Tag: C#

Xamarin.Tip – Playing Audio Through the Earpiece on Android

Xamarin provides plenty of documentation on how to play audio in Android:

However, this never touches on directing audio through the onboard earpiece for applications such as voicemail or other real-time uses. Here’s a quick and dirty service that can be used in Xamarin.Android to direct audio through either the speaker or the onboard earpiece:

AudioService.cs

    public class AudioService : IAudioService
    {
        public AudioService()
        {
        }

        public void PlaySoundThroughEarPiece()
        {
            var mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();

            mediaPlayer.Reset();

            var audioManager = (AudioManager)Android.App.Application.Context.GetSystemService(Context.AudioService);
            mediaPlayer.SetAudioStreamType(Stream.VoiceCall);
            audioManager.Mode = Mode.InCall;
            audioManager.SpeakerphoneOn = false;
            mediaPlayer.SetDataSource(Android.App.Application.Context, Android.Net.Uri.Parse("android.resource://com.suavepirate.audiotest/raw/sample_sound"));
            mediaPlayer.Prepare();
            mediaPlayer.Start();
        }

        public void PlaySoundThroughSpeaker()
        {
            var mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.Create(Android.App.Application.Context, Resource.Raw.sample_sound);


            var audioManager = (AudioManager)Android.App.Application.Context.GetSystemService(Context.AudioService);
            mediaPlayer.SetAudioStreamType(Stream.Music);
            audioManager.Mode = Mode.Normal;
            audioManager.SpeakerphoneOn = true;

            mediaPlayer.Start();
        }
    }

There are 2 important pieces required to stream it through the earpiece. Certain devices and Android versions only require 1 of the 2, but using both seems to be the best bet.

The first is to use the AudioManager service from the current Context and set SpeakerphoneOn to false as well as set the Mode to Mode.InCall. The second is to take the MediaPlayer object created and set the AudioStreamType to Stream.VoiceCall.

To go back to playing through the full speaker, revert the audio manager Mode to Normal, and set SpeakerphoneOn back to true. Be sure to also set the MediaPlayer.SetAudioStreamType with Stream.Music.

Check out an example of this on my GitHub here in Xamarin.Forms: https://github.com/SuavePirate/XamarinEarpieceAudioTest

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Borderless Inputs

I published multiple posts this week about creating Xamarin.Forms controls without borders using Custom renderers. This post is your one stop shop for all these posts. These are the controls that are used in my repository to create Material Design inputs in Xamarin.Forms that you can find here:
https://github.com/SuavePirate/SuaveControls.MaterialFormControls. These will be talked about in posts to come!
Check the borderless controls out here:

  1. Xamarin.Forms Borderless Entry
  2. Xamarin.Forms Borderless Picker
  3. Xamarin.Forms Borderless DatePicker
  4. Xamarin.Forms Borderless TimePicker
  5. Xamarin.Forms Borderless Editor

And check out how they look here:

BorderlessEntry


BorderlessEditor

BorderlessPicker

BorderlessDatePicker

BorderlessTimePicker

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Playing Audio Through the Earpiece in iOS

There is plenty of documentation from Xamarin on how to play audio files in our Xamarin.iOS apps (or Xamarin.Forms apps):

But none of these talk about piping the audio to either the speaker or the earpiece (the onboard one used for phone calls). Handling this logic is useful for applications that have a “voicemail” sort of feature or a real-time communications app. Here’s a brief bit of code that can handle playing an audio file through the speaker or through the earpiece:

AudioService.cs

 public class AudioService : IAudioService
    {
        public AudioService()
        {
        }

        public void PlaySoundThroughEarPiece(string fileName)
        {
            var session = AVAudioSession.SharedInstance();
            session.SetCategory(AVAudioSessionCategory.PlayAndRecord);
            session.SetActive(true);
            NSError error;
            var player = new AVAudioPlayer(new NSUrl(fileName), "mp3", out error);
            player.Volume = 1.0f;
            player.Play();

