Xamarin.Forms - Fast image loading on Android Using GlideX

In this blog post, you will learn how to Fast image loading on Android using GlideX in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem. This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

GlideX Nuget use to fast image loading on Android.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You’ll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

Visual Studio 2019 has more options in the opening window. Clone or check out the code from any repository or, open a project or solution for your computer.

Now, you need to click "Create a new project".

Now, filter by Project Type: Mobile

Choose the Mobile App (Xamarin. forms) project under C# and Mobile.

Name your app. You probably want your project and solution to use the same name as your app. Put it on your preferred location for projects and click "Create".

Now, select the blank app and target platforms - Android, iOS and Windows (UWP).

Subsequently, go to the solution. In there, you get all the files and sources of your project (.NET Standard). Now, select the XAML page and double-click to open the MainPage.Xaml page.

You now have a basic Xamarin.Forms app. Click the Play button to try it out.

NuGet Packages

Now, add the following NuGet packages.

• glidex.forms                

Go to Solution Explorer and select your solution. Right-click and select "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution". Search for "glidex.forms" and add the resultant package. Remember to install it for each project (.NET Standard, Android, iOS).

Note:

Before you initialize Xamarin.Forms in your MainActivity.cs. you must Initialize FormsMaterial.Init()
Setting up the User Interface

MainPage.xaml

Binding Image

MainPage.xaml.cs

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

I hope you have understood how to Fast image loading on Android using GlideX in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback. Happy Coding :)

Xamarin.Forms - Working with Material Visual

In this blog post, you will learn how to use Material design in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem.
This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

Material

Material Design is introduced Xamarin.Forms 3.6
Material Design is an design system created by Google, that prescribes the size, color, spacing, and other aspects of how views and layouts should look and behave.

• Visual="Material"
• Visual="Default"

Note:

On Android, the material renderers require a minimum version of 5.0 (API 21) or greater, and a TargetFramework of version 9.0 (API 28). In addition, your platform project requires Android support libraries 28.0.0 or greater, and its theme needs to inherit from a Material Components theme or continue to inherit from an AppCompat theme.

Material renderers are currently included the following Controls:

1. Button
2. Entry
3. Frame
4. ProgressBar
5. DatePicker
6. TimePicker
7. Picker
8. ActivityIndicator
9. Editor
10. Slider
11. Stepper

More information about Material
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/user-interface/visual/material-visual

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You’ll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

Visual Studio 2019 has more options in the opening window. Clone or check out the code from any repository or, open a project or solution for your computer.

Now, you need to click "Create a new project".

Now, filter by Project Type: Mobile

Choose the Mobile App (Xamarin. forms) project under C# and Mobile.

Name your app. You probably want your project and solution to use the same name as your app. Put it on your preferred location for projects and click "Create".

Now, select the blank app and target platforms - Android, iOS and Windows (UWP).

Subsequently, go to the solution. In there, you get all the files and sources of your project (.NET Standard). Now, select the XAML page and double-click to open the MainPage.Xaml page.

You now have a basic Xamarin.Forms app. Click the Play button to try it out.

NuGet Packages

Now, add the following NuGet Packages.

• Xamarin.Forms.Visual.Material

Add Xamarin.Forms.Visual.Material NuGet

Go to Solution Explorer and select your solution. Right-click and select "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution". Search "Xamarin.Forms.Visual.Material" and add Package. Remember to install it for each project (.NET Standard, Android, iOS).

Note :

Before you initialize Xamarin.Forms in your MainActivity.cs and AppDelegate. you must Initialize FormsMaterial.Init()

Android Implementation

MainActivity.cs

iOS Implementation

AppDelegate.cs

Setting up the User Interface

In this step, added material design.

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

Android Design

iOS Design

I hope you have understood how to use Material design in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback.
Happy Coding :)

Xamarin.Forms - Working with Azure Blob Storage

In this blog post, you will learn how to use Azure Blob Storage in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem. This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

Azure Blob storage

Azure Blob storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. Blob storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data.
Store any type of unstructured data—including images, videos, audio, documents and backups. you can write error log also.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)
• Microsft Azure subscription

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You’ll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

Visual Studio 2019 has more options in the opening window. Clone or check out the code from any repository or, open a project or solution for your computer.

Now, you need to click "Create a new project".

Now, filter by Project Type: Mobile

Choose the Mobile App (Xamarin. forms) project under C# and Mobile.

Name your app. You probably want your project and solution to use the same name as your app. Put it on your preferred location for projects and click "Create".

Now, select the blank app and target platforms - Android, iOS and Windows (UWP).

Subsequently, go to the solution. In there, you get all the files and sources of your project (.NET Standard). Now, select the XAML page and double-click to open the MainPage.Xaml page.

You now have a basic Xamarin.Forms app. Click the Play button to try it out.

Create a Storage Account in Azure

http://portal.azure.com

In this step, you must create Storage account service in azure portal.
more about storage account https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-overview

After creating storage account, check your access keys and connection strings.

Setting up the User Interface

Go to MainPage.Xaml and write the following code.

MainPage.xaml

NuGet Packages

Now, add the following NuGet packages.

1. Xam.Plugin.Media
2. Microsoft.Azure.Storage.Blob

Add Microsoft.Azure.Storage.Blob NuGet

Go to Solution Explorer and select your solution. Right-click and select "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution". Search for "Microsoft.Azure.Storage.Blob" and add the resultant package. Remember to install it for each project (.NET Standard, Android, iOS).

