I'm looking from a couple of hours now about "How to design my app around my camera view"
So, I searched about how to use the camera and the Xamarin XLabs and the MediaPlugin are the ones that shows up the more.
However, when I'm looking at them, also when I'm looking at Moments, I can't find the way or understand how can we use the camera as an XAML component, to be able to design on the live view of the camera?
I'm not coding with an MVVM logic but with a MVC logic, so maybe that why I don't get it, I don't know.
You can create a view renderer for your camera, so you just have to add the view in your XAML, and you can add the design you want in your same XAML.
Take a look on this:
https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/xamarin-forms/application-fundamentals/custom-renderer/view/
Related
I have a client that adamantly insists on a solution with embedded camera in terms of having a ContentPage with an camera stream and custom buttons and icons, similar to https://github.com/pierceboggan/Moments, or at very least as I understand it seeing as it is a Snapchat clone. And my client wants similar swipe capabilities as to how navigation works in Snapchat.
However, as far as I can tell most of what is utilized in that solution has been deprecated.
I have suggested using the Media Plugin https://github.com/jamesmontemagno/MediaPlugin but they're not satisfied with the camera being pushed on the stack.
I've looked into implementing it natively and using dependency injections but it appears to be an overwhelming amount of work just to implement the most basic functions, particularly for Android's Camera2.
I'm hoping someone can provide me with good news of an easier alternative or an alteration to either Moments or Media Plugin or anything similar that will facilitate the requirements or if my only option is time consuming and complex?
From the code of Moment, you can do what you want to achieve. I did this for iOS.
You will have to create a custom renderer to display the camera page. You will be able to add buttons on top of it.
You could try this example which use custom renderer to add a take photo button and switch camera button on the camera view. Which is able to use on iOS and Android platform.
Main Page:
Camera View with custom button page:
all!
Is there any way to build custom camera component in codename one?
I googled and got about PeerComponents, however don't know how to use it.
I just would like to use it as Label component with 2 buttons (Taking picture button and retaking picture button)
Kindly provide some small sample code for me. Best regards.
[UPDATE]
I need this because of following reason.
First of all, I need square Image taken by camera, and user should be able to know how the picture will be taken.
2 resolutions here:
First, if I have to use full screen camera, it will be better to draw or overlay square rectangle on camera view so that user can know which area will be taken.
Second, if overlaying and drawing is difficult (or should use native code for that), I need some custom components for camera area such like PeerComponent. So I would like to place it anywhere of screen area as square rectangle. Then, users won't need any overlay or drawing something on it because it is already square.
That's all what I need.
Regards.
Yes, it's certainly possible to create a component like this, and we do intend to create one at some point in the future. You can beat us to the punch.
First, you should familiarize yourself with how native interfaces work. This video is a good start:
https://www.codenameone.com/how-do-i---access-native-device-functionality-invoke-native-interfaces.html
This series of blog posts demonstrates how to wrap 3rd party SDKs into codename one on Android and iOS.
https://www.codenameone.com/blog/integrating-3rd-party-native-sdks-part-1.html
https://www.codenameone.com/blog/integrating-3rd-party-native-sdks-part-2.html
https://www.codenameone.com/blog/integrating-3rd-party-native-sdks-part-3.html
Although it doesn't include an example with PeerComponent, it is helpful for getting a grasp on the process. Adding peer components into the mix is really just a matter of returning the corresponding "View" type from a native interface. On Android, that is an android.view.View, on iOS it is a UIView, in Javascript it is an DOM element, in UWP it is a FrameworkElement, and in the simulator, it is a javax.swing.JComponent.
This blog post does include an example of a peer component, but it is targeting UWP:
https://www.codenameone.com/blog/uwp-native-interfaces-mix-c-java.html
Once you have a grasp of the material, you should look at relevant examples. Currently the most complete example I'm aware of of a cn1lib that implements a native peer is the Google Maps lib:
https://github.com/codenameone/codenameone-google-maps
You can see the Android native implementation here, and the iOS native implementation here
You may want to refer to the existing code for image capture in Codename One as well.
Android: https://github.com/codenameone/CodenameOne/blob/master/Ports/Android/src/com/codename1/impl/android/AndroidImplementation.java#L5788-L5811
https://github.com/codenameone/CodenameOne/blob/master/Ports/Android/src/com/codename1/impl/android/AndroidImplementation.java#L5701-L5714
Though it uses intent to open the native capture dialog, so it may not be too relevant.
