Introduction to Xamarin.Android

Install Xamarin on Windows or macOS, set up Visual Studio (or Visual Studio for Mac), install the Android SDK and Xcode, and connect to a Mac agent for iOS builds.

Describe Xamarin.Android explains building Android apps with C# using wrappers around native views, Visual Studio on PC or Mac, and JNI or binding libraries for Java interop.

Treat each activity as a self-contained unit with a user interface and behavior that performs a single task, such as creating emails, browsing, or reading messages.

Learn how to build an Android activity UI with views and view groups, using linear, grid, and relative layouts, and applying density independent pixels for scalable, responsive design.

Implement an Android activity in Xamarin by creating its C# class, declaring it in the manifest with a main launcher, overriding onCreate, and using setContentView and findViewById to access views.

Explore the Xamarin.Android toolchain, combining Java SDK, Android SDK, and Mono libraries to build Android apps with Mono runtime and .NET assemblies, packaged as a single APK.

Install and update the Android SDK and development tools with the unified installer and SDK manager. Target latest API levels and write version adaptive code that preserves backwards compatibility.

Explore how activities collaborate through the application context, using intents to start other activities within the same app. Learn how context provides OS services, resources, and assets for your app.

Learn how to create and use explicit intents to start a specific activity in Android apps, loading the target activity type into the intent and invoking start activity.

Understand how the Android back button works and when to add save or cancel actions, then explore stack navigation, tab navigation, and drone navigation patterns.

Explore the back stack and how Android automatically adds and pops activities with the back button, across apps, and learn to programmatically end an activity using the finish method.

Explore how activities pass arguments and data between processes in Xamarin.Android, from master-detail flows to composing emails, and see how each app runs in its own Linux process.

Load a bundle of arguments into an intent and retrieve them in the target activity. Use string keys and simple or serializable values, with explicit bundles or built-in intent methods.

Learn how Android activities exchange data and return results, using request codes, intents, and extras; implement start activity for result and on activity result to handle success, failure, or data.

Identify and pass a distinct request code for each Android activity to recognize results in on activity result; return a code (ok, cancelled, first user) and an optional bundle.