How can I run Xamarin.Forms in my project from it's source, so I can set breakpoints etc in Xamarin.Froms

Issue

I want to be able to run Xamarin.Forms from source so I can set breakpoints etc in it. I want to do this primarily so I can see how things get called so I can better understand how it works in response to my use of it in my app. I don't want to do it in the final app, I'd just like to swap out the source version for the nuget package in the end. During development though I would like to see how it runs things to better understand how I can manipulate/override/implement different details.

So far I am close to getting it to compile with my project, but I get 2 build issues realated to Xamarin.Forms.Conrols.Issues I think they are just unit tests, but it stops the build.

/Users/username/github/Xamarin/Xamarin.Forms/Xamarin.Forms.Controls.Issues/Xamarin.Forms.Controls.Issues.Shared/Bugzilla39636.xaml: Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object (Xamarin.Forms.Controls)

And

/Users/username/github/Xamarin/Xamarin.Forms/Xamarin.Forms.Controls.Issues/Xamarin.Forms.Controls.Issues.Shared/PlatformSpecifics_iOSTranslucentNavBarX.xaml: Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object (Xamarin.Forms.Controls)

Maybe there is a better way to run it from source and have it integrate with a project and I am just missing it?

These are the projects I have added to my project in a Solution Folder:

Maybe I am on the right path, maybe not. Currently I am only targeting iOS I have an Android project but I am not concerned with that at the moment, just trying to limit it to running on iOS. If that's an issue I can definitely change it. It shouldn't care about the Android parts if I am building for iOS only. Maybe it does?

... LATER ...

Ok tinkering some more I got it down to these packages:

When I right click on the solution folder and select: "Build Xamarin.Forms" the build succeeds. It only fails now with the following error when I try to build my app's Form's project:

/Users/username/github/Xamarin/MyProject/App.xaml.cs(13,13): Error CS0103: The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context (CS0103) (MyProject)

I get 51 errors whenever it references anything inside Xamarin.Forms or when it's trying to access a x:Name in some XAML from the code behind.

Intellisense sees the method as well, in this case InitializeComponent so at least that seems to know about it.

Solution

Ok, I got it. Here's how I did it:

Clone the Xamarin.Formsrepo from github:

https://github.com/xamarin/Xamarin.Forms

The following applies to Xamarin.Forms 2.3.4.247

cd into the newly cloned repo and checkout that tag corresponding to Xamarin Forms v2.3.4.247:

$ git clone [email protected]:xamarin/Xamarin.Forms.git
$ cd Xamarin.Forms
$ git checkout 2.3.4-2

Add these projects into your project. I placed them in a new solution folder within the project in Visual Studio Mac. I was only concerned with iOS. It would be similar for Android, just adding those specific libs. To figure how the dependencies I just opened the Xamarin.Forms.sln file and check each project's references.

1. Xamarin.Forms.Platform
2. Xamarin.Forms.Core
3. Xamarin.Forms.Platform.iOS
4. Xamarin.Forms.Xaml
5. Xamarin.Forms.Build.Tasks
6. Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.Xamlc
7. Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.Xamlg

Next, update packages for Xamarin.Forms.Build.Tasks (Mono.Cecil is missing when you import this project. It has a little warning icon by it in the packages list UI)

Now cd to your project folder and copy the .nu* files from the Xamarin.Forms Repo:

$ ls -1

Xamarin.Forms
YourProject

$ cd YourProject
$ cp -r ../Xamarin.Forms/.nu* ./

Afterwards, in the following to csprojfiles (The forms project and the platform project):

• YourProject/YourProject/YourProject.csproj
• YourProject/iOS/SourceTest.iOS.csproj

file add the following <Import> at the bottom before </Project>:

<Import Project="..\.nuspec\Xamarin.Forms.targets" Condition="Exists('..\.nuspec\Xamarin.Forms.targets')" />

Note this is referencing the files we copied above.

Finally it's time to add the references in Visual Studio to both projects.

Forms Project

Platform Project

That's it. It should compile now and you can add breakpoints into Xamarin.Forms and see how things run. Be sure you added that <Import> node above to ALL csproj files using Xamarin.Forms. From the looks of it, It's responsible for triggering XamlC to process the XAML. When you install Xamarin.Forms from Nuget, it adds this for you. Also be sure you have copied the *.nu files mentioned above to the root of your solution directory.

Remember, once you are done tinkering and you decide to install the Nuget Xamarin.Forms package, you may need to undo some of the changes you made above. For example, check the csproj files to be sure the <Import> is only from the package install.

In case you get compiler errors, check the Xamarin project references. Here are the individual Xamarin related inter-project dependencies that I used to generate the project reference list above.

Xamarin.Forms.Core

References

• Xamarin.Forms.Platform

Xamarin.Forms.Platform

References

• None

Xamarin.Forms.Platform.iOS

References

• Xamarin.Forms.Core

Xamarin.Forms.Xaml

References

• Xamarin.Forms.Core

Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.Xamlc

References

• Xamarin.Forms.Build.Tasks

Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.Xamlg

References

• Xamarin.Forms.Build.Tasks

Xamarin.Forms.Build.Tasks

References

• Xamarin.Forms.Core
• Xamarin.Forms.Xaml

Answered By - AJ Venturella