Author Archives: Chris C

Today I Learned How To Create Xamarin iOS and Android Unit Tests

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Chris C

I’m currently working on a notification plugin for Xamarin Forms and wanted to setup some unit tests.  The problem is my code accesses the device-specific notification systems in iOS and Android.  This means I can’t just run my unit tests … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned How to Create a Local Notification in Xamarin Android

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Chris C

In Android you can schedule a notification that shows immediately using the NotificationManager.  However, if you are like me, awesome, and want to schedule a notification for a future date you need to use the Android AlarmManager.  The alarm manager lets … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned Bait and Switch for .NET PCL’s

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Chris C

If you have worked with Xamarin for longer than me (i.e. one year) then you probably already know about PCL bait and switch technique, especially if you consumed one of the many Xamarin plugins. As usual I’m late to the … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned Xamarin Push Notification Plugins

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Chris C

I learned this week that there is no built-in support for Push Notifications in Xamarin Forms.  On the plus side there are several open source projects trying to fill this hole.  The one that has caught my eye is edsnider/Xamarin.Plugins. … Continue reading →

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Notes on Converting Mini-Compressor to UWP Application (Trying to at Least)

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Chris C

I was inspired to get Mini-Compressor to UWP into the Windows 10 Store a while back this summer. I saw this video several months ago when it was called Project Centennial: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2015/2-692 Then a couple weeks ago there was a … Continue reading →

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Fixing MSBuild not Exiting

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Chris C

After upgrading to Visual Studio Xamarin 4.1 from 4.0 our TeamCity build suddenly stopped working.  Actually it was working but won’t stop working.  The build would get hang after rebuilding out solution to create the IPA file. The step in question … Continue reading →

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Best Productivity Article

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Chris C

As we continue to work on Goal Buddy I’ve been reading books and research papers about goal setting and its cousin productivity.  Productivity is just a fancy word for saying “get stuff done”. Some interesting articles/podcasts about productivity I recently … Continue reading →

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Connect to Android Emulator from VirtualBox

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Chris C

I do all my development inside virtual machines.  This allows me to keep separate development environment for different projects and clients.  I wanted to keep this tradition for developing mobile applications but that turned out to be a bit of challenge. … Continue reading →

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Surprises Using Azure

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Chris C

Are you a MSDN subscriber?  Thinking about using Azure because of the sweet sweet credits you get for being a MSDN subscriber?  Maybe you want to switch because they are one of few cloud providers that have Windows operating systems. Well … Continue reading →

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Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Chris C

Chris, Ada, Alice, and Liv will be taking some time off to spend time with our family and friends over the holidays.  And hopefully find some time to see the new Star Wars movie. The basement office will be dark, … Continue reading →

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