Xamarin and Microsoft

Back in February 2016, Microsoft acquired a leading platform provider for cross-platform mobile app development, Xamarin (Read more about the acquisition announcement at ScottGu's blog). This opened various ways for Microsoft to integrate rich cross platform development tools directly into Visual Studio. A welcoming move for all the developers out there. What this acquisition meant for both the companies? Read it on The Visual Studio Blog. One of the key aspects of Mobile app development is ability of platform to provide seamless "continuous delivery". While Microsoft has been deeply integrating Xamarin with their existing development tooling already, fortunately they are not lagging behind with seamless integration of continuous integration and delivery for Xamarin platform (a big thumbs up! ).

Why does it matter?

I could have explained it but Karl Krukow from Xamarin did it in better way. Let his presentation at Evolve 2016 do the talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXgnh2Q7Uv8&feature=youtu.be

Some of the benefits of having Continuous Integration and Delivery in place for your mobile apps -

1. More stable applications

2. Faster release process, less redundancy in release process

3. Seamless testing and faster feedback

4. Automating application signing process helps developers reduce huge overhead. The following series of blogs will help you understand how you can setup Continuous Delivery pipeline for your Xamarin mobile apps (Xamarin Android, Xamarin iOS).

5. Xamarin iOS

   • Setting up your own build and release agent on Mac OSX / macOS
   • How to set up build definition for Xamarin iOS
   • Continuous deployment to HockeyApp using VSTS

6. Xamarin Android

   • Continuous Integration using Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)
   • Continuous Deployment to HockeyApp using Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)

Thanks, RP