Customize the iOS Keyboard with Xamarin

You can customize the iOS Keyboard with Xamarin.

Nearly all applications require that users interact with your app via a keyboard. It could be a search bar, a text field, or something else -- users typically use the keyboard in some way for input. iOS comes with different types of keyboards that can solve just about any need, but there are times when some additional feature would be great. In Google's Gmail app for iOS, for instance, maybe you'd like to make things a bit easier by adding e-mail addresses for .net, .org, and other domain suffixes. This article will look at how to modify the existing iOS Keyboard to better fit the needs of the application.

App To Market: Your Startup Needs An MVP

https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/03/22/app-to-market-startup-needs-an-mvp.aspx

An MVP is not some Microsoft award, but the acronym for a term, "minimum viable product," that loosely defines what you're trying to provide as far as features -- at a bare minimum -- to get your app to market. Let's look at the considerations for making sure your app achieves MVP status.

Drill Into Problems with Xamarin Insights

Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/03/01/xamarin-insights.aspx

You've completed the initial version of your mobile app. You've deployed it. And now, you've started to get reports of exceptions in your app. It doesn't happen all of the time, and it doesn't happen to all users, only some of them. What's worse is that the errors aren't often repeatable. For some reason, the issues some users are having can't be repeated in your office. You drive around and try to repeat the errors but you can't, so you wonder if it's is a location issue. Perhaps it's a cell signal issue. Perhaps the issue is the version of the OS the user is running. You're stuck and you don't know what's causing the errors. You need more information in order to solve the problem, so where do you turn? Xamarin has released a product just for this situation. It's called Xamarin Insights.

Neo-Socialism

The formal definition of neosocialism from the 1930s has some rather unsavory pieces.  However, we're in 2016.  If people can redefine things, I figure I can to.

Neo meaning new.

Socialist meaning socialist.

I've noticed this new trend of socialists.  They were brought up in a capitalist economy and want it to change.  these people seem to think that things and times are horrible.  If you listened to them and Bernie Sanders, you'd think we were living under the thumb of bankster gangsters.  Puhlease.  These people need a reality check.  In a capitalistic economy, if you come up with a better idea, you have the opportunity to grow, start a business, and change your situation dramatically.  Anyway, these people that grew in capitalism and now think that socialism would be so cool, I refer to them as neosocialists.

Slim down your Pictures in the iPhone & Android

Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/02/01/slimming-pics.aspx

Nothing can be as helpful as a picture. Text is great, but there is a reason why pictures are worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, as the cameras of devices have gotten better, the amount of space that pictures take up has gotten larger. With a late-2015/early-2016 phone, a picture can easily be 2MB. Start trying to upload those via e-mail or to a service (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), and there are always problems with connectivity or otherwise. Let's examine some simple routines to minimize the size of an image.

Xamarin 4 Overview - Article

Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/01/11/xamarin-4-improvements-upgrading.aspx
November 17, 2015 was a great day for mobile development. That is the day that Xamarin shipped the latest major update to its mobile development suite of tools, and with this one there's lots to like:

• Xamarin.Forms. With Xamarin.Forms 2.0, there are updates for iOS9, Material Design, pre-compiled screens, preview support for Universal Windows Platform apps, and gestures support like pinch.
• Visual Studio iOS Support. Xamarin has reengineered for iOS support for Visual Studio in a way that should improve iOS app reliability.
• Mono Upgrade. Microsoft has open sourced portions of the .NET codebase, and what that, Xamarin has incorporated the open source code into the Mono framework. The move should improve the compatibility and performance of the framework.
• The iOS designer. The iOS designer can now load and save XIB files in addition to storyboard files.
• The Android designer. The Android designer now supports Android Material Design.
• Xamarin Test Cloud. To support the Xamarin Test Cloud and its 2,000+ devices that are accessible to developers, Xamarin has introduced a preview tool named the Xamarin Test Recorder, Xamarin.UITest 1.0, and Xamarin Insights, has been released with free crash reporting for all Xamarin customers (and, finally, additional plans for users).

PS. I was told that Listing 5 should have the following change:

protected override void OnCreate(Bundle bundle)
{

            FormsAppCompatActivity.ToolbarResource = Resource.Layout.toolbar;
            FormsAppCompatActivity.TabLayoutResource = Resource.Layout.tabs;
            base.OnCreate(bundle); 

            global::Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(this, bundle); 
            LoadApplication(new App()); 
}

A few thoughts on my new column on Startups and Entrepreneurship

I never did put out an intro to my my new VSM Column on Startups and Entrepreneurship, so I guess I'll consider this post an "Introduction and Hello" or something similar.  Here are a few thoughts in no particular order:

• These are my experiences.  My experiences are based on my actual experiences.  I've been directly involved over a long period of time with 3 startups.  Two of these startups were successful and one went into the ground at 500 miles an hour.  These are my long term startup experiences.  I've been involved with several other startups on a short term consulting experience.  None of these short term startup experiences have been successful due to reasons outside of my control, but you knew I would say that.
• I'm a developer that get's business.  I've had it drilled into my head forever.  I hated it when I was young, but now I get it.  It is one of the few experiences that I can remember as being positive about my youth.
• I don't live in Silicon Valley nor have I ever been associated with the startup life style of SV.  Given that most developers that read Visual Studio Magazine are .NET developers and there are few places using .NET in SV, at least that is what I am told, I'm going to focus on the realities that I see outside of SV.  If you are in SV and your read my stuff, great.  If you are in SV and you hate what I say, great.  I would actually like to hear about that.  If you like my stuff, great.
• These are my experiences regarding what has worked for me and what has not.  If your experiences and my experiences are different, great.  I don't have a problem going back and saying that something else worked for someone else.
• If you are a software architecture wonk and think that software architecture is the most important thing, then you are a moron and I'll probably say something along those lines in my column.  The most important thing in a software based startup is to create business value.  If your architecture delays your product, it sucks.  Get something out, get feedback from the users, act on that feedback.  Now, your stuff needs to be secure.  That is also important, but architecture, not so much.  Architecture is something that high end consulting shops use to sell more of their high end hours to CIOs of Fortune level companies.  This column is about getting going.  If you want to invest in cool architecture, invest in it when your startup has moved into the Fortune level of companies.  
• People and dedication are the most important things that you should look for.  It doesn't matter if someone is from Harvard or XYZ polytechnic.  What matters is people and the dedication that they have to solve a problem.  You don't know if someone is dedicated until they are in the foxhole of software hell with you and you are taking grenades on a Friday night.  Are they getting up at 5 am on a Saturday to go to test out software changes from users and to get feedback?  Are they even willing to act on that feedback?