        }

        public void PlaySoundThroughSpeaker(string fileName)
        {
            var session = AVAudioSession.SharedInstance();
            session.SetCategory(AVAudioSessionCategory.Playback);
            session.SetActive(true);
            NSError error;
            var player = new AVAudioPlayer(new NSUrl(fileName), "mp3", out error);
            player.Volume = 1.0f;
            player.Play();
            
        }
    }

The key is calling the SetCategory with the appropriate AVAudioSessionCategory and setting the session to active before playing the sound through the AVAudioPlayer.

and you can call it like so:

var audioService = new AudioService();
audioService.PlaySoundThroughEarPiece("sample_sound.mp3");
audioService.PlaySoundThroughSpeaker("sample_sound.mp3");

Check out an example of this on my GitHub here in Xamarin.Forms: https://github.com/SuavePirate/XamarinEarpieceAudioTest

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Borderless Editor

I previously put out a post on removing the border of a Xamarin.Forms Entry which was then used to create a custom PinView as well as a MaterialEntry that follows the material design standards for text fields. Check those out here:

In this post, we’ll apply some of the same principles to create a BorderlessEditor. It’s going to use a simple custom renderer, although this could and should be done using an Effect if being used on its own. However, this BorderlessEditor will be the foundation for future controls.

You can find this code as part of my library in progress to create Material Design Form controls for Xamarin.Forms – https://github.com/SuavePirate/SuaveControls.MaterialFormControls.

Let’s get started with our custom control by first creating a custom subclass of Xamarin.Forms.Editor followed by a custom renderer class for iOS, Android, and UWP that kills the border.

BorderlessEditor.cs

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms
{
    public class BorderlessEditor : Editor
    {
    }
}

Nothing special here since we are using the default behavior of the Editor.

Android

Now let’s create an Android custom renderer.

BorderlessEditorRenderer.cs – Android

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessEditor), typeof(BorderlessEditorRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.Android.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessEditorRenderer : EditorRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<Editor> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);
            if (e.OldElement == null)
            {
                Control.Background = null;

                var layoutParams = new MarginLayoutParams(Control.LayoutParameters);
                layoutParams.SetMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);
                LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
                SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
            }
        }
    }
}

We simple kill the default padding and margins while setting the Background property to null. This Background is what creates the drawable underline for the AppCompat Editor.

iOS

Follow with an iOS renderer.

BorderlessEditorRenderer.cs – iOS

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessEditor), typeof(BorderlessEditorRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.iOS.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessEditorRenderer : EditorRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementPropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnElementPropertyChanged(sender, e);

            Control.Layer.BorderWidth = 0;
        }
    }
}

All we do here is set the BorderWidth to 0.

UWP

Lastly a renderer for UWP

BorderlessEditorRenderer.cs – UWP


[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessEditor), typeof(BorderlessEditorRenderer))]

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.UWP.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessEditorRenderer : EditorRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<Editor> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);

            if (Control != null)
            {
                Control.BorderThickness = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Margin = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Padding = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
            }
        }
    }
}

Similar to how we did it on Android, we set both the Margin and Padding to 0 and also set the BorderThickness to a 0’d Thickness.

Using the BorderlessEditor

Now you can use the BorderlessEditor in your XAML or C# code:

MainPage.xaml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ExampleMaterialApp"
             xmlns:suave="clr-namespace:SuaveControls.MaterialForms;assembly=SuaveControls.MaterialForms"
             x:Class="ExampleMaterialApp.MainPage">

    <ScrollView>
        <StackLayout Spacing="16" Margin="16" BackgroundColor="Blue">
            <Label Text="Borderless Editor!" Margin="32" HorizontalOptions="Center" HorizontalTextAlignment="Center"/>
            <suave:BorderlessEditor BackgroundColor="Black" TextColor="White" HeightRequest="300" Margin="32"/>

        </StackLayout>
    </ScrollView>

</ContentPage>

Check out those results on iOS:

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – BottomNavigationView in Xamarin.Android

I previously talked about adding a BottomNavigationView to your native Android apps using Java (Android.Basics – Adding a Bottom Navigation View), but I couldn’t leave my Xamarin buddies out! Consider this phase 1 in moving your tabs to the bottom of your Xamarin apps! In this post, we’ll look at a basic implementation of the new Material Design BottomNavigationView in Xamarin.Android, and in a later post, we’ll implement it in Xamarin.Forms with a custom TabbedRenderer.

