xamarin config file and sandbox - testing

I have created a application and about to release in few days
After searching online I understand there is nothing like app.config for Xamarin.
Please suggest better place to save api keys
Also is there any environment where I can test my application before it goes live.
So I can see how it looks and functions in many devices

You have a few options, for example:
Resource file (resx);
Constants file;
Api endpoint that retrieves config on startup. Huge benefit is that
your config is dynamic. So if you change something in the config,
it is automatically updated when user restarts the app.
For testing the app on multiple devices, try TestCloud.

Related

Chrome manifest v3 - is there a viable workaround to use Google's File Picker in a Chrome extension?

My searches have turned up nothing concrete. My extension uses Google's file picker to allow the user to browse their sheets and choose a desired file to write some data to, which manifest v3 breaks because of some GAPI limitations. Unless I've missed something obvious, there does not seem to be a simple workaround or method for this to migrate to v3 -- it just seems to be disallowed.
I'm not asking if there's a way to do something that they intend to not be possible (even though I doubt such a thing would exist with Google) but I'm optimistically hoping that maybe there is some hacky/annoying workaround that still fits within their rules. If I absolutely have to just allow them to set a sheet URL manually I will...I'm just trying to avoid it.
Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.
You may have to test it yourself to make sure there are no weird behaviors, but Google has some recommendations regarding this in their migration guide:
In Manifest V3, all of your extension's logic must be included in the extension. You can no longer load and execute a remotely hosted file. A number of alternative approaches are available, depending on your use case and the reason for remote hosting. Here are approaches to consider:
Configuration-driven features and logic
In this approach, your extension loads a remote configuration (for example a JSON file) at runtime and caches the configuration locally. The extension then uses this cached configuration to decide which features to enable.
Externalize logic with a remote service
Consider migrating application logic from the extension to a remote web service that your extension can call. (Essentially a form of message passing.) This provides you the ability to keep code private and change the code on demand while avoiding the extra overhead of resubmitting to the Chrome Web Store.
Bundle third-party libraries
If you are using a popular framework like React or Bootstrap, you can download the minified files, add them to your project and import them locally.
For your case, option #3 seems like the easiest. Looking at the Google Picker API documentation it only uses two relatively small script files, https://apis.google.com/js/api.js and https://accounts.google.com/gsi/client. You could try to bundle these in your Chrome extension and call the methods locally.

Change Azure App API in real time

Prior to migrating from Mobile to App Services I could change node.js APIs in real time. Now changes seem to take an undetermined time to go live. I don't know if they're now being compiled or cached anywhere along the way. Ideally I would like to regain the ability to effect immediate change.
Technically, there is a file watcher that watches a subset of the files in your site - when you change one of those files, the site is meant to restart, thus making your change go live. This is configured in the web.config file which is a part of your site.
Make sure that the web.config is configured to watch the files you are interested in.
Restarting the site manually is a backup step that is effective.

How to recognize programmatically that application is installed vs development mode?

I'm trying to get information about license info of my app and MSDN docs (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh694065.aspx) advice to use Windows.ApplicationModel.Store.CurrentAppSimulator class for that purposes during development/testing and when submitting app to store replace that class with Windows.ApplicationModel.Store.CurrentApp.
I wonder if there is any way to check in code (javascript in my case) if app is already installed from store so my code should use proper class and I won't have to remember every time I submit update of app to store to replacing those classes properly.
As far as I know, I could not find such thing. In fact, LicenseInfo is what provides information about the store listing.
I use a config.js file to keep settings at place which change between development and production. For example - if your app talks to a service, service URL also will likely change between development and production; the service might be running at localhost for development and for production in azure environment. I keep a bool in here and change by hand.
I have not automated it fully. but it is likely possible. need to dig through the msbuild logs for the build created for the store. if there is configuration setting found, then project can have two config.dev.js and config.release.js and msbuild need to conditionally pick the right file. I haven't looked into this yet.
I think I found at solution as described here WinJS are there #DEBUG or #RELEASE directives? . Not ideal, but works for me.

What is the Windows RT / Windows Store App answer to App.config?

What is the best way to go about reading and writing simple configuration data like we used to use App.config and Web.config <appsettings /> available through ConfigurationManager before, for use within your Windows 8 / Windows RT / Windows Store / Windows Modern UI App?
LocalSettings
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.storage.applicationdata.localsettings
OR
RoamingSettings
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.storage.applicationdata.roamingsettings.aspx
The main difference is that RoamingSettings will be saved to the cloud and thus, can be transferred across different devices for the same user profile. LocalSettings is device-specific.
Metro apps don't have exact equivalent of app.config/web.config.
Instead you should use package.appxmanifest to configure windows store specific values.
For local settings you should use ApplicationData api.
If you want to configure application after it is deployed you could simply load remote xml or json file at application start up.
In addition to the technical answers above its important to understand why there is no config file for these apps.
WinRT/Windows store apps are client applications so unlike your ASP.NET applications that run on the server and require admin configuration changes, end users are not expected to tinker with these changes (SQL connection, timeouts, appSettings you name it) hence there is no need for such a config file for these apps,
Hope it makes sense
You can find a sample to mimic app.config in Windows Store apps based on XML files here
Hth
Stefan

How Adobe AIR application can find out what URL it was downloaded from?

We have an Adobe AIR application which could be possibly downloaded from multiple domains. And when it's run, it should connect back to the site it was downloaded from to get data to show to the user.
So far we have a separate application build for each domain with a site URL hardcoded into it. And I wonder is there a way for AIR application to find out at runtime the URL (or at least domain) from which it was downloaded?
What we would like to have is a single downloadable binary served from all different domains, which still can know it's origin URL.
There's no function to retrieve such information, it would just make no sense if you think about it.
The most stable way is to include an external configuration file into the package.
Note that you can use ANT to automate this process for this final deployment.
There's no direct way to do it.
Here are some options which come in mind:
Build different versions for each site (this could be automated)
Let user choose the site at first launch
Try to guess it using using whatever resources you have (timezone, language, etc)
How should this work? The only solution i see (independent from AIR) is that you deliver an extra (properties) file with the application, containing the URL downloaded from. So you dont need to build a separate app for each domain, but only package a different domain-file with it. The app then reads this file and executes some context sensitive stuff.
I am trying to address the exact same issue right now.
It looks like you can modify the install badge to pass parameters to the air app.
From what I gather the values are only passed down on install or launch-from-badge.
Something I plan on researching is that one of the parameters in "AIRBadge.as" is _appURL which is the URL of the page the badge is on. I don't yet know if that value makes it down to the installed AIR app in some way; but it could be a useful property. I'm ultimately hoping that the AIR install process injects that into the application descriptor xml, but I'm not holding my breath.
Check this page out: http://archive.davidtucker.net/2008/01/10/air-tip-5-passing-arguments-to-an-application-on-install/#
When the user downloads, you could store their IP address in your central DB. Then when the app is installed and runs the first time, the app could hit your central DB to match up their IP address with the server they downloaded from.
A cookie with a specific name being stored on a download page, and the AIR app looking for that? Though that might not work for direct downloads. It might also be hard to pull off since knowing the specific browser used to download it would be an issue.