Xamarin Android - A Master Guide to App Development in C#

Learn to create your first Xamarin.Android app by building a project, selecting an API level, and running on the simulator; complete a red-to-blue button task linking code to resource layouts.

Create a new Xamarin.Android app in Xamarin Studio, set the app name and package, target minimum Android 4.1, then run it on a simulator to see the hello world screen.

Explore Android project layouts in Xamarin Android, covering the main activity, onCreate, resources, layouts, assets, drawables, and strings.

Build your first Xamarin.Android app by wiring a layout button to code, using find view by id, and toggle the button background color between red and blue on each click.

Create your first Xamarin.Android app that toggles a button's background color between red and blue on each click, using a class-level boolean to track the current state.

Create your first Xamarin.Android app, run it in the simulator, and understand the android project layout while tackling a red-to-blue button task with the solution.

Learn Android layouts, including linear and relative layouts, and text views and edit text views; practice transferring and clearing text via a slow text mover and review UI thread considerations.

Explore linear layouts and layouts in general in Android, learning how to stack elements vertically or horizontally, manage width, height, and gravity, and read XML in design and source views.

Explore relative layouts in Android, positioning views relative to siblings and the parent, resulting in potential overlaps. Start simple and avoid over-nesting by using relative layouts sparingly.

learn the difference between edit text and text view in Android, how to add them in a layout with margins and alignment, and how edit text enables keyboard input.

Wire a button, edit text, and text view in a Xamarin Android app; transfer input from the edit text to the text view on click and clear the input.

Design a relative layout with an edit text, a text box, and a bottom-aligned button, then implement a timer-driven, letter-by-letter transfer from input to display.

Demonstrate a slow text mover in Xamarin Android by moving letters from an edit text to a text view using a background task and run on UI thread.

Master Xamarin Android layouts by exploring linear and relative layouts, text views, and edit texts, then implement text transfer and threading between the ui thread and a background thread.

Master radio buttons and radio groups, toggle buttons with events, and spinners in Xamarin Android. Build dropdown app selecting Italian or French food, with a visibility toggle and layout insights.

Learn to implement radio buttons and radio groups in Android Studio, wire up click and radio group change events, and debug using the log to capture button selections.

Master how to implement Android toggle buttons to represent on/off states, handle the checked event, log changes, and customize text with text on and text off.

Create a spinner in your main activity, populate it from a string array resource, attach an array adapter with the simple spinner item layout, and handle selections.

Create a radio group to toggle between two lists, with a top toggle to show or hide items, and populate a dropdown with Italian and French foods based on selection.

Create a radio group to switch between two lists in a Xamarin Android app, with a toggle controlling visibility of the list and updating the spinner on selection change.

Explore more Xamarin Android basic UI elements, including radio buttons in groups, toggle buttons with checked change events, and spinners for dropdown lists. Learn to debug an app, understand the log debug, and build an app that combines toggle buttons, a radio group, and a dropdown spinner, with the solution provided.

Build a Xamarin.Android list view with scrolling lists, create a basic list in three lines of code, and implement custom adapters and cells with fast scrolling.

Understand how a list view renders data on Android by using an adapter to supply cells, recycling off-screen cells for efficiency, and attaching data to each cell as it scrolls.

Build a basic Android list view by adding it to the layout, populate data with a for loop from 0 to 99, and bind it with an array adapter.

Implement an item click handler for a list view in Xamarin Android, extract the clicked position from the event, and log the zero-based index.

Discover how to replace a simple array adapter with a custom adapter to support sections and indexing in a list view, and modify a specific item at a given position.

Create a custom row layout for a list view, inflate it in the adapter's getView method, bind an analog clock and a text view, and address performance and recycling.

Learn to enable fast scrolling and implement section indexing in an Android list view by building an alpha index, sections, and the section indexer methods for navigation.

Create and customize Android list views with standard and custom cells, handle item clicks, and implement fast scrolling and dictionary indexing while mindful of image memory.

Load images from Android resources folders in layouts and programmatically. Explore XML resources for automatic translation, and distinguish assets from resources while optimizing images for many screen densities.

Learn to display images in Android by loading drawables from resources into an image view, either in layout or programmatically with set image and scale types.

