Microsoft Q&A Session: Visual Studio, Phone Gap, Xamarin and DevExtreme

Hi @PaulUsher, thanks for taking the time to chat today!

Many of our forum members work for large companies who are looking at cross-platform app development. Do any large corporates use PhoneGap, or is it best suited for smaller operations?

2 Likes

I would also like to know how many are using Xamarin.Forms ? - Is it ready for prime time?

@Jasmine for production? there are tons I know the Xamarin website features a lot. Xamarin.Forms is becoming the go to choice for targeting multiple OS’s, for example, the Queensland Government is using Xarmarin.Forms for some major projects, of course, that coupled with Azure, and now the new Grid control is available (from DevExpress) it is a powerhouse development option. However, all that said, some people feel Xamarin is an expensive option. But to answer your question… how about Microsoft, Tesco, Dow Jones :smile:

1 Like

I don’t mean syntax rules or the like, more eg. Rails folder structure and naming conventions do a lot of “magic”, but you have to play along.

That is, does the increase in the apps improvements come at the cost of a steep learning curve?

Hi polaris_ursa
With apps you build for the Windows platform, WPF will still work. However, XAML based MVC/MVVM apps will have a brighter future. We are also bringing Razor syntax apps to the front as well. WPF as it stands will still work. However you will see more focus on HTML5 and other web technologies. This is primarily due to the proliferation of mobile devices and tools that can be used to build cross platform apps written in web technologies. That being said, there are new improvements to WPF in .NET 4.5 and it is still on the supported and actively developed path.

1 Like

@Jpdp thats a subjective question :slight_smile: personally, I think it is suitable for commercial grade development.

@PaulUsher can you tell us what DevExtreme is and how it relates to Xamarin and PhoneGap?

2 Likes

@Ophelie I have a biased opinion here, I use the DevExtreme framework on top of PhoneGap which allows true ‘Native’ looking apps with a single codebase, which IMHO is faster than using Xamarin, and yes, it is enterprise ready. The question everyone asks is about speed. To which I answer… “good design people” :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Jpdp
I would say Yes. There are a lot of developers taking on Xamarin and using Xamarin.forms so that their apps look and feel native without having to do a lot of individual view tweaking like you do with PhoneGap / Cordova. Xamarin also provides a better platform feature access stack, than PhoneGap with the third party plugin model. Paul’s company makes a framework that can reduce that PhoneGap work, but I have seen a lot of developers use Xamarin

1 Like

@Jasmine partially answered with @Ophelie :slight_smile: DevExtreme is a framework allowing you to target the three major players, code once and have you app look and feel native. there are a number of powerful widgets available, full support for Knockout, JQuery, Angular, TypeScript, best of all there are tools for Visual Studio allowing you to create store ready apps (without a Mac) directly from your solution explorer. http://js.devexpress.com for full details, and if anyone wants more information I would be happy to discuss after this session :smiley:

5 Likes

OK @PaulUsher - I really love the concept of Xamarin.Forms and we are in the process of building our first app and so far it’s looking great. But what I don’t understand is:

  1. How do I as a UX designer design for all three platforms, from a wireframe point of view? With PhoneGap, it’s HTML5, so it basically looks the same everywhere, right? But as Xamarin.Forms will compile down to native code, it will look different. I am struggling with how I do a mockup that I can give my developer?
  2. We have been using DevExpress on the desktop for years, and it is great, so what features does it offer us on the Xamarin.Forms platform that we don’t get directly from Xamarin?
    Thanks
1 Like

@Mittineague IMHO yes, the learning curves are steep :frowning:

1 Like

To add to this @Ophelie yes several large corporates use PhoneGap or Cordova in Visual Studio (they are based on the same Apache Cordova technology).

2 Likes

As long as the documentation is a thorough as MSDN I can live with it.
A support Wiki/forum available?

@Jpdp if you use DevExtreme it doesn’t look the same :slight_smile: with Xamarin.Forms the missing link is also complete (DevExpress Grid for Xamarin.Forms), so it still comes down to choosing right tool for the job. Wireframes on mobile are tough back to the original questions, what is it you are trying to achieve, desktop developers tend to over complicate mobile design.

A couple of questions from email, Linda wants to know if AngularJS can be used with PhoneGap, and Brian wants to know if there will be a plugin for Siri.

Thanks @PaulUsher!

Ha, and I’m sure designers will agree :slight_smile: Can you elaborate a bit on speed and design?

@Jasmine re Email… yes, AngularJS can be used with PhoneGap, I don’t know about the plugin :frowning:

Loving this discussion. Thanks for the info Paul.
@jpdp good questions.

1 Like

HI @Jasmine Angular.JS is a standard web technology, and as such can be used in a PhoneGap / Cordova. Angular as a binding framework can be used. @PaulUsher have you seen anywhere that Angular didn’t work?