N=7 - adding some refinements to Books (N+1 days of MvvmCross)

Today, I thought I'd try adding some finesse to yesterday's Books sample.


It didn't entirely go to plan... I did hit some bugs along the way.


However, overall I got there in the end :)


Among the things this N+1 shows are:

• Adding some System.Threading.Timer functionality to the ViewModel - to provide dampening to the network query rate (during typing)
• Adding an IsLoading indicator to the ViewModel - so that I could show an IsLoading UI indicator (e.g. a spinner)
• Adding and using the Visibility plugin
• Adding a custom InverseBool ValueConverter
• A quick intro to adb - the Android Debug Bridge
• Adding the coding4fun NuGet package to help change WindowsPhone TextBox behaviour
• Fighting with Xamarin.iOS to get it to update the executable in the simulator
• Fixing bugs in lock(object) - sorry - should have spotted this bug quicker!

For this video to make sense, you may need to first watch the videos from:

• N=6 - Books over the Network - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/n6-books-over-network-n1-days-of.html
• N=4 - ValueConverters - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/n4-valueconverters-n1-days-of-mvvmcross.html  

The code for today is at:  https://github.com/slodge/NPlus1DaysOfMvvmCross/tree/master/N-07-BooksPlus



This code in GtiHub also includes the UI updates for the WindowsStore sample too - I didn't do these during the video as I'd already talked too long... Most of the WindowsStore changes use the same techniques as I used in WindowsPhone. The only exception was that in order to get real time updates from the textbox I had to pull in http://weblogs.asp.net/broux/archive/2012/07/03/windows-8-update-textbox-s-binding-on-textchanged.aspx - this also required lots of Reactive NuGet packages too.



The video is at:





That's all for now :)


If you've got special requests for future N+1's then let me know! Or if you want to contribute your own...



Previously in N+1:

• N=0 - a first application - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/n0-first-mvvmcross-application-n1-days.html
• N=1 - tip calc - including the Android Designer and using IoC -http://slodge.blogspot.com/2013/04/n1-tipcalc-second-example-adding-ioc.html
• N=2 - Kittens - lists and tables - N=2: Lists and Kittens (N+1 days of MvvmCross)
• N=3 - Kitten Cells on iPhone - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/n3-kitten-cells-on-iphone-n1-days-of.html
• N=4 - ValueConverters - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/n4-valueconverters-n1-days-of-mvvmcross.html  
• N=5 - ICommand and Multiple Pages - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/n5-some-first-icommands-and-multiple.html
• N=6 - Books over the Network - http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/n6-books-over-network-n1-days-of.html