Xamarin Bindings for ArcGIS SDK?

[Anonymous User]

We have been using Xamarin for the past few months and I really like the platform, however we have recently been given a project which requires us to use the ArcGIS SDK for both iOS and Android.  I have gotten the SDK working on Android without too much work, however I've had issues getting the  iOS version completely working.

Has anyone been successful at creating Xamarin bindings for the entire iOS version of the ArcGIS SDK?  If so have you come across any limitations in using the Xamarin bindings?

Any word if ESRI will ever provide bindings for Xamarin?

[Anonymous User]

Chris,

Perfect timing as this week we posted on the blogs our finding on the ArcGIS Runtime and Xamarin ArcGIS Runtime and Xamarin | ArcGIS Blog

Cheers

Al

[OwenEarley]

Perfect timing with the blog post - but possibly not the response that Chris would like:

At this point, we have no plans to release Xamarin bindings for our native APIs.

[Anonymous User]

Definitely not the response that I was hoping for, but it is better than silence.  The only hopeful point was that they solicited feedback from the community which leaves a glimmer of hope on Esri releasing the bindings.

I believe some of the concerns that were brought up in that blog post are not concerns for most Xamarin developers. Without bindings developers have a few of choices on how to proceed:

1. Develop their own bindings

2. Implement the map in a web view and take advantage of the JavaScript ArcGIS APIs

3. Build apps in Xamarin and do not include ArcGIS technologies

4. Develop mobile apps natively which requires a much larger undertaking compared to developing using Xamarin and being able to have some portions of the app using a shared code base for both iOS and Android

If I cannot develop of have issues with the Xamarin bindings then I am going to have to drop Xamarin for developing this app and build the app natively using the platform's toolkit.  This introduces quite a few complications to the process of our app development.

[dotMorten_esri]

Here's a follow-up post that'll be a lot closer to what you were hoping for: ArcGIS Runtime and Xamarin – Part 2 | ArcGIS Blog

Note though that we are not planning on doing the bindings - It's not going to give the good cross-platform story that we want to deliver - It would just be C# code against either the iOS or Android SDK and hardly any code reuse. If you're happy with that, you can create these bindings using the Xamarin tools yourself already today. There's nothing preventing you from this, and others have succeeded doing this: Is anyone using the Android SDK 10.2 with Xamarin?

What we really want to do is give you an SDK that is the same on all the platforms Xamarin supports - that does mean writing an API from the ground up for it and not just throw it on top of the existing iOS and Android SDKs. Luckily our .NET SDK architecture means we can actually reuse almost ALL of that code and create a new Xamarin SDK that will look 99.9%* like the .NET SDK. And when you code for iOS and Android you will be able to create one app and reuse almost all your code. However it's a lot of work (despite all the code reuse we get), so it'll take us a little time to get there...

*guesstimate 🙂

[marceloctorres]

And don't leave out the Windows Phone version of the application. In some regions of the world, for example Latin America, smartphones with this operating system are gaining popularity, as this platform is the third most used in these regions.  Sooner or later you will need to get the version for WP...

[dotMorten_esri]

The .NET Runtime supports Windows Phone since the first beta!