I have created an app using Xamarin, and it works great on Testflight and Google Play beta-testing (I am not ready to launch completely yet, but nearly).
I need to know, how am I going to create the package for Windows Store (or what it is called?).
If you are developing a windows phone app, you should have a developer account.
Now if you are ready to publish (or even before) go to the Windows Dev Center and create a new app in there. There you can see the following steps to publish your app in the windows app store.
If you don´t know what your developer account is or you don´t have one, start here: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows
Related
I'm aware that a Mac or a Mac service e.g. MacInCloud.com is necessary for building and submitting iOS apps.
My question is about the actual workflow of building an app on Windows using Xamarin on Visual Studio 2017.
We need to write code, test and debug throughout development cycle. How does this work with Xamarin running on Windows? How would I actually see what my mobile app looks like or behaves during the actual development cycle?
While developing my web apps in Visual Studio, there are many trips back and forth to the browsers and back to VS in order for me to see the results of my code. How does this work with Xamarin running on Windows? Is Xamarin Live Player the only option for development cycle? Is there a solution through MacInCloud or similar services so that tethering a device to dev machine is not necessary?
I'm just trying to understand how a healthy development cycle is created for Xamarin developers on Windows.
I will answer your question in few section: Coding, Debug, Test
Coding
You will be using Visual Studio to write your codes. iOS and Android code will be written in C#. You will get access to UI Designer for both iOS and Android to edit the layout files and storyboard/xibs. For 3rd party library, there is NuGet to serve your needs.
Debug
You can use Xamarin Live Player without connection to a Mac/MacInCloud for basic preview. However, some features of iOS is not available in Xamarin Live Player (e.g. xibs files not supported...).
If you setup with connection to a Mac, you will be able to see a list of Simulator that available in the Mac you connected to. By default, if you debug it, the simulator will still show up in the Mac. Then you will need to VMWare or remote into the Mac to check the simulator output. If you have Visual Studio Enterprise license, you can get access to a Remote iOS Simulator feature. You will need to turn the option ON. After that, you will able to see a remote iOS Simulator showing in your Windows machine without the needs to remote into Mac machine anymore. For debugging in actual iOS devices, you will still need to plug your device into the Mac. Previously (more than 1 years ago), Xamarin announce that they are working on "iOS USB remoting" to allow you to plug in iOS device into Windows machine and debug on it. But it is not release until now.
For Android, you can get access to Android Emulator Manager to add emulator to debug or you can deploy apps to physical phone just like what you can do with Android Studio.
Test
I will be referring to Xamarin.UITest for this part. You will be able to write UITest code in C# inside Visual Studio. Xamarin have product "Xamarin Test Cloud" to allow you to upload test code and binary and then run your test in cloud periodically. If you want to run the test locally in your machine, you will only able to run Android UITest in windows machine. To run iOS UITest locally, you will only able to run it in Mac machine. Using a Mac, you can also run Android UITest.
You can use a simulator/emulator instead of a device. For iOS, the simulator would run on the Mac Build Host that you are connected to. You can select the option for "Remote iOS simulator" in Visual Studio -> Xamarin.iOS options and you'll be able to interact with the simulator without having to RDP/VNC/look at the mac. For android, you can just run an emulator in Window and interact with it like that. Using your web apps comparison, you would use a simulator/emulator instead of browser but, for the most part, the process would be similar.
I have been developing a Xamarin MVVM app targeted at iOS and Android. I initially did the iOS development on Windows with VS 2022 and an iPhone attached via USB. I knew that I was going to have to eventually move to the Mac for final provisioning but I ended up taking that painful step earlier than planned because certain Xamarin features were just not working on Windows. First I could not get my app icon to be anything other than the Xamarin default and then Xamarin.Essentials.FilePicker would not select a file:
https://github.com/xamarin/Essentials/issues/1710
So after a week of struggling I finally got my project building and deploying on the Mac. However, I am not nearly as comfortable working on the Mac as I am on Windows where I have all my familiar development tools. So then the question was how to share the project files between the PC and the Mac so that I could edit and compile on the PC and then move to the Mac for final testing.
At first I tried iCloud but I could never get the files to sync reliably between the shared folder on the PC and the Mac. I am used to Dropbox and OneDrive, which work as expected. iCloud not so much.
