Introducing Xamarin Studio

The Xamarin Integrated Development Environment

Overview

Xamarin Studio is a modern, sophisticated IDE with many features for creating iOS, Mac and Android

applications. It includes a rich editor, debugging, native platform integration with iOS, Mac and Android, and

integrated source control to name just of few of its many features.

This article surveys various sections of Xamarin Studio, providing a look at some of the features that make

it a powerful tool for creating applications.

IDE Tour

Xamarin Studio is organized into several sections for managing application files and settings, creating

application code, and debugging.

The image below shows Xamarin Studio with an application loaded:

The following sections provide an overview of the major areas in Xamarin Studio.

Welcome Screen

When launched, Xamarin Studio displays a Welcome Screen as shown below:

The Welcome Screen contains the following sections:

Toolbar Provides shortcuts to the Xamarin Developer Center, Support and Forums, as well as

quick access to your Xamarin Account.

Solutions Provides quick access to recently opened solutions, as well as convenience buttons to

open or create projects.

Xamarin News - News feed to stay up to date on the latest Xamarin information.

Pre-Built Apps Templates of complete applications to help bootstrap application development.

Solution Pad

The Solution Pad organizes the project(s) in a solution, as shown below:

This is where files for the source code, resources, user interface, and assembly references are managed.

When an item in the Solution Pad is selected, a menu button to the right of the item allows access to the

items context menu, which is also presented by right-clicking the item. The following shows the context

menu for a C# source code file:

Assembly References

Assembly references are available under the References folder, shown below:

Adding references is done via the References folders Edit References context menu item, or by double-

clicking the folder, either of which opens the Edit References dialog:

The list of selected assemblies is shown in the list on the right side of the dialog. Any assemblies selected

in the Edit References dialog are added to the project when the dialogs OK button is selected.

Components

Xamarin Components are a powerful feature that allows user interface components as well as libraries and

themes to easily be added to a project. For more information on using Components from Xamarin Studio

see the Components Walkthrough.

Information on using components in an application can be found in the Including a Component in your

project Walkthrough.

NuGet

NuGet has been integrated with Xamarin Studio. This gives developers the ability to search a plethora of

NuGet packages, and add them to a Xamarin.iOS or Xamarin.Android project.

Information on using a NuGet package in an application can be found in the Including a NuGet in your

project

Project Options

Double-clicking the project item or selecting Options from its context menu opens the Project Options

dialog, shown below:

This dialog allows a variety of project level settings to be applied, organized by the following sections:

General Settings, such as the application name, version, description and default namespace.

Build Compiler options, build configurations, assembly name and output path; as well as platform

specific build, packaging and application settings.

Run Execution scripts and commands.

Source Code Formatting, conventions and naming policies.

Version Control Commit message styles and change log integration.

Editor

Xamarin Studio features a modern, sophisticated source code editor. The editor area features a tabbed

interface for editing source files as shown below:

The editing experience includes various features, presented in the following sections.

Syntax Highlighting

Code in the editor is highlighted according to various language keywords and constructs, as shown below

where the keywords, types and string literals have different colors:

Code Completion

Types are discoverable in a popup window while you type. This allows easy exploration of APIs. The

following screen shows the completion list:

Code Navigation

Xamarin Studio includes support for both finding declarations of any variable or type, as well as any

references where they are used. These are available from the editors context menu:

Selecting Go to declaration navigates the editor to either the variable declaration or to the type in the

assembly browser. Find references presents a list of all places in the project where the variable or type is

used, as shown below:

Breadcrumb Menu

Just below the tabs is the breadcrumb menu, which allows exploration of the class structure contained

within the selected file.

Tooltips

Rich, detailed tooltips are presented when hovering over various code elements within the editor. These

display information such as function signatures, summary descriptions and code template previews, as

shown below:

Multiple Open Source Windows

Having more than one source file editing window open at any time has great speed advantages when

constructing code. Xamarin Studio allows you do that simply.

Select View > Editor Layout > 2 columns

To revert back to a single open window, perform the same operation except select 1 column.

Refactoring

Xamarin Studio provides the following refactoring features:

Rename

Create property

Create getter

Extract Method

Iterate via foreach

Declare local variable

These are available in the editors context menu based on what is selected in the code. The following

screenshot shows the refactoring context menu when the cursor is over a variable:

Indentation and Comments

The editor includes support for automatic indention of code, which can be applied across an entire file by

selecting Edit > Format > Format Document from the main menu.

