A simple developer's journey

Xaml build error For one of my Xamarin project, I just had this build error: This error was related to my XAML code : Unable to cast object of type 'Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.ElementNode' to type 'Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.ValueNode' After searching for a long 'moment', I just didn't understand what happened... My investigation (this process can help you :p) So I decided to remove a large part of my xaml code and then re-add it little by little. Each step I tried to compile to see when error occurs. So In my case, I determined that the piece of code that was going wrong was the following: Ok, it was my mistake but in the code editor, Visual Studio didn't tell me anything. I was trying to bind an event ( I though it was a property ) to a DateTime property... What is not possible. Hope this helps someone to save a few minutes :)

About Parse In my previous article (or next, we will see ;) I talk about Parse BaaS. This is a 'Back end As Services' that offers you simple but really convenient back end capabilities for storage but also managing users... I approach why I choose this technology for my mobile application, looking for advantages and drawbacks. Parse, after being purchased by Facebook, was closed last year, but fortunately, the source code is open source and Parse still exists . So you can install your own server or use the new Parse on Buddy platform for instance. You can take a look here:  https://buddy.com/parse/ The problem with Parse for Xamarin Forms So, actually the problem is that we can find .NET Xamarin SDK but specifically for iOS and Android frameworks. There is no SDK for Xamarin Forms. The ideal solution could be the following: Many 'pseudo' solutions can be found on internet but I will give you mine, using conditional builds in Visual Studio. I ...

The goal of this post is to present you ( very quickly ) how to set up a TFS server (give you the steps) in order to get a continuous build integration environment. We will also talk about continuous deployement. For all the details, please take a look at the bottom of this post for the reference links... To summarize, the continuous integration process will help your team to merge their working copies  of your application code and to discover faster when a build fails. The reasons why a build fail can be multiple: - errors in code - a test fails - code analysis fails... We will take a look at the following points: - Configure the TFS Server - Create a new build definition - Insert tests in your build process - Manage team project's check-in policies - Deal with NuGet packages - Automatically deploy your project with MsDeploy. Setup your TFS 2013 server First you need to have a server that will manage and build your code. Install a TFS server and configu...