Azure and Xamarin Forms: Cross Platform Mobile Development

Description

Discover how to create cross platform apps for Android, iOS and UWP using Azure services and C# with Xamarin Forms. This book illustrates how to utilize Azure cloud storage for serving up Azure SQL DB data through Azure App Services. The book starts by setting up Xamarin and introducing Xamarin Forms and then covers the Azure Portal from a developer’s perspective and goes on to demonstrate how to build an Azure Service using Quickstart. You'll also see how to add Azure support to Xamarin Forms application. You'll review in detail how to build a Xamarin Form with Azure Client and modify an existing app to become a Xamarin Forms Client for Azure with offline synchronization. You then move on to third-party controls that speed up development. By the end of the book, you will be able to use Azure and Xamarin together and master how to use Azure Mobile Quickstarts, Azure SQL plumbing, database synchronization and Xamarin Forms. What You'll Learn Create a Xamarin Forms App and understand the Structure of a Xamarin Forms App.  Navigate pages and use platform specific coding.  Use images, ListView and the Azure Mobile App Quickstart to build a Service and  Xamarin Forms app Modify an existing app to use Azure Client Libraries, understand offline storage with SQLite and incorporate offline synchronization Who This Book Is For  Software developers new to Xamarin and/or Azure and for the developers who are familiar with both the technologies to use in mobile apps. Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Installing Visual Studio 2017 Installing Visual Studio 2017 and Tools on Windows Installing Visual Studio 2017 and Tools on the Mac Other Tools Summary Chapter 2: Introduction to Xamarin Forms Project Overview Project 2-1: Creating Your First Xamarin Forms Application Project 2-2: Working with the User Interface Project 2-3: Dealing with Tablet and Phone Form Factors Project 2-4: Working with Images Project 2-5: Working with ListView Summary Chapter 3: Introduction to Azure: A Developer’s Perspective Free Azure Accounts and Credits Azure Portal Billing and Usage Marketplace Windows Virtual Machines Deployment Models and Resource Groups Web App ASP.NET Azure CLI SQL Database Creating Your Database Using Visual Studio to Verify Your Database Building Solutions Documentation Solutions Status Support Delete Resources Summary Chapter 4: Building an Azure Service Using Quickstart Part 1: Create a Mobile App in the Azure Portal Part 2: Modify the Service App Part 3: Add the Question and Response DTOs and End Points Part 4: Add Controllers Part 5: Seed the Data and Force Entity Framework to Re-create Our Tables and Publish Part 6: Verify the Database Summary Chapter 5: Building a Xamarin Forms Azure Client Part 1: Open an Existing Xamarin Forms Application Part 2: Add Azure Support to a Xamarin Forms Application Part 3: Customize the DTOs for the Polling Service Part 4: Fill In the Logic to Query and Update Our Poll Records Part 5: Add Support to Our App for Offline Data Caching Part 6: Synchronizing to the Remote Database Summary Chapter 6: Delete Resources in Your Subscription Removing All Artifacts Summary Book Summary Index