Windows 8.1 webview interaction and scrolling issue - windows

I have a basic webview:
<WebView x:Name="webView1" Grid.Row="1" Margin="75,0,40,40"/>
The code behind is as follows:
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
webView1.Navigate(new Uri("http://www.bbc.co.uk/news"));
}
The webview displays, but it does not scroll or allow you to click on any of the links (basically no interaction with in the BBC website).
I have made a completely blank test project and stuck this in the page to test it, but it works fine. So there is clearly an issue with my real project.
I have compared the manifest settings of my project and the working test project, but they appear the same.
Would there be some security setting somewhere? I can't see why my project would handle the webview differently to the test project.

After finding a similar question, WebView “disabled” in Windows 8.1, I went back to my project to see if I had any transparent layers over the top of my webview, preventing the interaction.
I looked at the visual tree using XAML Spy software. There was nothing there. I then realised that XAML Spy itself was there! So I disabled XAML Spy in the project, and the webview now works!
So XAML Spy must put a transparent layer over the top of your application, which obviously prevents webview interaction. I will log that as a bug with XAML Spy. Hopefully they will be able to fix it.

Related

Static view above Shell Bottom Tabbar in Xamarin Forms

I'm using Shell in my Xamarin Forms app together with a bottom tabbar and no flyout menu.
Is it somehow possible to have a static view/control between the content page and the bottom tabbar?
(As an example, look at Spotifys mini-player that's constantly shown above the bottom tabbar)
I have tried to use a ControlTemplate in the ContentPage, but it works so-so.
When navigating between pages, the entire view is "slided away", thus it's noticeable that the control is not static and instead instantiated per each page.
Deactivating animations partially solves it but makes the application feel very static and is thus not an acceptable solution.
Anyone got an idea of how this can be solved?
It's quite easy to solve it with Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.Ios, but this needs to be done in Xamarin Forms.
Thanks in advance.

Difference between Prism Dialogs vs Popup

I am implementing Prism in a new Xamarin Forms App. I have been using Rg.Plugins.Popup in the app before converting to Prism.
What are the limitation on the Prism Dialogs vs Prism.Plugin.Popups?
What are some examples when you would use one over the other?
Thank you!
Rg.Plugins.Popup is a popular plugin for Xamarin.Forms which accesses the native functionality to provide a "Modal Popup" which traditionally has not been achievable with Xamarin.Forms.
Dialogs in Prism 7.2
If you're using Prism 7.2 you'll find that the DialogService locates the currently displayed page and then "reparent's the content". Or in other words it takes the content of the active Content Page and places it as the root child of an AbsoluteLayout, placing a mask layer and finally your dialog on top. As a result of this approach you'll notice that any navigation bars for instance on the NavigationPage or TabbedPage, or a MasterDetailPage's menu will remain accessible to the user.
While in some regard both the PopupPage and Dialog may look very similar as you can probably tell there is some significant divergence there.
Dialogs in Prism 8
If you're using Prism 8.0 you'll see that we have updated to the latest Xamarin.Forms and as a result we are able to take advantage of a new feature in Xamarin.Forms which allows you to present a Modal Page with a Transparent background. This in effect allows you to replicate the effect of a PopupPage with either some benefits or drawbacks depending on how you look at it.
With Rg.Plugins.Popups you have the ability to push a PopupPage on top of whatever page is currently displayed from anywhere in the app
With Xamarin.Forms page's that have been pushed Modally they are part of your active Navigation Stack
Using the a traditional page with a transparent background and Modal Navigation you in effect have replicated the appearance of what you get with a PopupPage
Limitations
Prism.Plugin.Popups has the benefit of being integrated into the Navigation Service. As such you can inject the Navigation Service into the ViewModel of a PopupPage, and the PopupPage will be dismissed when you navigate away from it to another non PopupPage.
Dialogs are not part of the Navigation Stack tracked by Prism's Navigation Service. Navigation in Xamarin.Forms is dependent on navigating FROM a specific page. Since Prism's NavigationService doesn't know about the Dialog you will need to dismiss the dialog before navigating.
Other Key Differences
Besides what I've mentioned so far the only real difference is that Rg.Plugins.Popup gives you some added animations which honestly I've seen very few people using.

