What book editing isn't better the second time around? Like a dog
returns to his vomit and the fool to his folly, the author must return
to his writing. And with the past week, my author team and I have
finished our AR and Production Editing for Wrox's "Professional Android
with Mono for Android and .NET/C#." We are literally 8 months from being
AR and PE complete the first time around (I really hope that there
isn't a third).
And with the upload to my editor at
Wiley/Wrox, the book known as
"Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#"
is now Author Review Complete, barring any slip ups on my part. Its
always a great feeling to get these things done. A real load off of my
shoulders.
The genesis of this book has been really interesting. It started while we were still writing our "Professional iPhone Programming with MonoTouch"
book. We started talking about this due to the Apple self FUD starting
last April, 2010. Watching the number of Android devices sold go up each
quarter also helped me make the decision to go forward. Martin Bowling
started as the lead author. Unfortunately, he had family issues and had
to drop off during the planning stages. The other authors that joined
me on this were Nathan Blevins, Jon Dick, Chris Hardy, and John Croft.
Here is some info from the Amazon web site about our book:
The wait is over! For the millions of .NET/C# developers who have
been eagerly awaiting the book that will guide them through the
white-hot field of Android application programming, this is the book. As
the first guide to focus on Mono for Android, this must-have resource
dives into writing applications against Mono with C# and compiling
executables that run on the Android family of devices.
Putting the
proven Wrox Professional format into practice, the authors provide you
with the knowledge you need to become a successful Android application
developer without having to learn another programming language. You'll
explore screen controls, UI development, tables and layouts, and
MonoDevelop as you become adept at developing Android applications with
Mono for Android.
- Answers the demand for a detailed book on the extraordinarily popular field of Android application development
- Strengthens
your existing skills of writing applications and shows you how to
transfer your talents to building Android apps with Mono for Android and
.NET/C#
- Dives into working with data, REST, SOAP, XML, and JSON
- Location, mapping, and the question of "where am I?" with regards to mobile.
- Discusses how to communicate with other applications, deploy apps, and even make money in the process
Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C# gets you up and running with Android app development today.
Please remember to buy 8 to 10 copies for the ones you love. They will make great presents all year round. If you would like to start by pre-ordering 5, that would be great to.
My article on HTML5 for Mobile Devices at Dev Pro Connections Magazine has now been published.
HTML5 is the umbrella term for the next major evolution of markup,
JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for web applications. HTML5
is becoming
an ever-more important mobile development technology -- especially in
light of Adobe's recent announcement that it's ceasing development on
Flash
Player for mobile browsers and increasing its investments in HTML5. To
bring you up to speed on this crucial aspect of development, DevProConnections has covered HTML5 extensively in recent months, including my article "HTML5 for the ASP.NET Developer."
In this
article, I intend to provide a similarly comprehensive overview of
HTML5 with an emphasis on features oriented toward mobile development.
We'll dive
into some specific examples of HTML5 features and focus specifically
on what is available with mobile devices. I will focus on what
developers can do
today as opposed to what is part of the specific set of standards.
I'll also mention where a product may have a slightly different outcome
than
expected.
I would also like to thank the people that helped me with the article. There were many people that read through the article and provided suggestions. Some of them were Dave Ward and Spike Xavier. I'm sure that there are other folks that helped that I forgot to mention, hopefully, they are not too upset over that. Thanks to Dev Pro Connections for the opportunity to write the article. I hope that you find the article helpful as you get into mobile development.
My article on Mapping and Location with MonoTouch is now out and available on the DevProConnections web site. Here's the intro to the article:
Mobile phones are by definition, mobile. A couple of interesting
questions that come up when users are mobile are, "What's around me for
dinner?" and
"Where can I get gasoline?" If you are a retailer or a company, you
want to tell potential customers that there is a retail location near
them. If you
are a user, you might also be interested in learning about how to go
from where you are to a specific address. In this article we'll look at
these and
associated features, so that we can provide them to users via mapping
and location services to users in iOS apps.
I hope the article is valuable to you as you learn about the iPhone, iPad, and MonoTouch.
