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Getting started with Xamarin
Xamarin is a San Francisco, California-based software company, which provides commercial software development tools, that leverage the Mono open source project in order to allow you to develop applications for Android, iOS, and Mac using C# and the .NET framework.
Xamarin brings a wide range of products to simplify the mobile application development in a cross-platform way. The following are some of the products offered by Xamarin:
- The Xamarin platform: Xamarin uses the open source implementation of the.NET framework called Mono. The Xamarin framework implementation includes its own compiler written in C# and the .NET libraries. The Xamarin platform includes the following products:
- Xamarin.iOS: This is also known as MonoTouch. This is used for building native iOS applications using C# and .NET.
- Xamarin.Android: This is also known as Mono for Android or formally known as MonoDroid. This is used for building native Android applications using C# and .NET.
- Xamarin.Forms: In both Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS, we cannot build a pure cross-platform application. The part of the application that is platform-independent can then be isolated and reused across the platform; however, you still need to write platform-specific code for designing the application's interface. This is where Xamarin.Forms comes into picture. Xamarin.Forms allows you to write the user-interface code that can be compiled for the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.
- Xamarin.Mac: This is also known as Mono for Mac. Xamarin.Mac allows you to develop fully native Mac applications in C# and .NET.
- Xmarin.Windows: This is also known as Mono for Windows. Xamarin.Windows allows you to develop a fully Windows App in C# and .NET.
The product we will use in this book for developing the Android application is Xamarin.Android.
- Development IDEs: Along with frameworks, it also brings the required development IDEs, such as Xamarin Studio and the Visual Studio plugin. Xamarin Studio is a fully integrated IDE, which comes handy with the Xamarin package. Xamarin Studio can be used for both Windows and Mac operating systems. Xamarin Studio includes some of the rich features, including code completion, a debugging interface, an Android layout builder, and integration with Xcode Interface Builder for iOS app design. However, if you're familiar with Visual Studio, you can continue to take almost all the benefits mentioned earlier from Visual Studio using the Visual Studio support plugin.
- Xamarin Test Cloud: Mobile application testing is quite challenging, as we have to consider the various form factors, device densities, connectivity types, and different OS versions. It is nearly impossible to test your application on all the targeted devices. Xamarin Test Cloud is an answer to this problem. Xamarin Test Cloud makes it possible to test mobile apps written in any language on collection of real devices from around the world. You can write your test scripts using the Xamarin testing framework and automate your app testing from CI Systems.