I have a complex Android app which now needs to run on UWP.
I figured that I'll have to re-write and re-design most of it but I'm wondering if there's any way whatsoever that I can at least port some of it into .NET so that I have a starting point?
Microsoft has been working on converting Android and iOS to UWP directly just like Desktop Bridge. And currently Windows Bridge for iOS has been used. It is a Microsoft open-source project that provides an Objective-C development environment for Visual Studio and support for iOS APIs. You could refer Move from iOS to UWP for more detail. And Microsoft also provide Windows Bridge for Android. However, it has not finished.
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Beginner question here, I'm learning to code and have been working with C# for a few weeks.
Now I am trying out with Windows.Forms and so far I haven't been sure on what kind of solution I am suppose to load. I am using a Mac and Tamarin Studio. Xamarin only offers Xamarin.Forms but I'm not sure about that.
Any helping hands out there ?
Xamarin Studio is only for cross platform app development. Meaning you can code in C# your Android and iOS app. At most, you can develop a Console project but that's about it.
Xamarin.Forms is not to be confused with Windows Forms (WinForms).
Xamarins.Forms Xamarin.Forms is a cross-platform UI toolkit that allows developers to easily create native user interface layouts that can be shared across Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. (Source)
WindowsForms Windows Forms (WinForms) is a graphical (GUI) class library included as a part of Microsoft .NET Framework, providing a platform to write rich client applications for desktop, laptop, and tablet PCs. (Source)
So to answer your question, if you want to build a Windows App using Windows Forms (though I would recommend using WPF as it's more modern), you will need to do that on Windows using either Visual Studio or another compatible IDE.
I have an app developed using Xamarin.iOS that i would like to port to Windows 10. I have read that is possible to use Windows Bridge to port app developed using Objective-C (WinObjC provides support for iOS API) to Windows 10 using WinObj project.
It's possible to do the same with a project written in C# using Xamarin.iOS?
If you're working with Xamarin.iOS you need to forget WinObjC. WinObjC is a bridge to write native windows apps using Objective-C. Since you're using C# you can write the interface using XAML and share your business logic between the apps easily.
The WinObjC project is a bridge of Cocoa Touch, not a port, and it's real Objective-C. You would have to convert your C# code to Objective-C by hand, yes. Eventually you'll be able to use (mostly) the same source code on iOS and Windows!
Using the Windows Bridge for iOS to bring your Xamarin.iOS App to Windows is not working. This only works with Full Objective-C Projects. Anyways you will be able to build your Windows App on top of Xamarin.iOS very fast when you have encapsulated it correctly. Then you just need to rebuild the UI and maybe implement some interfaces :)
WinObjC is the Windows Bridge for iOS (previously known as ‘Project Islandwood’).
Windows Bridge for iOS (also referred to as WinObjC) is a Microsoft open source project that provides an Objective-C development environment for Visual Studio/Windows.
In addition, WinObjC provides support for iOS API compatibility.
The bridge is available to the open-source community now in its current state.
The iOS bridge as an open-source project under the MIT license. Given the ambition of the project, making it easy for iOS developers to build and run apps on Windows. Salmaan Ahmed has an in-depth post on the Windows Bridge for iOS http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/08/06/windows-bridge-for-ios-lets-open-this-up/ discussing the compiler, runtime, IDE integration, and what the bridge is and isn’t. Best of all, the source code for the iOS bridge is live on GitHub right now.
The iOS bridge supports both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 apps built for x86 and x64 processor architectures, and soon we will add compiler optimizations and support for ARM, which adds mobile support.
Can a Android Hybrid App with some plugins written in Java and others imported from Cordova, be made windows phone complaint using Xamarin ?
Is there any such feature in VS 2015 from which conversion of android app to windows be made possible without much rework. Please help.
No. Xamarin will not allow you to automatically convert an app from one platform to another.
Microsoft has announced Project Astoria as part of Windows 10. This will enable Android apps to run as Windows Universal apps.
