xamarin visual studio 2015 CE error deploy

Question

I have VS 2015 Community Edition and installed Xamarin to create Android applications, I installed Android SDK and emulators and setup them, I have 2 questions:

1. Do I have to start a device in emulator first and then debug the android application in VS 2015?
2. For form and controls to add to android application have to use the Xamarin forms or where can I find any 3rd party controls, I have SyncFusion community package are there any controls for Xamarin?

Thank you

Answer 1

1.) No. You don't need to start the emulator first. If there is not emulator running, VS will start the current selected Emulator.

2.) Xamarin.Forms and Android/iOS/WinPhone projects are different approaches.

When you make a Xamarin.Forms app , then you create one UI and customize it for every platform (eg padding to the top edge). So you share the UI AND yor cross plattform code (eg custom datat service like fetching feeds/database entries/...).

An Crossplattform App ( New Project -> Visual C# -> Crossplatform -> Blank App (Native Portable) ) is meant to create a project for each platform and create your UI for each target. Additionally (like the Xamarin.Forms ) you can share your buisness code across them as a PCL ( portable class libary ). So if you have to request some data from a webservice then you can implement them in the PCL and access it from your Android, WinPhone and iOS app.

In Xamarin.Forms you can design your own custom controls by just inheriting from a existing control and making a renderer for each platform by yourselfe or try the Xamarin Component Store . In the cross platform approach you can/have to design them on each platform by yourselfe.

In Xamarin.Forms you have

• One UI for multiple platforms
• Portion of Code you can shar increases
• The UI looks absolutly native

BUT :

• You can only use the least common denominator (things that are possible unter Android can't be used under Android since iOS and WinPhone don't support them
• sometimes the UI does not work as it is intended

When you create your app with the Crossplatform approach:

• You have the full control about the things and how they work in each device

BUT :

• You have to have knowledge about the application life time and how the OS really works.

Take a look at the developer page of xamarin: Xamarin.Forms

Xamarin.Forms is best for:
    - Data entry apps
    - Prototypes and proofs-of-concept
    - Apps that require little platform-specific functionality
    - Apps where code sharing is more important than custom UI


Xamarin.iOS & Xamarin.Android are best for:
    - Apps that require specialized interactions
    - Apps with highly polished design
    - Apps that use many platform-specific APIs
    - Apps where custom UI is more important than code sharing