My article on the UITableView in the iPhone/iOS with MonoTouch is now available online. Hopefully it is of value to you.
Article overview:
Data is what makes applications go. It could be a Twitter search, a running game score where you are playing against your friends, sales data, or any other type of data that users want to base decisions on. In this article, we're going to look at presenting tabular data to users in a UITableView. The UITableView has a number of visually attractive default styles that you can use. After we're done looking at these, we'll look at creating a custom UITableView layout. Along the journey, we'll look at some optimizations we can do that will give the user an improved experience. After we're done with this, we'll look at some strategies to get at various data sources, such as Representational State Transfer (REST), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), SQL Server, and the on-board SQLite database.
If you are wondering what MonoTouch is, check out http://xamarin.com/monotouch. It’s a great tool for .NET developers looking to get into iPhone development.
Ok, getting the Android 4.0 emulator is not obvious. In previous
versions, I had set the "Keyboard Support" to yes. I did that this
time, and nothing. I played with touch support, and no luck as well. I
finally had to beg to my Android contact for some help. After much
discussion, he pointed me towards
turning
off the "Keyboard Support" (aka setting the value to no). Really?
Really? Ok seriously, I'm glad that this is now working as I thought it
should, and that the virtual keyboard support actually looks right in
the Ice Cream Sandwich emulator. But, this is also stupid. This value
is the exact opposite of previous settings. While I am glad that this
now works, the fact that the value is the exact opposite of previous
settings is a hassle.
There's no doubt about it: Smartphones based on the Android OS are
hot. Currently, they're generating 550,000 activations per day. Their
market share is at approximately 40 percent, and continuing to rise.
I'll be in Sandusky, OH on January 9th and 10th to provide two full days on MonoTouch for the iPhone and Mono for Android.
This training is open to the public. Signups can be done through
SharpeAxe Training. The pricing is $999 for signups before December 1st
and $1,199 December 1 and later.
Info about the training:
Abstract
This session will introduce writing native applications geared for the
iOS(iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) and Android Platforms based on
.NET/C#/Mono. We’ll examine the overall architecture of MonoTouch and
Mono for Android, discuss how they integrate with their respective
platforms, build some applications, debug, and look at example apps.
Who this session is for: This session is for the .NET
developer who wants to write applications for the iOS and Android Mobile
Platforms while still using the C# language and the .NET Framework.
While the session will be introductory for the iOS Platform, it will be
intermediate/expert for those on the .NET Platform.
What will attendees take away: Attendees will be able to immediately begin development on iOS and Android using their existing skills.
The benefit of attending this session: Attendees will
be able to begin development on the iPhone, iPad, and Android without
the learning curve of a new platform and a new development environment.
The benefit is that .NET developers will be effective using MonoTouch
at a lower time investment than switching development platforms.
Syllabus
Outline for Day 1 – iPhone:
- Introduction to iPhone. This will provide an overview of the iOS
Platform, acceptance in the marketplace, and basic capabilities.
- Introduction to Mono, MonoTouch, MonoDevelop, and the iOS Provisioning Portal.
- Basics of UI design. This will provide information on how to
create a user interface with iOS and integration between MonoDevelop and
the SDK Interface Builder tool.
- Screen Controls. This section will provide the basics of user
interface controls, screen issues, menus, various
keyboards, and widgets.
- Data Controls. This section will discuss how to successfully display data to the user.
- Working with local data. This will be an overview of how to work with data locally on a device.
- Working with remote data Strategies for working with remote data will be discussed.
- Multimedia. This section will discuss how to work with multimedia and graphics.
- How to perform background processing with threads and services.
- Mapping and Location.
- Location.
- Application Settings.
- Integrating with Other Applications.
- iPad.
Outline for Day 2:
- Introduction to Android. This will provide an overview of the
Android platform, acceptance in the marketplace, and basic capabilities.
- Introduction to Mono and the Mono for Android plugin for Visual
Studio, Mono for Android for the Mac, and support for MonoDevelop for
Windows.
- Android Applications.