IOS: https://github.com/codenameone/CodenameOne/blob/master/Ports/iOSPort/nativeSources/IOSNative.m#L2879-L2927
I need to make a picker like this in the picture below:
What you see is a TimePicker and I took it just to give you an example. I would like to have one with about 200 numbers on the left and 100 on the right (for example). How can I do it in a Xamarin.Forms PCL project?
The first problem you'll face is that the picker control you see here is a native iOS control. The Xamarin.Forms TimePicker is basically not a physical control in itself but it translates to a native control on each platform. That's why it will look different on Android and UWP devices because they provide their own picker controls, as seen in the picture below.
Now, if you're ok with the controls looking different, you could use custom renderers to modify each native control or even replace them to provide the functionality you need. I thought I'd outline the basic steps for you to get you started:
Create a new Xamarin.Forms control called CustomPicker or something.
Create custom renderers for each platform.
On iOS, you can use the UIPickerView and specify numberOfComponents, numberOfRows and the data source.
On Android, you might want to use a 3rd party control since by default, there are no scrolling picker controls like the one on iOS. WheelPicker looks promising.
On UWP, you might be able to work something out using the PickerFlyoutBase. I have limited knowledge on the platform but you should be able to find something quite easily.
As you can see, it's going to be quite an effort to get the scroll picker working on each platform.
Edit: You could also look into native embedding, which lets you embed native controls into Xamarin.Forms app's pages.
Native Embedding
Embedding native controls into Xamarin.Forms
We've developed a two-column picker for Xamarin.Forms (Android and iOS).
Sample:
https://github.com/HorusSoftwareUY/MaterialDesignControlsPlugin#materialdoublepicker
Screenshots:
Android
iOS
We added this control to MaterialDesignControls NuGet (https://www.nuget.org/packages/Plugin.MaterialDesignControls/), where you can find other interesting controls with the material design look and feel.
Contributions are welcome!
I'd like to customize my UIToolBar, so the centered button looks something similar to the check-in foursquare button.
I've seen a commercial source code called ALToolBar, wich is similar to the effect I want on my UIToolBar. So in resume, changing the height of a button, and the background of a specific button, if that is the right way to go.
I'm pretty new to iOS, but comfortable enough to dig ideas the community can bring on.
Thanks for your help.
One approach is to just write your own Tabbar/Toolbar instead of using the built-in classes. Subclass UIView and add UIButtons for each item, which you can then customize as you wish.
The downside to this approach is, you loose the "More" functionality, that allows you to drag-and-drop items into the Tabbar, but if you just have 5 or fewer items, that's fine.
I am trying to design a feature in my application for the iPhone that simulates the Springboard feature (Main menu of the iPhone that allows you to view more apps), or the way Weather application works that allows you to flip between views.
Does anyone have any samples of this how I would go about doing this. It's seems very trivial but I am wondering if I am missing something that is already available either as an Apple example or someone who did a tutorial on this.
The image below show how the user would use it.
alt text http://www.agilitesoftware.com/SpringboardExample.png
As they slide their finger to the right (or left) the other image would begin to show up. And it would animate smoothly. The faster you swiped your finger the faster it would move to the next view.
Update: The other feature is that it should mimic the same feel when you slide your hand across the display that is snaps to the current view into place. It should not keep sliding across if there is more than 1 view to the direction you swiping your finger.
I've seen other applications use this so that is why I am asking.
This is accomplished using the UIScrollView with the pagingEnabled property set to true. Just add each of your views, adjust the contentSize, and it will automatically "page" to the width of the screen across the content.
There is a sample app (with code) with exactly this functionality on the iPhone developer site on Apple.com (I believe it's called "PageControl".) - I'd suggest checking it out.
d.
I'm writing an app that uses a similar UI. As NilObject recommended, we're using a UIScrollView with pagingEnabled=YES.
You may also be interested in this example code involving just two child views. I'm trying it out now; it's an interesting technique but I've had to write some additional special-casing code for some odd situations that resulted.
There's also another question on this site that asks about creating a grid of icons like the home screen.
I would check out Joe Hewitt's code from the Three20 project for this. It provides a nice interface and further refinement of the UIScrollView implemented as TTScrollView and TTScrollViewDelegate, TTScrollViewDataSource.