Xamarin.Forms UWP Application doesn't work on XBOX as native

I have tried my UWP app on XBOX one which is built using xamarin.forms and it works generally fine but by default mouse mode is active. I changed it using
RequiresPointerMode = Windows.UI.Xaml.ApplicationRequiresPointerMode.WhenRequested;
on UWP level in app.xaml.cs and it disabled mouse pointer but problem is that using game pad, i am not able to select items on the UI. I can navigate through textbox and buttons but not Toolbar (Commandbar in uwp), ListView, Masterdetail, Tabs etc.
I created a blank native UWP application and added a commandbar with AppBarButtons and NavigationView with NavigationViewItems. It perfectly works, I am able to navigate between menu items and commanbaritems using mouse pad.
Why this is not working for Xamarin.Forms? is xamarin.forms not actually native for UWP?
Xamarin.Forms MasterDetailPage was written before NavigationView existed and it doesn't use it at all (and especially not with NavigationViewItems, that would limit the flexibility, i don't think it will ever be used).
As SplitView has some focus bug that I can confirm it doesn't come as a surprise that it doesn't work with XBox as expected. However UWP doesn't grant that the app will work properly when you disable the mouse mode with native controls, that's why it is enabled by default. There are properties like XYFocusLeft that must be set if the app is not working properly. You probably need to make custom renderer to expose those properties and set them right. That's pretty much of work to do but it is up to you to decide...

Xamarin.Forms custom loading gif as activity indicator

I would just like to know of something is possible as I am very new to Xamarin and I am on a time limit for an assignment. I don't mind some trial and error, but don't want to waste the time if it isn't possible
I want to have an animated gif as an activity indicator (it is a logo).
I have it working in a WebView - is it possible, in Xamarin,Forms to have this appear as an overlay while waiting on long running methods?
For example. if user clicks on a button, the app gets some info from a webservice then displays in a page. While waiting I would like to show the webview (or any other way to show an animagted gif).
So I am not asking for the code, but just if it is posible.
Thanks in advance
I was able to work this out
With the animated(loading) gif running in the WebView page I called a couple of async methods using following
await Task.WhenAll(method1(), method2());
await Navigate.PushAsync(new NextPage(var1, var2));
The laoding gif (which is an animated logo) runs until the tasks are complete then navigates to the next page
Using an ImageView apparently this doesn't look like its possible to playback animated Gif's as can be seen here http://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/17448/animated-gif-in-image-view.
So i very much doubt the ActivityIndicator would, if it could. In the ActivityIndicator I can't see any functionality to change the content of the what is shown when it is busy.
You could always create your own animated image view by creating a custom renderer instead however. It isn't particularly hard to cycle images at pre-determined gaps if you have a list of the images split up.
GIF images can be used in Xamarin forms to show custom activity indicator, since in Xamarin forms it is not possible to show GIF images directly web-view must be used. For android image must be placed inside assets folder and Build Action must be set to AndroidAsset. For iOS image must be placed inside resources and Build Action must be set to BundleResource. AbsoluteLayout can used for placing the image to center, IsBusy property of mvvm helpers nuget can used for controlling the visibility of the activity indicator. Dependency service must used for getting the image path. You can check this https://github.com/LeslieCorrea/Xamarin-Forms-Custom-Activity-Indicator for example.
Xamarin.Forms now supports .GIF, from version 4.4-pre3 and up on iOS, Android and UWP. Before using, first add the .GIF to the platforms projects, or as an embedded resource in the shared project and then use it like a regular image. The API on the Image control has been extended with the IsAnimationPlaying bindable property.
For e.g., loader.gif is added in all platform projects, then below code make it animating.
<Image Source="loader" IsAnimationPlaying="True" WidthRequest="36" HorizontalOptions="CenterAndExpand" VerticalOptions="CenterAndExpand" />

Webview inside Flipview not working properly

i am trying to get Webview inside Flipview, so as usual it will be something like this :
<flipview>
<flipview.itemtemplate>
<datatemplate><webview name="wv" /> </datatemplate>
</flipview.itemtemplate>
</flipview>
I would like to use wv.navigatetostring(htmlstring);
The problem now is, when i navigate through items, sometime the webview is updated, sometime its not. Any Suggestion?
Theoretically it is possible to use WebView inside FlipView, but you should be aware of several limitations of this component. There is a well known issue when using the WebView - it's rendered on top of everything so the swiping using touch between FlipView items might not be possible.
Nice article every developer should know before using WebView in Windows 8 application:
Ten Things You Need to Know About WebView

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