MobileCRM is a pre-built Xamarin.Forms app for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. It even has its own webpage.
NOTE: The Shared Project type used in this sample requires Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 or Xamarin Studio 5.
Visit the Xamarin.Forms documentation for more information on the APIs and controls available for building cross-platform apps with 100% shared C# code.
The Xamarin.Forms code in this solution is split between two projects (this is for demonstration purposes, you could choose to use either type in your own apps):
- MobileCRM.Services - a PCL project that contains model classes and repositories to store them.
- MobileCRM.Shared - a Shared Project containing view models, pages and custom controls.
Both those projects use Xamarin.Forms to ensure complete code sharing across platforms. This solution also has the following three application projects that reference the common code:
- MobileCRM.Android
- MobileCRM.iOS
- MobileCRM.WindowsPhone (Visual Studio is required to build & run)
Xamarin.Forms.Maps uses the native map APIs on each platform. If you are creating your own Xamarin.Forms app, Xamarin.Forms.Maps is a a separate NuGet package that you should download. On Android, this also has a dependency on GooglePlayServices (another NuGet) which is downloaded automatically. These have already been added to the MobileCRM solution.
After adding a reference to Xamarin.Forms.Maps in a new project, you also need to add
Xamarin.Forms.FormsMaps.Init()
calls to each application. Refer to the MobileCRM example where this is already implemented.
###iOS
On iOS the map control "just works".
###Android
To use the Google Maps API on Android you must generate an API key and add it to your Android project. See the Xamarin doc on obtaining a Google Maps API key. After following those instructions, paste the API key in the Properties/AndroidManifest.xml file (view source and find/update the following element):
<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY" android:value="AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWValueGoesHere" />
You need to follow these instructions in order for the map data to display in MobileCRM on Android.
###Windows Phone
The Map control in Windows Phone requires the ID_Cap_Map capability to be selected. This has already been done in the source code, but should be kept in mind if you add maps to a new Xamarin.Forms app.
To set this value in a new Windows Phone app, click the Properties folder and double-click the WMAppManifest.xml file. Go to the Capabilities tab and tick ID_Cap_Map.
Zach Gramana, James Montemagno, Seth Rosetter, Charles Petzold, Craig Dunn