How to force Visual Studio to use specific Android Emulator? - c#

I have a question about Android Emulator(s) (well, there are actually three sub questions). So, In VS2015 we have two Emulators installed:
On the left - built in Visual Studio Android Emulator (made by Microsoft), using Hyper-V (please correct me if I'm wrong)
On the right - built in.. Xamarin.Studio? Android Emulator (made by Android), using HAXM (please correct me if I'm wrong).
I have a problem, because when you create a Xamarin.Forms project you get this Virtual Device setup by default:
It uses API19, but when I click "Run", it's complies without errors and deploy/run in new Android Emulator (on the right). Why?
When I open Android Virtual Device Manager, selects the same virtual device and click "Starts", it opens the Android Emulator (on the left). Why?
I've enabled Hyper-V for now, my Windows emulators work.
How can I force Visual Studio to run on old "on the left" Android Emulator when I run the project? Can I set this up?

When you open your Android Emulator Manager you will find the following choice
x86 means AVD with HAXM. If you do not have that choice please install image with HAXM
The emulator that create by android emulator manager is Google's default emulators, and Your left side emulator that means the Google's default emulators and with the skin like "WQVAG" or someting others.
Your right side emulator that is created by vistual studio:
when you find the the CPU Architecture is x86 that means it works with HAXM
Use the different AVD Name will clearify which emulator you selected to run.
How can I force Visual Studio to run on old "on the left" Android Emulator when I run the project? Can I set this up?
Select the emulator that create by android emulator manager with the skin.

On the left is an AVD thus it is Google's default emulators. It could be HAXM accelerated if you installed HAXM.
On the right is the VS Emulator for Android created by the Visual Studio team.
You are confusing the built in AVD emulators with the VS Android emulator.
By default whichever Device is selected (Has the green play button next to it) will be used. In your case, you have the VS Emulator for Android selected and thus it will always deploy to that one.
You can use the small down arrow to select another compatible emulator such as the Google emulators if you created a new AVD that is compatible with your project.
See further: https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/android/deployment,_testing,_and_metrics/debug-on-emulator/android-sdk-emulator/

Related

Android emulator in Xamarin Visual Studio does not show the app

I made a new Xamarin Project in Visual Studio , I chose the Single View App .
Then I did not make any changes.
I just pressed the Run Button.
The emulator started ,
but the app was not appeared in the menu of the phone of the emulator.
Is there anyone who know what cause the problem?
On Windows you have a couple of options to accelerate the Emulator. Read more here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/android/get-started/installation/android-emulator/hardware-acceleration?pivots=windows
Using HyperV: Make sure to install the Windows Hypervisor Platform:
Right click on the Windows button and select ‘Apps and Features’.
Select Programs and Features on the right under related settings.
Select Turn Windows Features on or off.
Select Hyper-V and click OK.
You probably need to restart your computer after.
Intel HAXM: If you are not using HyperV and don't intend and don't run other hypervisors such as VMWare, VirtualBox etc. then you can install Intel HAXM.
In the Android SDK manager, in tools, download Intel HAXM. After that is done, go to the folder where the Android SDK is installed. There should be an extras folder where there will be an installer for Intel HAXM.
On macOS, Intel HAXM is the way to go. Read how to install it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/android/get-started/installation/android-emulator/hardware-acceleration?pivots=macos
Should be as easy as running sh ~/Library/Developer/Xamarin/android-sdk-macosx/extras/intel/Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager/silent_install.sh from a command-line.
Either of these approaches should significantly speed up the Android Emulator.
If you have issues deloying to the emulator, sometimes the default configurations have very limited space and installing anything may fail due to the emulator running out of storage. Go to the Android AVD and increase the internal storage size.
For other failures, check the Deploy Output window in Visual Studio and provide more information of what is going wrong. Otherwise it is just a guess.
This might be just a bug. Create a new project. If still blank wait 5 minutes. Maybe your computer is slow so it takes time to load.
If you start using xamarin for the first time
Create device from dropout menu (don't just let it create it from pressing run button).
Select device from dropout menu.
Run up.
if it didn't added just restart Visual Studio (should change "Run" into name of the device)

Xamarin initial setup not working because of Hyper-V issues [duplicate]

