User Interfaces with Xamarin.Android

The following sections explain the various tools and building blocks that are used to compose user interfaces in Xamarin.Android apps.

Android Designer

This section explains how to use the Android Designer to lay out controls visually and edit properties. It also explains how to use the Designer to work with user interfaces and resources across various configurations, such as themes, languages, and device configurations, as well as how to design for alternative views like landscape and portrait.

Material Theme

Material Theme is the user interface style that determines the look and feel of views and activities in Android. Material Theme is built into Android, so it is used by the system UI as well as by applications. This guide introduces Material Design principles and explains how to theme an app using either built-in Material Themes or a custom theme.

User Profile

This guide explains how to access the personal profile for the owner of a device, including contact data such as the device owner's name and phone number.

Splash Screen

An Android app takes some time to start up, especially when the app is first launched on a device. A splash screen may display start up progress to the user. This guide explains how to create a splash screen for your app.

Layouts

Layouts are used to define the visual structure for a user interface. Layouts such as ListView and RecyclerView are the most fundamental building blocks of Android applications. Typically, a layout will use an Adapter to act as a bridge from the layout to the underlying data that is used to populate data items in the layout. This section explains how to use layouts such as LinearLayout, RelativeLayout, TableLayout, RecyclerView, and GridView.

Controls

Android controls (also called widgets) are the UI elements that you use to build a user interface. This section explains how to use controls such as buttons, toolbars, date/time pickers, calendars, spinners, switches, pop-up menus, view pagers, and web views.