Resources

Create a Menu Resource

The BottomNavigationView uses a menu to create the items in the navigation view, so you’ll need to create an xml resource under Resource/menu.

bottom_bar_menu.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:id="@+id/all_puppies"
        android:title="@string/action_all"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_home_white_24dp" />

    <item android:id="@+id/big_puppies"
        android:title="@string/action_big"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_dog_white_24dp" />

    <item android:id="@+id/small_puppies"
        android:title="@string/action_small"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_small_dog_white_24dp" />

    <item android:id="@+id/trained_puppies"
        android:title="@string/action_trained"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_trained_white_24dp" />

    <item android:id="@+id/active_puppies"
        android:title="@string/action_active"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_active_white_24dp" />
</menu>

Note that the images I use are from my previous post, and are included in the source code in GitHub linked above.

Update the Layout

Add an android.support.design.widget.BottomNavigationView to your layout, or you can now add it easily in Visual Studio (for Mac) in the design view by selecting it on the right.

main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:text="All"
        android:textAlignment="center"
        android:gravity="center" />
    <android.support.design.widget.BottomNavigationView
        android:id="@+id/bottomNavigationView"
        android:minWidth="25px"
        android:minHeight="25px"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="56dp"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:background="@android:color/white"
        app:elevation="6dp"
        app:menu="@menu/bottom_bar_menu" />
</RelativeLayout>

or….

Screen Shot 2017-07-25 at 3.48.02 PM

Just make sure you properly set the layout_width and layout_height to meet the standards and also add elevation to give it the shadow and solid background.

Add Listeners

Xamarin did a great job of wrapping the Java listener with C# events so we can add the event handlers we know and love to handle changes when an item is selected in the BottomNavigationView.

MainActivity.cs

    public class MainActivity : Activity
    {

        protected override void OnCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
        {
            base.OnCreate(savedInstanceState);

            // Set our view from the "main" layout resource
            SetContentView(Resource.Layout.Main);

            var textView = FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.textView);
            var bottomBar = FindViewById<BottomNavigationView>(Resource.Id.bottomNavigationView);
            textView.Text = "All";
            bottomBar.NavigationItemSelected += (s,a) => {
                textView.Text = a.Item.TitleFormatted.ToString();
            };
        }
    }

Things to Remember

Remember that this is part of the AppCompat packages from Google, and is only in version 25+ of the Android Support Design Library. You can install the nuget package for it here: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xamarin.Android.Support.Design/25.4.0-rc1

Because of this, you also need to set the theme of your Activity to something that is a sub-theme of Theme.AppCompat.

Results

Check it out!

Xamarin_Bottom_Bar

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Borderless TimePicker

I previously put out a post on removing the border of a Xamarin.Forms Entry which was then used to create a custom PinView as well as a MaterialEntry that follows the material design standards for text fields. I also added a post just like this one that talks about creating a BorderlessPicker. Check those out here:

In this post, we’ll do exactly what we did with the BorderlessPicker, but apply it to the Xamarin.Forms.TimePicker control to remove the border. This would ideally be done using an Effect, however we will be using this control in a later post to create a MaterialTimePicker to fit the Material Design standards for form inputs, so we will create custom renderers for Android, iOS, and UWP.

You can find this code as part of my library in progress to create Material Design Form controls for Xamarin.Forms – https://github.com/SuavePirate/SuaveControls.MaterialFormControls.

Let’s get started with our custom control by first creating a custom subclass of Xamarin.Forms.TimePicker followed by a custom renderer class for iOS, Android, and UWP that kills the border.

BorderlessTimePicker.cs

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms
{
    public class BorderlessTimePicker : TimePicker
    {
    }
}

Nothing special here since we are using the default behavior of the TimePicker.

