What We Cover :

• Cross-Platform App Development
• Introduction to React Native and Xamarin
• Which framework is better ?

Cross-Platform App Development

Cross-platform application development means the development and programming of applications that ultimately have output for different operating systems.

Development and production of Cross Platform applications is useful when the installers of an app use mobile phones with various operating systems such as iOS, android, etc.

The programmer codes once and publishes installable output for various operating systems, which can also be published in various Android markets.

Reasons For Choosing Cross-Platform App Development

Optimal development : It is possible to share almost all code between different platforms, which means that there is less time required for software development and it is enough to create a single application and then share the code between different operating systems. This makes it possible to make specific adjustments.

Save money : Because we need fewer developers when developing multiple platforms, the number of working hours is reduced and a lot of money is saved, which is a vital point for most startups.

You only need one team : In the multi-platform development process, there is no need to hire two different teams to develop iOS and Android applications.

The testing process becomes easier : because the code is smaller, there is no need to do a lot of testing and you can use the time saved on testing to focus on other elements of the application.

Some of The Tools Used To Generate Cross Platform Apps:

• Xamarin
• React Native
• Flutter
• Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
• Kotlin Native
• J2ObjC/Doppl
• Ionic 2
• Cordova/PhoneGap/Titanium
• Unity

Introducing React Native and Xamarin

React Native: A great mobile application development framework developed by Facebook. It is an open source tool. With it you can create applications for iOS and Android.

To build a ReactNative application you need to code in JavaScript and React, so a good level of knowledge of JavaScript and React is essential. This framework was released in March 2015.

Xamarin: Xamarin is also a great framework for developing mobile applications developed by Microsoft. Is an open source software that you can use to build Windows, iOS and Android applications.

To build an Xamarin application you must code in C #; Therefore, having a good level of knowledge compared to C # is essential. This framework was released on May 16, 2011.

Functionality

React Native Function: React Native has an almost native function. With this tool, you can build high-speed applications. Its official site probably claims that its functionality is native, but keep in mind that completely native functionality is only obtained through native languages such as Java, Objective-C, and Swift.

This framework allows you to use native code in your application and use React Native for the rest, which is built in the same way as the Facebook application. Using native code will greatly improve the performance of your application.

Xamarin Function: Xamarin also allows you to build high-performance applications. Uses platform-specific hardware acceleration to build high application speed; So like ReactNative, Zamarin offers an almost native function.

Need This Comparison

Many companies develop iOS or Android applications, but some of them want to develop applications that run seamlessly on both platforms. But the applications you develop using Android tools will not work optimally on iOS devices and vice versa. Both Xamarin and React Native respond to these problems. This saves development load time because you no longer need to write the same application for two different platforms. This creates an application for all scenarios.

Market Share

React Native – The tendency to use React Native has improved significantly. Thousands of websites have used this tool. 500 new companies and startups use this tool. Lazada (German e-commerce company), Guardian (English newspaper), ScienceDirect (scientific articles and journals) and Frontline Recruitment Group are some of the websites that have used React Native. Not only that, but Facebook, Skype, Facebook Ads Manager, Tesla and Walmart also use this tool.

Xamarin is a Microsoft acquisition and is part of the development of Visual Studio. It has been six years since Xamarin was produced and more than 15,000 companies have used this technology. Apart from the development of cross-platform applications, this technology allows developers to use reusable code and allows the environment to test and debug products. Some of the popular apps that use this technology are Novarum (medical app), CA Mobile (mobile banking), Story (filmmaking) and Foundbite (voice sharing).

Winner: Both technologies have a significant share.

Availability

React: Native is a free tool and can be used for Android and iOS platforms.

Xamarin: There is a free version but you need to pay to use the more operational level.

Winner: React Native

Compiling

React Native – does not use the JIT compile (exactly at the moment) when developing iOS applications, so React Native goes back to the interpretation of JavaScript code and uses the JavaScriptCore provided by iOS internally. JavaScriptCore is also used in Android, but there is nothing in Android that prevents JIT.

Xamarin – The C # language enables compilation of JIT and AOT (ahead of time), but since compiling JIT with iOS is not possible, Xamarin compiles the application as AOT. Except for some limitations, code compiled as AOT runs faster. In Android, the default mode is JIT, but you can set it to use AOT.
Winner: Xamarin

Development Environment

React Native – allows developers to use the IDE they are most comfortable with. A common way is to use Expo to debug and develop a React Native app. A great built-in React Native feature is fast loading, which does not require the entire application to be reloaded after modifying the code.

