sample-XamarinFormsMap

This is a very basic example of a Xamarin.Forms map for anyone completely new to Xamarin.
No pins, no fancy displays. Just displaying the native map for both iOS and Android.
Because that alone could take a couple of days of digging through Google and StackOverflow from outdated tutorials or missing info.

That being said, this was the best tutorial I found. It just did not have info on the additional code required for Android SDK >= 6.0 (API 23). For that, go to the finally updated Xamarin.Forms.Map documentation from Microsoft. More information also available at this documentation from Android.

The following are steps to replicate this work on your own in case you want to verify you have everything set-up correctly.
I.e., making sure a blank project is deploying successfully before jumping ahead and just copying everything in the repo.

Set-Up

Downloads

1. XCode : Even though Xamarin is edited through VisualStudio, it's cross-platform capabilities for iOS depend on XCode tools.
2. Android Studio : Even though Xamarin is edited through VisualStudio, it's cross-platform capabilities for Android depend on Android Studio tools.
3. Visual Studio IDE : VisualStudio is where we can create and edit Xamarin projects.

Android SDK

The Android SDK Manager is available in the Android Studio Welcome Screen > Configure menu.

Platforms

Configure the Android versions you want to support in SDK Manager > Appearance and Behavior > System Settings > Android SDK > SDK Platforms tab.

Tools

Configure the Android developer tools you want to have in SDK Manager > Appearance and Behavior > System Settings > Android SDK > SDK Tools tab.
This includes the emulator, HAXM installer, NDK, and whatever else Visual Studio will tell you is missing when you try to use it.

Having a Test Project

1. Create a blank forms app in Visual Studio. Basically, everything here until Step 4. ** Do not use a '-' in your project name. It will let you, but you will get a namespace name 'App' could not be found error for YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME.iOS/Main.Activity.cs. **
2. Verify your set-up by deploying the app.

Adding the Map

Once you're sure you have all your tools set up and have the blank project working, it's time to try displaying a map.

NuGet Packages

These are how you get the Xamarin tools you want.

When you open your solution (*.sln) in Visual Studio, you will see three project folders:

• YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME is shared
• YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME.Android is for Android only
• YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME.iOS is for iOS only

They each have their own "Dependencies" or "Packages" folder. This is important to note if you want to make sure a package you think you have is actually there.

Update

1. When you navigate to YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME/Dependencies/NuGet, you should only see Xamarin.Forms.
2. Make sure this is the latest by clicking on Visual Studio > Project > Upgrade NuGet Packages.

Get Xamarin.Forms.Map

1. Go toVisual Studio > Project > Add NuGet packages... and search for Xamarin.Forms.Maps
2. Add Xamarin.Forms.Maps to all three projects.

Code

Compare your code with the code in this repo to see what was added to display a basic native map on the page -- a Google map for Android and an Apple map for iOS.

Deploying the App

1. Look for the run/play icon on the top bar of Visual Studio. On a Mac, this is to the left of the project dropdown.
2. Select your desired target project in the project dropdown. E.g., YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME.Android, YOUR_XAMARIN_FORMS_APP_NAME.iOS.
3. Keep the run type dropdown on Debug.
4. Pick your desired emulator in the emulator dropdown.
5. Click on the play icon.
6. Your emulator should open and deploy the app.
7. The play icon should have been changed to a stop icon. Click on the icon to stop the emulator.