My posts

Qwik - an HTML first web approach

3 minute read

Meet Qwik, I had never heard of it before, but bumped into it while browsing the web. It instantly sparked my interest by stating that it can deliver an instantly loaded web application, with an HTML-first approach. Another reason to look into it, is that it is created by Misko Hevery, the person who created AngularJS back in 2009. Every once in a while you bump into a framework or tool, that takes a very different approach than you are used to. So let’s explore Qwik and what it does differently than the usual suspects.

Generating a markdown changelog from git

5 minute read

When you make use commit formats like conventional commits, this standardisation can get you some useful benefits. In this scenario, I wanted to create a changelog in markdown format, that listed all of the bugfixes and features that were created per release and link to a JIRA ticket that is associated with it. Let’s take a look how this was achieved.

App wrapping a website with Xamarin

5 minute read

Clients often want their website available in the app store, mostly just for app store presence. I got asked to do app wrapping at work a while ago, because the client purchased a tool that did not have a native app available, only a mobile website. It just had to be made available in the internal app store. Colleagues had to be able to install it by themselves and use it on their own devices without too much fuzz. In this post I want to show you some of the hurdles while developing a website wrapper and how to overcome them.

Android 64k method limit in Xamarin

2 minute read

Last week, the nightly build of my Android project failed all of a sudden. It was apparently related to the 64k method limit than Android poses for DEX-files. I wasn’t aware how much impact the NuGet packages have on that method count. I want to show you my journey to resolving this issue.

A look under the hood of Xamarin Forms

4 minute read

Have you always wondered how Xamarin Forms does it’s “magic”? Knowing how things work under the hood is super valuable, especially when things go wrong. This enables you to detect the issue yourself, without having to rely on the knowledge of other developers. In this article a part of the magic of Xamarin Forms will be unraveled, as we take a look under the hood.

Security in Xamarin: certificate pinning

8 minute read

We all know security is important, but implementing security measures properly is often a difficult or obscure task. I’m trying to create awareness for this topic, for myself to gain a deeper understanding and for others to benefit from my findings along the way. And the best way to learn is by teaching, right? First up in this app security series is certificate pinning. Why would you need it and how would you implement it in a Xamarin Forms app?

NativeScript vs Xamarin: how to make a choice

10 minute read

Can’t choose between all the mobile application platforms that are available today? Let’s find out if you can make a decision for your personal project or for your team, by comparing two: NativeScript vs Xamarin. How do you even start making a decision without in depth knowledge of each platform? Both platforms have big companies behind them. Xamarin is backed by Microsoft, where NativeScript is backed by Telerik. In this blogpost I’ll try to give you some insight in each of the technologies and when you should choose one or the other.

Yarn: the improved Node Package Manager

2 minute read

I was surprised when Facebook introduced Yarn on October 11. I didn’t expect anything to be wrong with Node Package Manager (NPM) itself, apart from the well-known left-pad issue. But when I started reading the introduction page and the first blog by Facebook about it, it became clear which issues they try to address.

Xamarin University: worth it?

5 minute read

I’ve been using Xamarin University since april this year. My primary goal was to use it for certification purposes. The certification process requires you to follow several live classes where instructors go through the material using GoToMeeting. You can skip some of the required classes by taking an assessment exam. Assessment exam When you have some experience with Xamarin, you can consider skipping some 100-level classes by taking an assessment exam. I went through all the required video’s for the assessment at a playback speed of 2x to glance through the material quickly. This gave me a solid idea about what level of knowledge would be required to pass the assessment exam.

Xamarin Native vs Xamarin Forms

6 minute read

Making a choice is always difficult. How about Xamarin Native vs Xamarin Forms? Is choosing really losing or is there a best of both worlds?