Create XAP, APPX with Mono

Question

I want to use a service that provides CI for Windows Phone/Store/Universal/UAP apps. For this I'm considering Codeship as they provide a free plan to get me started. However, they don't support such types of apps yet. Asking their support they asked me whether Mono as compiler would be enough.

Is Mono enough to create a XAP/APPX package? Maybe I can compile the code and afterwards package the XAP/APPX?

My assumption is that Mono isn't enough to create those packages. If that's right, what's missing there?

Answer 1

To have mobile CI server that can build for Windows Phone, Windows Apps (the new name for Universal Apps ;)) et. al. you will have to install Visual Studio on the build server/agent. So no Mono will not be enough and MS Build alone will also not cut it. If you are thinking about using Team Services as a build server, you will need a VM on which you will have to install Visual Studio to enable the required builds, but if you have a MSDN subscription this would potentially be a free option for you.

If you want to build for Android with Xamarin you will have to further install the Xamarin Toolchain (and have a license ready to use). For iOS you would even need a Mac in the build chain, but I assume you are only focusing on the Windows stack right?