Mobile Development w/ MONO

By: Chad W. Stoker (MCTS, MCP, MCAD)President & Chief Technology Officer

Bryan E. Paslay (MCTS, MCP)Senior Consultant

Intro to Mono for Android

MONO explained◦What is the CLR?◦F#, VB.NET, Iron Python,

COBOL.NET, C#Android explained

◦OS◦Default coding language◦Default IDE

MONO for Android◦Visual Studio◦Emulators◦Deployment

Android Versions

2.3 and Below◦Gingerbread (Phone OS)

3.x◦Homeycomb◦Tablet

4.x ◦Ice Cream Sandwich◦Basically 3.x applied to phones

As of Nov 2011 98% of devices are 2.3 and below◦86% are 2.3 and 2.2

Use API levels 9 and 10 cover Version 2.3

Benefits of Mono for Android

Base Class Library ◦Easy and familiar for .Net developers◦Language features like Lambdas, Events, LINQ,

etc…

VS2010

Not daunting for .Net developers to get started

MONO Solution Structure

Android Manifest Debug settings Folder structures in projects

◦Resources Drawable Layout Values

◦Assets◦Views (code-behind)◦Adding Folders and how they are represented

Activity

What is an Activity◦Basically it is a screen◦It is not an application◦Should do a single function◦Can navigate between activities in the same

app or different apps using Intents

Activity Life Cycle

Hello World (MONO Android style)

Demonstrate Activity1.cs

Show how the entry-point to any App works.

Show how to add ‘View’ controls to an existing view.

Show how to update the Resource.id enumeration list

Discuss the emulator and debugging

Learning about basics in Mono

How to add additional “Views” (Layout.axml)

How to add and navigate to additional Activities◦Actually launching an Intent

Understand how/why Views can be synonymous with the term “Control”.

How to work with application-level constants.

Activities and Intents

What is an Intent◦Way apps leverage other apps functionality◦Pass Intent Filter and Android OS looks for an

intent that meet the need◦Can Pass Extras and Get back data

Launching an “intent” ◦Texting somebody from an app◦Emailing ◦Taking a picture

Android Preferences

What is a Preference?

Preference Types◦ CheckBox◦ Ringtone – build in selector for ease of use◦ EditText◦ List◦ Switch◦ Dialog◦ Category – visual divider◦ Screen

Create a Preference

Android Menus

Types of Menus◦Options◦Context◦Sub

Create a Option Menu

Android Dialogs

Types Of Dialogs◦Alert◦Progress◦Custom◦Data and Time Picker

Create Alert Dialog

Implementing List Views

List views described

List Adapters explained◦Data-binding

SQLite interface

Create SQLite DB

Insert / Query data

Set Up Linq to SQLite

Bind Data From Database

Sqlite-net

Deploying APK’s to phones

Project Properties and MONO tabs

The importance of the “signed” versus “un-signed” APK’s.

Walking through the installation processhttp://xamarin.com/monoforandroid