Xamarin.Forms Essentials: First Steps Toward Cross-Platform Mobile Apps

Description

Learn the bare essentials needed to begin developing cross-platform, mobile apps using Xamarin.Forms. Apps can be easily deployed to Google Play or to the Apple App Store. You will gain insight on architecture and how to arrange your app's design, where to begin developing, what pitfalls exist, and how to avoid them. Also covered are expected new features in Xamarin.Forms 3.0, so you may be prepared ahead of time for what the next release brings. Xamarin.Forms Essentials provides a brief history of Xamarin as a company, including how their product has become one of the most-used, cross-platform technologies for enterprise applications and app development across the world. Examples in the book are built around a real-life example that is an actual app in Google Play and in the Apple App Store, and has thousands of downloads between iOS and Android. You will learn how an application is set up from scratch, and you will benefit from the author's hard-won experience and tips in addressing various development challenges. What You'll LearnCreate cross-platform user interfaces from one code base for both iOS and AndroidSee how a commercial application is built and then deployed for sale in the app storesIntegrate your Xamarin.Forms applications with third-party, RESTful APIs Arrange application architecture to avoid pitfalls and optimize your designGet a heads-up on new features released as part of Xamarin.Forms 3.0Choose appropriately between Xamarin.Forms and traditional Xamarin, depending upon your application needs and its goalsWho This Book Is For Mobile app developers who are producing software for multiple platforms, including Google Android and Apple iOS. Readers should be familiar with Visual Studio either on Mac OS X or Windows, and have a working knowledge of C#. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 A Brief History of Xamarin (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 3-18 Introducing Xamarin.Forms (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 19-29 Xamarin.Forms Contents (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 31-47 Xamarin.Forms vs. Traditional Xamarin (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 49-59 Front Matter ....Pages 61-61 Establishing the Architecture (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 63-83 Building Screens (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 85-117 Connecting to a REST Backend (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 119-132 Using Good Libraries That Are Already Out There (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 133-145 Front Matter ....Pages 147-147 What to Expect in Xamarin.Forms Version 3 (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 149-153 Conclusion (Gerald Versluis)....Pages 155-156 Back Matter ....Pages 157-161