Xamarin & Firebase: Authentication and Firestore for Xamarin

Introduction to Xamarin in which I talk about the tools that you will need for developing Android and iOS apps as well as where to get the installer for Visual Studio 2019 on Mac or Windows.

In this lecture we go through the process of getting all the tools needed for Xamarin development on a Mac computer, from Xcode for the iOS SDK, to Visual Studio for Mac and its tools.

In this lecture we go through the process of installing Visual Studio 2019 on Windows, along with the tools that we will need for Xamarin development.

Where to get the source code for this Xamarin basics section, over on a Github repository.

Let's go through the process of creating a new Xamarin project on either Visual Studio 2019 for Mac or on Windows, and take a look at the project structure.

XAML, the markup language used by Xamarin to define the UI for the application, lets start using it.

Using C# in the code behind for the UI to react to user interaction and create the logic.

Let's familiarize ourselves with Data Binding on XAML, its syntax, and how it works so that it is easier to get an introduction to the MVVM architectural pattern.

Here you will implement the INotifyPropertyChanged interface so that we can communicate changes in property values from the View Model to the View and vice versa.

We will use the ObservableCollection<T> class —which implements the INotifyCollectionChanged interface— to have a list of objects in the view model that can easily be bound back to a ListView in the UI.

ICommand will enable us to react to user interaction in the MVVM pattern, from the View Model, by binding an ICommand property to the command of buttons and a bindable property to the command parameter as well, using Execute and CanExecute methods for each command.

Before implementing the authentication functionality with the help of Firebase, we need to define the UI for our Xamarin application.

In this lecture, we configure our Xamarin Forms (iOS) application to use Firebase, directly from the Firebase console and by adding some files and libraries to the iOS project.

In this lecture, we configure our Xamarin Forms (Android) application to use Firebase, directly from the Firebase console and by adding some json files and libraries to the Android project.

Our Android and iOS projects both have different libraries being referenced, for us to use these two libraries in one single Xamarin Forms project we need a powerful Xamarin feature called Dependency Services, which will require first of all an interface that defines the "shell" of the functionality.

Implementing the interface previously created in an Android-specific class so we add the actual Firebase authentication functionality for the methods (members of the interface)

Implementing the interface previously created in an iOS-specific class so we add the actual Firebase authentication functionality for the methods (members of the interface)

Using Navigation Page to enable navigation between our Xamarin Forms pages

Configuring the Cloud Firestore Database in the Firebase Console and creating the Interface what will enable Dependency Services in our Xamarin Forms project.

Implementing the Android and iOS functionality for inserting new documents to a Cloud Firestore collection

Connecting the Dependency Service to the View and testing the functionality on Android and iOS

Creating a ListView and its ObservableCollection<T> so that we can list the subscriptions that will be read from the Cloud Firestore database.

Implement the Read functionality for iOS, so that the documents from a specific collection can be read using a where query so that only the documents that belong to the authenticated user are returned.

Implement the Read functionality for iOS, so that the documents from a specific collection can be read using a where query so that only the documents that belong to the authenticated user are returned.

Create and navigate to a subscription details page where users will be able to edit and delete elements. Use ListView's selected item property to navigate to the details for the selected cell.

Add the iOS & Android functionality to update Cloud Firestore documents with new information.

Add the delete functionality for iOS and Android so that we can delete documents from the Cloud Firestore collection.

Let's talk about App Center as a tool for Mobile DevOps and Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, create our accounts

Automatically create the iOS and Android App Center Apps from the GitHub repository that contains a Xamarin Forms project.

Trigger Automatic builds for both Android and iOS when we push to a remote Github repository so that Continuous Integration is ready.

Sign Android builds directly from App Center by uploading the keystore file that it will use to sign the automatic builds.

Sign iOS builds directly from App Center by uploading an AdHoc distribution provisioning profile and a p12 certificate from our Mac so that App Center can automatically sign all builds.

Creating the distribution groups that will receive all the new versions of our code on both the Android and iOS App Center Apps, and configuring automatic device registration for iOS devices through a p12 certificate.

By now our users have received a notification that a new version of the application has been made available, now we install that version on both Android and iOS devices.

You now know about Source Control, Xamarin, Firebase, and App Center! Congratulations!