XPO
Uno Platform and XPO
As a proof of concept I wanted to give a try of using Uno Platform and XPO together. Uno has been gaining popularity and I have to say that after this I will have a tough decision on the framework selection for my next mobile project. I love Xamarin but the benefits that Uno brings to the table are hard to pass.
From their own website:
- Uno-built native apps can be compiled to WASM with no additional development efforts!
- Ramp up time is minimal and you can take advantage of all that the Visual Studio ecosystem has to offer for testing, deploying, project management, and more.
What that means to us?
First, A web front end thanks to web assembly (I honestly don’t know why Xamarin has not invested in this route yet. Besides Ooui that I believe it is awesome but not even close to production, there is nothing else out there)
Update: UNO has WebAssembly Renderers for Xamarin Forms.
And second, a UWP first approach where all the VS tooling just work. Including Designers, Hot reload, Brushes and more.
XAF to Xamarin Teaser
I know I still owe you guys the complete article about the XAF POS Teaser but I could not help it. Here is a quick XAF to Xamarin Teaser.
Remarks:
- ORM in NET Standard library to share between XAF and Xamarin.
- Custom IDataStore Implementation in ASP.Net Core Web API.
- Shared Authentication between XAF and Xamarin
- Support for Direct SQL Queries with XPO
- Win, Web, Android, iOS, UWP. (UNO coming soon)
- Using Syncfusion Data Grid because DevExpress Data Grid for Xamarin is still not on Nuget. (You can also use a ListView, CollectionView, etc)
- Not showing in the teaser: XAF Reports in Xamarin using Syncfusion PDF Viewer.
- Not showing in the teaser: Multiple IDataStore implementation to support multiple databases in the same application.
I am really happy about this template. I believe it will save a ton of time. As always feel free to reach out with any question/suggestion or if you are struggling trying to make your XAF project mobile.
Xafmarin out!
Meeting Dave and Adam -DevExpress MVPs
For the Xamarin Saturday on August 24 I traveled to Toronto, as we all know from my last post. One thing I did not mention there because I wanted to have a special post just for this was that I had the opportunity and honor to finally meet in person Dave Hesketh and Adam Latimer current DevExpress MVPs.
I want to say thanks to both for making the trip from Orangeville. I have been following their work for a couple years already and my XAF POS Teaser includes code from their Free Modules.
We had a great talk about XAF, XPO, Blazor, Xamarin and more. Continue reading
Notes to Myself: Helpers.cs
My next step is making CodeRush shortcuts for these classes but meanwhile I decided to have them here so I can refer quickly to them.
Update:
This is exactly the type of post that I always find and then I have to look into the source code to get the code I need.
https://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/Question/Details/T825872/how-to-clone-an-object-example
I wish we had something like https://source.xafmarin.com for XAF.
XPO Tips and Tricks (2) @ CurrentUser
I am still amazed by the amount of neat tips, tricks and new (or sometimes really old) things I am still learning every day about XAF and XPO only by browsing the daily support tickets.
This time I stumbled upon a couple tickets:
And
https://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/Question/Details/Q415990/criteria-current-user-property
Those ones made me revisit the docs about Free Joins in XPO and honestly I don’t know why I haven’t been using this more often because it is a beauty.
XPO Tips and Tricks (1)
The new XPO tutorials for ASP.NET Core MVC and Razor Pages with DevExtreme are out so of course I could not wait to test them out. I followed their instructions here and had them running in no time. And it was a beauty but that is not what this article is about. Going trough the source code I stumbled upon this:
unitOfWork.GetObjectByKeyAsync and it reminded me of a mini series I have been wanting to do for a long time. I had a lot of support tickets bookmarked it for this so I guess it is finally time. The article ORM Hate from Martin Fowler which I just recently re-read was also a clear trigger to finally get it done (or at least start it).
XAF POS Teaser
Article coming soon.
Some interesting points:
- Barcode field gets auto-focus to account for scanning capability.
- On Screen Keybooard gets triggered every time an editable field is focused.
- Touch UI action automatically increase size of controls and distance between some of their elements.
- The size and distance are increased according to the TouchScaleFactor value.
- Font Size selection thanks to Llamachant Framework Modules.
Hope you guys like it. XAF out!
Xamarin.Forms DataPages and DevExpress OData Service
If you have used DevExtreme Project Templates to create mobile apps you know how fast and easy you can get a simple solution working. With just passing the Url of your OData service on the wizard all the views for your entities are generated in a master- detail way. This is a great solution when you need to give access to some data to your users without having to create views, models, bindings, etc. It is all created for you, it is quick and more important, it works. But as a C# developer that is the end of my road. If I have to do any customization at all I then move to Xamarin where I feel more at home.
I was reading an article last week about Xamarin.Forms DataPages and my first thought was: Will it work with DevExpress Odata Service? Spoiler: Yes, It does.
A Gentle Introduction to XAF – My personal recipe
As an advocate for XAF, XPO, Xamarin and Azure I am constantly reading articles, tutorials, youtube videos and anything I can get my hands on about those topics and a while back I read a great article by Charlin Agramonte: Learning Xamarin Forms – The XamGirl personal recipe where she goes over her personal formula for learning Xamarin. I liked so much I even put it in my quick overview of XPO in Xamarin (expect part 2 and 3 coming soon) and got me thinking what a great way of jump start our learning process and having a lot of great content in a single place.
Well, this is my own formula for XAF development.
Are you ready?
Let’s start!
Continue reading