X4QU - Xaml for (Xamarin) QuickUI

Get Started.

Say we want to create a CustomPage inheriting from ContentPage

Create some xaml.

First, we'll create the page in xaml, like this:
```
<ContentPage 
  xmlns="http://xamarin.com/quickui"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  x:Class="X4QU.Sample.CustomPage">
  <ContentPage.Content>
    <StackLayout Id="Stack" Orientation="Vertical">
      <Label Text="Hello" Id="Label0"/>
      <Label Text="Xaml" Id="Label1">
    </StackLayout>
  </ContentPage.Content>
</ContentPage>
```
Some stuffs to notice:
1. the toplevel element is which is our base class
2. x:Class is the full name of our class
3. you have to use <ContentPage.Content> to set the Content property of the page, as there's no ContentPropertyAttribute equivalent in X.QuickUI
4. collections are easy. you don't have to use <StackLayout.Children> (which won't work, as it's readonly)
5. Setting an Id will generate a field of the same name and type accessible from code
Add this file to your project as EmbeddedResource

Create the class

Create your class skeleton

using System;
using Xamarin.QuickUI;

namespace X4QU.Sample
{
    public partial class CustomPage : ContentPage
    {
        public CustomPage ()
        {
	        InitializeComponent ();
	    }
	}
}

The name of this class is irrelevant, by I name if CutomPage.xaml.cs

Generate the xaml.g.cs

Use mono xamlg.exe CustomPage.xaml to generate CustomPage.xaml.g.cs

And you're all set

Bindings

Those syntaxes are supported:

<Label Text="{Binding MyPropertyPath}"/>
<Label Text="{Binding Path=MyPropertyPath}"/>

This syntax is NOT supported (as the xaml parser require a parameterless ctor, and Binding doesn't have one.

<Label>
  <Label.Text>
    <Binding Path="MyPropertyPath">
  </Label.Text>
</Label>

Converter, Mode, ... are NOT YET handled

ListView, Cells and Templates

<ContentPage 
    xmlns="http://xamarin.com/quickui"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:X4QU="clr-namespace:X4QU.Extensions;assembly=X4QU"
    x:Class="X4QU.Sample.CustomPage">
  <ContentPage.Content>
    <ListView ItemSource="{Binding Items}">
      <ListView.Template>
        <X4QU:TextCellTemplate TextCell.Text="{Binding Name}" TextCell.Detail="{Binding Title}" />
      </ListView.Template>
    </ListView>
  </ContentPage.Content>
</ContentPage>

Note: there's a new assembly to reference, declaring a TextCellTemplate class, which is only a CellTemplate(typeof(TextCell))

Resources and StaticResources bindings

Let's start by the example

<ContentPage 
  xmlns="http://xamarin.com/quickui"
  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
  xmlns:X4QU="clr-namespace:X4QU;assembly=X4QU"
  xmlns:local="clr-namespace:X4QU.Sample;assembly=X4QUSample"
  x:Class="X4QU.Sample.CustomPage">
  <ContentPage.Resources>
    <X4QU:ResourceDictionary>
      <local:ReverseConverter x:Key="reverseConverter"/>
    </X4QU:ResourceDictionary>
  </ContentPage.Resources>
  <ContentPage.Content>
    <Label Text="{Binding Path=LabelBinding,Converter={StaticResource reverseConverter}}"/>
  </ContentPage.Content>  
</ContentPage>

Events

Just like it's possible in SL or WPF, you can connect a method to an event directly in XAML

...
<ListView ItemTapped="onItemTapped" />
...

Then you have to make sure you have a public instance method of the right signature in your partial class:

public partial class CustomPage {
    public void onItemTapped (object sender, EventArg<object> arg)
{
    //Do something here
}
}

Note: whenever possible, use Commands and assign a binding, it's cleaner

Some remarks:

ResourceDictionary si define in x4QU
we set the Resources property of ContentPage. This is a hack, there's no such property
only define a single resourcedictionary per xaml, at the toplevel element for now. Or behavior is not guaranteed.
you can't set both Mode and Converter in a Binding. If you do both, it'll take the Mode and ignore the Converter
Case is important, in Bindings strings like everywhere else

TODO

Features requests in Xamarin.QuickUI

TypeConverterAttribute
ContentPropertyAttribute

StephaneDelcroix/X4QU