hackfest Archives - XABLU

React Native vs Xamarin: A XABLU internship

XABLU HQ — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:40:00 +0000

John Doe

By Mattijs Kuhlmann and Mads Lundgaard

After five months at XABLU, we’ve now finished our internship, which was part of our Software Engineering programme at the Saxion University of Applied Science in Enschede. We both had an amazing time here and above all, we learned a lot!

Our assignment: Xamarin vs React Native

When we started, we didn’t know exactly what our assignment was going to be. But by the end of our first day, we had already decided on our main subject: cross-platform app development, specifically focusing on React Native.

As XABLU had been mainly working with the cross-platform app development software Xamarin, we started by comparing Xamarin with React Native by building the same small mobile app with both of these platforms. This was a very fun start as we were completely free in figuring out how everything worked and how we wanted the app to work and look.

After that first assignment we were acclimatised and ready to go a step further. Our colleagues at XABLU already knew almost everything there was to know about Xamarin, but were new to React Native. So together with our internship supervisor, we came up with the idea of a bigger app, completely built with React Native. This app became our main assignment – not really building this app, but more specifically finding out as much as possible about React Native. And believe us, delving into React Native is very fun!

Freedom and hands-on learning

We spent most of our internship building this app, but in between we also did things like help XABLU organize a hackathon at Microsoft Techdays 2017 in Amsterdam. Our internship felt completely different to school, especially because we learned so much while it didn’t feel like we were learning. This was mainly because we were able to learn by making apps and solving all of the problems ourselves. In software engineering, this kind of practical knowledge is definitely the most important, and

we felt like we learned a lot!

Summed up, the technologies we learned to work with were: Xamarin, Visual Studio, React Native, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core, Microsoft App Center, and Microsoft Azure, as well as common app development tools like Git and Scrum. Besides that, we learned a lot about company culture. As it was the first time for both of us working in a software company, we learned a lot about how it works in the “real world” compared to at university!

Develop yourself at XABLU

XABLU will give you complete freedom to come up with your own ideas for an assignment or the direction you want your assignment to go! Their only goals are for you to have fun and to develop yourself. You will be treated like anyone else at XABLU, so if you are looking for this kind of freedom and space to develop yourself and if you’re also up for an amazing internship, get in contact with them as soon as possible!

Curious how Xablu can help your organization ?

The post React Native vs Xamarin: A XABLU internship appeared first on XABLU.

Behind the scenes at the MvvmCross & Xamarin HackDay

XABLU HQ — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 11:29:00 +0000

XABLU HQ

This past Saturday, September 2nd, we hosted the MvvmCross & Xamarin HackDay at the TOBACCO Theater in Amsterdam. Generously co-sponsored by the .NET Foundation and Microsoft, it acted as the closing event of the two-week MvvmCross .NET Summer Hackfest, as well as an event to introduce Xamarin and MvvmCross to new developers.

Attendees were greeted by a red carpet at the venue, which had an industrial look and feel, but still felt warm and welcoming. There was a great turnout of Xamarin and MvvmCross developers, with some speakers and participants flying in from places such as Denmark, Switzerland and as far as Argentina!

The day started off with an introduction and keynote by Xablu developers Marc Bruins and Martijn van Dijk, who are also part of the core MvvmCross team. They outlined the roadmap for the project and its new core goal: to become THE MVVM framework used in .NET and Xamarin development!

Learning from the experts and the hackathon

Four lightning talks then followed, two by top MvvmCross contributors Nico Milcoff (on View Presenters) and Tomasz Cielecki (on Custom Bindings), and two by leading Xamarin experts from Microsoft, Mike James (on Connected Apps in Azure) and Laurent Bugnion (on Azure Functions), and were all enthusiastically appreciated by attendees.

With the level of excitement in the room raised, it was then time to kick-off the hackathon, which saw attendees evenly divided into two groups. The first group was made up of developers new to Xamarin and MvvmCross, who had the rare opportunity to learn directly from Mike James and Laurent Bugnion. The second group was made up of existing MvvmCross contributors and this group quickly put their heads down and got to work on open issues within the open source project. The result was 11 pull requests by the end of the afternoon, including new documentation on data binding and the .NET Standard, bringing the total to 57 pull requests made during the two-week Hackfest.

Finally, after all the hard work, it was time for a relaxed drink and socializing to close off the HackDay. Get a visual look at the day in the timeline below!

A timeline of #MvvmCrossHackDay in tweets:

MvvmCross Xamarin HackDay

Curious how Xablu can help your organization ?

The post Behind the scenes at the MvvmCross & Xamarin HackDay appeared first on XABLU.

You’re invited to the MvvmCross event of the year!

