What this book covers

Chapter 1, Installing and Setting Up Xamarin Studio, begins by introducing the Xamarin licensing options available for purchase. Next, it will help you get started by walking you through the process of installing the Xamarin Studio and Xcode IDEs, setting up Apple and Google developer accounts, and installing the Android SDK Manager. Using these tools, you will walk through the process of setting up simulators, emulators, and devices for testing. Finally, this chapter will demonstrate setting up source control through Xamarin Studio.

Chapter 2, Learning and Customizing the XS Environment, will walk you through creating your first iOS and Android application using Xamarin Studio. Using the development of these applications as a context, you will learn about the various menus and features of the Xamarin Studio IDE. You will also learn about solution and project-level properties, as well as the environmental preferences you can use to customize your personal development workflow.

Chapter 3, Working with Xcode and the Android SDK, explains the key features and functions of Xcode and the Android SDK. A discussion on every aspect of these tools is beyond the scope of this book, unfortunately. Instead, this chapter will focus only on the critical functions necessary for Xamarin developers to successfully accomplish their cross-platform development goals.

Chapter 4, Plugins, Templates, Libraries, and Files, begins by introducing the Visual Studio plugin, and then explains how to connect to a networked Mac build machine. Following this, the various projects, libraries, and file types available for your applications are explained in detail. With a basic understanding of these components well in hand, you will be ready to explore how these components can be applied in your applications.

Chapter 5, Working with Xamarin.Forms, will introduce you to the Xamarin.Forms framework provided in Xamarin 3. By following the walkthroughs provided, you will build a fully functional cross-platform application in just a few minutes using XAML and the UI design API included with the framework.

Chapter 6, Application Lifecycle, details application states and application lifecycles for iOS and Android applications. This discussion might seem out of place in a book intended to introduce a development tool, but an understanding of this material is absolutely critical to successfully use Xamarin Studio to develop cross-platform mobile applications.

Chapter 7, Testing and Debugging, discusses the tools available in Xamarin Studio for testing including unit test projects, debugging tools, simulators and emulators, crash logs, TestFlight, and testing on physical devices. Additionally, two platform-specific suites of powerful testing tools are also discussed.

Chapter 8, Deployment, brings it all together by walking through the process of releasing your apps to the Apple and Google App Stores. In this chapter, you will learn how to use Xamarin Studio and other tools and utilities to create provisioning profiles and build configurations, bundle signing, and building for deployment. You will also learn about platform-specific tasks such as how to use iTunes Connect to release your application directly to the iStore.

Appendix, Images and Graphics Tables, details the specifications for images and graphics required to upload your finished applications to select marketplaces.