hot tuna cross platform development with.net, xamarin and mvvmcross

Hot TunaCROSS PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT WITH .NET, XAMARIN AND MVVMCROSS

Sean’s Guff Formerly CIO at Catalyst Risk ManagementCurrently unemployed

Personal shareware site atwww.sourceitsoftware.com

Blog atsourceitsoftware.blogspot.com

@seanrcross

sean@sourceitsoftware.com

To cover•What are we trying to achieve

•Example

•Theory (boring!)

•Getting started with MvvmCross

•Plugins

•Platform specific stuff

•Summary

•Links

The holy grail

What is achievable

Example – Lions Official (sorry)

The pieces•.net (duh)•Xamarin (iOS, Android, Mac)•Portable Class Libraries•MvvmCross

Xamarin•Commercial products for C# development for non-Windows platforms

•Xamarin.Android

•Xamarin.iOS

•Xamarin.Mac

•Need business edition for VS integration @ $999 US each

Xamarin Demo

Portable Class Libraries•Create a single library that can be used by multiple .net frameworks

•Allows access only to functionality shared by all selected frameworks

•Does some nifty namespace mapping

•Makes cross platform development much easier

•Microsoft and 3rd party PCLs available (HttpClient, Imaging, JSON…)

.net x.x

Portable Class LibraryShared functionality

Silverlight

.net x.x

Windows Store

Portable Class LibraryShared functionality

Silverlight

.net x.x

Windows Store

Portable Class LibraryShared functionality

Silverlight

Xamarin.XXXX

PCL Demo Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy

It’s hard to find a good image of a class library

Mvvm: Model – View Model - Model

Mvvm: Key interfaces•INotifyPropertyChanged• RaisePropertyChanged(() => PropertyName );

•ICommand

•INotifyCollectionChanged (or ObservableCollection)

Mvvm: Binding

XAML Code

<StackPanel> <TextBox Text="{Binding Hello, Mode=TwoWay}" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Hello}" /> <Button Content="Click Me" Command="{Binding MyCommand}" /> <Button Content="Go Second"  Command="{Binding GoSecondCommand}"  /></StackPanel>

public class FirstViewModel  : MvxViewModel{ private string _hello = "Hello MvvmCross";   public string Hello {  get { return _hello; } set { _hello = value; RaisePropertyChanged(() => Hello); } }

   public System.Windows.Input.ICommand MyCommand    {        get        {            return new Cirrious.MvvmCross.ViewModels.MvxCommand(DoMyCommand);        }    }

   private void DoMyCommand()    {        Hello = Hello + " World";    }

    public System.Windows.Input.ICommand GoSecondCommand    {        get        {            return new Cirrious.MvvmCross.ViewModels.MvxCommand(DoGoSecond);        }    }    private void DoGoSecond()    {        ShowViewModel<SecondViewModel>();    }}

MvvmCross•Cross Platform MVVM Development Framework

•Free, open source

•Supports• WP7,8• WPF• WinRT• Xamarin.Android• Xamarin.iOS• Xamarin.Mac

•AKA Mvx

MvvmCross Architecture

Using MvvmCross•Hard - download from github, compile, include references etc

•Easy - Nuget; look for MvvmCross Hot Tuna Starter Pack, and plugins

•Real Easy - NinjaCoder

Getting started - Nuget

Getting started - NinjaCoder

Plugins•Convenient way to access platform functionality

•Use NinjaCoder or Nuget to add plugins

•Includes Accelerometer, Email, Files, Location, Messaging, Sqlite

•3rd party plugins available as well.

•Consume plugins using Dependency Injection or Service locator

Plugins Demo

Platform specific code•Describe functionality using an interface in .Core

•Create platform specific implementation in .xxxx

•Register implementation on app startup◦ Mvx.RegisterSingleton<ISettingsPersistance>(new SettingsPersistanceWPF());◦ Mvx.RegisterType<IGetRemoteData, RemoteDataWpf>();

•Consume plugins using Dependancy Injection or Service locator• persistance = Mvx.Resolve<ISettingsPersistance>();

Platform specific example•Here is one that I prepared earlier

Summary•PCLs let you use easily share code across multiple platforms

•Xamarin lets you use C# on Android, iOS and Mac

•MvvmCross wraps it all up to make it easy• Shared PCL that holds most functionality• Platform specific apps for views and dependant code

•Plugins let you easily add functionality in a cross platform friendly way

•Do your own platform dependant stuff using interfaces and IoC/Dependancy Injection

Links - MvvmCross Stuart Lodge - MvvmCross Author

•Twitter @slodge

•Blog http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/

•Videos http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHollywoof?feature=watch

•List of tutorial videos http://mvvmcross.wordpress.com/

•Repository https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross

Links - Xamarin•Website - http://www.xamarin.com/

•Samples - https://github.com/xamarin

•Mobile library - https://github.com/xamarin/Xamarin.Mobile

Links – Ninja Coder•Adrian Sudbury – Ninja Coder Author

•Twitter @asudbury

•Blog http://adriansudbury.blogspot.co.uk/

•Ninja Coder http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/618b51f0-6de8-4f85-95ce-a50c658c7767

Links - Other http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CrossPlatformPortableClassLibrariesWithNETAreHappening.aspx

http://sourceitsoftware.blogspot.co.nz/

Credits Mvvm Images from http://books.zkoss.org/wiki/ZK_Developer%27s_Reference/MVVM

Questions•Answers not guaranteed