News - Ballard Chalmers

The Evolution of Xamarin Forms – 3.6 Release, 4.0 in Preview

19/03/2019

Xamarin Forms 3.6

Xamarin Forms 3.6 was released on schedule in March, ready for we expect to be the spring release of Xamarin Forms 4.0.

Microsoft is keeping up steady upgrades on Xamarin with updates available every 6 weeks. In fact, Xamarin Forms 3.6 saw more than 40 fixes.

The biggest news in Xamarin Forms 3.6 was the end of Visual Feature’s experimental status. It is now stable and widely available for general use. It currently offers Material design, with possible profiles from Cupertino/HIG and Fluent coming in the future. This enables developers to bring Material design to mobile apps, reducing the need for special renderers.

For more in-depth notes on what is new on Xamarin Forms 3.6, check out the release notes.

What’s Coming in Xamarin Forms 4.0

Xamarin Forms 4.0 promises a more consistent design across iOS and Android, a more flexible and faster list control and an ever-present and easier to control Navigation.

A big feature of Xamarin 4.0 is Shell. A guided structure for setting up your application. Shell gives three tiers of elements to describe your application and then allows you to start populating the app with personalised features and content. It is the evolution of MasterDetailPage, NavigationPage, and TabbedPage.

Visual will provide a consistent control theme across iOS and Android by default. Though Visual 3.6 already supports Material Design, the 4.0pre1 also includes implementations for Button, Entry, Frame, and ProgressBar. Xamarin Forms will not only be aiming for consistency on the visual front but across both design and experience.

Lastly, Collection View is the answer many developers have been looking for. Microsoft’s response to the many looking for modern native list controls for performance and a more flexible layout and interaction. With four layout combinations and an ability to supply a custom layout, the flexible approach has certainly been achieved.

To learn more about how we can use Xamarin to aid your business’s expansion into the mobile app market, contact us here.

Visual Studio 2019 RC and General Release

18/03/2019

In December, the first Visual Studio 2019 preview was released. The release candidate became available in February and the general release is scheduled for 2^nd April, with future releases expected throughout the year.

If you would like to make use of the RC, you can install it side-by-side with your existing Preview installation. If you have not been using the Preview you can now go directly to the RC.

Visual Studio 2019 Upgrades

Some of the key improvements available in Visual Studio 2019 are:

Live code share – review code from different machines directly within the IDE. Great for reviewing pull requests between developers.
Intellicode expanded and now covers four more languages. It can also be trained to make recommendations from your own particular coding practices.
More targets for Snapshot Debugger which allows you to snapshot a production environment from Azure and debug the objects at that point.
Easier publishing to Azure and creation of new resources such as Key Vaults. Making it easier to remain completely secure.
A cleaner UI allows more space and therefore focus on the code. The blue theme has been updated and the top-level menu has moved to the title bar.
Search has been re-written to be faster and more accurate. Enabling an easier way to find your elements of code, including search in the Watch windows.
Code health indicator is available for files with assisted code cleanup to improve readability and quality of code. Thereby boosting productivity and resolution of issues.

Visual Studio 2019 Editions

There are three editions available: Community, Professional and Enterprise. You can upgrade simply using your existing licence.

Here is a brief breakdown of some changes you can expect to see in the three editions:

Visual Studio Enterprise 2019 has IntelliTrace, Live Unit Testing, Embedded Assemblies for mobile apps, Real Time Architecture Validation, soft.com/vs/compare/ and the Snapshot Debugger. You will not find these features available for Visual Studio Professional.

Visual Studio Community 2019 is free for anyone to use and download. It now has available References, Application Insights and Test. Previously only available in Professional and Enterprise.

Visual Studio 2019 Launch

The Visual Studio 2019 launch is scheduled with a virtual event. Scott Hanselman is a keynote speaker and will be covering the latest innovations in Visual Studio 2019. There will be demos, live-streaming sessions, conversations, Q&As and a virtual attendee party.

