Visual Studio 11 metro apps unable to add reference? - visual-studio

I have installed Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11 to develop metro style apps. But each time i try to create Metro app project the projects get created but in reference there is nothing added but the project builds successfully and even its not allowing me to add any reference dll.

What are you adding a reference to? Metro style apps can only add references to other Metro style class libraries or portable class libraries.

Metro style applications targets .NETCore framework if dependent solution is built on .NetFramework it can't be used in Metro style apps. For now you cannot rebuild your .NETFramework libraries on .NETCore because it has limited access(only for Windows Store apps).

Related

No portable class library folder found in Xamarin Forms

I am a newbie working with Xamarin Forms in Visual studio 2019.
When I create a blank page for Mobile App(Xamarin.Forms) , I do not see a Xamarin.forms portable template app in my project solution.
There is no PCL anymore. PCL is outdated. Just use the Mobile App (Xamarin.Forms) template. It will create all you need.
The core project (that contains your shared code) will be a .net standard project.
.net standard is way better than PCL, because you don't have a artificially limited set of APIs.
this creates the following 3 projects
Your shared code should go into the App8 project

Cannot find "cross-platform using PCL" while creating a xamarin app

I want to create a xamarin cross platform using PCL. I do not find this option while creating a project. Am I missing any installations?
Is "Xamarin.UITest Cross Platform Test Project" similar to that? But that does not open Android and IOS directories in it
The PCL option is deprecated .
From the official documentation:
Portable Class Libraries (PCLs) are considered deprecated in the
latest versions of Visual Studio. While you can still open, edit, and
compile PCLs, for new projects it is recommended to use .NET Standard
libraries to access a larger API surface area.
If you wan't to create a Xamarin.Forms solution, you must select the Mobile App (Xamarin.Forms) template. Nowadays, everything moved to .netstandard 2.0

Is there a simple way to install the Xamarin PCL profiles in Visual Studio?

My company is developing corporate Windows 8.1 apps for use within the organisation. Although we are only targeting Windows 8.1, we are interested in developing our apps with a view to eventually target Android and/or iOS by using Xamarin.
So, we want to develop using PCLs that are compatible with Xamarin, but we haven't licenced it yet, since we're not ready. Can we simply install the PCL profiles for Xamarin so we can at least be assured that our classes will be compatible, if and when we are ready?
So you have couple of possibilities.
As m-y mentions in his comment you can install the trial and you will get the PCL profiles.
You can get someone else with the Xamarin tools installed to grab a copy of the PCL profiles on his machine (a bit harder to maintain).
You can buy the product (might not be what you want)
However, you could go ahead, make the PCL you are currently using and target it to WPA8.1 and Windows 8.1, and later on just change the profile and make the minor corrections it would take to get it working with Xamarin.
The profiles are not xamarin profiles - they are .net profiles which xamarin support.
The profiles are installed as part of visual studio 2013 - or can be installed as extensions to visual studio 2012.
If you select WindowsPhone Silverlight 8.0, .net 4.5 and Windows Store apps then this will allow you to build a profile 78 pcl library - which is one of the profiles xamarin support - and is a pretty good choice for modern development...

Xamarin IDE and visualstudio for windows +Mvvmcross

I have some confusions About the IDE to use for MvvmCross
a) VisualStudio (VS) uses Xamrarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android plugin for iOS and Android development. But can we also use PCL(Portable Class libraries) and MVVMCross/Monocross frameworks in VS? I see the PCL option on VS but, i don't see the support for Android & iOS. Do i need to install additional plugin for PCL to support these two platforms as well?
b) Xamarin IDE supports Android and iOS development on Mac but, is it true that Xamarin doesn't support Mono.iOS on windows? Isn't it strange that Visual studio can use the network mac for iOS development but why not Xamarin Studio?
Thank You for your time.
Regards,
Saurav
a) VisualStudio (VS) uses Xamrarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android plugin for iOS and Android development. But can we also use PCL(Portable Class libraries) and MVVMCross/Monocross frameworks in VS? I see the PCL option on VS but, i don't see the support for Android & iOS. Do i need to install additional plugin for PCL to support these two platforms as well?
MvvmCross currently uses Profile104 for Portable Class Library development. You can easily develop for this profile without installing Android and iOS. The mapping of PCL profile to platforms is, however, quite confusing (it's not exactly obvious) so the easiest way I find to create a Profile104 PCL is:
to create any PCL
then to manually edit the csproj file to say Profile104 - look for a line like: https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross-Tutorials/blob/master/Babel/Babel.Core/Babel.Core.csproj#L14 in the csproj
I have customers who develop in medium size teams where only some people have the Xamarin tools installed - most people have just Windows tools and work on the PCLs using Unit Tests and using WindowsPhone/Store user interfaces.
b) Xamarin IDE supports Android and iOS development on Mac but, is it true that Xamarin doesn't support Mono.iOS on windows?
Yes, this is true.
Isn't it strange that Visual studio can use the network mac for iOS development but why not Xamarin Studio?
This may feel strange, but I believe this is actually this is Xamarin listening to their customers.
I believe, that the reason customers wanted Windows support for iOS was because they wanted to use Visual Studio and they wanted to use plugins like Resharper. Xamarin provided this in their 2.0 release.
It is true that they could also have added iOS functionality to XamarinStudio for Windows as well - but this (I believe) wasn't what any of their customers were asking for - so adding it would have created more work (both in creating and maintaining it) without adding any significant benefit (IMO)

Common library for Windows Phone and Android App projects

I am developing a windows phone app and an android app. Both the apps are under one visual studio 2010 solution.
I wanted to include a third project under the same solution which contains common functionality that both windows and android app uses. So, for this when I use plain 'Class Library' and when I try to reference that in windows phone app project, it says "Unable to add the selected project reference. The project reference must be another Silverlight for Windows Phone project that is same or lower version".
Which type of project do you suggest, so that I can use it windows phone and android projects?
You will have to use two different csproj files - because the build targets and other pieces will be different for the two platforms. Use this recursive include in each csproj to add the sources from a common location.
You can also try to use the Portable class library extension but I'm not sure if it will help.

Resources