Issue 215 12th July 2019

LUCE CARTER

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another awesome and jam-packed edition of the newsletter!

For those of you currently in Houston for Xamarin Dev Summit, I hope you are having a great time and enjoying all the awesome announcements.

In case you missed Maddy Ledger making the announcement, XAML Hot Reload is coming!!!! Look out for the blog post from Microsoft about it in this week's newsletter!

As well as Dev Summit, #XamarinUIJuly has been continuing with more amazing contributions from very talented individuals in the community!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! I am off to Greece for a week on Sunday, for my first proper relaxation holiday since 2002!!!

❤ Luce

NEWS

Xamarin.Forms 4.1.0 Stable Now Available

Microsoft are happy to announce Xamarin.Forms 4.1 availability on NuGet. The 3.0.0 series of releases focused heavily on growing Xamarin.Forms by filling in the gaps. The team learned that this should be available by default and want to continue effectively growing Xamarin.

Xamarin.Forms 4.1.0 Stable Now Available by David Ortinau

Announcing XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms

It is finally here! After years of the community asking, and using third party solutions, at Xamarin Developer Summit this week, Maddy Ledger shared the news with everyone that XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms is now available in private preview!

DESIGN

Revisiting the iconography of Apple Maps

A few years ago, Mercury published a post examining the point of interest (POI) icons within Apple Maps titled More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Apple’s Spotlight Location Icons. POI icons have existed in Apple Maps since Google was the maps provider. This post will examine how the system has grown and evolved over the past few years.

Revisiting the iconography of Apple Maps by Mercury Intermedia

TOOLS

Introducing Xamarin.Forms Switch Component

The team at Syncfusion now have a switch component that will be available from Essential Studio for Xamarin.Forms 2019 Vol. 2 (Beta). Nowadays, almost all mobile apps contain a user interface that allows the user to turn on or off items so this is a great edition to their already large collection of components.

Introducing Xamarin.Forms Switch Component by Selva Ganapathy Kathiresan

#XamarinUIJuly Adventures in Modern Previewing

In this entry for XamarinUIJuly, Lachlan talks through the Xamarin.Forms Previewer in Visual Studio and why should give it another go. He also explores new features and a plugin he developed so you can see the notch in the previewer, like if it was an iPhone X or later.

#XamarinUIJuly Adventures in Modern Previewing by Lachlan Gordon

ANDROID

Android Auto Backup and why we need to manage it properly in Xamarin

As Xamarin Forms Developers even though you are developing most of your code in Forms, you still need to be attentive to each native platform features and how their ecosystem evolves and how does this affect our apps, a common case is using Shared Preferences; each platform deals with them differently.

Android Auto Backup and why we need to manage it properly in Xamarin by Pujolsluis

XAMARIN FORMS

CarouselView.FormsPlugin Vs CardsView

Thiago Bertuzzi uses this post to compare two plugins, answering a challenge set out by Andrei Misiukevich; CarouselView and CardsView.

CarouselView.FormsPlugin Vs CardsView by Thiago Bertuzzi

Modernize Xamarin.Forms DataForm, Autocomplete and ComboBox using Text Input Layout

Another entry from our friends over at Syncfusion, this time they are discussing using text input layout to modernise forms, autocomplete and combo boxes.

Modernize Xamarin.Forms DataForm, Autocomplete and ComboBox using Text Input Layout by Mohamed Samsudeen

AiForms.SettingsView

This is a great NuGet package that allows for a flexible TableView specialized in settings for Android / iOS. You need to install this nuget package to .NETStandard project and each platform project.

muak/AiForms.SettingsView by Kamu

Cross-platform imaging with Xamarin.Forms and SkiaSharp

David Britch shares some fantastic lessons learned when considering a cross-platform imaging app.

Cross-platform imaging with Xamarin.Forms and SkiaSharp by David Britch

Creating custom Xamarin.Forms loading indicator with animations

It's inevitable that, as a mobile app developer, you will need to show a loading indicator in your app. These are mostly used to inform users that the application needs to do some "thinking" and the users are required to wait until the process is completed. This post will teach you how to add some animations to make it more interesting for the user.

Creating custom Xamarin.Forms loading indicator with animations by Mikolaj Kieres

A (r)evolution for displaying data: Xamarin.Forms CollectionView

This entry is part of the Xamarin UI July initiative.

When you need to display a long list of elements in a mobile app that you are developing with Xamarin.Forms, ListView is most probably your first choice to handle the situation. This UI element has been around for quite some time, and while it is quite useful and has been improved with cool capabilities such as pull-to-refresh, context actions, grouping, and many others, CollectionView is a revolution for (and an evolution of!) ListView, especially if heterogeneous data (multiple layouts, data orientation -horizontal/vertical-) are in your app roadmap.

A (r)evolution for displaying data: Xamarin.Forms CollectionView by Luis Beltran

The Coordinate System in Xamarin.Forms and Android

This month is Xamarin UI July and this article is the July 8th 2019 Featured Blog where you will learn about the Cartesian Coordinate System and how it applies to Computer Graphics, Xamarin.Forms and the different platforms that your mobile app run on.

