Category Archives: Software Development

Today I Learned How to Install a TeamCity Build Agent on a Mac

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Chris C

When I was first figuring out how to port the BEMCheckBox to Xamarin I built the framework manually.  This is obviously not a good long term solution so I set about figuring out how to automate the build.  The first … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned How to Create a Xamarin iOS Binding for Objective-C Libraries – Part 4 The Actual Binding

Posted on August 16, 2017 by Chris C

This is the 4th and final part about incorporating an objective-c library in Xamarin.  In my case I’m binding BEMCheckBox.  In part 3 we used Sharpie to create a C# interface for the BEMCheckBox.  In this post we will show … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned How to Create a Xamarin iOS Binding for Objective-C Libraries – Part 3 Using Sharpie to Create Binding Interface

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Chris C

This is the 3rd part about using the BEMCheckBox, an Objective-C library, in Xamarin.  Part 1 described how to compile the BEMCheckBox library using Xcode.  Part 2 showed how to combine the multiple libraries we compiled from Part 1 into … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned How to Create a Xamarin iOS Binding for Objective-C Libraries – Part 2 Combining Libraries

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Chris C

This is part 2 of creating a iOS Binding for the Objective-C Library BEMCheckBox.  In part 1 we compiled the Xcode project into two separate libraries.  One for iphones (ARM architecture) and one for iOS simulators (x86/x64 architecture). In this … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned How to Create a Xamarin iOS Binding for Objective-C Libraries – Part 1 Compiling the Objective-C Library

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Chris C

There is no checkbox for Xamarin Forms applications.  This is a problem because I wanted a checkbox in a application I’m working on.  A switch wasn’t going to cut it. After a bit of research I found that Android had native … Continue reading →

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Today I Learned How to Handle Local Notifications in Xamarin on Android

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Chris C

In my previous example I detailed how to schedule notifications in Xamarin on Android but didn’t show the Xamarin Forms application reacting to that specific notification.  Let’s fix that. First override the OnNewIntent method in the MainActivity.  We override this method so notifications will … Continue reading →

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Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2017

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Chris C

The results of the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2017 are live.  Some surprising highlights for me: Most developers surveyed are white male web developers.  Just kidding, this was not surprising at all. More than 50% of developers’ parents had a … Continue reading →

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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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