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Declare your data bindings and generate compiled code instead of heavily relying on reflection !

1) Add a reference to the NuGet package to your target project.

2) Create a source class from which the data will be pulled (commonly called a ViewModel).

QuickStartViewModel.cs

namespace StaticBind.Sample.ViewModels
{
	using System.ComponentModel;

	public class QuickStartViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
	{
		private string title = "Initial title";

		public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

		public string Title
		{
			get => this.title;
			set 
			{
				if(this.title != value)
				{
					this.title = value;
					this.PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(nameof(Title)));
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

3) Create a view class which will present data to your user (for example a ViewController on iOS or an Activity on Android). This class can contain a set of controls the data can be bound to.

QuickStartViewController.designer.cs (Xamarin.iOS, Android sample in sources)

using Foundation;

namespace StaticBind.Sample.Views.iOS
{
	[Register ("QuickStartViewController")]
	partial class QuickStartViewController
	{
		[Outlet]
		UIKit.UITextField entryField { get; set; }

		[Outlet]
		UIKit.UILabel titleLabel { get; set; }
		
		// ...
	}
}

3) Create a binding file associated to each view class. You can choose between xml or pseudo-c# (see the section bellow for more details) to declare your bindings. Make sure to have *.Bind.xml or *.Bind.cs suffix.

QuickStartViewController.Bind.xml (Xamarin.iOS, Android sample in sources)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Bindings Visibility="Inner">

    <Source Class="StaticBind.Sample.ViewModels.QuickStartViewModel">
        <Property From="Title" To="entryField.Text" />
        <Property From="Title" To="titleLabel.Text" />
    </Source>

    <Target Class="StaticBind.Sample.Views.iOS.QuickStartViewController">
        <Property From="entryField.Text" To="Title" When="EditingChanged" />
    </Target>

</Bindings>

Bonus

You can attach your binding file to your view file by adding a DependentUpon tag inside your .csproj.

<None Include="QuickStartViewController.Bind.xml">
  <DependentUpon>QuickStartViewController.cs</DependentUpon>
</None>

3) Build the project to generate the binding code.

4) Initialize and manage bindings lifecycle.

QuickStartViewController.cs (Xamarin.iOS, Android sample in sources)

namespace StaticBind.Sample.Views.iOS
{
	using System;
	using UIKit;
	using StaticBind.Sample.ViewModels;

	public partial class QuickStartViewController : UIViewController
	{
		public QuickStartViewController (IntPtr handle) : base (handle) {}

		public override void ViewDidLoad()
		{
			base.ViewDidLoad();

			this.Bind(new QuickStartViewModel());
		}

		public override void ViewWillAppear(bool animated)
		{
			base.ViewWillAppear(animated);

			this.Bindings.AreActive = true;
		}

		public override void ViewDidDisappear(bool animated)
		{
			base.ViewDidDisappear(animated);

			this.Bindings.AreActive = false;
		}
	}
}

5) Your data are now synced between your ViewModel and your View!

You have two options for declaring your bindings : XML or Pseudo-CSharp. I found the first to be more readable and structured, but since you don't have auto-completion, it can be error prone (but in the end, it will not compile if you have an error in your declarations, like XAML). The second one uses a C# like syntax (its actually compiled but never used) and you have auto-completion for writing your binding paths. Be careful, only the syntax of the code will be parsed, the semantic will be ignored so you have to follow specific writing rules.

The files must be suffixed by .Bind.xml.

Documentation

WIP

All the generated code is based onto an including thin layer responsable for observing your source state. All thoses entities are available inside StaticBind.dll that is referenced by your project when referencing the NuGet package.

All the intermediate code is available in the intermediate output folder (generally obj).

• IsEnabled converter (bool -> T)
• Command parameter
• Samples
  • iOS
  • Android
• Create plugins to add auto-completion for the XML language.
  • Visual Studio for Mac
  • Visual Studio 2017
  • Remove Pseudo-CSharp

Contributions are welcome! If you find a bug please report it and if you want a feature please report it.

If you want to contribute code please file an issue and create a branch off of the current dev branch and file a pull request.

MIT © Aloïs Deniel