The Coordinate System in Xamarin.Forms and Android by

Xamarin.Forms change ListView SelectedItemColor

This is a useful post covering how to change the selected item colour in a listview in Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin.Forms change ListView SelectedItemColor by doniald

Credit Card Payment UI in Xamarin Forms

Another exciting XamarinUIJuly entry, this time from XamGirl herself aka Charlin! In this post Charlin talks you through creating a credit card payment UI including validation.

Credit Card Payment UI in Xamarin Forms by Charlin Agromonte

Simple way to create a Floating Button in Xamarin Forms

XamarinUIJuly is proving so popular, that Leomaris Reyes has written a post that isn't even on the official schedule! In this post, Leomaris aka AskXammy, teaches you how to get the famous floating button into your Xamarin.Forms application.

Simple way to create a Floating Button in Xamarin Forms by Leomaris Reyes

Elegant Tabs and Rg.Popup for the Fancy UI World – Abdul Muhaymin Arif

This is another entry from XamarinUIJuly. In this post, Abdul discusses a problem he and his colleagues were trying to solve and the solutoin they came up with called elegant tabs.

Elegant Tabs and Rg.Popup for the Fancy UI World – Abdul Muhaymin Arif by Abdul Muhaymin Arif

Building a Bottom Sheet in Xamarin.Forms - Raviteja Lingineni

This post is a part of the Xamarin July series. You will explore how to create a bottom sheet or drawer interaction that is used to complement your main app page. These are similar to half modal pages - but can be of varying lengths. The iOS Maps app and Siri Shortcuts are two out of the box applications that utlize this custom control by Apple to display information contextually.

Building a Bottom Sheet in Xamarin.Forms - Raviteja Lingineni by Raviteja Lingineni

My two cents on Xamarin Forms Shell

In another excellent XamarinUIJuly entry, Mayito digs further into Shell, the new framework for helping scaffold out a UI, complete with navigation. This is a really interesting read if you have seen Shell and want to learn more.

My two cents on Xamarin Forms Shell by Mayito Galvan

MVVMCROSS

Tab navigation for Xamarin.iOS using MvvmCross

Another fantastic entry for XamarinUIJuly, Pranav talks you through tab navigation, using the MVVM framework MvvmCross.

Tab navigation for Xamarin.iOS using MvvmCross - Pranav Khandelwal - Medium by Pranav Khandelwal

PODCASTS & VIDEOS

Short Demo of CSharpForMarkup

I recently discovered CSharpForMarkup and really enjoyed it. The man behind that, Vincent Hoogendoorn has recorded a short demo so you too can see how awesome it is! He also shows off LiveSharp for hot reloading.

VincentH.NET on Twitter by VincentH.NET

Gone Mobile 87: Couchbase Mobile Update with Robert Hedgpeth

It's been a few years since Greg and Jon talked Couchbase on the show, so with Couchbase's recent release of Couchbase Mobile 2.5 we thought we'd bring Robert Hedgpeth on to catch us up!

Gone Mobile 87: Couchbase Mobile Update with Robert Hedgpeth by Greg Shackles, Jonathan Dick

157: FOMO UI Design

This week James and Frank switch it up and take a look at one of the most amazing and yet terrible UI/UX experiences, and how it impacts our own apps design and the industry at large.

157: FOMO UI Design by soundbite.fm

Xamarin Introductions

Introducing Rendy

This week's featured community hero is Rendy Del Rosario, aka XamBoy, from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Rendy Del Rosario also known as XamBoy. I'm an Open source lover, Speaker, Blogger and founder of CrossGeeks. Got involved in mobile development way too early when Pocket PCs and BlackBerry were a big thing!. After suffering the pain of developing native applications for Android and iOS became a very early adopter of Xamarin and loved every bit of its evolution. Have been leading and developing successful and quality mobile and enterprise applications for over 15 years. My team and I eagerly contribute to the community by building awesome open source plugins to support features such as Push Notifications, Facebook Login, Google Login, File Uploading, Device Sensors, Multi language, etc. I love sharing my knowledge, experiences and lessons learned at my blog www.xamboy.com.

Tell us one thing we probably don't know about you?

I love writing poetry. If you know Spanish you might find some of my poems here: www.rendy.org.... Don't judge me I'm a romantic and XamGirl loves it :P

How did you first get into Xamarin development?

My first Xamarin project was a mobile sales force application was quite a satisfying experience been able to build something that adds so much value..

What has been the most enjoyable project you have built using Xamarin? I think the most enjoyable projects have been my open source plugins. For example the push notifications ones was quite an achievement for me. It is really nice to just follow the guide then plug and play to push notifications working in just a few minutes.

What advice would you give someone looking at getting started with Xamarin development?

Start by learning well the basics concepts first such as building ui, navigation, binding, dependency injection, etc. Then should master the MVVM pattern by using a Framework to build quality and maintainable mobile applications.

What are the MUST HAVE tools, resources and libraries that you use when building Xamarin apps?

Refit, Prism, FFImageLoading, Xamarin.Essentials, Acr.UserDialogs, Newtonsoft.Json

Where do you think mobile will be in 5 years?

I think we will see lot's of very cool and advanced AI and AR stuff been done.

Any other things you would like to share or promote?

I love to know about others experience with Xamarin and always willing to help succeed with it. If you need any help, want to get involve in one of our open source projects or just want to chat find me at twitter.

Make sure you keep up to date with updates from Rendy:

Blog: www.xamboy.com

Twitter: @rdelrosario

Github: https://github.com/rdelrosario