I am using windows 10 home and visual studio 2017. I want to develop android apps with xamarin. Hyper-V feature is not available on windows 10 home and I can not afford pro version, So emulator is not installing without hyper-v.
What should I do to develop android app?
Have anybody idea to deploy android app without using emulator and hyper-v?
Thank you in advance!
It's possible to develop Xamarin app without using the emulators. But in that case you'll need to have an Android device to deploy your app on.
Setup Android SDK Manager on your system. Although Xamarin includes a
SDK Manager, you can download it from the following link. Android SDK Manager download
Setup the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) on your system (install Google USB Drivers)
Connect your Android device to the system after you enable USB Debugging(Developer options) on it. Once the device is connected it will give you a prompt to enable debugging. Tap yes and you'll see the option to build to your device as shown in image.
You can try to use any avaliable on windows android emulator. I like to use Bluestack (https://www.bluestacks.com), the steps for use it below:
Install Bluestacks emulator
Launch emulator and wait for load finished
It's your wellcome screen, your application and apps from store will be here
Go to settings > Preferences and check "Enable android debug bridge (ADB)" + "Enable Android input debugging"
One time Setup finished
"Open android adb command promt" and type
adb connect 127.0.0.1:5555
If you have done everything good you will be connected to emulator and ready to debug your application
Good luck!
UPDATE:
As of visual studio 2019, non-hyper v emulation has been stopped.
Old Answer
I am very positive that at the time of VS installation the Visual studio emulators for Android are readily available for download and use, there you can find a good amount of android emulators also it provides you with Android SDK which again can be used to create Android emulators without using Hyper-V
The below link contains all you need to know about Visual studio emulators including on how to install :
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt228279.aspx
Hope this Answers your question.
Goodluck!

How to resolve unable to find device with the name: "Nexus 4 (Lollipop)" in xamarin

I have been battling with xamarine ide for a while now, I was unble to deploy my app to the emulator. Although I am a novice to xamarine IDE. The version am using is Xamarine Studio 6.3
pls I want someone to guide me here maybe I am missing something that did not allowed me to build an android app on Xamarine Studion Ide 6.3
These are the things I installed on my system to get started:
1. Xamarine Studio 6.3
2. Oracle vm virtual box (version 5.0.4)
3. Xamarine android player (XAP 0.6.5)
4. JDK 8
5. JTK for .NET (version 2.12.38)
Pls I really need your help if there is anything to install again so that I can get Xamarine IDE perfect for use to build an android app. Also if all what I have installed above are irrelevant, pls I need all the proper step here to get started. Thanks for your response.
Any device/emulator that is connected to your local instance of adb will show up in the Android Device List. If you are looking for a specific emulator such as Nexus 4(Lollipop), this was most likely provided in Xamarin Android Player or Visual Studio Emulator For Android. Both of these are now officially deprecated and removed from the default device list unless they are already running. Beforehand, they were added as default emulators that you could run straight from the Android Device List.
You can still run the emulators with their standalone programs to boot the emulators and they should appear on your device list as long as you can see them with the adb devices command.

xamarin installation and emulator

I have installed xamarin studio in my computer properly. I have checked all installation according to the Xamarin Installer which usually downloads before. I am using window 7.4GB RAM. intel Core I3 processor.
When I select File ==> New ==> Solution and select so c#, F#, and VB.net content is showing.
I am able to select only C# => Android black, ice cream sendwitch .....files only.
How do I create a program for iphone or window phone?
Also if I run code the emulator does not work. The emulator appears but after that no button, label or textbox displays. How do I resolve this?
Read all of this first. http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/getting_started/. Including abilities of IDE on each platform.
Setup Xamarin.iOS on Windows.
http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/ios/getting_started/installation/windows/
I believe that Xamarin Studio does not have iOS support on Windows. To do that you have to use MS Visual Studio, and even then you need Mac to build. In essence, you can't develop for iOS unless you have access to Mac.

Xamarin Visual Studio IOS Development Without a Mac?

