CONVERT YOUR XAMARIN PROJECT TO STANDARD CLASS PROJECTS

Dealing with data is an integral part of any application. .NET development, the structure framework is mainly the preferred data management selection for many developers. The entity framework is an object-relational mapping using the .NET platform to work with relational data that can simplify data access coding.

What is Xamarin?

Xamarin is one of the leading cross-platform implementations of the common language infrastructure (CLI) and common language specifications. Xamarin developers will apply Xamarin to write down local Android, iOS, and Windows apps with native users interface and share code across multiple platforms. Xamarin developers mostly have the options when deciding what to choose for shared code:

        Shared projects- With conditional compilation and source code sharing across the .NET platform

        Portable Class Library– Which is used for specified platform objects

Is Xamarin compatible with the .NET Standard project?

It all depends upon various factors. .NET Standard is mainly compatible with many PCL Profiles but only in one way – it simply means that you can refer to some PCL DLLs in the .NET Standard project but the reverse is not possible. Practically it is possible but it can cause your application to be unstable so avoid doing the reverse process.

Why using Standard Class Library is the better option than the Shared project in Xamarin Solution?

There are large differences between using a quality category and quality projects in an Xamarin solution. The clearest reason appears when you open a XAML file in a Standard class library, you will get IntelliSense to support; in a shared project, you won’t get any IntelliSense assistance and virtually every element in your XAML file will be indicated as an error.

If your Visual Studio doesn’t support Standard Class Library Projects, in that case, you will require the Shared Project. But using shared Project in your Xamarin project is not always the best efficient option. So going with the Standard Class Library is the only solution. So how will you know which kind of project your solution is currently using? So first you have to take a look at the icon beside your common project in Solution Explorer. If the icon is showing the two overlapping diamonds then your solution is using the Shared project. If you have a simple box with “c#” inside of it then you have Standard Class Library.

Here is the complete guide for converting the shared project to standard class Library Project:

        Firstly, right click on your Solution node in Solution Explorer and use the Add New Project.

        Then click .NET Standard

        Select the class library project (.NET Standard) to add a Standard class library project per solution.

        After adding the project, delete the default resources in the project.

        Now drag and drop any resources from your present Shared project to your new quality category Library project.

        Next option is, make a right-click on your new project and use Manage NuGet Packages to add the Xamarin.Forms package to your project.

After finishing all these above steps, now do a rebuild on your new project. If you acquire some compile-time errors you've got not seen before, open your project’s resources and on the application tab, confirm that the target framework dropdown the list is ready to the top level. If it does not happen, then set the dropdown to the highest level and try another build. If you're still facing compile time issues then it'll be too early to move to the .NET quality category library project and you cannot move from your present Shared project.

In the next case, if you do not have a XAML file in your new project then –

        First of all, Right click on your new project in Solution Explorer

        Select Add

        New Item

        Xamarin Forums

        Content page to add one

If you like this to be your begin page, confirm the new name of that page equals the name in the App class constructor in the App.xaml file.

At last, in the other projects in your solution, Use add, then the new reference to add a project reference to your new standard class library project and do a rebuild of your solution.

Advantages of .NET Standard:

1.       .NET standard is a set of APIs that are correctly selected and known to replaceable

2.       .NET comes in versions like from 1.0 to 2.0 and so on

3.       A .NET standard is independent of any of them

Conclusion

Using .NET Standard projects for Xamarin projects can be very smooth experience and most of the chances are you will never notice any problems. Even though there are some useful benefits like better dependency structure in Solution Explorer. Hence, Xamarin can be very productive while building apps using asp.net web development and can provide the best user experience to the customers.

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Ethan Millar

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