Category Archives: Tutorials

How to Send SMS and Initiate Call in Mono for Android

Understanding how to use the text messaging (SMS) capability and initiate a new call programmatically in your application can provide new ideas. This post will demonstrate how to send a text message and start a new call in Mono for Android applications. CREATE NEW PROJECT Create a new project in your Visual Studio by using […]

Using Web Services to Build Your Own Weather Application

Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding. All communication is in XML, and they are not tied to any operating system or programming language. This post will explain how to consume a third party web service in a Mono for Android application to build your […]

Get Size, Orientation and Rotation of the Device Screen

Different Android devices have different widths and heights. Sometimes, it is asked to become independent of the screen properties and you may need to know the screen width and height in pixels, screen orientation, and screen rotation at runtime. In Mono for Android applications, this can be achieved by using the Android.Views.Display and WindowManager classes. […]

Creating an Options Menu in Mono for Android Applications

All Android devices have the “Menu” button that displays the options menu on the bottom of the screen. Normally, the options menu provides additional functionality, navigation or settings for your application. Creating an options menu in a Mono for Android application can be accomplished by overriding OnCreateOptionsMenu and OnOptionsItemSelected methods in your activity. We will […]

Setting Screen Orientation in Mono for Android Applications

The ScreenOrientation property sets and gets the orientation of any activity’s display on the device screen. If you need to display your application in a specific orientation such as portrait or landscape, this property will help you to do so. Below is the way to accomplish this purpose in a Mono for Android way. USE […]

Using WebView Class to Build Your Own Simple Twitter App

If you want to deliver a web application as your Android application, you can do it so by using the Android.Webkit.WebView class. This post will explain how to utilize this class to simply display an online content in a Mono for Android application. Twitter’s mobile site will be used as an online content, so you […]

Where is AndroidManifest.xml?

Every Android application should have an AndroidManifest.xml file that provides the required information about the application itself. It does several important things such as naming the package for the application, defining the components (activities, services, etc.), declaring the security permissions, and so on. But you won’t see an AndroidManifest.xml in a Mono for Android project […]

“Hello World” Application

It is very common in the programming world to build a “Hello World” application after the preliminaries such as the installations are out of the way. CREATE NEW PROJECT Fire up your Visual Studio and choose File > New Project to view the available Mono for Android project templates: Note: It is advised to use […]

Installation for Visual Studio

Mono for Android requires Visual Studio Professional or better, and does not support Visual Studio Express. This is because the express edition does not support plugins. DOWNLOAD First, download the installer via here: INSTALLATION Run the installer to initiate the installation. The process is quite straightforward: Android SDK has several dependencies on Java JDK (Java […]

Getting Started – What, How?

Android development is mostly with the Dalvik (custom Java virtual machine written by Google) and the Eclipse IDE. If you are a .NET developer and has been willing to develop an application for Android phones and tablets, Mono for Android can be an answer to you. WHAT IS IT? Mono for Android is a commercial […]