LUCE CARTER
Hey everyone,
Slightly quieter week than some weeks recently but still loads of amazing content!
We don't have a Xamarin Introduction for you today but watch out for future issues where we have some exciting faces lined up :)
Have a fantastic weekend, whatever you have planned!
See you next week, Luce ❤️
NEWS
Xamarin & .NET Developer Events in August
Discover the world of Xamarin and .NET with your community at developer events happening this August. Find tons of opportunities around the world, including conferences and virtual events online!
Xamarin | Open-source mobile app platform for .NET
The new Xamarin.com went live this week, integrated with other great DotNet content. This means all the DotNet awesomeness can be found in one place. It does a great job of highlighting why Xamarin is an awesome tool to build mobile apps with. New Xamarin.com
DESIGN
A micro-animations library
Micro-interactions and animations can bring a sense of fun and liveliness to you apps. Lottie is a great framework to do this. https://lottiefiles.com/ is a great resource for Lottie resources, but here is another free library we just found. These animations are more suited to mobile UI interactions. So check them out.
A micro-animations library by Patrik Svoboda
DEVOPS
Getting Started with Azure Pipelines for Xamarin Developers
Dan Siegel, one of the great organisers behind Xamarin Dev Summit, has started a new series on Azure Pipelines for Xamarin Developers. In this first article, he takes you through how to get started including useful extensions!
Getting Started with Azure Pipelines for Xamarin Developers by Dan Siegel
App Center: High-performing backend as a service
App Center is growing to become the one-stop-shop for mobile development. Regardless of the framework you're using to build your app, App Center has got you covered for your Build, Test, Distribution, Analytics and Diagnostics.
App Center: High-performing backend as a service by Facebook
TOOLS
Exceptions - The complete guide
Exceptions are the norm. In this article Michael Shpilt covers everything you need to know about debugging and working with exceptions in Visual Studio.
Debug & Catch Exceptions in Visual Studio: The complete guide by Michael Shpilt
Theming in Visual Studio just got a lot easier
Sometimes the default themes for Visual Studio just aren’t enough. Lucky for us, Microsoft just redesigned the process of creating and importing custom themes. Previously, one of the only ways to import themes was to download the older Color Theme Editor extension. If you were brave enough to create your own theme, you had to edit elements one by one from an unorganized list of 3,000+ vaguely named color tokens. Not anymore!
ANDROID
Optimize your Xamarin.Android Builds
Xamarin.Android has a lot of nobs and levers when it comes to configuring your project. Jonathan Peppers knows all the settings, and in this post he walks through what the main ones are and what you should use when.
XAMARIN FORMS
Contribute to Xamarin.Forms
Javier walks through all the different ways you can contribute to Xamarin.Forms
Note: Post is in Spanish (but it's full of good information, so if you are an English speaker, just smash that translate button ;-) )
With all the updates is easy to lose track of all the magic that you can do now in Xamarin Forms. If you developed using Forms a few months ago probably there were a lot of things that you needed a custom renderer to achieve them but now things are finally changing. Here is a list of the best features that you probably didn’t know there is a property for.
Awesome Xamarin Forms properties that you probably didn’t know about by Charlin Agramonte
Add Contact Features in 4 Lines of Code with Xamarin.Essentials
Integrating contact functionality has been a common task for many mobile app developers over the years. Contact features are available in Xamarin.Essentials to make it even easier to get started in your cross-platform app!
Add Contact Features in 4 Lines of Code with Xamarin.Essentials by James Montemagno
PODCASTS & VIDEOS
Improved Android Startup Times with Startup Tracing
This week, James is joined by friend of the show Jon Douglas, Xamarin.Android Program Manager, who shows us how to super charge the startup time of Android applications with a brand new feature called Startup Tracing.
Improved Android Startup Times with Startup Tracing | The Xamarin Show by James Montemagno
Merge Conflict: 161: The World of Embedded Hardware
In this week's episode, James and Frank discuss the world of embedded hardware, Python and amazing things Frank has done with it!
Xamarin.Forms 101: XAML Previewer
Xamarin.Forms 101 is back with another episode hosted by Maddy Leger. This time she takes you through XAML Previewer. It's now much improved and far more stable than a lot of us remember it from years back so it's a great time to give it another go!
Yet Another Podcast: Xamarin.Forms Tools
Jesse Liberty is back with another episode of Yet Another Podcast. This episode features the great Maddy Leger, PM for Xamarin.Forms Tools at Microsoft, discussing Hot Reload and much more! Yet Another Podcast by Jesse Liberty
AND FINALLY...
Show creators some ❤️!
James Montemagno has an August challenge for you. Give some lovin' to a community contributor!