I'm a .NET developer and want to write an IOS & Android app in C#. I've had a read around Xamarin for Visual Studio which looks interesting if not a tad expensive!
Do you need a Mac to debug your code? Do you just need a networked Mac to actually deploy the app to the Store?
Is the best option just to buy a Mac and run Windows with VS in a VM or can I just use my windows machine, write & debug the code in Windows then just hook up to a networked Mac for final deployment?
From May 2017, you can develop app without MAC.
Microsoft Xamarin introduce a Live Player. With Live Player, iOS apps can be deployed directly onto an iPhone or other iDevice from a PC running Visual Studio, where the code can then be tested and debugged.
WARNING The Xamarin Live Player Preview has ended. But it changed Hot Reload. With this feature, you can develop iOS app with your iPhone See discussion
See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awgZDL1a3YI
this is Live Player Get start section: Live Player
Note: The final build and submission to the App Store will still require a Mac
Device Requirements
The Xamarin Live Player app supports the following devices:
iOS
iOS 9.0 or later.
ARM64 processor.
Check the App Store for a list of supported devices.
Android
Android 4.2 or later.
ARM-v7a, ARM-v8a, ARM64-v8a, x86, or x86_64 processor.
Limitations
There are some limitations on the things Xamarin Live Player can run, including the items below:
Android user interfaces designed with AXML files are not currently supported.
Some iOS storyboard features are not supported.
iOS XIB files are not supported.
Custom Renderers are not supported.
Xamarin.Forms Effects are not supported.
Embedded resources are not supported (ie. embedding images or other resources in a PCL).
Limited support for reflection (currently affects some popular NuGets, like SQLite and Json.NET). Other NuGets are still supported.
Some system classes cannot be overridden (for example, you cannot implement a subclass).
Some platform features that require provisioning can't work in the Xamarin Live Player app (however it has been configured for common operations like camera access).
Custom targets and build steps are ignored. For example, tools like Fody cannot be incorporated.
Yes, you must have a Mac to do Xamarin.iOS development. The Mac is required for building as well as running the iOS simulator. You can either use it as a build server, and actually do your development in Visual Studio (either in a standalone PC, or on a VM running on your Mac), or you can do your development directly on the Mac using Xamarin Studio as your IDE.
You can use Xamarin Studio instead of Visual Studio and build iOS application by C#.
First install VMware Workstation and then download OS X image and run it by VMware.
Then Install tools on it and enjoy.
Tools :
EDIT : The following links are out dated, You must install Mac OS 10.10 in order to be able to install XCode 6.
iOS Tools that you need:
1) Mac OS X image for Windows
Note: Max OS X Installation Help:
http://www.sysprobs.com/easily-run-mac-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-retail-on-pc-with-vmware-image
2) Mono:
http://download.xamarin.com/MonoFrameworkMDK/Macx86/MonoFramework-MDK-3.2.4.macos10.xamarin.x86.pkg
3) Xamarin Studio:
http://download.xamarin.com/studio/Mac/XamarinStudio-4.2.1-1.dmg
4) MonoTouch:
http://download.xamarin.com/MonoTouch/Mac/monotouch-7.0.4.209.pkg
5) Xcode
Update 2018
Install VirtualBox
https://www.virtualbox.org/
Install MacOs 10.13 on VirtualBox
https://techsviewer.com/install-macos-high-sierra-virtualbox-windows/
Create or login with an apple account on the mac
Install XCode 9.0
https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_9/Xcode_9.xip
Enable Remote Login
System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Login > Enable for All Users
Configure VirtualBox with an additional network adaptor (host-only)
In Windows > Visual Studio (Xamarin Project) > Pair with mac
Enter the IPaddress of the second network adaptor
Let Visual studio install Xamarin IOS, IOS SDK, additional tools on the Mac
All set up.
An option is to use a remote service to do this.
For example:
http://www.macincloud.com
Anybody know that a Virtual-Machine is the solution! but when you want to have an OSX on windows it's not really easy as you just talked about it.
it's very important to find best OS ROM.
check it out here.
and you have to know that limitation is Apple's doing, not Xamarin's.
As someone that developed 3 Xamarin Forms apps, I would like to bring some points about the options:
Pair with a virtual Mac (VMWare, VirtualBox or cloud)
I worked this way for a while, but virtual machines consume a lot of hardware resources. Paid for a month to use a remote Mac, but the pairing and debugging process does not get much better.
Develop inside a virtual macOS
I have been using this option with good results. I just run everything on the macOS VMware virtual machine. Visual Studio and Emulator got a little slow (my CPU is i5 and 8GB ram), but is acceptable to make some adjusts. Advantages: Avoid pairing, Xcode to edit some resources, publishing.
Install macOS on Windows PC
This is kind of upgraded of previous suggestion. Didn't tested yet, but the performance should be better than VMWare if it works. They call this Hackintosh and is possible if your hardware is compatible.

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