What this book covers

Chapter 1, Developing with Xamarin, provides an insightful look at the Xamarin framework and architecture on target platforms. It also includes introductory information and tips on preparing the development environment for Xamarin.

Chapter 2, Memory Management, investigates how memory is managed on iOS and Android with Xamarin runtime. While drawing parallels with .NET platform, it provides examples of pitfalls, patterns, and best practices.

Chapter 3, Asynchronous Programming, dives deep into asynchronous and multi-threaded programming concepts. Platform-specific problems in various threading scenarios on different platforms are discussed.

Chapter 4, Local Data Management, provides useful patterns and techniques to efficiently use, manage, and roam data on mobile devices using Xamarin.

Chapter 5, Networking, contains a detailed look at the networking capabilities of Xamarin applications and various service integration scenarios. Networking implementations are illustrated with real-world examples, including the use of local storage for data caching.

Chapter 6, Platform Extras, concentrates on platform-specific APIs and features. It explains some of the peripherals that can be employed in Xamarin applications. A look at native libraries and how to include them in cross-platform Xamarin applications is also included in this chapter.

Chapter 7, View Elements, provides introductory information about UX (User Experience) and design concepts, and an explanation of the differences and similarities between design principles on Xamarin platforms.

Chapter 8, Xamarin.Forms, focuses on the various features and extensibility options of Xamarin. It also covers the forms extension module and how to use it to generate consistent user interfaces on multiple platforms.

Chapter 9, Reusable UI Patterns, discusses the strategies and patterns for reusing visual assets in cross-platform projects. Some advanced software architectural topics about MVC and MVVM patterns are also analyzed and demonstrated.

Chapter 10, ALM – Developers and QA, provides an introduction to Application Lifecycle Management and continuous integration methodologies for Xamarin cross-platform applications. As the part of the ALM process that is the most relevant to developers, unit testing strategies are discussed and demonstrated, as well as automated UI testing.

Chapter 11, ALM – Project and Release Management, explains the essentials of version control and automated continuous integration workflows. Source control options, as well as automated build strategies for Xamarin projects, are demonstrated.

Chapter 12, ALM – App Stores and Publishing, explains the processes related to app package preparation and release, which constitutes the last step of the application lifecycle.