Whether you use C#, C++ or Python, or target the web, desktop, cloud or cross-platform with Xamarin and .Net Core 3, the event is designed to have something for you. The assortment of sessions and speakers are tailored to cover the wide range of uses that Visual Studio 2019 holds for all specialists.

Azure DevOps Server 2019 Released

14/03/2019

Just six months on from the launch of Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps Server 2019 has been broadly released. Microsoft made the announcement on 5^th March and it means its power, previously only existing on the cloud is now available for installation in the end user’s dedicated environment. Leaving you able to make your own choice on when to update.

Azure DevOps Server used to be known as Team Foundation Server (TFS). It includes a range of highly functional collaborative tools, supporting all popular programming languages on any platform. See the full release notes here.

If you are updating from TFS 2018 to Azure DevOps Server 2019, the key benefits you will experience are:

A new and more responsive navigation enables users to easily navigate between services.
Enhanced Azure Pipelines; now includes new Build and Release pages.
An upgrade on the integration between GitHub Enterprise and Azure Pipelines.
Azure SQL Database is available for those hosting Azure DevOps Server on their own virtual machines.
A simpler and more cost-effective licencing for Azure Artifacts and Release Management.

If you are considering implementing Azure DevOps Server 2019, here are some requirements to take into consideration:

Server installation runs on either a Windows Server operating system or a Windows client operating system, on a 64-bit operating system.
The server operating system requires Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012 R2 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter) or 2012 (Essentials, Standard, Datacenter).
The client operating system needs to be Windows 10 (Professional, Enterprise) Version 1607 or later.
Proxy server requirements for teams of 450 users or less need one processor, 202-GHz CPU and 3GB of RAM.
For production deployment, you will need Azure SQL Database, SQL Server 2017 or SQL Server 2016 (minimum SP1).

For any questions on if Azure DevOps Server 2019 is right for you, or information on how we can help you upgrade from TFS or implement Azure DevOps Server 2019, just contact us here.

Key Changes Set to Hit SQL Server in 2019

07/03/2019

With the announcement in September of SQL Server 2019 in public preview, we have been keeping an eye out for further information on what to expect. With the release looming, change is certainly ahead.

Here we take a look at some key trends and changes set to hit SQL Server in 2019:

Management of big data is becoming a more integral part of SQL Server 2019 with a focus on enhanced integration and big data clusters. SQL Server environments will be better equipped to incorporate modern data processing tech and AI-enhanced apps including machine learning models using R and Python. Learn more here
SQL Server 2019’s changes for big data, particularly data virtualization will aid DBAs efforts in managing huge data growth. Data virtualization integrates data from different sources without the need to replicate or move the data around, decreasing the time spent for DBAs. Learn more here
Accelerated data recovery is a much-wished for enhancement which will be broadly available in SQL Server 2019. For all mission-critical systems that need to be patched regularly, or that have long-running transactions, this enhancement will be enormously beneficial. Learn more here
SQL Server environments will continue the trend of moving to the cloud. Any DBAs who were not keen on the move will likely be reevaluating with Microsoft’s cloud-based development model and its cost and scalability benefits outweighing other concerns. Learn more here
The continued growth of SQL Server on Linux, as Microsoft brings enhancements there. More businesses are also likely to evaluate the benefits of moving SQL Server environments into containers. Learn more here

The preview is available for trial, and you can get more details of that here.

Three Months Until Support Ends for .NET Core 1.0 and 1.1

07/03/2019

Microsoft has just announced support for .NET Core 1.0 and .NET Core 1.1 will end on the 27^th June. The three-year support began with the release of .NET Core 1.0 in the summer of 2016 and version 1.1 fits within this framework.

Now is the time to take the steps to upgrade to .NET Core 2.1 or .NET core 2.2 to avoid any last-minute scramble this summer. .NET Core 2.1 and .NET Core 2.2 differ in the support provided. .NET Core 2.1 has long-term support whereas .NET Core 2.0 is on a ‘current release’ system.

For more information on the end of support and the available upgrades, you can read Microsoft’s announcement here or contact us for advice on your .NET Core needs.