KYM PHILLPOTTS
Welcome Back
This week we have an action-packed edition of the Weekly Xamarin newsletter. Lots of stuff happening around the community. And just around the corner, we have Ignite 2018. BTW, here is a summary of the Xamarin Sessions.
Thanks again for reading the newsletter and have a great weekend.
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MFractor: Incredible tools for Visual Studio Mac.
With supercharged XAML IntelliSense, 100+ code inspections and refactorings, image tooling and much more, MFractor is an essential addition to your Xamarin tooling arsenal.
DESIGN
60+ great UI kits for iOS engineers
If you are designing apps for iOS then you'll like this curated list of design resources and UIKits for iOS development.
6 Animation Guidelines for UX Design
Animations look great in applications, however, if you don't follow these basic animation guidelines you could be turning off your users. So follow these tips to really make them work for you.
TESTING
Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms and Unit Testing with xUnit and Moq
Nick Randolph talks about unit testing with xUnit. He also covers using the mocking library, Moq, to make your testing easier.
Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms and Unit Testing with xUnit and Moq by Nick
Turn specs into high quality apps
This is Marco's talk from NDC Oslo about Turning specs into high-quality apps!
Presentation: Turn specs into high quality apps [NDC Oslo] by Marco
TOOLS
Copy a (db) file from an installed Android apk
Need to pull a database file from a device so you can play around with it? Look no further.
ANDROID
Rounded Icons in Xamarin.Android
Rounded Icons are all the rage in Android these days. You should support them, and with this post Thiago shows you how.
O X do Xamarin Forms — Criando Ícones arredondados para o Xamarin.Android by Thiago Bertuzzi
Android 9 Pie, thoroughly reviewed
If you need to catch up with the changes in Android 9 this is an extremely thorough run down of whats new and changed.
IOS
Touchscreen Visualisation on Xamarin iOS
To produce a demonstration video on Android you can turn on screen visualisations from the Developer settings menu and this will show screen interactions on a screen capture. No such option exists on iOS so you need to write some custom code in your app instead.
Touchscreen Visualisation on Xamarin iOS by Peter Freeman Foot
Allowing one specific controller inside of UINavigationController to rotate
René Ruppert was asked the question: "How can I have a UINavigationController based app, where all controllers are forced into portrait but one of them should support both, landscape and portrait?" one too many times and decided it was time to write a guide.
Allowing one specific controller inside of UINavigationController to rotate by René Ruppert
Supporting iPhone XS Max and XR
Here is a recap of what you need to know to update your Apps for the all the shiny new Apple devices.
iOS User Interfaces: Storyboards vs. NIBs vs. Custom Code
What’s the best way to develop a UI in iOS: through Storyboards, NIBs, or code? This article provides a pretty good rundown of the pros and cons of each option.
iOS User Interfaces: Storyboards vs. NIBs vs. Custom Code by Antonio Bello
Handling input from Apple Pencil
This blog post describes how to use Xamarin.iOS and Visual Studio 2017 to build a signature pad app that works with Apple Pencil.
Handling input from Apple Pencil by Prashant Cholachagudda
XAMARIN FORMS
An amazing Xamarin.Forms app
I can't say enough good things about the niceties of this app for Paris Turf. It includes a slew of nice little touches that really showcase what you can do with a Xamarin.Forms app if you are willing to spend some time and effort. In this article, Jean-Marie Alfonsi talks about how they pulled it off.
Local Notifications in Xamarin Forms
You have never asked yourself how your device does to show reminders or alerts that run at a certain time (for example: "Go to the supermarket" and this message appears as a notification reminding you to go to the supermarket). Carlos shows you how.
Learning Realm in Xamarin Forms (Part. 1)
Realm is an object oriented database that can be use to handle data persistance in mobile apps. Is a solid alternative to SQLite and other mobile data persistance options. In this specific article will be covering the basics on setting up Realm and starting to use it in Xamarin Forms.
ListView Infinite Scroll – Xamarin.Forms
Julio demonstrates how you can implement a list with Infinite Scroll, so your list will be loaded "in parts" with pagination and the amount of items you want per page. This type of loading is often used when it is necessary to load a list with many elements, preventing the user from expecting the whole list to load so that he can select the desired element.
ListView com Infinite Scroll – Xamarin.Forms by Juliano Custódio
Backgrounding with Xamarin.Forms the Easy Way
Ever wonder how facebook and twitter process there background to fetch a new content? And it looks so slick that when you refresh it was snappy and smooth, Making the user believed that the content is refreshed and updated in a snap when in fact it was done in the background.
Backgrounding with Xamarin.Forms the Easy Way by Winston Gubantes
State Button and other goodies
Thiago Beruzzi has posed some articles on various customised Xamarin.Forms controls.
This week he has a post on a State Button
Also check out his introduction to other components here.
The new Xamarin.Forms 3.2 TitleView
Xamarin.Forms 3.2 has introduced a nice bunch of fixes. In this post, Thiago gives a nice introduction to get you started.
Effect to customize the StatusBar
Here is a nice little effect from Javier to customize the colour of your status bar in Xamarin.Forms
[Xamarin.Forms] Efecto para personalizar la StatusBar by Javier Suárez Ruiz
Consuming RSS Feeds with Xamarin.Forms the Easy Way
Here is a nice little tip on consuming RSS Feeds using Microsoft.Toolkit.Parsers.
Consuming RSS Feeds with Xamarin.Forms the Easy Way by Winston Gubantes
What's New in Xamarin Forms Part 1
In case you missed .NET Conf (you can watch all the videos at Channel 9) and you want a quick rundown of what’s new in Xamarin Forms from .NET Conf 2018, let Devlin tell you all about the new hotness.
Summary of NET Conf 2018 – What's New in Xamarin Forms Part 1 by Devlin
Upgrading to Xamarin.Essentials from Plugins
Xamarin.Essentials is a new official library from Microsoft that provides developers with over 30 cross-platform APIs for their mobile apps to tap into to access native features. Learn to love Essentials because it's going to be your best friend.
Upgrading to Xamarin.Essentials from Plugins by James Montemagno
NUGET OF THE WEEK
Tiny.RestClient : A fully fledged .NETStandard compatible REST client.
The main purpose of the client is to have an optimized REST client that is easy to use. It is compatible with .Net Standard 1.3 and 2.0 which means that it is usable on .Net Framework 4.5 or higher, Xamarin and .Net Core and UWP.
PODCASTS & VIDEOS
Merge Conflict 115: Apple Event Recap & Smart Homes 3.0
Yes! It is time for new iPhone and Apple Watch devices! We quickly break down the entire Apple Event from last week and then go directly into smart home automation and Android Things.
RELEASES
Get Ready for iOS 12 and Xcode 10
Support for iOS 12 and Xcode 10 to accompany Apple’s Xcode Gold Master (GM) release has just been announced! We have also published updated documentation and samples to help you quickly get started with all the latest new features.
Xamarin.Forms 3.2.0 Released!
Xamarin.Forms 3.2.0 continues the theme of previous releases to give you big wins by making little things much easier to do.
Xamarin.Forms 3.2.0 Released: Going Big with Little Things by David Ortinau