Learn how to translate an android app with no extra coding by adding language-specific string resources (values-fr) and layouts, updating strings.xml, and switching device language to see translations.

Explore how Android handles different screen densities by using density-specific drawable folders to keep images sharp across devices, and learn to generate appropriate assets with Android Asset Studio.

Explore resources in Xamarin.Android by loading and displaying images and translating apps with strings.xml. Compare assets and resources, and learn how language and density qualifiers affect image sizing.

Master Xamarin.Android activities, including starting new activities, passing data between them, and memory management from a C#/.NET perspective. Explore the activity lifecycle and when lifecycle events fire.

Understand how Android activities stack like miniature apps controlled by the system to manage memory. See how killing and restoring activities affect data flow, and save state to prevent crashes.

Learn how to start a new activity in Xamarin Android by creating a new layout and activity, setting the content view, and firing a start activity intent.

Pass data between Android activities using intents by putting extra data and retrieving it with get string extra in the target activity; you can send bundles, integers, and serializable values.

Examine how Android activity lifecycles manage memory and user flow from onCreate to onDestroy, including pausing, backgrounding, and restoring state with intents and extras when activities are killed.

Explore how activities work in Xamarin.Android, start and stack activities, pass data with intents, and manage the lifecycle as the OS reclaims memory to maintain app stability.

Explore graphics and animations in Xamarin.Android, using XML drawables to render scalable graphics without image assets, animate fades between images, and master view and property animations for a polished UI.

Evaluate where to apply graphics and animation to avoid clutter and distraction. Use subtle Android button animations and scalable drawable graphics instead of images whenever possible.

Learn to create Android XML drawables, define a rectangle with a stroke and color, apply it as a layout background, and extend to gradients, corners, and ovals for flexible shapes.

Learn to change a button's background with XML drawables using a state list selector in Android, creating gradient shapes and applying default and pressed states without code.

Explore fading between two images in android using an XML drawable transition, defining a two-image transition and starting the animation from code to fade between horse and mac images.

Create a res/anim xml that defines a set of scale and rotate animations with pivots and an interpolator, then load and start it with AnimationUtils on an image view.

Explore property animations with ObjectAnimator in Android, animating any object's x and alpha properties with a configurable duration and reverse repeat mode for a smooth, non-blocking UI.

Master graphics and simple animations in Xamarin.Android by using drawable graphics, XML drawables for rectangles and ovals, button states, transitions, and view and property animations.

Explore the Android file system and app storage to create, read or write directories and files, including text files and an automatic log generator, with threading for the user interface.

Explore the Android file system, rooted in Linux, and its partition design—from boot and system to recovery, data, cache, and miscellaneous—highlighting SD card handling and common pitfalls.

Store data in the app's data folder for access and sandbox isolation; avoid the SD card, where other apps can read or modify files and data may be removed.

Create and enumerate files and folders in a Xamarin.Android app using system.io. Learn to obtain the external files directory, create directories and files, and enumerate contents.

Learn to read and write a text file in Xamarin.Android, manage external storage permissions, and use app directory paths to append and read text via a simple edit text UI.

Create a log file creator that starts a timer on begin logging, appends time every second for five seconds, disables read button during logging, and reads log to display results.

Create a log file app that writes timestamps to a log every second for five cycles, then reads and displays log while keeping user interface responsive with a background thread.

Explore android file system partitions and app storage, including sd card handling. Create and enumerate files, read and write text with System.IO, and generate logs with proper UI threading.

Explore alerts and notifications in Xamarin.Android, from basic dialogs and list alert dialogues to toasts and local notifications, and learn how they inform users whether the app is foreground or background.

Master basic alert dialogs and list dialogs in Android using an alert dialog builder, set message and title, add buttons, and handle item clicks with a string array.

Learn how to implement Android toasts in Xamarin with toast.makeText, specify a duration of long or short, and call show to display a brief message at the bottom.

Explore local Android notifications by building a notification with title, text, and icon, obtaining the notification manager, displaying and updating notifications, and applying sound, vibration, and default behaviors.

Create a basic alert dialog with ok and cancel, enable item selection from a list alert dialog, and implement toasts and local notifications for transient versus important updates.