VS axml Edit and Continue in Xamarin.Android Projects

Question

Is there any way to edit the .axml file of a Xamarin.Android project file, while debugging and see the updated changes live? Or is there any workaround for this?

I am coming from WPF and UWP, where we have the Xaml Edit and Continue feature, where you could edit the .xaml file while debugging and the changes would update the debug application in real time.

I know there is no such feature as .axml Edit and Continue in Visual Studio, but in WPF, before xaml edit and continue existed I was using the snoop workaround, where you could attach with another application to you debug application and change controls/ View Models properties live. The changes we're not persisted to the .xaml file, but it was enough for UI debugging.

Answer 1

The best workaround I could find is to inspect the application while debugging with Xamarin Inspector .

This won't update the .axml file, but for debugging purposes it is good enough.

Here 's [minute 5:30] a short demo video on how it works.