Beginning Xamarin Development for the Mac

Introduction (10 pages)- Provides the context for the whole book, discusses typical challenges in mobile programming and how Xamarin.iOS with Visual Studio for Mac simplifies them. Describes what Xamarin.iOS really is and how the C# code is translated to native API during compilation. Chapter 1: Fundamentals (15 pages) First chapter of the book shows how to setup development environment and discusses required tools to make sure the reader has everything he/she needs to write apps him/her self. 1) Setting up development environment 2) Project templates 3) Hello, world app! Chapter 2: App structure and lifecycle (30 pages) Second chapter dives into anatomy of the app, explaining elements of the app and relations between them. Additionally, design patterns and approaches employed in iOS, watchOS and tvOS programming are explained. The goal of this Chapter is to familiarize the Reader with basic concepts behind programming for Apple hardware. 1) An entry point, AppDelegate and app lifecycle 2) Resources and property lists 3) Storyboards 4) Events, protocols and delegates 5) View lifecycle 6) Model View Controller 7) Storing data Chapter 3: Unit testing (25 pages) Achieving high quality apps is one of the most important and difficult tasks in software engineering. Unit or automatic testing is therefore not only another fancy tool for developers but becomes a habit in software engineering (especially in terms of the Model View Controller programming pattern used by Apple platforms). Automatic tests can be run right after code compilation to ensure new features does not affect other project components, so one can easily monitor his position on the development roadmap. 1) Create model layer to test 2) Implement unit tests 3) Running unit tests Chapter 4: Views (50 pages) After knowing app structure and project templates there is a good time to create more complex views consisting not only of basic input controls, but also of tables and collections. Then I will show how to create multi-view applications and navigate between them. The authors discusses advanced controls like Map View and discuss how to automatically adjust the view to different screen sizes (small and large iPhones) and orientations (portrait or landscape) with layouts. 1) Basic input controls (text input, buttons, images, sliders, switches) 2) Tables 3) Collection Views 4) Tab Bar 5) Navigation 6) Map View 7) Layouts 8) UI and code Chapter 5: Touch (25 pages) Mobile devices are controlled by touch gestures. User can manipulate visual elements to translate, rotate and resize them. He/she can also use multi-touch input to draw shapes. In this chapter, the author shows how to programmatically handle such input. 1) Gesture recognizers 2) Pan gesture 3) Rotation gesture 4) Pinch gesture 5) ; Multi-touch   Chapter 6: Consuming RESTful web services (25 pages) Very frequently, iOS apps constitute the mobile endpoint of the larger system. Mobile app obtains data (like weather forecast, news, bank statemets) from a remote web server using RESTful architecture, and then displays this data to the user. User can change data locally and send updates (requests to execute money transfer, for instance) to the server. This chapter shows how to achieve such everyday goals of mobile apps with Xamarin.iOS. 1) HttpClient class 2) Parsing JSON files 3) Displaying data 4) Sending updated data to webservice Chapter 7: watchOS (25 pages) Apple Watch is wearable endpoint of the iOS device. Apple Watch becomes your best friend, when riding a bike, being at the important meeting or standing in the crowded bus. In such situations you cannot pull out the phone. Instead you can use your Apple Watch to quickly check your schedule, reply to incoming messages or glance on the map to see route directions. Readers will learn to develop custom apps for Apple Watch with Xamarin.iOS and communicate watchOS app with the parent app running on the main iOS device. 1) Introduction to watchOS: Hello, watch! 2) User interface 3) Fource Touch Menu and navigation 4) Glance and notification controllers 5) Communicate with parent app Chapter 8: tvOS (25 pages) TV is yet another constituent of everyday life, which was revolutionized with electronics and software. Devices like Apple TV turns your display into a smart device, which you use not only for watching TV. Also, you do not need to worry that you miss your favorite TV show. Instead, you are the boss, deciding when and what you watch. Moreover, your TV becomes even more smart with dedicated apps and games. This chapter shows how to build such custom apps for Apple TV. 1) Hello, TV! 2) Navigation Bars 3) Consuming web services