Xamarin – This is much more powerful because you can write an application code for iPhone on Windows and compile it on Mac, but you need a different platform to build. This process is much more powerful than RN because Expo does not support anything.

Winner: Xamarin

Framework

React Native – makes the most of the one-way modern data streams that come with React. This is especially true for marginal methods. If you like the recent changes in JS web development, you will definitely like this one.

Xamarin – If you are an ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms or MV * developer, you will prefer Xamarin, which works with the MVVM framework style.

Winner: Both

Ready Components

React Native – All components can be run in the right place with excellent documentation.

Xamarin – Components are divided into NuGet and component store, but documentation can be improved.

Winner: The quality and quantity of the components are equal in both, but React Native is a little better.

Forums and Help

React Native – This tool is newer and younger and is supported by developers, so it may be less quantitative for communities.

Xamarin – Great communities for Xamarin can be found on sites like Stack Overflow, blogs and support community forums.

Winner: Xamarin

If you want to test the capabilities of the tools, both tools are really good. Visual Studio Code has great testing capabilities for React Native, while you can easily write unit tests in Jest as well.You can debug in Xcode Simulator for iOS with Xamarin.

React Native and Xamarin; Which One Is Better ?

The answer to the question of which framework is better; It’s difficult because both of these tools are of a very high quality, and both have been developed by big companies like Facebook and Microsoft.

Instead of asking yourself which framework is best for you, ask yourself which one is right for you.

Take a close look at comparative factors such as performance, development time and market share and decide which of these business formats is best for your business.

If your employees are experts in JavaScript and React, I think choosing ReactNative can be a great idea because your developers can quickly grasp the concepts of ReactNative and if they love React and JavaScript, they will enjoy working with it.

On the other hand, if they love C #, choosing Xamarin is a wise decision because they can learn Xamarin quickly, and if they are interested in C #, they will love making applications with it.
So we leave the answer to this question to you.

The post React Native vs Xamarin appeared first on Ingenium Software.

Join us to know the answers to all the questions.

What We Cover :

• Introducing Xamarin
• Xamorn’s competitor
• Facts about Xamarin
• Xamarin Advantages and Disadvantages

What is Xamarin?

Xamarin is a software company that produces commercial software development tools. The company was founded in 2011 in California by the Mono Android open source project.

Xamarin’s goal was to write programs for three platforms: Android, iPhone and Windows Phone, using the C # Sharp programming language. Finally, in early 2016, Xamarin was acquired by Microsoft, and this was the beginning of a new beginning for Xamarin and Microsoft, which, thanks to new Microsoft policies and a new strategy of cloud first and mobile first, is a great opportunity for Xamarin and It was his products. So with the Mono open source project, they provided a platform that could build applications such as iOS, OS x, and Android using C # and .Net. Launched xamarin.Android product for Android.

Xamarin cross-platform

As we said in the introduction of Xamarin programming language, this language is a tool that is used to design and build software that can be used on all mobile phones under different operating systems; This means that when you create an application using C-sharp language in Xamarin space, you no longer need to change or rewrite it (for example, in Java language, etc.) to use it on other platforms. In fact, we can say that this language is a multi-platform programming tool.

You may be wondering what a cross-platform program is called?

Multi-platform software is software programming that can be run on multiple platforms and is divided into two categories :

The first category: programs that the programmer writes once and the compiler itself produces a separate version for each operating system.

The second category: are programs that are written in interpreted languages ​​and can be run by interpreters on any platform. Interpreter programming languages ​​are those languages ​​that require an interpreter to use, such as html or js.

So what are the benefits of developing multi-platform mobile apps ?

• Reuse the codes
• Rapid development
• Easy to implement
• Ideal for prototyping

Xamorn’s competitor

The language competing with Xamarin is Java. This language is very popular among programmers for the production of mobile applications and can be said to be a strong competitor for Xamarin; Although the power of the Java language can not be denied.

In the field of mobile programming, Java and several of its tools are used for Android, or for the programming on iOS, the objective C language and its tools are used, but Xamarin allows you to use the C-Sharp language for all 3 mobile platforms. That said, a program with only one environment and one common language.

Facts from Xamarin

1. One of the most efficient platforms used to build applications with different operating systems. Instead of designing separately for each system, you can share approximately 75 to 90 percent of the code developed across all major mobile operating systems. However, design costs and market entry time are reduced.
2. Offers excellent UX.
3. Ensures integrity, quality and performance testing on a wide range of devices.

