Mac Apps using Xamarin and C# Cross-platform development for Android, iOS, and Mac apps with.NET and C#: Console apps with C#: Desktop apps using C: Mobile and gaming; Mobile development with.NET using Xamarin and C# Cross-platform development for Android, iOS, and Mac. While you can download Visual Studio for free, the Xamarin plugin is priced at $99/month. Microsoft Visual Studio is a popular software development platform for Windows and Mac that allows for the development of iOS apps using the Xamarin plug-in.
Back in .NET Conf 2017 The Xamarin team already shared what’s going to be new with Xamarin Forms 3.0 and it actually surprised me. I was expecting some performance improvements, bug fixing and a big upgrade on XAML. But, what they announced focuses on enabling the usage of Xamarin.Forms in more ways and on more platforms. I was really hoping for XAML improvements, maybe add some cascading styling like how CSS works. Maybe sometime in the future, we’ll get it. For now, I’ll just use the XAMLCss by warapa. Anyway if you want to watch all sessions from .NET Conf 2017, you can check it out on Channel9. Going back, I really didn’t expect these new features, but definitely, I love it and really excited to try it out!
That’s why right now, I’m going to show to you one of the exciting features added to the Xamarin.Forms 3.0 that I think you’ll also love. I’m talking about Xamarin.Form’s macOS support.
One of the Xamarin team’s plan is to reach more platforms. That means UWP, iOS and Android are not only platform the Xamarin.Forms will be able to target from now on, they are also bringing macOS, GTK#, Linux and WPF!
You might think that it will be hard and will take a lot of time to integrate your Xamarin.Forms solution into the macOS project, but it’s not. Not at all. You’ll be able to create a native macOS application using your Xamarin.Forms solution using Visual Studio for Mac or Xamarin Studio in just 3 quick steps!
First step: Add a Cocoa App project
Right now, Xamarin.Forms template doesn’t have a Cocoa App initially. So, what you would do is to start Visual Studio for Mac or Xamarin Studio and open your existing Xamarin.Forms solution. Then, add a project into the solution by right-clicking the solution and selecting Add > Add New Existing Project.
You can then select Mac > App > Cocoa App and name it whatever you want, but ideally, the name has a suffix of .macOs.
Second Step: Add the Xamarin.Forms NuGet Package
You will have to add the Xamarin.Forms’ latest pre-release nuget package or specifically 2.4.0.282. To do this, right click the Cocoa App project that you just created and select Add > Add Nuget Packages.
Then, search for ‘Xamarin.Forms’ and make sure that the ‘Show pre-release packages’ is ticked. Click ‘Add’ to add Xamarin.Forms nuget package.
You will also need to update the Xamarin.Forms on your shared project and the version should be the same with what the Cocoa app have.
Third Step: Configure the Cocoa App Project
The first thing that you should do with your Cocoa app project is to add the shared project into your Cocoa app as a reference.
Then, open the Info.plist and remove the ‘Main storyboard file base name’ entry (Opened with XCode)
Or just open the Info.plist inside Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio by clicking it and leave the Main Interface blank.
The next one is to update your Main.cs’ Main method to initialize the AppDelegate:
Lastly, update the AppDelegate by changing the NSApplicationDelegate to FormsApplicationDelegate:
Initialize the Cocoa app window within the constructor:
Then inside the DidFinishLaunching method, initialize Xamarin.Forms and load the application:
You can now set your project as the startup project and run your macOS!
Again, in just 3 quick steps, it’s done!
This is just a basic walkthrough since this is still on preview. Expect that there are still bugs and not ready for production. Not all nuget packages are compatible and surely, there are lots of UI features still not implemented, but this is a good start. For now, you can send your issues and problems that you encounter in this forum discussion: https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/93585/preview-xamarin-forms-for-macos/p1
Download directly from website
You can download the complete Xamarin.Android component from here.
MAC Installer (pkg)
The following procedure illustrates how to install the installer of Syncfusion Xamarin components in Mac.
- Double-click the Syncfusion Essential Studio for Xamarin Setup file. The Self-Extractor wizard opens, click continue.
- After reading the terms in Software License Agreement, click continue.
- Click Agree in the dialog box that appears to continue the installation.
- Select a destination to install the software and click continue.
- Choose the installation location and samples installation.
- To install it in the displayed default location, click Install.
- Click Close. The NuGet and samples locations are launched automatically.
Explore the libraries package
You can find the Syncfusion libraries, samples and NuGet from the installed location in Mac.
{Essential Studio installed location}SyncfusionEssential Studio16.2.0.41Xamarin
Xamarin Ios Sdk Download
- “lib” folder - e.g., /Users/labuser/Documents/Syncfusion/16.2.0.41/Xamarin/libIt contains all the required libraries for Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.Forms projects.
- “nuget” folder - e.g., /Users/labuser/Documents/Syncfusion/16.2.0.41/nugetIt contains the above libraries as NuGet packages. The same NuGet packages also can be configured from online nuget.org.
- “sample” folder - e.g., /Users/labuser/Documents/Syncfusion/16.2.0.41/sampleIt contains the sample applications for our controls in Xamarin.Android platforms in Android folder.
Xamarin Ios App
Add reference to the project
You can then add the assembly references to the Xamarin.Android. The following is the location where you can locate assembly for Chart control and you can find assemblies for the other controls also from the same location.
Xamarin Ios Development
androidSyncfusion.SfChart.Android.dll