Xamarin set up IOS build host - xamarin.ios

I am using visual studio for Xamarin development and I have a business license for both Android and IOS. The Android version of my project is nearing completion and I want to begin development on the IOS version.
I am following the process listed in the requirements and installation section of the below link:
http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/ios/getting_started/installation/windows/introduction_to_xamarin_ios_for_visual_studio/
I have added my Apple Account ID to XCode however as far as I can tell you need to manually assign an IOS Certificate to the build hosts keychain to beable to build from visual studio
If you are using Visual Studio for Xamarin.iOS development, you also
have the option of provisioning manually using the Apple Developer
Portal.
Now as far as I can tell this has a $99 cost involved? Is this fee mandatory before I can build any IOS apps from visual studio ?
EDIT:
After pairing the build host and building my app it seems my suspicions are confirmed. A IOS Development Certificate
stored in the keychain is required

As far as i know you don't actually need the iOS Certificates for developing with Visual Studio and the build host, as long as you're running your app on the iOS simulator. However, as soon as you want to test your app on a real device you need the certificates. And just a reminder, you should test on real devices as soon as possible. I got some really bad surprises after developing exclusively on the simulator for more than 6 weeks ...

Related

Cannot Deploy Xamarin Forms iOS App on Real device for Debugging on Windows

I am not able to deploy Xamarin iOS app on Real Device.
Here is my Visual Studio Details
Getting the Following Log in Output window
I have gone through every possible solution but no luck.
Creating New Certificate and Provisioning profle
Using Automatic Provisioning profile
Clearing all Cache
Nothing seems working
To build for Xamarin.iOS, you need Xcode, and therefore you need macOS. From Xamarin.iOS Installation guide:
To build for Xamarin.iOS, the following are required:
the latest version of Visual Studio
the latest iOS SDK
the latest version of Xcode
the minimum version of macOS required by Xcode
You can use Automatic Provisioning、Manual Provisioning、Free
Provisioning to deploy to real devices
For more information, please refer to
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/get-started/installation/device-provisioning/

Can we deploy Xamarin.iOS app into simulator using windows Machine without connecting to Mac agent

Any one suggest me using visual studio can we deploy any of the iOS application in Simulator not connecting to Mac Agent??? Through Windows Machine.
Thanks In Advance!!
No it is an apple licensing requirement. There is the xamarin live player in preview which will let you test apps on an iphone without an mac
https://www.xamarin.com/live
Simulator for iOS always runs on Mac, there is no simulator for iOS for Windows. You can only cast the screen to Windows so that you don't have to look on the Mac screen, but that's all, you need a mac for that (and this requires Visual Studio Enterprise which you probably don't have - assuming from your other statements).
If you want to develop without Mac you can try to install Xamarin Live Player on your iOS device. And also you can't build the final package without a Mac (and it also required for uploading it to the store), just in this case you can possibly get some Mac in the cloud and pay per hour.
If you don't have even the iOS device then you need to buy it as this can't be resolved in any way.

How to know if an android app is developed on Android Studio or App Inventor?

How to find out whether an android app is developed using Android Studio or App Inventor ??
The apps if created by App Inventor and published on the play store contains a link or a credit for App Inventor.
If the apps are created using Android Studio, there won't be such a credit for third party app development software.
Also as far as on development, a majority of android apps created using Android Studio are professional in look and use, while App Inventor is often used by novice or those who are trying to learn the basics.
I hope this helps.
Inside of app, press the Android menu button.
About this app
Here you go! Some apps might have commented the credit with <!--, but still, the existence of this menu should tell you the truth.

How to use PhoneGap with Visual Studio

I'm having trouble getting started with PhoneGap on windows 8, VS 2012, namely:
I don't know how to install the templates
I open the template projects I've downloaded from PhoneGap, but they are in compatible with VS2012
I don't know where to start in respect to creating my first simple CRUD application
I want to connect to a WCF API and make some calls
How to publish the result allowing installation on many devices:
I mainly want to use iPhone and Android devices
How do I get started with PhoneGap?
#Smithy, Microsoft just made it possible to develop Cordova apps with Visual Studio 2013 Update 2.
Its just a preview as far as I understand, but go have a look.
If you have the latest version of Visual Studio installed, you need to go to Microsoft'd download page and download the installer:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42675
This comes along with documentation on how to get started and how to install and set it up in VS 2013.
Good luck.
UPDATE:
With the release of Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition along with Update 4, MS has made it easier than ever to create Cordova project....and best thing of all is it's FREE!!!!
Benefit is that if your used to VS like me, this is a comfortable environment, and its super easy to get started.
To get access to these templates, follow the steps when creating a new project in VS, and you will be prompted to install additional software, including but not limited to SDK Manager, adt, iTunes, emulators etc..
After these are installed, it is now simple to create projects, edit and run them in the included RIPPLE emulator.
These projects can also in addition be deployed to your device from VS.
To check if your device is picked up on your PC, open a cmd and run "adb devices" to see if your device is picked up on your PC and a list of connected devices.
Easy, effective and it works. From, see link on terms of use and limitations in organisations: Free Dev Tools
Download link here: http://www.visualstudio.com/en-gb/products/free-developer-offers-vs
Q: Who can use Visual Studio Community?
A: Here’s how individual developers can use Visual Studio Community:
Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps.
Here’s how Visual Studio Community can be used in organizations:
An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects.
For all other usage scenarios: In non-enterprise organizations, up to 5 users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or > $1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.
Thanks Microsoft!
You can use VS to edit the html, css, and javascript files, but I don't believe there are any VS project templates available. At least I've never seen any.
But, you won't be able to compile and deploy. The templates for Android for instance are eclipse project templates since phonegap is building a java application in order to deploy to android.
If you want to develop for android, follow the getting started guide from Phonegap ( I can't get you a link right now due to firewall issues). The files you put in the www folder will be the html, css, and javascript files for your project and you can use anything you want to edit them, including VS.
You can create PhoneGap application using
Cordova vs plugin
Telerik App Builder
vsnomad
for more information please see the below link
http://sourcefreeze.com/cross-platform/visual-studio-cordova-plugins-for-cross-platform-mobile-apps/
You may also want to refer to this post that describes how to use Phonegap projects in the new Multi-Device Hybrid Apps that uses Cordova integration in VS - https://stackoverflow.com/a/23621633/1277291
RedGate has a product called Nomad which integrates beautifully with Visual Studio 2013.
It makes use of the PhoneGap Build cloud service. With this approach you don't need all the platform SDK's on your system. Works very well.
See this video. Unfortunately RedGate recently stopped supporting Nomad. I'm hoping Microsoft's new offering will offer similar capability.

Create Mac apps with Xamarin from Visual Studio

It seems to be easy enough to create Android and IOS apps on Xamarin in Visual Studio, but I can't see how to create OSX apps.
On the Xamarin download page for Windows/VS it states that this "Includes the following: Mac - Develop Apps with Xamarin.Mac". There is no option to create an OSX/Mac project
Apologies if I'm being dense but I am going round in circles here and always end up with information on creating IOS apps. I know I can create apps using Xamarin Studio on the Mac but that isn't ideal.
It wasn't possible before, but it is possible now with Xamarin for Visual Studio 4.2. The support is limited to certain project types though. More information is available in the blog post.

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