Android

Now let’s create an Android custom renderer.

BorderlessTimePickerRenderer.cs – Android

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessTimePicker), typeof(BorderlessTimePickerRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.Android.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessTimePickerRenderer : TimePickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<TimePicker> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);
            if (e.OldElement == null)
            {
                Control.Background = null;

                var layoutParams = new MarginLayoutParams(Control.LayoutParameters);
                layoutParams.SetMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);
                LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
                SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
            }
        }
    }
}

We simple kill the default padding and margins while setting the Background property to null. This Background is what creates the drawable underline for the AppCompat TimePicker.

iOS

Follow with an iOS renderer.

BorderlessTimePickerRenderer.cs – iOS

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessTimePicker), typeof(BorderlessTimePickerRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.iOS.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessTimePickerRenderer : TimePickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementPropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnElementPropertyChanged(sender, e);

            Control.Layer.BorderWidth = 0;
            Control.BorderStyle = UITextBorderStyle.None;
        }
    }
}

All we do here is set the BorderWidth to 0 and the BorderStyle to UITextBorderStyle.None.

UWP

Lastly a renderer for UWP

BorderlessTimePickerRenderer.cs – UWP


[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessTimePicker), typeof(BorderlessTimePickerRenderer))]

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.UWP.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessTimePickerRenderer : TimePickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<TimePicker> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);

            if (Control != null)
            {
                Control.BorderThickness = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Margin = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Padding = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
            }
        }
    }
}

Similar to how we did it on Android, we set both the Margin and Padding to 0 and also set the BorderThickness to a 0’d Thickness.

Using the BorderlessTimePicker

Now you can use the BorderlessTimePicker in your XAML or C# code:

MainPage.xaml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ExampleMaterialApp"
             xmlns:suave="clr-namespace:SuaveControls.MaterialForms;assembly=SuaveControls.MaterialForms"
             x:Class="ExampleMaterialApp.MainPage">

    <ScrollView>
        <StackLayout Spacing="16" Margin="16">
            <Label Text="Borderless TimePicker!" Margin="32" HorizontalOptions="Center" HorizontalTextAlignment="Center"/>
            <suave:BorderlessTimePicker/>

        </StackLayout>
    </ScrollView>

</ContentPage>

Check out those results on iOS:

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Borderless DatePicker

I previously put out a post on removing the border of a Xamarin.Forms Entry which was then used to create a custom PinView as well as a MaterialEntry that follows the material design standards for text fields. I also added a post just like this one that talks about creating a BorderlessPicker. Check those out here:

In this post, we’ll do exactly what we did with the BorderlessPicker, but apply it to the Xamarin.Forms.DatePicker control to remove the border. This would ideally be done using an Effect, however we will be using this control in a later post to create a MaterialDatePicker to fit the Material Design standards for form inputs, so we will create custom renderers for Android, iOS, and UWP.

You can find this code as part of my library in progress to create Material Design Form controls for Xamarin.Forms – https://github.com/SuavePirate/SuaveControls.MaterialFormControls.

Let’s get started with our custom control by first creating a custom subclass of Xamarin.Forms.DatePicker followed by a custom renderer class for iOS, Android, and UWP that kills the border.

BorderlessDatePicker.cs

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms
{
    public class BorderlessDatePicker : DatePicker
    {
    }
}

Nothing special here since we are using the default behavior of the DatePicker.

Android

Now let’s create an Android custom renderer.

BorderlessDatePickerRenderer.cs – Android

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessDatePicker), typeof(BorderlessDatePickerRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.Android.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessDatePickerRenderer : DatePickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<DatePicker> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);
            if (e.OldElement == null)
            {
                Control.Background = null;

                var layoutParams = new MarginLayoutParams(Control.LayoutParameters);
                layoutParams.SetMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);
                LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
                SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
            }
        }
    }
}

We simple kill the default padding and margins while setting the Background property to null. This Background is what creates the drawable underline for the AppCompat DatePicker.

iOS

Follow with an iOS renderer.

