Carousel view or Custom Render Tabs? - xamarin

I have question - what is rightn and correct way to implement this design in Xamarin (Xamarin forms)
Design principle
I see here 2 ways for implementations:
First way - is TabbedPage. And right Custom Render (For IOS - move tabs to top, and for android - Icons)
Second way - is CarouselView - but not sure is good.
Additional requirements is - Animation switch between content of "tabs"
Switch by finger slide is NICE TO HAVE option.

There is no right and wrong way. There is only what meets your requirements and what is easiest to implement and maintain.
Your linked picture clearly shows a TabbedPage. However your additional requirements would make this an issue. iOS shows the tabs at the bottom. I'm not sure if it is easy to move them to the top. It would require a custom renderer if it is even possible. I think iOS allows you to swipe between tabbed pages but I'm not sure that Android does.
It would probably be easier to implement a CarouselView with buttons above. That way you will be able to place your buttons where you like, allow you to swipe between them and have animation. This meets all your requirements.

Related

Tabview vs. GridLayout vs. DockLayout

I checked almost every demo application from the website, but nobody use tabview, only Gridlayout or docklayout for "tabbing" purposes. What is the benefit of the Gridlayout instead of tabview? Apart from the customize the background.
My point is to have a native tab look and feel on every page.
If I have page 1, page 2, page 3, all the page components should have the same tabview/GridLayout part, or I can move out the tabview section to an individual global component?
Apologize for the basic question.
Thanks!
If you are looking for pure native look and feel, you would go with a TabView. Another advantage with TabView is lazy loading, it loads the page only when required.
You may go with GridLayout when you want to keep the TabView look similar on both iOS and Android. iOS by default uses Tabs at bottom and Androids places them at top. iOS would give you a More tab when the number of tab exceeds the available space, on Android it will be scrollable. These are by native, so if you want a customised common look and feel, then you could use GridLayout. Or still you could use the TabView and replace the TabBar with your own custom view, which is a bit complicated.
If you want the tabs on every page, then you should probably have a Frame inside each tab and load your pages there. So the TabBar remains same on every page. The same could be achieved with GridLayout, it's all about choices. I personally like sticking with the native look and feel of platform.

How to create same UI as given UX in xamarin forms?

I am working in xamarin forms. I have some UX given by the designer. Now I want to create exactly same UI(same height of control, width of control, colors etc) in xamarin forms. My xaml view should be exactly xame like given UX.
Is there any tool that can guide me to create same UI like UX. I mean through that tool I can get the height, widths and colors of controls of screens and then can use it.
it's not good idea to use exact length of UI since the app will run on different screen and different devices. Xamarin forms uses native views for each platform which will also change the look of basic views.
What you need to do is to use grids or other layouts for sizing and control the height and the width of your views.
I also suggested that you always use scroll view incase if a mobile has a small screen size.
Finally, regarding the actual UI components and UX interactions, there are many ready components like calendars, custom checkboxes, sliders,... . If you can't find a component that cover what you need, you have 2 options:
combine different components and try to customize them with absolute
and Relative layouts.
Create the components yourself which will require some knowledge
on each platform to create the view component by drawing it and do
all the handling for each platform.
Regarding the UX, there are many libraries for animations and most components allow customizability.
Your question was very general so this answer is general. Please try to be more specific next time.

layer control in iWatch using Xamarin

Is there any way to layer a control on top of another. I wanted to put one label on top of another to build out a word. I am using Xamarin Studio and programming for the iWatch, watchOS2.
Unlike UIKit, there is no z-index, or hierarchy, in WatchKit for views. As far as I know, the closest you can get to this is to use a WKInterfaceGroup with a custom background. The hard way, which may get you the result you are looking for, is to render an image and display it.

Windows 10 app - SplitView or Pivot?

I create my first app for Windows 10. I will use the app for Windows 10 desktop and phone. Great that one code will run on desktop and phone. In my old application for Windows Phone 8 I use Panorama control with three tabs. But I can not decide which component to use - SplitView or Pivot? For desktop better suited SplitView . For phone better suited - Pivot. Need to choose one solution. What do you advise?
First, your following statement is incorrect.
For desktop better suited SplitView. For phone better suited - Pivot.
SplitView and Pivot are for different purposes -
SplitView consists of two parts - Pane and Content. The Content is where the main content goes. The Pane is really just a drawer. This control is meant to provide a very common drawer navigation pattern to the new UWP apps, similar to many iOS and Android apps.
Note that this control is also very flexible, you can use AdaptiveTrigger to customize its DisplayMode to completely hide the Pane when it's on a phone, and make it always visible when on a desktop machine.
Prior to UWP, the original Metro Design heavily relied on the Panorama control (i.e. the Hub control in UWP) for menu navigation and this later becomes a bit boring since almost all the apps that need a menu, use a Pano. So having a new SplitView will definitely help developers be a bit more creative on the main layout design. And besides, the drawer navigation is so widely used across other platforms and users generally know how to interact with it.
Pivot on the other hand, is simply a swipe-enabled tab control. It's meant to display information at the same level and should never be used like a navigation frame. Leave the navigation bit to the SplitView or the old panorama style Hub control, or whatever creative ways you can come up with.
So to answer your question, you don't have to choose one between them, these two controls can co-exist since one does the navigation and the other shows the information, just like what's in the picture below -

SketchFlow wizard-like window

Is there a way to create a wizard-like window in SketchFlow 4?
it needs the standard prev/next buttons, and of course the "Finish" button on the last page.
Are you having problems creating that? Sounds like a straightforward use of the prototyping features in SketchFlow. Simply link the sequence of screens together and use buttons with navigation behaviors to navigate between the screens.
I'm doing the same thing right now. We came at it two different ways - up to you which you prefer.
One is to use a TabControl and use the tabs as the steps of the wizard. This means you don't have to deal with adding the nav links back and forth, but you might have trouble getting the look you're hoping for.
The other way, as Chuck mentions, is just to essentially clone each step of the wizard screen as its own individual SketchFlow screen, with just the content section changed. Then you can link up each screen with the navigation hooks in the SketchFlow Map.
The latter is certainly more customizable, and once you get the hang of how to reuse sections of your design, tends to work better.

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