- Basics of UI Design. This will provide information on how to
create a user interface with Android and how the user interface is
compiled into a Mono for Android application. We’ll see the same
application running on a phone as well as tablet. We’ll look into some
ways to take advantage of tablets from a UI perspective.
- Data Controls. This section will discuss how to successfully display data to the user.
- Working with local data. This will be an overview of how to work with data locally on a device using SQLite.
- Working with remote data. We will discuss strategies for working with remote data
- Location.
- Sensors.
- Multimedia. This section will discuss how to work with multimedia and graphics.
- How to perform background processing with threads and services.
Requirements
- Day 1/iPhone will require an Intel based Mac running OSX. The most
recent Apple iOS SDK will need to be downloaded and installed before
attending.
- Day 2 can be done with either a Mac running OSX or Windows. The
most recent Android SDK will need to be downloaded and installed before
attending.
I'll be doing an HTML5 Webinar for ASP.NET Developers for DevProConnections Magazine on October 26, 2011 at 10 am PDT.
Here's some info on the webinar:
Building native applications can be costly and time consuming. How can
companies effectively target mobile platforms with the same codebase and save
development dollars? ASP.NET is a very common development platform. In this
hour-long Web seminar, we will look at how we can use ASP.NET to target
mobile platforms.
The benefits of this approach are:
-
Easy cross-platform development.
-
No requirement to learn Objective-C/XCode or Java/Eclipse.
-
Applications are immediately upgradeable. There is no requirement to go
through the marketplace and app store of either platform.
-
Web developers are easier to find than Objective-C or Java
developers.
Come to this web seminar to learn:
-
What are the features of HTML5?
-
How can ASP.NET Developers use their existing knowledge to take advantage of
HTML5/Mobile Development.
-
jQuery Mobile, and learn how to leverage it to build applications that
target mobile applications.
I'll be speaking at the Charlotte .NET User Group on September 27 (next
week). The subject will be Mono for Android. Info on the talk:
Tuesday,
September 27, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of
the Charlotte Microsoft Campus for an introduction on writing native
applications geared for the Android Platform based on .NET/C#/Mono.
We'll examine the overall architecture of MonoDroid, discuss how it
integrates with Visual Studio, debug with MonoDroid, and look at a
couple of example apps written with MonoDroid. This session is for the
.NET developer that wants to move to the Android Mobile Platform. While
the session will be introductory for the Android Platform, it will be
intermediate/expert for those on the .NET Platform.
Android
development is predominantly with the Java Language based on the Java VM
"Dalvik" using the Eclipse IDE. If a developer or company has already
made a significant investment in .NET, the time to learn Java and the
Android Mobile Platform is significant. An attendee of this session will
be able to take their existing knowledge of .NET/C# and Visual studio
and immediately apply this to writing apps for the Android Mobile
Platform. The significance of this should not be understated. Learning a
new language, no matter how similar to .NET/C#, results in a
significant learning curve as well as a significant time investment. Add
in the time required to learn Eclipse, and there is even more time
required. With this session, you will learn how to develop Android
Applications using Visual Studio and the Novell MonoDroid plugin.
Attendees will be able to immediately begin development on Android in
Visual Studio 2010 using their existing language skills and known
development environment.
Bio:
Wally McClure graduated from
the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) with a BS & MS
in Electrical Engineering. Since that time, he has done consulting and
development for companies large and small. Wally has authored books on
iPhone Programming with Mono/Monotouch, Android Programming with Mono
for Android, application architecture, ADO.NET & SQL Server, and
finally AJAX. He is a Microsoft MVP and an ASPInsider, and a partner in
Scalable Development, Inc., where we're ramping up to provide training
on Monotouch and Mono for Android. You can read his blog at
morewally.com and follow him on Twitter at @wbm.
Wally is married and has two children. When not writing software, Wally plays golf, exercises, and hangs out with his family.
I was recently interviewed on Keyvan TV regarding mobile software development. We talked a lot about monotouch, mono for android, the general marketplace for mobile, and other assorted things.
PS. On a personal note, it was a great honor to be featured.
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