Can a Android Hybrid App with some plugins written in Java and others
imported from Cordova, be made windows phone complaint using Xamarin ?
No you cannot.
There are two ways to port Java code to C#.
The first way is to port the code manually.
The second porting methodology is to try and automate the process by using a code converter.
I have already developed android app using xamarin and now i want to do same for iOS. As per xamarin's official documentation, i need to have MAC machine to compile my C# code, but i dont have MAC. Is there any workaround or alternative so that i can build ios app using xamarin without need of MAC.
No. The underlying SDK and build tools, including the iOS simulator, are provided by Apple and will only run on OSX.
You can use Cloud Mac service Macincloud which supports Xamarin remote build from Visual Studio. You will not be able to build iOS Apps without a Mac so Macincloud is your best alternative.
As standard Xcode only runs on UNIX/OSX.
However it IS possible to run Mac OSX, in order to develop iOS apps, with software such as VMWare and Parallels - But I won't recommend it in any way.
Is there a way to write iphone and android apps using visual studio and c#? Also if I make a phone app can I easily write it for android, iphone, and windows without havong to write it in 3 different languages?
xamarine is another approach. You can create both Android and iPhone/iPad apps.
MonoTouch
MonoTouch allows developers to create
C# and .NET based applications that
run on Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod
Touch devices
MonoDroid
MonoDroid is a development stack for
using C# and core .NET APIs to develop
Android-based applications.
XNATouch
MonoGame is a free implementation of
the XNA Framework for MonoTouch,
MonoDroid and Mac OS X.
Although Visual Studio is really good for Windows and Windows Phone development, it won't help you with Android or iPhone development by itself. And C# being from Microsoft, it's got good support for Windows, and then lesser support through avenues such as Mono. That being said, C# and .NET are open specifications so it is possible to see them on non-Microsoft products such as an Android phone.
That means there are opportunities for using an engine that has been designed as multiplatform. If you're making games, then you can use a platform such as Unity 3D. Unity can be programmed using Visual Studio and scripted using C#. It's also free for personal programming, but the iPhone version does cost money.
Along those same lines, Adobe makes Adobe® Device Central CS5 software. It's programmed with Actionscript, not C#, but I think they are very similar methods of programming. CS5 can be used for both iPhone and Android.
Nokia's QT supports a lot of platforms, including Mac and Windows, Symbian and Linux. There's a port for Android called Necessitas. However, I don't think there's support for iPhone just now.
The main question consideration then is whether you will be happy with your final product. The programming language or engine that you use has a certain influence on how well you achieve your goals.
If you're making a game and know C# already, you might consider Unity although there is a bit of learning involved. I do know that some game studios are using Unity for their games. Check out AirAttack, Startrooper and Batching, as well as the games on this thread: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/14591-Unity-iPhone-Apps-in-the-Store-List-Yours-Here/page39.
PS: even if you're programming Unity on a Windows computer, at the end of the day to publish on the iPhone you would need to have a Mac and an iPhone SDK installed on it. So technically the answer is yes, you can write iphone apps using visual studio and c#. But to get them into the store and onto an iPhone, you need to perform some steps outside the Visual Studio development environment.
Just to add to the list:
UmbrellaSDK
http://www.umbrellasdk.com
Web development tool for creating portable apps for iPhone as well as Android. You can publish apps to the App Store or Google Play since the apps can be packaged as native on each platform.
DragonFireSDK
http://www.dragonfiresdk.com
Allows iPhone development on Windows (using Visual C++, even Express editions) using C/C++. Apps are fully native and compiled on a Mac server and delivered to your device over the air.
Cheers!
Unfortunately, the short answer is no. But here are some resources that will help you out:
MonoTouch
MonoTouch allows you to build iPhone applications using C#. Unfortunately it is not free, and you need to run it on a Mac.
PhoneGap
PhoneGap lets you build cross-mobile-platform apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. And it's free! No VisualStudio support.
Adobe Flash CS5
With some recent plugins Adobe Flash can now build and publish/package applications for Android and iPhone, as well as desktop applications.