A Xamarin app that is being developed requires a way of scheduling events. I quite like the look and feel of the scheduler in the Microsoft Outlook app as it has very responsive and intuitive control allowing the user to easily drag and extend their event block over a 24 hour period (see below).
Does anyone know if this was developed using Xamarin, it being a Microsoft product, and also if they have found any code examples of this being implemented in other projects. I know there are premium Xamarin packages out there like syncfusion that have similar solutions but I am not looking to go down that route.
Thanks
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Is it possible to develop Android 11 widgets that appear on the Power Menu, exactly like Google Pay's card list?
So far I have discovered that there are a few useful guides on Device Controls, a feature that is very well suited for domotics and automation. For example the official article on Device Controls shows a fully fledged Power Menu with credit card swiping and domotics control.
I am interesting in developing a custom open source widget to browse fildelity (barcoded) cards. I have seen that the Quick Access Wallet feature is the one to use to display payment methods as swipable cards, but I have good reasons not to follow that road. First, it is designed for payment applications who hold NFC permissions, and secondarily it will disable Google Pay as default payment application for those who use it (and those who use another payment service will experience the same problem).
And Device Controls are templated and suited to be displayed in the Google Home's designated area.
So I'd like to ask if there are Android APIs to implement a fully customized widget to appear in the power menu. Of course I can kindly ask user for any permission necessary.
I start from the assumption that Google Pay itself is an application developed on top of Android framework, and has little to no special permission/policy-exception/whitelist from the OS, along with other payment applications.
I'd like to ask if there are Android APIs to implement a fully customized widget to appear in the power menu
Not in Android 11, at least in terms of public APIs.
I start from the assumption that Google Pay itself is an application developed on top of Android framework, and has little to no special permission/policy-exception/whitelist from the OS, along with other payment applications.
That is a very generous assumption. IMHO, do not assume that you can do anything that is being done by Google or the manufacturer of the device you are trying.
Is there a way to have an outlook add-in that uses a global scope? I want to be able to launch the add-in at any time, but not necessarily relate it to a specific e-mail. According to the documentation I found, the closest thing would be to have it appear as a Module, but then it only works on the desktop version (not the web), and doesn't allow you to view it alongside e-mails. It would be ideal if this could run on the side of the screen, similar to how Skype works on the web version of Outlook, on both the desktop and web versions. Is Skype a special case, or is it possible to build an add-in like that?
Web-based add-ins work in the context of the current item only.
Instead, you may consider developing a browser plug-in which modifies a web page dynamically. And for the desktop editions of Outlook you may consider creating a COM based add-in which allows to customize the UI in the way you need. See Walkthrough: Creating Your First VSTO Add-In for Outlook to get started quickly.
Say I build a super mobile friendly web application that I want in the Play Store for Android users to be able to download.
Could I use Xamarin to:
Wrap the entire mobile app as a single WebView
Register for mobile push notifications
Essentially shortlining an MVP of an android app by using an existing web app? If so, is there any well-known process or documentation that demonstrates this?
Probably the best approach for you would be using Xamarin Forms with one or more pages containing only web views.
I don't love Xamarin Forms because usually for me Xamarin Android+iOS gives a better result in similar time, but your app would be so simple that doesn't make sense to do it with Xamarin Android.
Make sure that your web app will show only what makes sense to be shown in your app, otherwise you risk to see double header/footer, useless buttons... but if the website is yours adding a few parameters to change a bit the UI won't be a problem I guess.
Have a look at this example:
https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-forms-samples/tree/master/WorkingWithWebview
Another approach is the use of Razor to build your pages in html directly inside your app, but if I understood well it's not what you need:
https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/advanced/razor_html_templates/
Although it is technically possible to do this as the previous answer has suggested. I would recommended firstly reviewing, the relevant stores guidelines on submissions. Apple for example will not allow a submission to their store of any application that simply mirrors the functionality of a website. I suspect Google's would likely be the same.
However that said, to answer your question, Xamarin.Forms would be appropriate for a simple application like the one you are suggesting. Or if you prefer to build to a specific OS, then in iOS with Xamarin you would use the Safari View Controller that was added in it's xcode 8.1 release. Android uses something similar as does windows.
EDIT:
You can use the Web View control in Xamarins Andorid native PCL project to encapsulate your mobile friendly website within an application here is the documentation:
Xamarin Android Developer link to Android Web View
As for push notifications, yes this is perfectly possible using Xamarin.Android. and varies on implementation depending on what you want to use as the back end to handle them, I.E. Azure's notification hub etc.
I'm new to Xamarin development and feel a little bit strange about how to design the UI interface in Xamarin.Forms (portable/shared).