Connect your Storage Account

Pick Files

In this step, i'm going to upload images.

Upload Files

Now, write the following code to upload files to azure blob storage.

Download Files

Use following code to download files from azure blob storage.

Delete Files

Use following code to Delete files from azure blog storage.

Check out Full Code
MainPage.xaml.cs

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

I hope you have understood how to use Azure Blob Storage in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback. Happy Coding :)

Xamarin.Forms - Working with Triggers

In this blog post, you will learn how to use Triggers in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem. This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

Triggers

Triggers allow you to express actions declaratively in XAML that change the appearance of controls based on events or property changes.

Triggers Types

1. Property Trigger executed when a property on a control is set to a particular value.
2. Data Trigger to trigger based on the properties of another control value.
3. Event Trigger occurs when an event occurs on the control.
4. Multi Trigger allows multiple trigger conditions to be set before an action occurs.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You’ll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

Visual Studio 2019 has more options in the opening window. Clone or check out the code from any repository or, open a project or solution for your computer.

Now, you need to click "Create a new project".

Now, filter by Project Type: Mobile

Choose the Mobile App (Xamarin. forms) project under C# and Mobile.

Name your app. You probably want your project and solution to use the same name as your app. Put it on your preferred location for projects and click "Create".

Now, select the blank app and target platforms - Android, iOS and Windows (UWP).

Subsequently, go to the solution. In there, you get all the files and sources of your project (.NET Standard). Now, select the XAML page and double-click to open the MainPage.Xaml page.

You now have a basic Xamarin.Forms app. Click the Play button to try it out.

Property Trigger

Property Trigger executed when a property on a control is set to a particular value.

Example

Click the Play button to try it out

Data Trigger

Data Trigger to trigger based on the properties of another control value.

Example

For this example the will be enabled after entering 6 digits.

Click the Play button to try it out

Event Trigger

Event Trigger occurs when an event occurs on the control.

Example

Following example, when change the text in Entry the event will fire.

Trigger Action

Include following namespace

Implement in xaml

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

Multi Trigger
Multi Trigger allows multiple trigger conditions to be set before an action occurs.

Example
The Following example, after entering two field the button will be enabled.

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

I hope you have understood how to use Triggers in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback. Happy Coding :)

Xamarin.Forms - CollectionView

In this blog post, you will learn how to use CollectionView instead of ListView in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem.
This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

CollectionView

CollectionView is introduce in the Xamarin.Forms 4.0 pre-releases. CollectionView is a view for presenting lists of data using different layout specifications.
It aims to provide a more flexible, and performant alternative to ListView.

• CollectionView supports single and multiple selection.
• CollectionView has a flexible layout model, which allows data to be presented vertically or horizontally.

Note:

• CollectionView is only available on iOS and Android.

More information about Collection View
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/user-interface/collectionview/

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You’ll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

Visual Studio 2019 has more options in the opening window. Clone or check out the code from any repository or, open a project or solution for your computer.

Now, you need to click "Create a new project".

Now, filter by Project Type: Mobile

Choose the Mobile App (Xamarin. forms) project under C# and Mobile.

Name your app. You probably want your project and solution to use the same name as your app. Put it on your preferred location for projects and click "Create".

Now, select the blank app and target platforms - Android, iOS and Windows (UWP).

Subsequently, go to the solution. In there, you get all the files and sources of your project (.NET Standard). Now, select the XAML page and double-click to open the MainPage.Xaml page.

You now have a basic Xamarin.Forms app. Click the Play button to try it out.

Note: 

Before you initialize Xamarin.Forms in your MainActivity.cs and AppDelegate. Add following Flag

Android Implementation

MainActivity.cs

iOS Implementation

AppDelegate.cs

Setting up the User Interface

Now, Implement the collectionview with data binding.

CollectionView ItemSource

Now, add ItemSource to CollectionView

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

I hope you have understood how to use CollectionView instead of ListView in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback. Happy Coding :)

Xamarin.Forms - ListView Context Actions

In this blog post, you will learn how to add a Context Actions in ListView in Xamarin.Forms.

Introduction

Xamarin.Forms code runs on multiple platforms - each of which has its own filesystem. This means that reading and writing files is most easily done using the native file APIs on each platform. Alternatively, embedded resources are a simpler solution to distribute data files with an app.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2017 or later (Windows or Mac)

Setting up a Xamarin.Forms Project

Start by creating a new Xamarin.Forms project. You’ll learn more by going through the steps yourself.

Visual Studio 2019 has more options in the opening window. Clone or check out the code from any repository or, open a project or solution for your computer.

Now, you need to click "Create a new project".

Now, filter by Project Type: Mobile

Choose the Mobile App (Xamarin. forms) project under C# and Mobile.

Name your app. You probably want your project and solution to use the same name as your app. Put it on your preferred location for projects and click "Create".

Now, select the blank app and target platforms - Android, iOS and Windows (UWP).

Subsequently, go to the solution. In there, you get all the files and sources of your project (.NET Standard). Now, select the XAML page and double-click to open the MainPage.Xaml page.

You now have a basic Xamarin.Forms app. Click the Play button to try it out.

Context Actions

Context Action Events

Setting up the User Interface

Go to MainPage.Xaml and write the following code.

MainPage.xaml

MainPage.Xaml.cs

Click the "Play" button to try it out.

I hope you have understood how to add a Context Actions in ListView in Xamarin.Forms..

Thanks for reading. Please share your comments and feedback. Happy Coding :)