how to view the design of xaml file in xamarin forms pcl in visula studio? - visual-studio

Now i am going on with the development of xamarin forms pcl project,i have created a xaml file in my portable lib there i can't view the design.
Tried to fix it by the following link:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh921077.aspx
http://blog.spinthemoose.com/2013/03/24/disable-the-xaml-designer-in-visual-studio/
How can i solve this issue.

There are no designer support from Xamarin, as it would be bit of complicated, but you might find Xamarin Forms Player a good tool to go,
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/4ed9794a-2021-486a-9bca-4851c7ee7316

Visual Studio's XAML Designer currently does not support Xamarin XAML files.There's no designer for it atm.
Even though their syntax are very similiar , there are some slight differences between them.

Related

Cross platform Missing Templates after updating Visual studio 2017

Cross platform Missing Templates after updating Visual studio 2017,i tried looking for a solution from Xamarin forums page in vain.
Yes, some templates no longer exist in VS2017, but others it's just organized a bit differently in how you get to the specific template you want.
Example:
The Blank App and Blank XAML App templates no longer exist in VS2017. Instead, choose the "Cross Platform App (Xamarin.Forms or Native)" template. A wizard pops will appear allowing you to choose a native Xamarin app or a Xamarin Forms app, as well as choosing a Shared or PCL app, as well as selecting a XAML app.

Intellisense Xamarin Forms does not work - Visual Studio Enterprise with Update 3

I installed VS with Xamarin but Intellisense in XAML files is not working properly. In some parts of the code it shows the list of suggestions as shown below.
Except in other parts of the code it does not show the list with all the items (image below).
It is also opening the XAML with the XML Editor, but should it not be with XAML Designer?
Does anyone have any suggestions for resolving or circumventing this problem?
Thank you all.
Those 2 behaviors that you described are by design, you can look at the following screenshot, since you type “<” inside and outside the node , the auto complete member list is different which defined in the XML Schemas.
For the second question, Xamarin.Forms doesn't currently support visual designers for XAML files. There is not yet a visual designer for generating XAML in Xamarin.Forms applications, so all XAML must be hand-written. We can know this from Why doesn't the Visual Studio XAML designer work for Xamarin.Forms XAML files?, but we can try to use the XAML Previewer for Xamarin.Forms to help us to preview the UI.

Does Xamarin.Forms have designer support on VS?

I recently downloaded Xamarin.Forms as Microsoft made it free. I am looking around in Visual Studio for a visual designer, that is usually included in Xamarin.Droid and Xamarin.IOS. Is there no such feature for Xamarin.Forms? Surely I must be missing something ?
Xamarin does not have a designer for Xamarin.Forms at this time, but is working on the Xamarin.Forms Previewer which renders a live preview of a Xamarin.Forms page side-by-side with the XAML markup directly inside the Visual Studio and Xamarin Studio IDEs.
You can open the Xamarin.Forms Previewer by clicking on View -> Other Windows -> Xamarin.Forms Previewer in the Visual Studio menu or alternatively just searching for Xamarin.Forms in the Visual Studio quicklaunch box.
In addition to the official Xamarin.Forms Previewer, there is at least one other third party tool that exists in this space as well:
Gorilla Player by UX Divers is a real time Xamarin.Forms previewer currently in beta that runs in both a simulator and on hardware devices.
Update (2018): There is now also the Xamarin Live Player for Xamarin.Forms that allows you visualize your XAML layouts running live on a physical device as you are developing them.
No, Xamarin Forms does not have a drag and drop design surface. There is a live XAML previewer, but it is still in alpha release.
A Xamarin previewer (while not a designer, it is still VERY handy) is available in the latest version of Visual Studio. To access it go to
View > Other Windows > Xamarin.Forms Previewer.
When you open a XAML page, you can see it in the previewer (make sure your project is built first or you will get an error.)
The preview will update automagically as you edit your XAML, no save is required. When working with lists etc, you will want to create some dummy data to ensure you can see how it will work. There is an example at https://xamarinhelp.com/xamarin-forms-previewer/
There are options to view your Xamarin
Xamarin Form Previewer - you view it on visual studio
Xamarin Live Player - you can view it on the target devices
Gorilla Player - you can view it on target devices with real-time update
However all comes with limitation, if you're using third party controls than it may not be supported.
You can find a "Design" named button under your source code. Click on it and you will be able to use drag and drop from the tool box on the left.

Are there real axml editors or tools when working in Xamarin on MVVMCross projects?

I noticed it's almost impossible to edit axml using the GUI in Xamarin when working on MVVMCross projects.
Is axml known enough for an good editor to exist?
AXML is in reality just XML. I think the ending is there only because of the editor Xamarin has, in order for it to know when to open. AXML content is exactly the same as Android XML layout files. But you are right, custom Views are not rendered in the Xamarin layout editor, which the one in Android Studio does.
I am not sure what the future plans for the Xamarin AXML editor are, but you could voice your concerns and suggestions on UserVoice.

Visual studio form layout tutorial?

I'm a Qt developer, trying to design forms with visual studio.. but the layout toosl are.. lacking? I only see tools for fixed-size forms.
What are the visual studio alternatives to Qt's vertical/horizontal/grid layouts with minimum/maximum/preferred size hints, spacers, etc?? I can't see anything like this.
Closes things you can use are:
FlowLayoutPanel
TableLayoutPanel
Alternatively, you can go for WPF instead of WinForms.

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