HotReload

Xamarin.Forms XAML hot reload, live reload, live xaml

Setup

Available on NuGet: Xamarin.HotReload
Add nuget package to your Xamarin.Forms NETSTANDARD/PCL project and to platform-specific projects iOS, Android etc.
Setup Reloader

using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace YourNamespace
{
    public partial class App : Application
    {
        public App()
        {
#if DEBUG
            HotReloader.Current.Start();     
#endif
            this.InitComponent(InitializeComponent);
            MainPage = new NavigationPage(new MainPage());
        }
    }
}

ALL XAML partial classes (ContentPage, ViewCell etc.) MUST be set up like:

using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace YourNamespace
{
    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            this.InitComponent(InitializeComponent);
            //OR
//#if DEBUG
//            this.InitComponent();
//#else
//            InitializeComponent();
//#endif
        }
    }
}

Download fresh version of observer.exe https://github.com/AndreiMisiukevich/HotReload/blob/master/files/observer.exe and put it in the root folder of your Xamarin.Forms NETSTANDARD/PCL project.
Start observer.exe via terminal (for MAC) mono observer.exe or via command line (Windows) observer.exe
IF observer.exe doesn't work: build observer project yourself (Release mode) and find exe file in bin/release folder https://github.com/AndreiMisiukevich/HotReload/tree/master/Observer/Xamarin.Forms.HotReload.Observer
Optionaly you can set specific folder for observing files (if you didn't put observer.exe to the root folder) and specific device url for sending changes. mono observer.exe p=/Users/andrei/SpecificFolder/ u=http://192.168.0.3
Run your app and start developing with HotReload!
IMPORTANT: make sure, that reloader and observer run on the same url. Check application output "HOTRELOADER STARTED AT {IP}" and compare it with url in terminal/cmd. Application output shows the IP of your device/emulator - observer must send it there. Also keep in mind, that your PC/Mac and device/emulator must be in the same local network.
If you want to initialize your element after reloading (update named childs or something else), you should implement IReloadable interface. OnLoaded will be called every loading (INCLUDING FIRST! So you needn't duplicate code in constructor)

public partial class MainPage : ContentPage, IReloadable
{
    public MainPage()
    {
        this.InitComponent(InitializeComponent);
    }

    public void OnLoaded() // Add event handlers in this method
    {
        Btn.Clicked += Handle_Clicked;
    }

    void Handle_Clicked(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
        //Do work
    }
}

Android Emulator

In case your observer.exe detects xaml changes but doesn't update in the emulator, you may need to forward the port to your 127.0.0.1:

Update your Application code to listen to the emulator 127.0.0.1

using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace YourNamespace
{
    public partial class App : Application
    {
        public App()
        {
#if DEBUG
            HotReloader.Current.Start("127.0.0.1",8000);
            // or
            // to listen to all possible ip addresses use
            //HotReloader.Current.Start("0.0.0.0",8000); 
#endif
            this.InitComponent(InitializeComponent);
            MainPage = new NavigationPage(new MainPage());
        }
    }
}

You also need to forward the port to your pc/mac using adb

adb forward tcp:8000 tcp:8000

Now you can run observer.exe with u=http://127.0.0.1:8000 and all updates will be forwarded to the emultor

How does it work?

Observer uses FileSystemWatcher for detecting all xaml files changes in specific folder and subfolders (by default it's current folder for observer.exe, but you can specify it). When observer detects that xaml file is updated, it sends http POST request with updated file to specified url (http://127.0.0.1:8000 by default).
Reloader runs TcpListener at specified url (http://127.0.0.1:8000 by default). When reloader get POST request, it updates all related views.

Are there any questions? 🇧🇾 just ask me =) 🇧🇾

License

The MIT License (MIT) see License file

Contribution