Xamarin Forms , Designer Tools

As you know xamarin provides a great framework called xamrin.forms which is implemented on top of xamarin.ios and xamarin.android and as it uses C# PCL classes so you can produce one app for a wide range of platforms including platforms supported by Microsoft UWP framework.

So now we can use Xamarin.forms to produce apps rapidly, and even if we are a bit familiar with Xaml , we can even do this much more faster , but how is it possible to have a live designing platform like WPF designer tool in visual studio to design Xaml views , here we look into the tools we can use as alternatives to VS XAML designer tool .

Here are some of the tools we can use :

1. Xamarin Forms Previewer :

this great tool is developed by Xamarin , and can be installed by xamarin installer package on a Mac or Windows machine.
check out this amazing tool here

if you have problem running this tool take a look at my post here

Xamarin Forms Previewer

you can preview your design live on a emulated layout for android and ios, while you modify your xaml files , and monitor the changes simultaneously , by the time am writing this post , this tool is still in beta mode , and installing it needs some considerations specially on windows to get started working with this.

Pros :

1. integrated with VS (installed by xamarin installer package)
2. supporting costume views and costume controls
3. supported by Xamarin
4. instant XAML preview
5. no need for any physical device or emulator to preview your design

Cons:

1. by adding new files the project need to be compiled again
2. having two default fixed size on Android and IOS
3. not able to be viewed on real devices
4. not being able to fill data binding fields with some internal sample data

2. Gorilla Player

This awesome tool is developed by UXDivers , you can download a free version from here

at the time of writing this post Gorilla player is in Beta mode (its in beta mode for almost a year now) but still is preforming well to be used for designing your xaml files
to start using gorilla you need to download the gorilla package and follow the installation instruction , you need to run gorilla as the server on your mac/win and install gorilla extension on XS/VS , and you also need to install gorilla app on your android/ios device , these apps are all connected to each other through your internal network connection.

Pros:

1. can be runed on any number of physical devices or emulators of Android and IOS
2. the ability to fill your views with your desired sample data written prepared by a json file while designing the app
3. can be previewed without deploying your app to the device 
4. live preview 
5. you don't need to compile your project if any new file is added to your project

Cons:

1. crashing ( you need to reset the app or reset the connection to get it back working again , make sure to tick the 'follow me' checkbox in the settings )
2. not supporting all costume views ,behaviors and controls .

3. Xamarin Forms Player

Another tool here which claims great functionalities but still not that much popular , this can be installed as an extenstion on your IDE .

The player provides real-time previewing of Xamarin.Forms XAML source in Visual Studio, by pushing the XAML to devices running a Xamarin.Forms.Player app. download this app from here

Pros :

1. you can preview the XAML in more than one device at the same time
2. supporting custom controls, behaviors, converters, etc
3. instant preview

Cons:

1. you have to install some extra packages to your project to make it working