How to use System.Security.Cryptography in Xamarin.Forms PCL - xamarin

Question

By reference to this link https://developer.xamarin.com/api/namespace/System.Security.Cryptography/
May I know how do I include this in my Xamarim.Forms PCL project? When I include in, Visual Studio is giving error as the picture below
May I know if anybody has any idea how to solve this? Thanks.

Answer 1

The namespace is available both in Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android. You could make platform specific implementations for both platforms and then resolve them with the DependencyService
You would have your interface for whatever you need in your PCL
public interface ICryptoService // or whatever
{
string Cipher(string stringToCipher);
string Decipher(string stringToDecipher);
}
and then implement these in your platform specific projects
using System.Security.Cryptography;
namespace MyApp.Droid
{
public class CryptoService : ICryptoService
{
// implement interface
}
}
To make the implementation visible to DependencyService you have to use the DependencyAttribute
[assembly: Xamarin.Forms.Dependency(typeof(MyApp.Droid.CryptoService)]
You can now obtain an instance in your PCL with
var cryptoService = DependencyService.Get<ICryptoService>();
and then use it. The steps for iOS are basically the same. For UWP you have to register the implementation manually, see here.
Edit:
Since it's likely that the implementation will be the same for all platforms, you could introduce a shared project and put the implementation there. All you have to do now is referencing the shared project from your iOS and Android projects.
Edit 2:
Adding a shared project to an existing Xamarin.Forms solution is quite easy. Just right-click your solution in VS, choose Add -> New Project... (I only have a german localized VS at hand at the moment, but it should be something in the lines of that). Now select Shared Project, give it a name and click OK, there will be a new shared project in your solution.
Now right-click your platform specific project and choose Add -> Reference.... The window to add a reference should open and on the left you can choose the source of the reference (Assemblys, Projects, Shared Projects, COM and Browse). Select Shared Project and then the project you just created. Any code file in your shared project will now be compiled with your platform specific project as if the code file was in the platform specific project (watch for namespaces!). Repeat for the other platform specific projects.