Additionally, indentation as well as comment toggling is available in the editors context menu:

Snippets

Xamarin Studio includes support for code templates, which allow common code constructs to be easily

added. The full list of snippets is available in the Toolbox:

When typing in the editor, snippets appear in the code completion list, where they can be selected to inject

the associated code into the editor, as shown below for the snippet that injects an enum:

Code suggestions

Xamarin Studio is able to suggest changes to your code which either simplify or optimize the code. When

the IDE finds such a change, a blue box will appear under the code that can potentially be changed.

Placing the mouse on the line produces a pop up explaining the change:

Selecting either option will change the code accordingly. If no change is required, click anywhere on the

editor window or press the Escape key on the keyboard.

Unified Search

Xamarin Studio includes unified search capability that searches a solutions types and files as well as

available commands. Matching results are grouped into the following sections:

Top Result Shows the top matching result for the search string.

Solution Shows a list of matching types within the solution.

Files Shows a list of matching files for the search string.

Commands Shows a list of available commands for the search string.

The following screenshot shows the result of searching for the string "app in a solution:

Selecting an item in the result list navigates to that item in the editor.

Assembly Browser

Xamarin Studio also includes an Assembly Browser for navigating types in any referenced assembly.

Double-clicking on an assembly from the Solution Pad loads it into the Assembly Browser.

For example, the following screenshot shows the MonoTouch assembly loaded in the Assembly Browser:

Assembly Search

The Assembly Browser also supports search with auto-complete. For example, typing CAD in the search

box displays the following types:

The Assembly Browser is also integrated with the code editor, where selecting Go to declaration on a type

that exists in a referenced assembly will navigate to that type in the Assembly Browser. For example, the

following shows the Assembly Browser with the UIWindow loaded after it was selected in the code editor:

Debugging

Xamarin Studio includes integrated debugging for both iOS and Android projects on simulators and

emulators, as well as on devices. The debugger includes the following windows:

Watch Allows variables to be added for inspecting values.

Locals Inspects values of locally declared variables.

Breakpoints Manage breakpoints in the project.

Threads View running threads.

Call Stack Lists and navigates the call stack.

Immediate Evaluation of expressions.

The following image shows the debugger stopped at a breakpoint with the inline watch popup displayed

when hovering over a variable:

Source Control Integration

Xamarin Studio integrates with Git and Subversion source control systems. Projects under source control

are denoted with an annotation on their icons in the Solution Pad, as shown below:

For a project under source control, the context menu of the item in the Solution Pad will have its Version

Control menu enabled, showing various commands, as shown below:

Also, the main menus Version Control menu includes a variety of additional commands for working with

source control:

Differences, History and Merging

To inspect differences in the selected file, change history and perform merges, several buttons at the

bottom of the editor area are available. For example, the following screenshot shows the differences

between a local source file and the latest committed version:

Native Platform Integration

Xamarin Studio features integration with native platform tools for both iOS and Android. This allows using

various code-signing, deployment, and diagnostics tools.

Tools Menu

The following screenshot shows the iOS Tools menu in Xamarin Studio:

Under the Tools menu, there are several items that launch native platform tools, including:

Instruments iOS diagnostics tool.

Application Loader iOS utility that assists in preparing apps for sale in the iTunes App Store.

AVD Manager Android utility to manage emulators.

Info.plist

In addition to source code editing, the tabbed interface includes support for certain platform specific files.

For example, when opening an Info.plist file, which is used by iOS applications to store various

configuration data, the following user interface is presented to allow easy editing of the file:

iOS Designer

The iOS Designer is fully integrated with Xamarin studio and enables visual editing of .storyboard files.

The entire user interface can be built using drag-and-drop functionality between the Toolbox and Design

Surface, while using a much more intuative approach to handling events. The iOS Designer also supports

custom controls with the added benefit of design-time rendering.

For more information on using the iOS Designer, refer to the Designer documents.

Android Designer

For Android applications, Xamarin Studio includes its own designer, which works with Android .axml files

to visually construct user interfaces. Xamarin Studio will open these files in its Android designer, as shown

below:

For more information on the Android designer see the Designer Overview document.

Summary

This document presented various parts of Xamarin Studio. It showed the areas of the IDE used for file

management, such as the Solution Pad and Version Control integration. It also exhibited the rich source

code editor, search, code completion, and code navigation features that make working with a complex code

base a breeze. Finally, it introduced features for integrating with native platform tools on both iOS and

Android.