What's the best to make between WinPhone 8.1 and UWP - xamarin.forms

I was asking myself about this question.
Finaly, if I want to make a WinPhone app (with Xamarin.Forms, next of Android/iOS plateform), what could be the best between UWP and WinPhone 8.1 project?
I don't think to make a Windows App at the moment, just something for phone, because my website is already available for computer so..
Moreover, WinPhone 8.1 works on Windows 10 mobile isn't? So if any updates are released, the code will still works no?
Thank :)

what could be the best between UWP and WinPhone 8.1 project?
Since you only wants to make a windows phone app, so it is ok to use the Windows Phone 8.1 app or UWP app, but it will be better if you can choose to use the UWP app, because currently there are some new featers in the UWP app, you can check here for the new features in the UWP app.
Besides, some known issues that happen in the Windows Phone 8.1 app have been fixed in the UWP app.
Moreover, WinPhone 8.1 works on Windows 10 mobile isn't?
Yes, you are right, currently the Windows Phone 8.1 app will work on the Windows 10 mobile.
So if any updates are released, the code will still works no?
I can not tell you the accurate answer, because we do not know what kinds of update will be released in the future. But currently, it should work.

In short, UWP apps will be the future and have some cool features (such as Continuum support) as #Fang Peng pointed out, however, there are other factors to consider.
For example (and chief among them,) Windows 10 Mobile so far, has only penetrated (or been installed on) about 11-12% of ALL windows phone/mobile devices. The significance of this is that by choosing UWP only, you're only serving about 11-12% of all windows phone/mobile users.
In my opinion, you should do both if you have the time and resources; much of the functional code for WP and UWP apps can be shared in a Portable Class Library (PCL) to cut down on the amount of code you have to write.
If you can't launch both at the same time, maybe develop/release WP8.1 first and then the UWP app because you can later drop support for the WP8.1 app (right after the first release if you want) and focus on the UWP, but you've got all your bases covered.
Perhaps you should look into Xamarin. I'm using it now to create an app for UWP (Windows 10 PC & Mobile), Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, iOS and Android. It's really great, especially if you're app is pretty straight forward, but requires a lot of extending (due it's limitless flexibility) if you want it do complex UI or platform-specific stuff, which is kind of a trade off. If you can get past the fairly steep and lengthy learning curve, you can literally do anything you want to in a cross platform manner.

Related

Is Windows-10-Qt-quick-QML code cross-compatible with IOS

If I am developing an application using Qt quick QML on windows 10, can I deploy my project and test it on an ios device? I have read this post Developing iOS app on Windows but it seems to be somewhat in conflict with what I have read. The chosen answer in that question says that you need a macOS to develop IOS applications. Qt's documentation and other posts have said that you can port applications onto various platforms with the same code "Code once, deploy everywhere". So will I be able to actively test my qt quick QML code on an ios device from a Windows 10 development platform?
No, you can't. You need either macOS computer or virtual machine with this system.

Install UWP package on Windows 8.1 Pro without developers license

With Xamarin.Forms I'm developing a mobile app. In Android I get this succesfully running on a device. I succeeded to create an app package from the UWP project and install it on my own Windows 10 PC. This is also my developing machine, so it's in Developer Mode by default. So it runs here without any problems.
My purpose is to get it running on Windows 8.1 Pro (tablet size). It just needs to consume the app. When installing the app by using the script, it's throwing the error that no developers license is found. On this device I didn't found anything to put it in Developers Mode, but it seems me that this is not needed, because it only consuming the app and no developing will take place on it.
It's is an internal app, so no need to place it on the Windows Store.
So my exact question: how can I install this app on this device without setting everything up for a Developer?
The answer would be no. Windows 10 has more new API and concepts that are not available on Windows 8.1. UWP app will not backward compatible to Windows 8.1. But WRT app will be Upward compatible to windows 10. It means that the windows 8 store app could run in windows 10. for more please refer Move from Windows Runtime 8.x to UWP.

Does VS2017 support Edit & Continue in Xamarin forms?

I'm just starting out with Android development using Xamarin in Visual Studio 2017.
This question suggests that E&C isn't possible, but that was a couple of years ago.
Is it still not possible to put a breakpoint somewhere in, for instance, MainActivity.cs, and then edit the surrounding code when it hits the break?
I'm using an Android 6.0 emulator created using the Android Virtual Device manager.
This feature is not yet available in Visual Studio 2017 for platforms like Android and iOS however this works on UWP platform.
In this comment. Rodrigo Kumpera says:
We're constantly evaluating what's the best to do for our users. We
know how awesome it would be to have Edit and Continue - we really do.
That proves that this feature is not yet available.

Devolopping iOS apps with xamarin

i want to start a project that consist in mobile apps. can i develope native apps with Xamarin.Forms to the three platforms with a pc (Sony Vaio) and visual studio.
You can develop for Windows (Phone, or better yet Universal Windows Platforms Apps) and Android. They just work with Visual Studio.
If you want to build an iOS app as well, you are going to need a Mac. Building for iOS cannot be done without a Mac. There are a few options:
Buy a Mac laptop with a Windows VM; this is an option you see for most developers, however it is an expensive one because you're going to want a good MacBook Pro with a 1TB disk.
Buy a (cheap-ish) Mac (Mini); Xamarin is built so that you can let a standalone Mac machine do all the iOS building. All you have to do is install it with XCode and Xamarin, connect it to your network and you are ready to go. With the new Xamarin iOS Simulator for Windows you don't have to look at your Mac ever again. Let's be clear: the Simulator for Windows isn't a Simulator which runs on Windows. It simply mirrors the Simulator from your Mac.
Rent a Mac in the cloud. There are solutions like macincloud.com which let you rent a Mac hosted by them. They have different plans depending on your needs. The concept stays the same; you connect to a Mac in 'your network' (which is now over the internet) to build your iOS app.
Whichever option you choose; you are going to have to spend some extra money on Apple hardware to get to develop your iOS app.

Must I have a Mac OS platform even if I develop my app with PhoneGap?

I had a Web Application written on Visual Studio (C#) and I want to create mobile applications for iOS and Android.
Do I have to get a Mac OS platform (e.g. a MacBook) to develop an iOS application?
Yes. To be able to publish your ios app to the appstore, you do need a machine with a Mac OS.
In order to develop for iOS, you need to use Xcode, which is a Mac-exclusive piece of software. So unless you emulate a Mac environment on windows, you need to get a mac. PhoneGap is simply an API for the iOS platform (a great one, too!), and it would be in addition to the built-in iOS frameworks. From what I can tell from your question, you are simply asking about how to develop on iOS. It's a great process, and there are plenty of great books to get you started with iOS.
However, to answer your question, yes. In order to develop for iOS, you need a Mac environment.

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