ListView and DataForm in UI for Xamarin Q2 Release

It’s time for the second major Telerik UI for Xamarin release for this year, Q2 2015, and we are just as excited as your are. With this release, ListView for Xamarin Forms gets rid of the Beta tag and becomes official, and now you can use it in production in apps developed with a single shared C# code base.

Brand new for the UI for Xamarin suite are the Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android wrappers for the DataForm (Beta) control. It gives the end-user the ability to view and modify the properties of a business object, similar to what the login forms or the settings forms of the OS are.

Last, but not least, the Telerik Alert for Xamarin.iOS ships to fit in scenarios where you would like to show a messagebox with a custom look and feel.

You will be also happy to hear that with Q2 2015 Beta, we started distributing NuGet package files you can run on your local server. This will help you add references to the Telerik assemblies and their dependencies with ease.

Now, let's dive into more details about each of the new components.

ListView for Xamarin Forms

Telerik ListView for Xamarin packs all essential features associated with a ListView scenario. It supports Xamarin iOS, Xamarin Android and Xamarin Forms. To simplify the data consumption and data shaping, the ListView for Xamarin.Forms is integrated internally with Telerik DataSource for iOS and Android. The Datasource control serves as an intermediary between the raw data to be displayed and the UI component. Here are the features of ListView at a glance:

• Different layout modes
  • Linear: a single-column list
  • Grid: multi-column layout--you define the number of columns
  • Both the Linear and Grid layout support Horizontal or Vertical orientation
• Grouping/Sorting/Filtering, available through descriptors
• Row swipe to action--the end user can swipe a row to reveal an action button
• Pull-to-refresh
• Single/Multiple selection on tap/hold
• Ability to use custom cell templates
• Easy access to item animations through the underlying renderers

For more information about the supported feature, please refer to the Telerik ListView for Xamarin product page.

DataForm for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android

The Telerik DataForm for Xamarin.iOS/Android displays a business object’s properties in a list, helping developers to quickly and easily build various forms, such as registration, login, data entry, settings and so on. Here are the features at a glance:

• Default editors: The control analyzes the object’s properties types and automatically shows the appropriate editors that can modify these types of data
• Support for custom editors: In case there is a specific data type, you can display your own custom editor
• Grouping: You can group the properties in sections according to a certain criteria
• Hint text support: Prompting the user to enter specific data
• Validation w/ feedback: You can validate what the end user enters. If the validation fails, you can display what’s wrong and where, so the end user can take action
• Commit modes: In essence, the commit mode determines the moment the underlying data object is updated with what’s entered in the DataForm. There are three modes:
  • Immediate: Every change in the editor reflects on the underlying object
  • OnLostFocus: The underlying object is updated as an editor loses focus
  • Delayed: The update happens on a method call (for example, on a button click)
• Read-only mode

Alert for Xamarin.iOS

The Alert for Xamarin.iOS is a message-box control that will come in handy in your pop-up scenarios, which require styling customizations and custom content in the pop-up. The features at a glance are:

• Predefined show/dismiss animations
  • Scale
  • Fade
  • Slide
• Blurred or dimmed background style
• Parallax effect
• Custom rectangle support
• Swipe or pan dismiss options
• Horizontal/vertical buttons layout

In addition to these new components, you'll find a bunch of improvements throughout the whole suite.

You can download the Trial of Telerik UI for Xamarin from here, or the Paid bits from your account, if you have an active paid license.

We are very eager to see your Xamarin applications built with UI for Xamarin. If you want to share the good news and make yourself and the apps you develop popular, feel free to contact me.

What’s Next?

We are excited to deliver the these must-have components for the Xamarin Platform, which enable you to go from desktop/web to native mobile. The development for the Xamarin Platform continues, and here is what we plan for the foreseeable future:

• In mid-August, we are going to ship SideDrawer for Xamarin Forms
• For Q3 2015 (around end of October), we are going to ship DataForm for Xamarin Forms
• Support for Windows Universal will also come in the upcoming months

That's it. Now get the bits and..

..Happy coding!

Update: Check out the newly released Telerik Tagit, a cross-platform native mobile Xamarin app. We give you source code and a six-part walkthrough of how it was created. Check out how we implemented the ListView control in that app, right here!