Technology Security Analyst
Xamarin is a software company that started in 2011. Microsoft recently acquired Xamarin in 2016. Xamarin provides a wide range of tools to the developer that can be used for the development of the cross-platform mobile application.
It is a framework to develop a cross-platform mobile application using the C#. There are various frameworks, which offer the ross-platform app development. They use HTML and JavaScript. With the help of this framework, we can develop apps like a website for a mobile app using JS libraries. The website is packed in a container which gives the feel of a native app.
Xamarin is different because it offers a single language C# and runtime, which works on three mobile platforms (Android, iOS, and Windows). Through Xamarin, we develop a mobile app whose look and feel is entirely native. In Xamarin, we write one C# codebase which has access to all the features of native SDK.
To download with Visual Studio, Xamarin tools are readily available. To use Xamarin on Windows, we need to install Visual Studio, which could be a free version or a premium license. After it, we need to configure it.
Given below is the working:
1) Fast App Development Cycle
The most crucial part of Xamarin App Development platform is that it contains the reusable code, 90% of which can be recycled for the development of apps on various platforms. The coding is based on C# language and .Net libraries. Since developers can reuse a great portion of original Xamarin codes for creating apps across different platforms. Due to simplified code sharing across different OS, Users have a shortened Product development lifecycle.
2) ative Applications
The solution for any application is native design. That is when Xamarin and its unique approach comes into existence. Xamarin Studio provides the advantage of Native UI, access to specific device features and most importantly, native performance. Sharing the code between the different platform is an easy task, which helps us to shorten the development lifecycle.
3)Shared App Logic
Apart from Native UI, the most powerful feature of Xamarin is shared, the app logic, which makes it is the most useful and most-usable cross-platform development tool. Application Logic underlying the UI layer like input validation, web service calls, database interactions, and backend enterprises integrations are coded once in C#. Developers can share 75% of the code across the various operating system. It saves the time to record in the applications, and there are fewer chances of the bugs.
4) API Integration
Xamarin binds the same APIs and UI controls which are used to build the iOS, Android, and Mac apps in their respective platform-specific language. For Windows development, Xamarin with Microsoft Visual Studio offers windows phone and windows applications. Code is shared between iOS, Android, and Windows using the Portable Class Library (PCL) and appropriate application architecture. With Xamarin, support is always there. These unique binding technologies enable us to to provide the support for the new feature as soon as they come in the device's operating system. Click on the respective platform links for their latest support packages for iOS 8 and Android L(with wearable support).
5) Xamarin Component Store
Xamarin believes in Collaboration and Component sharing. The developer chooses from the host free or paid component, which includes UI controls, cross-platform libraries, and third party web services to apps with just a few lines of code. The component store is built in the Xamarin Studio and Xamarin's Visual Studio extensions.
6) Advantages of C#
C# is a simple, modern, general-purpose, type-safe, pure object-oriented programming language. Being the object-oriented, it is the modern version of C++, which allows the simple data types as objects. The type safety of C# helps to prevent the type errors. Its simplified syntax allows the use of pointers and headers. Namespace and reference operator is replaced by the period. C# is a great programming language for cross-platform development.
1) Unavoidable Software Overheads
Despite all the facts that Xamarin Mobile Application Development saves time by creating a single app for all the platform. On the other hand, it also involves in the linkage of the code and references between the target OS environment of different devices in use, and .Net frameworks show that this increases the time taken in the initiation and in downloading the apps.
2) Time-Consuming Nature of UI development
Time becomes an essential thing in UI development on the platform of Xamarin. Xamarin offers the facility to reuse the code across the target of the device platform. It is hard to create a portable version of the core UI. That is why Xamarin App Development experts thoroughly perform some portion of coding for an independent platform, which is a time-consuming process.
3) Issues of App file size
With consuming more time, Xamarin takes more space in storing the app file size because of the usage of the general use of Xamarin's core libraries and functionality of the app stores with the wrong app file size. The size margin in the store may range from 3MB to 15MB.
Xamarin is otherwise called the ruler of cross-stage application advancement. The rich highlights and coming about advantages of all focuses towards the cross-stage local applications. Notwithstanding the benefits of the Xamarin, it gloats up the steadily developing local area of 70,000 or more engineers who are persistently working together and upgrading the product.