Kasia Krzyzanowski — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 11:12:00 +0000

Kasia Krzyzanowski

The Xablu team is excited to be organizing the MvvmCross & Xamarin HackDay in Amsterdam on Saturday, September 2nd, 2017. This full-day event will bring together MvvmCross contributors and Xamarin developers from around Europe for a day of talks, socializing and coding!

We’re big fans and supporters of MvvmCross here at Xablu, using it to create our apps (through our free Visual Studio Extension, XabluCross) and encouraging our developers to contribute to the project. So we can’t wait to further spread the word and get even more people using it!

MvvmCross is a framework that helps you get the most out of the Xamarin mobile app development tool. It uses the Model-View-View-Model (MVVM) design pattern to allow you to share behavior and business logic in a single codebase across multiple platforms, letting you build pixel perfect, native UIs. The MvvmCross & Xamarin HackDay is the perfect chance to get to know this framework better and even to begin contributing to it yourself!

GET YOUR TICKET

Speaker Lineup

With the aim of closing the MvvmCross .NET Summer Hackfest with a bang, the event will feature speakers from the MvvmCross leadership team and high-profile experts from the Xamarin community.

Mike James
Xamarin Evangelist, Developer at Microsoft
@MikeCodesDotNet

Laurent Bugnion
Senior Global Cloud Advocate at Microsoft
@LBugnion

Tomasz Cielecki
Xamarin MVP, MvvmCross contributor
@Cheesebaron

Nico Milcoff
Xamarin Expert, MvvmCross contributor
@nmilcoff

Martijn van Dijk
Microsoft & Xamarin MVP, Lead MvvmCross contributor
@mhvdijk

Marc Bruins
Xamarin Consultant, MvvmCross contributor
@MarcBruins

The Schedule

Get ready for a packed day focused on MvvmCross and Xamarin! The morning will kick off with a keynote and series of lightning talks, followed by an afternoon hackathon aimed at both existing MvvmCross contributors and those new to Xamarin and MvvmCross. The first group will work together to achieve the Hackfest goals, while the second group will get the chance to learn how to use the tools with hands-on instruction from the experts. Finally, we’ll finish off with a relaxed afterparty, where you can meet other members of the MvvmCross community over drinks.

8:30-9:00
Registration and welcome

9:00 – 9:30
Introductory Keynote by Marc Bruins & Martijn van Dijk

9:30 – 11:00
Lightning Talks

Nico Milcoff – View Presenters in MvvmCross
View Presenters are one of the most important parts of MvvmCross. In this lightning talk we will explore how do they work and how we can use them to create pixel perfect apps that respect platform idioms and navigation systems.

Tomasz Cielecki – Create custom bindings in less than 15 minutes
Create bindings for your amazing custom views with the number one MVVM framework, MvvmCross. Achieve the best interoperability with the framework, allowing TwoWay bindings and more. All this in easy digestible steps in less than 15 minutes

Mike James – Connected apps in Azure
Creating connected mobile applications often require some form of backend infrastructure. In this session, you’ll learn how to reuse your existing .NET skills to build web services into your Xamarin apps, leveraging the power of Azure App Service. Whether you’re a new mobile developer or an experienced enterprise team lead, Azure App Service, and Xamarin give you everything you need to build better apps.

We’ll cover how to get started and deploy your first App Service, look at the .NET client SDK, as well as demonstrate other Azure services such as Azure Search. By the end of the session, you’ll have a solid understanding of how you can leverage the power of both Xamarin and Azure to create world class mobile apps.

Laurent Bugnion – Azure Functions and Xamarin
One of the most exciting recent additions to Microsoft Azure is called Functions and allows the developer to quickly build and deploy code to the cloud without complicated setup. Also dubbed “serverless computing”, Azure Functions can be triggered by timers, HTTP calls or database operations, and can communicate with other Azure services or mobile and desktop applications such as those made with Xamarin. In this lightning talk, Laurent Bugnion, Cloud Developer Advocate for Microsoft, will give you an introduction to Azure Functions and get you started with this exciting aspect of modern computing.

11:00 – 11:30
Breakout session – Getting started with MvvmCross

11:00 – 12:30
Hackathon

12:30 – 13:00
Lunch

13:00 – 17:00
Hackathon

17:00 – 19:00
Afterparty!

The location

The MvvmCross & Xamarin HackDay will be held at the amazing TOBACCO Theater in central Amsterdam. We’ll have exclusive use of the space, with drinks and food provided throughout the day.

Get your ticket!

Thanks to generous co-sponsorship from the .NET Foundation, we’re happy to bring this event to you free, so get your ticket before all the spots fill up!

Curious how Xablu can help your organization ?

The post You’re invited to the MvvmCross event of the year! appeared first on XABLU.