If I just design the Xamarin Android or the Xamarin iOS, I can get the GUI with drag and drop to finish my UI (like in Windows Forms application) and the code for the UI is automatically generated. But in Xamarin.Forms, this one is not supported (we must use code or xaml). I understand that if we use Xamarin.Forms, the same code apply for both Android or iOS.
However it's a long approach to create the UI. Is it possible in Xamarin to create the UI in Xamarin Android / iOS project and then only do the functionality code in Xamarin.Forms (portable or shared)?
I know this is a common question but it can help many new developers either to choose using Xamarin or not...
There is the Xamarin.Forms XAML Preview for when you are coding in XAML:
But in the end, yes, you are coding events, and data converters, etc... and even with tools like the Interface Builder for iOS, you still have to do all the coding to tie the UI together.
On a personal note: Almost ALL the groups that I have worked with do not use the GUI design tools for any apps that are larger then a screen or two. On iOS we avoid .xib & .storyboard like they are the cause of the black plague.
I understood perfectly your situation. A good start is a Xamarin book that you can download for free for this page https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/xamarin-forms/creating-mobile-apps-xamarin-forms/
If you have been developed with WPF, in Xamarin you have the same concept. A good start is trying example in working apps to understand the structure and the app lifecycle. You can find a collection of examples and code at this link. You can create a form or with XAML or in the code. There are two ways. I advice you to start with XAML and C#.
I advice you to use Portable project and in this way you can share that not just across Xamarin project but with other kind of projects (such as a ASP.NET project).
You can think design Xamarin Forms UI like design Website.
Design website
You knowledge HTML
You need web browser to review
Design Xamarin Forms.
You knowledge XAML
You need Xamarin Previewer to review (Gorilla player, xamarin live player, LiveXaml)
Xamarin.Forms is great, for better understanding of XAML I encourage you to take the time and watch this video (https://evolve.xamarin.com/session/56e201d2bad314273ca4d813) where Charles Petzold goes into detail of how XAML works.
Before Xamarin Studio o Visual Studio had a XAML previewer for Xamarin.Forms I used GorillaPlayer (http://gorillaplayer.com/) is free and works well.
Also take a look in the Xamarin University and Examples.
James Montemagno is a name you must research when talking about Xamarin, he did some really cool and helpfull Xamarin Nuget Packages.
Hope I had pointed you in the right direction.
I understand that you are new to Xamarin.Forms. What I did when I was new to the framework was following a few courses on https://www.xamarin.com/university it is free for 30 days if I'm right (that must be enough to understand the basics). About the previewers I don't have good expierence with them. They are often slow or not working. For me it was often faster to just debug on the phone. Hopefully this will help you a bit.
Even if a nice designor was available, I would still argue that coding by hand is much more efficient : no bad code generated (exemple with constraint : no padding /margin set at the wrong place. No hardcoded size when it's not required etc).
You will have a better understanding and the learning curve is fast.
Back in the days, I started XAML with Silverlight with the amazing Microsoft UI designor : Blend. After few months, I ended up with an architecture that broke the designor (because of dependencies injected in constructor or because the designor struggled to discover controls in external assemblies). It was really painful and I lost a lot of productivity. Few months later, I was fluent with XAML and was even more productive than with a designor.
Nowadays, Visual Studio is snippet friendly for XAML control. I've created a few of them (like a grid with several column row auto, a snippet to generate the ContentPage.Resource with a style, etc).
It's a pain that is worth it.
Moreover you will learn a lot a things and will be more confident in your skills.
Give it a try for few months : you won't regret it !
Last but not least, as other suggest, when building a big app, even in iOS, most developpers I know don't use designor but code everything by hand because of snippet, helpers, extension methods etc.
I try to search available option about wp7 gesture. I found only Silverlight toolkit (http://silverlight.codeplex.com/) which has gesturelistener to get gesture events. It looks like some external library to add in the application. I’m wording are there any API comes with WP7 sdk right from Microsoft. But didn’t found anything so far.
I used MouseEventHandler and MouseButtonEventHandler to get any touch event in the emulator. It is not convient for a complicated multi touch, etc.
Please give me so link to study and discover gesture API. Thanks!
The Silverlight toolkit is an external library (to the SDK) but it is produced by people working at Microsoft. Most of the developers of the toolkit also work on the SDK. It is a way for them to release more controls but on a more frequent schedule than the main SDK.
The XNA framework contains some gesture detection but this is typically more complicated to include in a Silverlight application than the toolkit.
You could also write the gesture detection yourself using the manipulation or mouse events but I'd advise against this if possible.
I'd also advise against reinventing the wheel when there are already tools available.
There are gestures built into XNA; but either way, be it Silverlight toolkit or XNA library, you would have to add a reference in your solution.
This would be a nice starting place to learn about gestures in XNA: http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-5-Input-touch-gestures.aspx
Hope this helps!