Build a Xamarin.Forms Application with XAML

In this project we'll take existing XAML pages and wire them together into an application using the common page types of navigation, tabbed, Carousel, and modal as well as add some basic styling to create a presentable application.

Setup the Application

Using Visual Studio

If you want to use Visual Studio (highly recommended) follow the following steps:

• If you already have Visual Studio installed make sure you have .NET Core installed by running the "Visual Studio Installer" and making sure ".NET Core cross-platform development" is checked.
• If you need to install Visual Studio download it at https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/ by selecting "Community 2019" from the "Dowload Visual Studio" drop down list. (If you're using Windows you'll want to check "ASP.NET" and ".NET Core cross-platform development" on the workloads screen during installation.)
• Open the .sln file in Visual Studio.
• To run the application simply press the Start Debug button (green arrow) or press F5.
• If you're using Visual Studio on Windows, to run tests open the Test menu, click Run, then click on Run all tests. (results will show up in the Test Explorer)
• If you're using Visual Studio on macOS, to run tests select the XAMLInXamarinFormsTests Project, then go to the Run menu, then click on Run Unit Tests. (results will show up in the Unit Tests panel)

(Note: All tests should fail at this point. This is by design. As you progress through the project, more and more tests will pass. All tests should pass upon completion of the project.)

Using a Tool Other Than Visual Studio

If you would rather use something other than Visual Studio:

• Install the .NET Core SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download once that installation completes, you're ready to get started!
• To run the application go into the XAMLInXamarinForms project folder and type dotnet run.
• To run the tests go into the XAMLInXamarinFormsTests project folder and type dotnet test.

Features you will implement

• A Navigation Page
• A Tabbed Page
• A Carousel Page
• Basic Styling
• A Modal

Tasks necessary to complete implementation

Note: This isn't the only way to accomplish implementation. However, this is what the project's tests are expecting. Implementing the features in a different way will likely result in being marked as incomplete / incorrect.

• Create a new TabbedPage in the Views/Nutrition folder with the name NutritionView.
  • When you create the TabbedPage in Visual Studio (or similiar) the following code should be generated for you, if not you'll need to add it yourself. (Note: If you have to make this yourself make sure the NutritionView.xaml.cs file inherits the TabbedPage class.)
    • The first line should be the xml tag <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>.
    • The second line should be an opening TabbedPage tag with the following attributes:
      • xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
      • xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
      • xmlns:d="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms/design"
      • xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
      • mc:Ignorable="d"
      • x:Class="XAMLInXamarinForms.Views.Nutrition.NutritionView"
    • The last line should be the closing TabbedPage tag.
  • In our TabbedPage's opening tag add an attribute xmlns:nutritionviews with a value "clr-namespace:XAMLInXamarinForms.Views.Nutrition".
  • Between the TabbedPage tags, add opening and closing TabbedPage.Title tags containing the value Nutrition.
  • After the closing TabbedPage.Title tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type nutritionviews:BreakfastView.
  • After the nutritionviews:BreakfastView tag, add a new self closing tag with the type nutritionviews:LunchView.
  • After the nutritionviews:LunchView tag, add a new self closing tag with the type nutritionviews:DinnerView.
  • After the nutritionviews:DinnerView tag, add a new self closing tag with the type nutritionviews:SnackView.
• Create a new CarouselPage in the Views/Fitness folder with the name FitnessView.
  • When you create the CarouselPage in Visual Studio (or similiar)the following code should be generated for you, if not you'll need to add it yourself. (Note: there is a good chance you won't find CarouselPage when creating the new page, if not use TabbedPage and change the TabbedPage tags to CarouselPage and make sure the FitnessView.xaml.cs file inherits the CarouselPage class instead of the TabbedPage class)
  • - The first line should be the xml tag <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>.
    • The second line should be an opening CarouselPage tag with the following attributes:
      • xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
      • xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
      • xmlns:d="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms/design"
      • xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
      • mc:Ignorable="d"
      • x:Class="XAMLInXamarinForms.Views.Fitness.FitnessView"
    • The last line should be the closing CarouselPage tag.
    • In our CarouselPage's opening tag add an attribute xmlns:fitnessviews with a value "clr-namespace:XAMLInXamarinForms.Views.Fitness".
    • Between the CarouselPage tags, add opening and closing CarouselPage.Title tags containing the value Fitness.
    • After the closing CarouselPage.Title tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:SundayView.
    • After the fitnessviews:SundayView tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:MondayView.
    • After the fitnessviews:MondayView tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:TuesdayView.
    • After the fitnessviews:TuesdayView tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:WednesdayView.
    • After the fitnessviews:WednesdayView tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:ThursdayView.
    • After the fitnessviews:ThursdayView tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:FridayView.
    • After the fitnessviews:FridayView tag, add a new self closing tag with the of type fitnessviews:SaturdayView.
• Setup navigation to the FitnessView and NutritionView on the Views/NavigationPageView.
  • Add click events to our Views/NavigationPageView.xaml.cs file by adding the following methods.
    • Add using directives for XAMLInXamarinForms.Views.Fitness and XAMLInXamarinForms.Views.Nutrition.
    • Create a new private async method with a return type of void named FitnessButton_Clicked that accepts arguments of type object named sender and EventArgs named e.
      • This method should contain only one line of code that calls Navigation.PushAsync method on this with an argument of newly instantiated FitnessView. Don't forget to await!
    • Create a new private async method with a return type of void named NutritionButton_Clicked that accepts arguments of type object named sender and EventArgs named e.
      • This method should contain only one line of code that calls Navigation.PushAsync method on this with an argument of newly instantiated NutritionView. Don't forget to await!
  • Wire up buttons on our Views/NavigationPageView.xaml to our newly created methods.
    • On our button with the Text attribute with a value of {Binding Fitness} add a new Clicked attribute with the value "FitnessButton_Clicked".
    • On our button with the Text attribute with a value of {Binding Nutrition} add a new Clicked attribute with the value "NutritionButton_Clicked".
• In our Views/NavigationPageView.xaml.cs file, wire up our PrivacyModal to be presented when the page loads.
  • Create a new private async method with a return type of void named PopModal that accepts no arguments.
    • This method should contain only one line of code that calls Navigation.PushModalAsync with arguments of a newly instantiated PrivacyModal, and true. Don't forget to await!
  • In our NavigationPageView's constructor after we call InitializeComponent call the newly created PopModal method.
• In our Views/NavigationPageView.xaml file, add basic styling to dramatically improve the application's presentation.
  • Between our ContentPage tags and before our ContentPage.Content tags add an opening and closing ContentPage.Resources tags.
  • Between our ContentPage.Resources tags add an opening and closing ResourceDictionary tags.
  • Between our ResourceDictionary tags add a new opening and closing Style tag with the attribute TargetType with a value of "Button", contained between these Style tags should be the following.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "Font", that have Calibri between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "BackgroundColor", that have White between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "Margin", that have 5 between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "HorizontalOptions", that have FillAndExpand between these tags.
  • After our previously added Style tags add a new opening and closing Style tag with the attribute TargetType with a value of "Label", contained between these Style tags should be the following.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "Font", that have Calibri between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "BackgroundColor", that have White between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "HorizontalTextAlignment", that have Center between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "Padding", that have 10 between these tags.
    • opening and closing Setter tags with the attribute Property with a value of "HorizontalOptions", that have FillAndExpand between these tags.

What Now?

Now is a good time to continue on with other Xamarin courses to expand your understanding of the Xamarin framework. You could also look at the Microsoft Azure for Developers path as Azure is often used with Xamarin applications.