Learn more from Xamarin

• Because Xamarin is multi-platform, you can easily extend the changes to the source file. That means easier maintenance
• Mac and Windows developers use Xamarin to build iOS Apple Watch apps, which means the technology supports smartwatch apps.
• Did you know that Xamarin is not limited to mobile application development and you can develop applications such as: Wearable, Mac, TvOs and OpenGL games and SceneKit / SpriteKit / Metal.
• Writing multiple codes at the same time is not valuable for building native applications on different operating systems, and by using Xamarin we can reduce the time and cost that we can use the same base code (70 to 80% of the code) to create native mobile applications again.

What famous companies use Xamarin?

• Cognizant
• Bosch
• Siemens
• LEAP
• 3M
• Slack
• Pinterest

Benefits of Xamarin

• Ability to transfer code between applications built using Xamarin regardless of the platform structure in which it is located.
• Xamarin is the only framework that takes the feature of the native applications of any platform well in any platform format.
• Native appnative app: These are applications that are built in a software environment specific to a particular platform. For example, to use an application in the Android platform, design an application in Android studio.
• Ability to build applications (IOS – Android – Windows phone) with the ability to transfer the same code (up to about 96%)
• Allows you to reuse the code while reducing the number of projects, which means it has portable class libraries.
• Ability to add components including charts, tables, beautiful views, [UI controls] and directly from .IDE
• With Xamarin template, the design interface of all three platforms will be shared with the basic [XAML] framework.

Disadvantages of Xamarin

After talking about the advantages of Xamarin, we have listed some of its problems and disadvantages in the following section:

Having a license:

Xamarin.Android Like Xamarin.IOS and Xamarin.OS x ​​are commercial tools and  should be purchased. Of course, this problem is not acute in our country.

Waiting for an update:

In most cases, when a version of Android is released, it takes time for Xamarin to update its software to be compatible with the latest version of Android.

Performance and memory management:

It is sometimes said that using the C # language to develop Android applications slows down, but this has not yet been properly measured and evaluated.

How does Xamarin work?

The most commonly asked question is how does Xamarin work? Is it possible to develop applications for all platforms using one code?

Yes, Xamarin allows the programmer to do this.

By converting Android and IOs SDKs to C #, it has the ability to access all Android and IOs APIs. By converting these SDKs to C # Xamarin has facilitated the development of mobile applications, and by integrating all SDKs, has facilitated development using a convenient, powerful and all-encompassing language.

What is the design of applications (UI) in Xamarin?

Xamarin UI can be designed like any other language. You need to create a different UI for each platform and connect it to Codebase. There are two ways to design an application UI:

• Using the main Native methods
• Use Xamarin.Form

Note : Using Xamarin Form allows you to create a UI only once.

General evaluation of xamarin according to the following

We learned that Xamarin is a flexible platform that incredibly compiles C # code across various mobile operating systems. So it provides everything a programmer needs to build a professional app.

Microsoft, which at the time owned Xamarin, promised its users that in the not-too-distant future, with many updates, it would fix all of Xamarin’s bugs and problems, and increase the power of this cross-platform tool.

When comparing Xamarin with other programming tools, special attention should be paid to increase its quality from the time Microsoft acquired full ownership of Xamarin (February 24, 2016) until today. Considering the reduction of many common [Errors] in Xamarin during this period and solving the problem of developers’ unfamiliarity with [Errors], which is undoubtedly one of the disadvantages of any startup tool, a bright future can be imagined for Xamarin.

Xamarin has made great strides, and large companies such as Olo food, CA mobile: and other banks have contracted with Microsoft with more than 30 million users to build high-security apps to improve their e-commerce.

Of course, it is also necessary to mention that with Xamarin being in the [Visual studio] environment, its popularity in teamwork has increased dramatically. Furthermore, both as a project manager and as a developer, in source control, which is one of the problems of working in [Native] and [Android Studio] environments, Xamarin has been able to be more superior than work tools. Create in [Native] environment. As you know, every time a team member wants to check a [Reference], all team members have to spend a lot of time fixing [Errors].

Conclusion

Xamarin is one of the top multi-platform application development tools in the world for which there is a good job market today. If you are planning to start developing mobile applications, Xamarin will definitely be one of the best choices for you.

Because using Xamarin technology and just learning C #, you can code for all operating systems and you no longer need to learn different ways. For the ability of this technology, we can say that using this language, you can run C # code on 2.6 billion devices.

The post What is Xamarin? An incredible C# technology appeared first on Ingenium Software.