canonicalization of xml in xamarin shared project - xamarin

Is there canonicalization api available to be used in xamarin shared project? If not what is the best way to implement xml canonicalization in cross platform.

You could reference to the MS docs. It performs how to use XAML to define Xamarin.Forms user interfaces.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/xaml/
You could install XAML Styler extension. I use it to format XAML source by sorting the attributes based on the importance.
Visual Studio> Extensions> Manage Extensions> XAML Styler

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How do your write Xamarin platform specific code in a .net standard library?

How do your write Xamarin platform specific code in a .net standard library?
I want to use namespaces like Xamarin.Forms.Platform.iOS in a .Net Standard Library..
Use case: I want to develop a .net library for my apps which includes a video player for the various platforms. This video player also has to interact with other code in the .net library.
Or is the answer I need to use a shared project or portable library?
You should not include platform specific code or use namespaces like the one you mentioned in your .NET Standard Library, the reason is that .NET is just a runtime environment.
It’s not the the main runtime environment that you would use on iOS or Android. These platforms use Mono - not .NET. Check this or this to see more details for how its structured.
If you need to execute something from your .NET Standard project which is related to platform-specific behavior, use Dependency Injection or Custom Renderers.

How to use Localization in Shared Project? Xamarin.Forms

I want to make a multilanguage program via using resources(.resw files).
Its really easy for PCL but I dont know how to do it in Shared Project?
Create a Portable Class Library (PCL, or just Class Library Project) using .NET Standard, in order to localize resources in a Xamarin.Forms shared project.
Create the PCL, and then reference it from all 3 projects (Android, iOS, UWP).
Using a naming convention like AppResource.resx for the main resource, select that code generation should be Public, from inside the resource editor (in the top toolbar, there is a drop-down.)
Afterward, create a resource filed named AppResources.fr-FR.resx for French, for example. Always use the format ResourceFile.Language.resx.
Code generation will automatically be disabled for the localized resource when you name it, by the project manager. Keep it that way. It doesn't need code generation.
Voilà! You can now access localized resources from a shared Xamarin.Forms app using a Portable Class Library.
Now you can follow the rest of This Tutorial From Microsoft from within the PCL.
I've faced some day ago the same problem (and with .net standard there isn't documentation about it).
I've created a library to do quickly the localization also in shared project.
Hope it helps:
https://github.com/andreabbondanza/DewXamarinLocalization

Extracting common code from Xamarin Android project

I've been writing a Xamarin Android app and am now in a position where I have a load of generic business logic (including SQLite.Net stuff). I would like to move this to a separate project, in case I decide to have a go at a Xamarin iOS project. Can this just be a vanilla class library project or is there more to it?
This business logic code contains some strings that will need localizing. I guess the only option will be to store them in a resx resource file in the new project?
For the project itself you can use a PCL, this is in fact my favorite option of sharing code between projects in a Xamarin solution or you can go with Shared Projects which I don't like it very much but many people use it and it works. Here's the link I always use as reference when asked which one to use so you can decide yourself based on the pros and cons of each one.
About the localization you can definitely use a resx resource file but you will need to implement your own localization service to read from the files.

Xamarin portable library - how to share classes

I'm building a project that includes an MVC Web Api hosted in Azure and an iOS app. I'm trying to use Xamarin to build the app. As I understand it, I should use a portable class library in my Xamarin project to allow me to share the code between my Web Api project and the Xamarin app, as well as any future apps on other platforms like android.
So right off the bat I would want to put my models in the portable library. The app and the web api will pass those models back and forth. But the portable library doesn't have the Azure Table Storage library. It doesn't even have some very basic stuff. My models need to reference the Azure Storage Library so I can save instances to storage.
What is the best way to make this code shareable? Obviously I need to duplicate my model classes so they can exist in each location. But should those in the PCL inherit from those in the Web Api project? Vice versa? Should there be an interface that both inherit from (actually the Azure Table Storage library requires the classes to inherit from ITableEntity already...). Just looking for the best way to share these classes between the Web Api project and the PCL used by the Xamarin project.
Using a PCL - Portable Class Library is a great way to get started! There are a few quirks that you may want to understand prior to sharing your code.
The PCL Profile is a limited set of APIs available. Meaning that certain classes/assemblies might not be included. You can typically look up the class/assembly via MSDN and see if it has a PCL icon next to the class name.
If the library you are trying to use has assemblies not inside the current PCL Profile but can be found on the native platforms, you will want to use the IoC/DI pattern.
Hopefully the library you're using supports PCL. Otherwise, you will need a library that does support the PCL Profile. (You can check this by downloading the .nupkg, extracting, and looking at the libs folder). Note: You may want to check the Prerelease NuGet channel for PCL support. Sometimes you can find an open source project and remove/replace certain assemblies/code to make it Portable.
General Guidelines:
Keep your POCO classes simple in the PCL. If you have platform specific quirks you need to add to the models, make a Model layer on that platform that inherits from your simple PCL models. EX: Your Web API has a specific [Attribute] tag or interface that you need to apply to your model. You might already have a Model such as Person which is a simple POCO class in your PCL, and then you can create a PersonApiEntity model which might inherit Person and any platform-specific APIs you need to apply to it.
It seems ITableEntity/TableEntity is not supported in the PCL Profile.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.windowsazure.storage.table.itableentity.aspx
Seeing the source at a quick glance(https://github.com/Azure/azure-storage-net/blob/master/Lib/Common/Table/ITableEntity.cs)

Xamarin Shared Library and PCL

What is the exact difference between xamarin shared project and portable class library?
When to use shared library and when to use portable class library?
Is this possible to write native functionality in shared projects like showing alert,accessing camera and use it for both android and iOS?
Can anyone please explain me.
In shared projects each code file will be compiled for each destination (Android, iOS, Windows Phone etc). You are able to include platform specific code by using #if compiler directives.
When you want to access the camera you need to write the access code inside an #if block for all destinated platforms. This can mess up your code but it can be easier to find the different implementations.
Learn more: http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/shared_projects/
Protable Class Libraries (PCL) are compiled against a general .NET subset which is compatible to all platforms you want. So you can access System.Net.Http but you cannot access any platform specific code. If you want to access the camera inside the PCL code then you need to access it by a generalized interface via dependency injection. There are some pretty good frameworks helping you to archieve this goal. One of the most famous is MVVMCross (https://github.com/MvvmCross/MvvmCross/wiki). Learn more about PCL: http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/building_cross_platform_applications/sharing_code_options/#Portable_Class_Libraries
I personally perefer PCLs because the code is much easier to read without any compiler directives. Using MVVMCross you are able to use plenty of plugins via NuGet. So you don't need to write your own classes for camera access, showing alerts etc.

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