Building Mobile Apps With Xamarin and Visual Studio App Center

1. BUILDING MOBILE APPS
With Xamarin and Visual Studio App Center

2. ERIK NOREN
SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT
@ErikNoren
ErikNoren

3. Xamarin Cross Platform Development
• Enables developers to create apps using familiar languages, libraries
• Simplifies codebase by maximizing code share between platforms
• Enables apps to maintain close feature parity across devices
• Can access native functionality from device OS
• Uses platform-native compilers to ensure app binary compliance
• Used in countless applications indistinguishable from native apps
• Built on stable technology but still innovating and improving

4. Xamarin (Classic / Native) vs Xamarin Forms
• Non-UI code can be shared
• UI is implemented using
platform-native technology
• Can have smaller app size than
Xamarin Forms
• Can launch more quickly than
Xamarin Forms
• Nearly all code can be shared
• Except for platform specific
needs, UI is XAML for all targets
• Only platform-specific concerns
need to be done per-platform
• Simple Dependency Injection to
ease platform-specific integration

5. VS App Center – Everything in One Place
Service
• HockeyApp
• Xamarin Insights
• Xamarin Test Cloud
• Azure App Services
• Azure Mobile Engagement
• CodePush
Features
• Analytics, Crashes, Distribution
• Analytics, Crashes
• Device Tests
• Auth, Data, Push
• Analytics, Push
• Distribution

6. VS App Center Features
• Build your app from source (VS Team Services, GitHub, Bitbucket)
• Run automated tests on real hardware
• Distribute your app to limited audiences for testing or to an app store
• Push updates directly to devices*
• Get crash logs automatically; add exception tracking with code
• Get basic analytics automatically; add more events with code
• Push notifications to devices
• Configure analytics to export to Azure for more powerful insights
• Extensive API for automating tasks or integrating other systems

7. VS App Center
Creating an App
Each OS you are targeting needs a matched
“app” in VS App Center.
If you have a Xamarin Forms project
targeting iOS and Android, you’ll create two
apps in App Center.
Both Xamarin Classic and Xamarin Forms use
the Xamarin Platform option.

8. VS App Center
App Details
After creating the app in App Center you can
review the Getting Started information to
find your ID as well as simple instructions to
configure your project.
The Xamarin instructions are specific to the
OS of the App you’ve created. The
Xamarin.Forms instructions are more
general.
Regardless of OS and Platform, the Getting
Started section contains the ID you need for
your app to communicate with App Center.

9. Demo
Quick Look at Visual Studio App Center

10. Demo
New Application Setup

11. Resources
• Xamarin Docs
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/
• Visual Studio App Center Docs
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/
• Xamarin University
https://university.xamarin.com/

12. ERIK NOREN
SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT
@ErikNoren
ErikNoren