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Building Cross-Platform Apps with Xamarin and MvvmCross
Flavius-Radu DEMIAN
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A bit about me
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A bit about me General Manager@Deventure
Timisoara .Net Meetup organizer Mobile and Web developer Xamarin and Umbraco enthusiast In love with technology @flaviusdemian
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Agenda
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Agenda Mobile Development Approaches Xamarin’s Unique Approach
The Xamarin Magic How it Works on iOS How it Works on Android Code Sharing Techniques
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Agenda What is MVVM? Why MVVM? The MvvmCross Magic
Data-Binding, Commands, Navigation Advantages Disadvantages
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Expectations I wish to have an interactive presentation.
Please feel free to ask questions any time. After this presentation, you should know: what Xamarin is and how to use it the advantages and disadvantages of Xamarin what is MVVM what Mvvmcross is and how to use it
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Expectations curious. My ultimate goal is to make you
Go home and try it yourself!
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Mobile Development Approaches
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Mobile Development Approaches
Silo Approach
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Silo Approach each platform with it’s own stack – in it’s own silo
no code sharing multiple teams => many developers multiple codebase => synchronization problem different toolsets
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Mobile Development Approaches
Web Approach
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Web Approach “Write once, run anywhere”. shared codebase
basically a native app with a WebView native look is simulated with CSS most times you can tell it is written in HTML fewer developers
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Xamarin’s Unique Approach
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Xama…what?
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Xamarin’s Unique Approach
native user interface native performance shared code across platforms usage of C# & .NET framework full API coverage fewer developers
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The Xamarin Magic Write Everything in C#
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The Xamarin Magic .NET + iOS APIs 100% coverage
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The Xamarin Magic .NET + Android APIs 100% coverage
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The Xamarin Magic .NET + Windows APIs
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The Xamarin Magic Xamarin takes the C# code and it compiles it down to native on iOS and Android. The magic is that you can also use it on the Windows platform. (Almost) everything you can do in Objective-C, Swift or Java can be also done in C# with Xamarin (check limitations on Since you use C# on both, code reuse varies from 60% to 80%.
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How Xamarin Works on iOS
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iOS Build + Execution Model
code runs as 100% native app Full Ahead of Time (AOT) compilation to produce an ARM binary for Apple’s App Store Mono framework is included Exposes CocoaTouch SDK
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iOS Build + Execution Model
We can take advantage of the APIs exposed by Mono besides the fully covered iOS APIs. Since we have Mono involved, we can use Portable Class Libraries (PCL).
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How Xamarin Works on Android
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Android Build + Execution Model
Xamarin.Android takes advantage of Just In Time (JIT) compilation on the Android device.
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Android Build + Execution Model
MCW – managed callable wrappers, mostly managed by Mono.Android.dll ACW – Android callable wrappers
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Always Up-to-Date Xamarin.iOS offered same-day support for:
iOS 5 / iOS 6 / iOS 7 / iOS 7.1 / iOS 8 / iOS 9 Xamarin offers full support for: Google Glass Android Wear Amazon Fire TV Apple Watch and more
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Development Environments
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Visual Studio 201X (PC)
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Xamarin Studio (PC + Mac)
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Code Sharing Techniques
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Code Sharing Techniques
portable class libraries (PCL) partial classes compiler conditional blocks shared projects
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Xamarin Architecture Guide
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Demo Time
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What is MVVM?
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MVVM Technical Details
properties data binding INotifyPropertyChanged INotifyCollectionChanged IValueConverter ICommand UI thread
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Why MVVM?
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MVVM Pros and Cons Pros: separation of concerns decoupling code reuse
testability Cons: MVVM is “overkill” for simple UI operations
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The MvvmCross Magic
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The MvvmCross Magic It’s an open-source framework maintained by Stuart Lodge & Co. It has Dependency Injection built-in -> Interface Driven Design. It has a lot of plugins already written such as location, s, gallery, network, SQLite, secure storage, phone calls etc. #IF plugins -> less work for the developer, but also less control.
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The MvvmCross Magic MvvmCross has support for: Xamarin.iOS Xamarin.Mac
Xamarin.Android Windows Phone and Windows 8 Windows Presentation Foundation Universal Windows Platform
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The MvvmCross Magic Is has huge popularity and the community is very active mcross/
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Data Binding, Commands, Navigation
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Data Binding - Properties
No C#, just XAML <TextBox Text="{Binding Password, Mode=TwoWay}" />
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Data Binding - Properties
No C#, just XML xmlns:local=" <EditText local:MvxBind="Text Password"
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Data Binding - Properties
Just C# var set = this.CreateBindingSet<LoginViewController, LoginViewModel>(); set.Bind(textField_Password).To(vm => vm.Password);
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Data Binding - Listviews
No C#, just XAML <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding MyCollection}" <ListBox.ItemTemplate> <DataTemplate> ….. </DataTemplate> </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox>
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Data Binding - Listviews
No C#, just XML <Mvx.MvxListView local:MvxBind="ItemsSource MyCollection; ItemClick ViewDetailsCommand" />
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Data Binding - Listviews
Just C# var set = this.CreateBindingSet<XViewController, XViewModel>(); set.Bind(source).To(x => x.MyCollection); set.Apply();
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ViewModel Commands No C#, just XAML
xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity" xmlns:commandbinding="clr-namespace:Cirrious.MvvmCross.WindowsPhone.Commands;assembly=Cirrious.MvvmCross.WindowsPhone" <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Tap"> <commandbinding:MvxEventToCommand Command="{Binding MyCommand}" /> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </TextBlock>
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ViewModel Commands No C#, just XML
xmlns:local=" <Button local:MvxBind="Click LoginCommand" />
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ViewModel Commands Just C#
var set = this.CreateBindingSet<LoginViewController, LoginViewModel>(); set.Bind(btn_Login).To(x => x.LoginCommand); set.Apply();
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Navigation Go forward CurrentViewModelInstance.ShowViewModel<NewViewModel>();
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Navigation Go back CurrentViewModelInstance.Close(this);
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MvvmCross App Architecture
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App Architecture The project should be split in (at least) two parts:
Common Core which contains: Models Viewmodels Business logic Data Access Layer UI-project per platform: Each platform views Demo Time
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MvvmCross Pros & Cons Pros: interchangeable code module
supports Test Driven Development (TDD) it follows the Core pattern it has data binding
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MvvmCross Pros & Cons Cons:
it is a non-native pattern for iOS – MVC- and Android –aprox MVC- core 3rd party dependency lot’s of glue code for custom bindings
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Xamarin Pros & Cons Pros: native experience
you can use a lot of components that .NET developers already use shared code base only one programming language
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Xamarin Pros & Cons Cons: you need a Mac
It has a license fee per developer, per platform -> $$$ bugs can appear: C# is needed
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Thank you! A big thanks to Cloudbase! #theCodeAwakens
Flavius-Radu DEMIAN
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