BorderlessDatePickerRenderer.cs – iOS

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessDatePicker), typeof(BorderlessDatePickerRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.iOS.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessDatePickerRenderer : DatePickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementPropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnElementPropertyChanged(sender, e);

            Control.Layer.BorderWidth = 0;
            Control.BorderStyle = UITextBorderStyle.None;
        }
    }
}

All we do here is set the BorderWidth to 0 and the BorderStyle to UITextBorderStyle.None.

UWP

Lastly a renderer for UWP

BorderlessDatePickerRenderer.cs – UWP


[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessDatePicker), typeof(BorderlessDatePickerRenderer))]

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.UWP.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessDatePickerRenderer : DatePickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<DatePicker> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);

            if (Control != null)
            {
                Control.BorderThickness = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Margin = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Padding = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
            }
        }
    }
}

Similar to how we did it on Android, we set both the Margin and Padding to 0 and also set the BorderThickness to a 0’d Thickness.

Using the BorderlessDatePicker

Now you can use the BorderlessDatePicker in your XAML or C# code:

MainPage.xaml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ExampleMaterialApp"
             xmlns:suave="clr-namespace:SuaveControls.MaterialForms;assembly=SuaveControls.MaterialForms"
             x:Class="ExampleMaterialApp.MainPage">

    <ScrollView>
        <StackLayout Spacing="16" Margin="16">
            <Label Text="Borderless DatePicker!" Margin="32" HorizontalOptions="Center" HorizontalTextAlignment="Center"/>
            <suave:BorderlessDatePicker/>

        </StackLayout>
    </ScrollView>

</ContentPage>

Check out those results on iOS:

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Borderless Picker

I previously put out a post on removing the border of a Xamarin.Forms Entry which was then used to create a custom PinView as well as a MaterialEntry that follows the material design standards for text fields. Check those out here:

In this post, we’ll apply some of the same principles to create a BorderlessPicker. It’s going to use a simple custom renderer, although this could and should be done using an Effect if being used on its own. However, this BorderlessPicker will be the foundation for future controls we will create such as the MaterialPicker that applies Material Design standards to the Xamarin.Forms Picker control on Android, iOS, and UWP.

You can find this code as part of my library in progress to create Material Design Form controls for Xamarin.Forms – https://github.com/SuavePirate/SuaveControls.MaterialFormControls.

Let’s get started with our custom control by first creating a custom subclass of Xamarin.Forms.Picker followed by a custom renderer class for iOS, Android, and UWP that kills the border.

BorderlessPicker.cs

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms
{
    public class BorderlessPicker : Picker
    {
    }
}

Nothing special here since we are using the default behavior of the Picker.

Android

Now let’s create an Android custom renderer.

BorderlessPickerRenderer.cs – Android

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessPicker), typeof(BorderlessPickerRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.Android.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessPickerRenderer : PickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<Picker> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);
            if (e.OldElement == null)
            {
                Control.Background = null;

                var layoutParams = new MarginLayoutParams(Control.LayoutParameters);
                layoutParams.SetMargins(0, 0, 0, 0);
                LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.LayoutParameters = layoutParams;
                Control.SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
                SetPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
            }
        }
    }
}

We simple kill the default padding and margins while setting the Background property to null. This Background is what creates the drawable underline for the AppCompat Picker.

iOS

Follow with an iOS renderer.

BorderlessPickerRenderer.cs – iOS

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessPicker), typeof(BorderlessPickerRenderer))]
namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.iOS.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessPickerRenderer : PickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementPropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnElementPropertyChanged(sender, e);

            Control.Layer.BorderWidth = 0;
            Control.BorderStyle = UITextBorderStyle.None;
        }
    }
}

All we do here is set the BorderWidth to 0 and the BorderStyle to UITextBorderStyle.None.

