blog post to get a leg-up.

Elmish Xamarin Forms - Parte 1 by Ramon Esteban

FlowListView, the ListView without limits!

Sometimes you want to have some crazy looking listviews which wrap around. Here is a little blog post that talks about FlowListView. Take a look, it might just be what you need.

O X do Xamarin Forms — FlowListView, a ListView sem limites ! by Thiago Bertuzzi

Xamarin.Forms Challenge - My Trip Countdown

There is no better way to see design implementations than with a Xamarin.Forms Challenge. In this one, Javier uses SkiaSharp and some animations to produce a Trip Countdown.

[Xamarin.Forms Challenge] My Trip Countdown by Javier Suárez Ruiz

[Xamarin.Forms Challenge] PulseMusic

Another Xamarin.Forms Challenge, this time a funky music player.

[Xamarin.Forms Challenge] PulseMusic by Javier Suárez Ruiz

Custom Renderers vs Effects

Some people are a little bit confused on how and when you should use custom renderers vs effects. In this article, Charlin (XamGirl) clarifies this by first explaining how to create each one step by step and finally some closing thoughts on when to use one or the other.

Custom renderers VS Effects in Xamarin Forms by Charlin Agramonte

Dynamically changing the status bar appearance

Sometimes you need the status bar appearance to match the application theme. In more advanced cases the appearance of the status bar may change multiple times, due to different colour themes on different screens within the application.

Dynamically changing the status bar appearance in Xamarin.Forms by Evgeny Zborovsky

Scanning and Generating barcodes with ZXing

Barcodes are still very much present in our daily lives. It’s a quick and easy way to store and read information or show a unique identifier on an object. It is not a big surprise that scanning barcodes is something that is often requested in apps.

Scanning and Generating Barcodes with ZXing on Xamarin.Forms by Gerald Versluis

Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms and Authenticating with ADAL

Nick Randolph has been pumping out some great articles about setting up Xamarin, Android Emulators, SDK Versions and ADAL. Lots of good material in here:

Series of Blogs Entries by Nick Randolph

SECURITY

Using Active Directory Authenticate with Web API from Xamarin

Jason Farrell shares some insights and hard-won knowledge about Authentication with Active Directory with WebAPI and Xamarin.

Using Active Directory Authenticate with Web API from Xamarin by xximjasonxx

Top 5 Mobile App Security Failures and How To Prevent Them

In the race to get innovative new mobile apps or cool new features added to existing mobile apps out the door faster, secure coding practices in mobile app development aren’t always at the top of every developer’s list.

In this post, we discuss the most frequent mobile app coding mistakes on iOS and Android that lead to security issues so you can build more secure apps faster with fewer security bug showstoppers.

Top 5 Mobile App Security Failures and How To Prevent Them by Brian C Reed

PODCASTS & VIDEOS

The Frameworks you need to know

Melbourne Xamarin User Group is starting to record their sessions. First off the rank is a presentation by Umit Aydin on his real-world experiences with the frameworks he uses to develop Xamarin applications.

The Frameworks you need to know - Umit Aydin by Umit Aydin

The Xamarin Show : Channel 9

The Xamarin Show just released a bunch of getting started videos. Including:

Installing Visual Studio for Mac & PC
Building Your First iOS & Android App in Visual Studio for Mac & PC
Creating Cloud Connected Mobile Apps with Azure Functions and Visual Studio for Mac & PC

Check them out, along with other amazing videos.

The Xamarin Show : Channel 9 by James Montemagno

Merge Conflict: Episode 111

We get nerdy again diving deep into the world of struct equality and performance. Sit back and get ready for some operator overloading, IEquatable, performance implications, getting of hash code, amazing C# 7 features, and how ValueTuples save everything!

.NET Rocks! vNext

Xamarin keeps evolving - are you using the latest? Carl and Richard talk to James Montemagno about his on-going work making life easier for Xamarin developers. The conversation starts out referencing a comment from a listener about the code-compile-deploy time and what it takes to get going faster. James discusses the work Xamarin has done working with the different emulators out there to make things go faster and work in more configurations. And then it's on to Xamarin Essentials - combining all your favorite Xamarin plugins into one easy-to-install-and-manage package!

AND FINALLY...

.NET Conf 2017

Stick this one in your diary!

Over the course of the three days you have a wide selection of live sessions that feature speakers from the community and .NET product teams. These are the experts in their field and it is a chance to learn, ask questions live, and get inspired for your next software project.

.NET Conf 2017 by MiCrOsOfT