So what I have been doing is committing and pushing the changes to github and then pulling the changes into the project on the Mac. It is quick and has the added benefit of version control using an offsite server. I am happy with this workflow and publishing the app on the Apple Store should be an easy task when that time comes.
Update:
This process is still working for me. I have taken the additional step of doing the release configuration on VS Mac and publishing my app to App Store Connect. That experience was convoluted and frustrating but it now works and I have people testing my app via TestFlight.
One hiccup is that when selecting Automatic iOS Bundle Signing in the project properties on VS Windows, this change gets pushed to the Mac side and causes a build error under Debug until I select the Automatic provisioning profile on the Mac. Somehow it gets set to the Wildcard profile on the Windows side.
I want to run local test of an app using the Android Emulator within Visual Studio 17. It works great using the Visual Studio Emulator for Android and the app is almost complete.
However I need to add a map with a few pins and I have this working and tested on my PC using the UWP app. However trying to run on the Android emulator there is no Maps as there is no play store.
I have googled lots and found lots of things to try but none seem to work and I notice that the latest of all the pages and blogs I have read are dated 2015 so in software terms and indeed Xamarin they are very old.
So if I want to test the maps part of my app what is the best way if I can't get the Emulator to run with maps or am I missing some fancy new tool to test with other than shipping the app and hoping that it works in the wild?
Thanks
Cliff.
You cannot see the map as Visual studio emulators for Android do not have google play services installed by default. In order to test and see your map, you should install google play services in the android emulator.
You can do this by installing gapps on your emulator which provides you with google play services functionallity. The installation is just a drag and drop in the emulator. After installing this packge, you could use maps on the emulator.
I would create a new Android VM in that process you can tell it to add the google store to the android VM
On the basis of the answer to this question, I installed the visual studio cordova app on my windows tablet.
I want to install the app on a few device permanently.
Is this the best way for it? (Without app store)
And with this way, I have to use a license which have a expiration date.
For test purpose, I think it's better to use developer sideloading, which is introduced in Developer sideloading Windows Store apps.
And the developer sdeloadig app dosn't expire.
I' am in a bit of truble at the moment.
I try to build my Xamarin Windows Store App for publishing, but the Create App Packages Wizard, wont open I tried many solutions from the web, like unloading and reloading the project, or making a new project. But the wizard does not open with my solution i treid a normal Windows Phone app(no Silverlight), that worked but i could not Port my xamarin project to a standard Windows Phone App.
Has someone encountered a similar issue with Xamarin and Windows Phone,
or can anyone help to get my app into the Appstore?
Thanks.
I would have asked in the Xamarin Forum, but I cant reach them siche this morning.
And sorry for the engrish.
To submit package to the windows phone store you'll need to build your project (for ARM in Release mode to avoid warnings). Then on developer site when there is button to upload package you have to attach *.xap file from your project's bin\release folder (or bin folder you have specified). Then you can go through the next windows phone store app submitting steps.
Iam doing a phonegap project now, i have deployed my app to many android devices, all works fine. Started on windows phone & i found here phonegap apps cant deploy directly to windows phone.
I want to know; whether the steps given below (Steps for unlocking windows phone) will make my build (.xap file from phonegap build) runnable on windows os device?
Install the Windows Phone 8 SDK if you do not have it on the system. This is required for all developers.
Register for a Windows Phone developer account. If you are a DreamSpark member, you can register for free.
After the SDK is installed on the system, search for the Windows Phone Developer Registration program from the start screen.
Connect your phone to the computer. The program should detect the device immediately. Hit the Register button when it is clickable.
A log-in window will show up on screen. Please fill in your developer account information in the appropriate field, and then hit Sign in. The device registration process will start once you are signed in. If you are successful, you will receive the following message: Congratulations! You have successfully unlocked your Windows Phone.
Each developer account can unlock up to three devices. If you want to delete a device from the account, log in to the developer Dashboard, choose Account -> Phones, and then delete the device from there.
Please help me.
This is currently not possible.
The Development team said they are looking into it and expecting to have it ready Q3 - Q4 this year.
Here's a link to the feature request(https://github.com/phonegap/build/issues/118)
Ismael
This feature is now supported. We can create .xap file with Phonegap online build itself. It is beta so there are some limitations.
Check here