Building Cross Platform Mobile Apps with Xamarin

Brandon Cornett

What is Xamarin?

• Established in 2011 by Miguel De Icaza and Nat Friedman

• Built on the Mono framework• Suite of tools• Simple to adapt to• Ability to share code• Use common data transfer objects• Wraps each platform almost identically• Async / Await, LINQ, etc.

Why Cross Platform Apps?

• Faster development cycles• Better app visibility• Shared code base• Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin.Forms

Cross Platform Techniques• Shared Projects• Uses preprocessor directives (#region, #define, #if)• Xamarin.Forms• Portable Class Libraries

Portable Class Libraries

• Ability to choose platforms

• Only limited set of .NET features

• Use interfaces for platform-specific code

Demo

Xamarin Offerings

• Visual Studio Integration• Mac• Forms• Apple Watch / Android Wear• Android Player• Components / NuGet• TestCloud• Insights

Get Started

• Free starter plans (no deployment)• Small business plans• Indie plans for $25 / month, free for

students• http://xamarin.com/

Questions?@brandon_dev

bdev.io/sqlsat2015

http://xamarin.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xamarin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_(software)