UWP

Lastly a renderer for UWP

BorderlessPickerRenderer.cs – UWP


[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(BorderlessPicker), typeof(BorderlessPickerRenderer))]

namespace SuaveControls.MaterialForms.UWP.Renderers
{
    public class BorderlessPickerRenderer : PickerRenderer
    {
        public static void Init() { }
        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<Picker> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);

            if (Control != null)
            {
                Control.BorderThickness = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Margin = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
                Control.Padding = new Windows.UI.Xaml.Thickness(0);
            }
        }
    }
}

Similar to how we did it on Android, we set both the Margin and Padding to 0 and also set the BorderThickness to a 0’d Thickness.

Using the BorderlessPicker

Now you can use the BorderlessPicker in your XAML or C# code:

MainPage.xaml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ExampleMaterialApp"
             xmlns:suave="clr-namespace:SuaveControls.MaterialForms;assembly=SuaveControls.MaterialForms"
             x:Class="ExampleMaterialApp.MainPage">

    <ScrollView>
        <StackLayout Spacing="16" Margin="16">
            <Label Text="Borderless Picker!" Margin="32" HorizontalOptions="Center" HorizontalTextAlignment="Center"/>
            <suave:BorderlessPicker x:Name="PickerDemo" Title="Options"/>

        </StackLayout>
    </ScrollView>

</ContentPage>

MainPage.xaml.cs

    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            PickerDemo.ItemsSource = new List<string>
            {
                "Option 1",
                "Option 2",
                "Option 3",
                "Option 4"
            };
        }
    }

Check out those results on iOS:

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Android – Comparing Models in Kotlin, Java, and C# for Xamarin

Models are an obvious important part of our applications we develop. It’s how we define our data and because of that, we can grow our models to be quite large in number. This post will look at comparing the definition of models between Java, C# (for Xamarin), and Kotlin.

Our example model will be a simple Person that has a Name and Description along with an ID. Let’s look at how we can define our Person model with these fields as well as the ability to access these fields publicly.

Using Java

Java is going to be our largest and most annoying to develop. We need to define our class, private fields, and then public functions/methods to get and set the value of each of the fields. We also need to be able to instantiate a Person with all these properties set in the constructor.

Person.java

public class Person{
    private int id;
    private String name;
    private String description;

    public Person(int id, string name, string description){
        this.id = id;
        this.name = name;
        this.description = description;
    }

    public void setID(int id){
        this.id = id;
    }
    public int getID(){
        return this.id;
    }
    public void setName(String name){
        this.name = name;
    }
    public String getName(){
        return this.name;
    }
    public void setDescription(String description){
        this.description = description;
    }
    public String getDescription(){
        return this.description;
    }
}

That’s exhausting…

Now we can instantiate it and update properties like this:

...
Person bob = new Person(1, "Bob", "He writes code and stuff");
bob.setDescription("He doesn't actually write code");
...

Using C# for Xamarin Applications

C# makes our lives a lot easier with the get and set mechanism built into properties.

Person.cs

public class Person
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }

    public Person(int id, string name, string description)
    {
        ID = id;
        Name = name;
        Description = description;
    }
}

Nice and neat!

Now we can instantiate it and update properties like this:

...
var bob = new Person(1, "Bob", "He writes code and stuff");
bob.Description = "He doesn't actually write code";
...

Using Kotlin

Kotlin has some cool tricks that allow us to define and set properties directly in our constructor without having to define and set them separately. This gives us the quickest way to create simple POCO definitions and speed up that development time.

Person.kt

class Person(var id: Int, var name: String, var description: String);

One line.

Now we can instantiate it and update properties like this:

...
val bob = Person(1, "Bob", "He writes code and stuff");
bob.description = "He doesn't actually write code";
...

Conclusion

Each language has their nuances, but I think we can all agree that defining models in Java is just a headache that other languages have solved with better solutions.

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.

Xamarin.Tip – Mvvm Light and Dependency Injection

Inversion of Control and Dependency Injection are some design principles that help make our applications more flexible and scalable. They both help us separate our implementations and make it easy to substitute drastic changes to our implemented data or business logic whether it be for writing unit tests or product improvement.

