Cross-Platform Development
using Visual Studio
Amanda Silver
Director of Program Management
Visual Studio Tools for Client Applications
Mobile Device Adoption
10
Faster than the PC boom
X
2X Faster than the Internet boom
Faster than the recent social
3X networking explosion
Mobile Development Strategies
Native platform technologies
Web technologies
Mobile Development Strategies
Desktop apps
Windows Store apps
Apache Cordova™
Browser-based
applications
Microsoft’s solution for Mobile
Cross-platform mobile native apps
for iOS, Android, and Windows
Native UI
Native UI
Native UI
C# + XIB
C# + AXML
C# + XAML
What is Xamarin?
Extension to Visual Studio
• iOS & Android apps entirely within Visual Studio
• Compiles .NET/C# code to native platforms
• Visual Studio ALM and IDE capabilities
Build apps faster
• Leverage skills
• Reuse code and binaries with flexibility
• Fully native user interfaces
UI design in Visual Studio
Create UI with drag and drop simplicity
Target multiple screen sizes, resolutions,
and OS platform and versions
Layouts saved in native
resource formats
World’s best Android designer
available in Visual Studio
Native compilation, native performance
Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova™
Create a single Hybrid App for
iOS, Android, and Windows with
your skillset in Web Standards:
HTML, JavaScript, CSS
Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova
Black Box
Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova
Use existing web developer skillsets
• iOS, Android apps entirely within Visual Studio
• JavaScript, CSS, and HTML support
• Flexibility to use any JavaScript framework
• Native device access with support for common
and custom plug-ins exposed as JavaScript APIs
Build apps at scale
• Complex enterprise scale apps with TypeScript
• Productive end-to-end workflow
• Visual Studio ALM and IDE capabilities
Visual C++ for Cross Platform Mobile Development
Create shared C++ components
across Android & Windows
and complement with a
presentation tier in Xamarin
Visual C++ for Cross Platform Mobile Apps
Shared C++ Components
• Re-use existing C++ libraries to target Android & Windows
• Leverage C++ libraries to build complete mobile solution
with Xamarin Android Native Applications in VS
• Build, debug, and deploy Native-Activity Android apps
Visual Studio Productivity
• Instantly productive with familiar tools
• Unique IDE that offers full editing, browsing, and refactoring
experience in a unified manner across “shared code”
Visual C++ for Cross Platform Mobile Apps
.NETBlack Box
Apps
XamarinBlack Box
Apps
Tools for Cross-Platform Mobile Development
Confident developer environment setup
End to end mobile development for the entire
application lifecycle with trustworthy and fast
Android emulator
Supports the range of common mobile app
development strategies
Demo
Resources
aka.ms/xamarin
aka.ms/vscordova
www.visualstudio.com
www.typescriptlang.org
blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/