How to Install Xamarin to Microsoft Visual Studio

The announcement of third-party mobile application development platform, Xamarin as open source is buzzing around the .NET developer forums and discussion boards now.

This mobile application development platform can be used integrating with the Visual Studio IDE of Microsoft for free now. There won’t be any trial period to expire or it won’t ask for commercial license to continue in any future. All you would need to have is the latest version of genuine licensed Visual Studio IDE software installed on your computer.

Installation of Xamarin will be executed in three phases. They are,

1. Installation of Java JDK
2. Installation of Android SDK
3. Installation of Xamarin libraries

1. Installation of Java JDK

In this phase the Xamarin installer will download and install the latest version of the Java JDK which is needed for the Android app development.

Java is platform independent and it will be installed with out any intermediator interpreters on Windows.

2. Installation of Android SDK

Installation of Android SDK is the 2nd phase of installing Xamarin to Visual Studio. Android development is all managed by this Android SDK from Google. To develop the android apps with Java, you would need to download and install complete android studio but as we are aiming to develop the android apps using .NET technologies like C# and F#, we only need the core layer, the Android SDK.



This android SDK will integrate into the Visual Studio allowing us to develop right from the VS IDE itself. This is another reason why Android SDK don’t need another IDE (android studio) for developer interface coding.

3. Installation of Xamarin libraries

Xamarin acts as intermediator interpreter for .NET technologies C#/F# and Java. The coding conventions of .NET will be translated into Java native coding using the Xamarin libraries. This is the third and last phase of installing Xamarin to Visual Studio IDE.

Let the Xamarin installer install the libraries needed for the integration with Visual Studio.

After installation, open Visual Studio > File > New Project. You would find the Android and iOS project options to continue. Go to Xamarin University and learn how to program with Xamarin on Visual Studio with .NET technologies.

That’s it! Enjoy Android and iOS app development from Visual Studio.