Xamarin is a platform where IoC and DI fit extremely well. I’ve talked about this concept a few other times in both my blogs and videos about the Onion Architecture in Xamarin as well as how to call Platform Specific code from a Portable Class Library. You can find those posts and videos here:

  1. Onionizing Xamarin Part 6
  2. [VIDEO] Xamarin.Tips: Calling Platform-Specific Code from a PCL (Dependency Injection)

In this post, I want to talk about using DI with Mvvm Light at a VERY basic level.

First, let’s define an interface for a service we might use:

IUserService.cs

public interface IUserService
{
    Task<User> GetCurrentUserAsync();
}

Now let’s create two different implementations. One that will be the service used in the application and the other that will be used for testing.

UserService.cs

public class UserService : IUserService
{
    // makes a call to a web api to get a user
    public async Task<User> GetCurrentUserAsync()
    {
        using (var client = new HttpClient())
        {
            var response = await client.GetAsync("https://mywebapi.mydomain/api/currentuser");
            var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<User>(content);
        }
    }
}

TestUserServices.cs

public class TestUserService : IUserService
{
    public Task<User> GetCurrentUserAsync()
    {
        return Task.FromResult(new User { Name = "Test User" });
    }
}

Now we need a ViewModel that will use this service. We define a private readonly IUserService and then inject the implementation that we want in the constructor of the ViewModel.

CurrentUserViewModel.cs

public class CurrentUserViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    // use the interface as the service and inject the implementation in the constructur
    private readonly IUserService _userService;
    private User _user;

    public User User
    {
        get
        {
            return _user;
        }
        set
        {
            Set(ref _user, value);
        }
    }

    public CurrentUserViewModel(IUserService userService)
    {
        _userService = userService;
    }

    public async Task UpdateUserAsync()
    {
        User = await _userService.GetCurrentUserAsync();
    }
}

Now let’s define an IoCConfig that handles registering dependencies and implementations.

IoCConfig.cs

public class IoCConfig
{
    public IoCConfig()
    {
        // use SimpleIoc from MvvmLight as our locator provider
        ServiceLocator.SetLocatorProvider(() => SimpleIoc.Default);
    }

    // register the real implementation
    public void RegisterServices()
    {
        SimpleIoc.Default.Register<IUserService, UserService>();
    }

    // register the test implementation
    public void RegisterTestServices()
    {
        SimpleIoc.Default.Register<IUserService, TestUserService>();
    }

    // register the view model
    public void RegisterViewModels()
    {
        SimpleIoc.Default.Register<CurrentUserViewModel>();
    }
}

Now that we can register our Services as well as our ViewModels, the dependency resolver from SimpleIoc can retrieve an instance of CurrentUserViewModel with whichever version of IUserService is registered depending on whether we call RegisterServices or RegisterTestServices.

Now we can retrieve our instance of the CurrentUserViewModel by calling

var currentUserViewModel = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<CurrentUserViewModel>();

MvvmLight recommends using a ViewModelLocator to get the instance of your ViewModels:

ViewModelLocator.cs

public class ViewModelLocator
{
    private readonly IoCConfig _iocConfig;
    public CurrentUserViewModel CurrentUser
    {
        get
        {
            return ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<CurrentUserViewModel>();
        }
    }

    public ViewModelLocator()
    {
        _iocConfig = new IoCConfig();
        _iocConfig.RegisterServices();
        //_iocConfig.RegisterTestServices();
        _iocConfig.RegisterViewModels();
    }

}

It’s recommended to either create your ViewModelLocator at the app start up, or if you’re using Xamarin.Forms, register it as a Resource in your App.xaml

<Application ...     xmlns:locator="clr-namespace:YOUR_LOCATOR_LOCATION">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <locator:ViewModelLocator x:Key="Locator"/>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Now in your XAML pages, you can automatically wire up your view model.

MainPage.xaml

<ContentPage ...     BindingContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource Locator}, Path=CurrentUser}"     Title="{Binding User.Name}">
...
</ContentPage>

In order to change to your testing data, you can just switch which call to your IoCConfig is made for registering your dependency without having to make any changes to any of your other layers or UI!

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!

Interested in sponsoring developer content? Message @Suave_Pirate on twitter for details.