Cross-Platform Modern Apps with VS Code: Combine the power of EF Core, ASP.NET Core and Xamarin.Forms to build multi-platform applications on Visual Studio Code

by Ockert J. du Preez

Length: 334 pages
Edition: 1
Language: English
Publisher: BPB Publications
Publication Date: 2022-03-16
ISBN-10: 935551042X
ISBN-13: 9789355510426
Sales Rank: #721759 (See Top 100 Books)

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Simplified development of cross-platform applications by learning VS Code

Key Features

Covers sophisticated to simple web apps and webUIs development on VS Code with debugging.
In-depth experimentation of VS Code including Machine Learning, NodeJS API and customized extensions.
Provides refresher on popular tools like EF Core, Angular, Xamarin.Forms and Blazor.

Description

This book explores VS Code’s core features, including multi-language IDE, rapid programming, and innovative front-end development, to show readers how to design and debug modern online and cloud applications.

You will learn how to build native apps, spend less time working with the platform, and focus more on the creative aspects of generating a smart UI. While you learn and practise on VS Code, you build solid grounds on robust server-side programming. You will learn how to use VS Code to develop your javascript, typescript, nodejs, or angular app more quickly and easily. Not only an application development environment, but VS Code also enables you to create microservices, extensions, and cloud applications. Not only can you construct applications with VS Code, but you can also develop microservices, extensions, and cloud applications. Throughout the book, you get trained on Entity Framework Core, Razor, Xamarin.Forms and numerous APIs.

This book not only prepares you to design multi-platform applications or work with Visual Studio Code, but it also prepares you to be a great developer who can alter the code, debug issues, and manage the many versions on your own.

What you will learn

Engage Razor and ASP.NET Core to build dynamic web apps.
Get a practical edge with Xamarin.Forms to experience the native development.
Explore Entity Framework Core for building data-rich applications.
Create a custom Visual Studio code extension for your application.
Use a variety of APIs, such as NodeJS and Python, in your implementations.

Who this book is for

This book caters to application developers and web developers who want to develop multi-platform applications and authentic practice of VS Code environment. You are not required to have any programming experience, though some understanding of application development may help speed up the learnings.

Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
About the Author
About the Reviewer
Acknowledgements
Preface
Errata
Table of Contents
Section - I: Introductory Concepts
    Introduction
    1. Comparing Visual Studio Code to Visual Studio
        Structure
        Objectives
        Differences between Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code
            Visual Studio
                Visual Studio 2019 Preview
                Visual Studio 2019 Community
                Visual Studio 2019 Professional
                Visual Studio 2019 Enterprise
            Visual Studio Code
        History of Visual Studio Code
            Reasons to choose Visual Studio Code
                Visual Studio Code is open-source
                Minimal design
                Simplicity
                Extensibility
        Visual Studio Code adaptation
        Visual Studio Code use cases
            Coding use cases
                Remote development
                Remote SSH
                Remote containers
                Remote WSL
            Non-coding use cases
                Browse databases
                Message colleagues or friends
                Time management
            Collaboration use cases
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    2. Up and Running with VS Code
        Structure
        Objectives
        Installing Visual Studio Code
        A quick look at the IDE
            Menu bar
                The File menu
                The Edit menu
                The Selection menu
                The View menu
                The Go menu
                The Run menu
                The Terminal menu
                The Help menu
            Activity bar and side bar
                Explorer
                Search
                Source control
                Run and debug
                Extensions
                Editor groups
                Status bar
        Visual Studio Code IntelliSense
        Customizing Visual Studio Code
            Color themes
                The File icon theme
            Getting color themes from the marketplace
        Visual Studio Code extensions
            Installing extensions
        Creating projects with Visual Studio Code
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
Section - II: Building Apps
    3. Building Web UIs with Blazor
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objectives
        Explaining Blazor
        Introducing WebAssembly
            Objectives of WebAssembly
            Advantages of WebAssembly
            Disadvantages of WebAssembly
        Hosting models
            Server-side Blazor (Blazor server)
        Installing Blazor
        Blazor layouts
        Blazor components
        UI frameworks
            Blazorise
            Installing Blazorise and getting it to work in Visual Studio Code
            MudBlazor
                Installing MudBlazor and getting it to work in Visual Studio Code
            Radzen
                Installing Radzen and getting it to work in Visual Studio Code
        Working with controls
            Blazorise
            MudBlazor
            Radzen.Blazor
        Handling forms
        JavaScript Interop
            Calling a JavaScript function from .NET
            Calling a .NET method from JavaScript
        Dependency injection
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    4. Building Websites with ASP.NET Core Razor Pages
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objective
        Razor Pages explained
            Creating Razor Pages web application
        Razor Page files
            The Pages folder
            The Shared folder
            The wwwroot folder
            Important files
        Page models
        View components in Razor Pages
            View component methods
            Search paths for views
            Invoking view components
        Dependency injection in Razor Pages
            Configuration injection
        Configuration in Razor Pages
            Default configuration
            appsettings.json
        Using forms in Razor Pages
        Caching in Razor Pages
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    5. Building Cross-platform Mobile Apps with Xamarin.Forms
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objectives
        A quick introduction to Xamarin Native
        Xamarin.Forms explained
        Xamarin.Forms views
            Presentation views
            Command enabled views
            Value views
            Text editing views
            Activity indication views
            Collection views
        Xamarin.Forms layouts
            Single content layout
            Multiple children layout
        Adding interactivity to your Xamarin.Forms apps
        A quick note on .NET MAUI
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    6. Building Web-Based Apps with Angular
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objective
        Angular explained
        Angular directives
            Components
            Structural directives
                NgIf
                NgFor
                NgSwitch
                Attribute directives
            Angular expressions
                Benefits of Angular expressions
                Limitations
            Comparing Angular expressions to JavaScript expressions
            Angular data types
            Angular modules and controllers
                Modules
                Controllers
            Working with forms and angular
                Form foundation classes
                Reactive forms setup
                Template-driven forms setup
            Data binding in Angular
                Binding types and targets
            Angular services
            Practical exercise
                Adding the Angular extension to Visual Studio Code
            Making sure everything is installed
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    7. Introducing Entity Framework Core
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objective
        A quick overview of Entity Framework
            Entity Framework architecture
                Data providers
                Entity client
                Object service
            Features of Entity Framework
        Entity Framework Core explained
            Getting started with Entity Framework Core in Visual Studio Code
                Setting up site navigation
        Configuring the model(s)
        Configuring relationships and persisting data
        Querying data
            Displaying table information
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
Section III: Building More Complex Apps
    8. Exploring the Database Providers in Entity Framework Core
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objective
        SQL Server
        SQLite
        SQL Server Compact
        EF Core in-memory database
        Azure Cosmos DB
        PostgreSQL
        MySQL
        Oracle
        Firebird
        Teradata
            Progress OpenEdge
        Microsoft Access Files
        FileContextCore
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    9. Building Multi-platform Apps with Visual Studio Code
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objectives
        Using Visual Studio Code for PowerShell development
            Creating a PowerShell app
        Develop C# functions in Azure using Visual Studio Code
            Creating a C# function in Azure using Visual Studio Code
        Developing JavaScript apps with Visual Studio Code
            Creating a JavaScript app
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    10. Building Services with Visual Studio Code
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objectives
        Dapr explained
            Getting started with Dapr
        Azure Event Hubs
            Features of Azure Event Hubs
            Architecture components
            Working with Azure Event Hubs and Visual Studio Code
        Apache Kafka explained
            Uses of event streaming
            Servers
            Clients
            Working with Kafka in Visual Studio Code
        Creating a .NET core background service with Visual Studio Code
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    11. Application Deployment Options
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objective
        Understanding Azure Containers
            The need for containers
                Agility
                Scalability
                Portability
            Docker
            The Docker daemon (dockerd)
                The Docker client (docker)
                Docker Desktop
            Azure Kubernetes
        Azure DevOps repositories
            Practicing a DevOps model
        Understanding GitHub
            Creating a new repository
            Forking a repository
            GitHub for desktop
            Git and Visual Studio Code
            Azure CI/CD pipelines
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
    12. Working with Python, Node.JS, and Other APIs
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objectives
        Developing Python apps with Visual Studio Code
        Developing Node.JS apps with Visual Studio Code
        Developing Go apps with Visual Studio Code
        Developing Java apps with Visual Studio code
        Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        Reference
Section IV: Advanced Concepts
    13. Creating Custom Extensions in Visual Studio Code
        Introduction
        Structure
        Objectives
        The need for custom extensions
        Extension configuration
            Color theme
            File icon theme
        Sync settings
        Extension manifest
        Developing an extension
            Conclusion
        Points to remember
        Questions
            Answers
        Key terms
        References
Appendex A : Remote Development and Machine Learning in Visual Studio Code
    Introduction
    Structure
    Remote development explained
    Visual Studio Live Share
        Visual Studio remote debugging tools
    Remote development in Visual Studio Code
    Remote development extension pack
    Building apps using machine learning
    Conclusion
    References
Index