Split 'designer' and 'source' windows on VS2017 Xamarin? - wpf

I'm starting to develop apps on Xamarin, with Visual Studio 2017. As on WPF, there is a 'designer' window for the axml, with the view of the app itself, and a 'source' window with the xml describing the view.
My question is - can I split the windows so one will be above the other, just like as in WPF? Right now I can either view the designer or the source window.
Below are the wanted situation, and the current one. Thanks!

As far as I know, there isn't support to achieve that in Xamarin.Android on Visual Studio 2017.
Event if you try to use the split view and place the design in your left side you can't put the source in your right.
I know it could be overkill but most of the times I use Android Studio to draw my layouts. Since it support viewing the source and designer.

The split view designer feature for Xamarin Android has finally been added in the VS 2017 version 15.8 update. Here is a link to the release notes.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releasenotes/vs2017-relnotes
Android Designer Split View

Related

Unable to add WPF controls to the toolbox in Visual Studio 2013

First of all, I am completely new to Visual Studio, so please don't be too judgmental. I have a project I need to do in C# for my studies and my team uses a GitHub repository. I am in charge of creating the GUI and I am stuck at the very beggining.
I want to create the main application window using WPF, but when I use toolbox > choose items, I can not see the WPF tab. Also, when I am trying to enable the designer view, nothing happens.
Is it perhaps the software version being Visual Studio Community 2013 causing the issue? Do I need to have the Visual Studio Professional version in order to use WPF toolbox?
I'm attaching a link to the screen of the situation below.
As I presumed, all I needed was the professional version of Visual Studio. After obtaining and installing it everything works fine.

When to use Blend for a WPF developer?

I'm a WPF developer and use VS Pro 2012 everyday for UI adjusting and coding. I installed Blend for Visual Studio but I never used it (just launched it by accident several times).
I'm afraid that I missed something by not using Blend. If I did miss something, what is it then?
Blend lets you design WPF UI, create controls and determine their behaviors visually (by UI), and Visual studio lets you do that programatically.
There is nothing you can do in blend, that you can't do in visual studio.
It is a tool for people who are less comfortable using code, and more comfortable using a cool UI to create custom controls and behaviors and design thier UI
In Visual Studio 2012 and later, the WPF UI designer is Blend; it's actually loaded in the background and accessed through out-of-process COM interfaces. This is part of the reason its behavior can be a bit bizarre at times, why you get messages about being able to edit the XAML while the design surface is loading.
If you're used to VS form builders you're going to be fine with Visual Studio.

How do you edit styles in WPF 4.5 under Windows 7?

I just realised that Blend for Visual Studio 2012 does not support WPF apps under W7.
Once I opened a window I can only see raw XAML.
I need to edit a style for a chart dataseries System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Charting. I normally use Blend for these kind of tasks - because it pulls default styles from somewhere and gives it to you in a blink of an eye.
now I am stuck.. what would you guys do?
P.S. here is nice summary for future references: http://blendinsider.com/technical/available-now-blend-for-visual-studio-2012-2012-08-15/
(scroll down to see the table what version supports what)
You need to use the Blend Preview that supports WPF apps.
http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/jj154135
How can I design an animation with a WPF project in Visual Studio 2012?
Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 will have a released version of Blend which supports WPF...in the meantime use the preview one.
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

Issues with WPF controls and Visual Studio Toolbox

Installing WPF Controls onto a machine is a messy task.
I tested installation in various systems including VMs. Following are the issues I have seen.
Controls not installed in the VS Toolbox.
Controls are isntalled but, cannot be dragged-n-dropped onto the WPF Window
Duplicate entries in the Toolbox sometimes!
I do not know what is wrong with the ToolboxControlsInstaller package. It messes up the Toolbox all the time, well most of the times.
Any guidelines what is the best practices to install WPF controls?
Our customers are very annoyed with these Toolbox behaviors.
Any help is welcome!
Regars,
-Datte
Our customers were annoyed too.
So I wrote this tutorial article covering toolbox installation once and for all:
Visual Studio Toolbox Control Integration
The most convenient approach seems to be using the Toolbox Controls Installer (TCI) package already pre-installed in VS2010 and newer. This includes just adding a key in registry, i.e.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ToolboxControlsInstaller\SampleControl, Version=3.7.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3cc4c7b61201d46c
You can also specify a custom tab name.
If you don't have a custom installer for your components, wrapping the DLLs in a VSI or VSIX package may be convenient. The VSIX is more powerful, support quiet install, custom tab name and uninstallation, but only VS2010 or newer.
Be careful with registry + VS2012. I discussed how the registry should be updated for VS2012, or simply call:
devenv.exe /ResetSkipPkgs
and then
devenv.exe /Setup
To clear things up.
Sometimes one also have to clear the Toolbox cache (TBD files), which seems to be a quite evil thing!
How do you install WPF controls into toolbox? However, these are all common issues with Visual Studio toolbox if you(or someone while installing other components) have done some mistakes in configuring. Refer the below links which has suggestions to avoid these issues.
Installing controls to VS 2010 procedure : How to add my custom WPF control to the ToolBox by using the WPF ToolBox Control template
Icons messed up issue : Visual studio 2005 toolbox icons messed up (though this is not reported with VS 2010, this solution would work for VS 2010 also).

VS 2010 is missing CrystalReportViewer after Crystal is installed

I installed Crystal Reports for VS 13.0.2000 to work with VS 2010. I will need to use CR in a WinForm app.
To my utter surprise, I have no CrystalReportViewer in my VS Toolbox pane for WinForms. The CrystalReportViewer does show up in Toolbox for web forms though.
I could obviously add the viewer to my winform without using the toolbox, but I can not seem to figure out what do I need to reference to get it. I am already referencing all the usual dll's like CrystalReports.Engine and CrystalDecisions.Shared but it does not help.
Does anybody have any idea what I am missing?
You need to ensure that you're targeting the full framework, and not any subsets, such as the client profile

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