Xamarin Designer for Android Lets Developers Create Native UIs for Android Apps

Xamarin has announced the availability of its drag-and-drop visual environment, Xamarin Designer for Android, which lets developers create native UIs for Android apps from Visual Studio or Xamarin's IDE. The new solution creates standard Android XML layout files and provides developers with the ability to edit properties for their native Android widgets and interface controls from within the designer.

"With our Xamarin Designer for Android, we're helping developers save time and increase productivity with rapid prototyping and creation of sophisticated native Android app interfaces," said Miguel de Icaza, chief technical officer at Xamarin. "Now developers can use a graphical interface to design native Android user experiences for portrait and landscape layouts, different screen sizes and screen resolutions, and for different configurations, like hardware with keyboards and search buttons."

 
The environment follows Visual Studio conventions and supports Android API levels 4 and later. Xamarin Designer for Android also supports Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich Android versions.

Xamarin Designer for Android is included with Mono for Android 4.2 and is immediately available to customers who are current within their annual license period. To learn more about the product and to download a free trial, visit Xamarin's website.