Get ready for macOS Big Sur. All-new Interface. MacOS Big Sur brings a new design that’s been finely tuned for the powerful features that make a Mac a Mac. Core features. Safari Extensions. Machine Learning. Mac Catalyst. Xcode is the Mac app used to build every other Mac app and every iOS app, too. It has all the tools you need to create an amazing app experience. And it’s available as a free download from the Mac App Store. Download Xcode from the Mac App Store. Oct 17, 2019 To build and run iOS apps using Visual Studio, you need to set up and configure the remote agent, vcremote, on your Mac. The remote agent handles build requests from Visual Studio and runs the app on an iOS device connected to the Mac, or in the iOS Simulator on the Mac.
Is it possible to create apps for iOS devices on a Windows PC? How to develop iOS apps on Windows is, probably, one of the most common questions asked by those who want to develop applications for Apple platforms but have no Mac at their disposal. In this article, we'll tell you about the simple solution that will help you with iOS development on Windows and write apps for iPhone /iPad without using a Mac.
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Develop iOS apps on Windows
If you are going to build iOS apps on Windows, you should know that macOS is the only platform able to work with the iOS SDK. That means Xcode, the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that contains everything you need for building and publishing iOS applications, will run only on this platform.
As long as you don't have a Mac but still need to use macOS to write iOS apps, virtualization software is the simplest solution. Installed on your Windows PC, a virtual machine (VirtualBox, VMware, etc.) will provide you with the access to macOS, this way making it possible for you to develop iOS apps on Windows.
Here’s what you‘ll need to do to achieve this:
Never forget when configuring a macOS to enter a VALID Apple ID. A valid Apple Account is required for your future Xcode download.
Select the desired outcome and settings in your “System Preferences” toward the end of your macOS configuration.
After that, installing XCode is simple:
After macOS and Xcode installation is complete, coding and iOS Simulator capabilities are available. Allowing you to test apps with the same efficiency you would expect from a real Mac computer.
Lastly, remember using macOS on anything other than official Apple hardware is in violation of Apple’s EULA.
Once macOS and XCode are installed, you can start coding and using the iOS Simulator to test the apps as if you were using a real Mac machine.
Redirect iOS devices to VM and cloud platforms
Despite its multiple advantages, running a macOS as a guest operating system may have one major disadvantage. As is known, it's not an easy matter to access local peripherals from a virtual machine.
USB Network Gate is an advanced program designed to redirect USB peripherals over the internet. With this software, you'll be able to forward your iOS devices not only to a virtual environment but to any cloud infrastructure (which is especially convenient in case you decide to rent a Mac in the Cloud).
Software tool for remote debugging iPhone: 'How to' guide
USB Network Gate is an efficient solution for low-cost iPhone app development. You can just connect your iPhone via USB to your Windows/Mac workstation and the software will share this USB connection among multiple computers over any distance. That means you can upload your new apps to iPhone without having it physically attached to your Windows machine.
Here’s how to forward iPhone to a virtual machine with the software:
That’s it! Now, iPhone is available for access from the guest OS as though it were physically attached to the virtual machine.
USB Network Gate
Requirements for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit): XP/Vista/7/8/10, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019
Also available on macOS, Linux OS and Android , 5.4MB size Version 9.0.2236 (8 May, 2020) Release notes Category: Network Software
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Xamarin for Windows allows iOS applications to be written and tested within Visual Studio, with a networked Mac providing the build and deployment service.
This article covers the steps to install and configure the Xamarin.iOS tools on each computer to build iOS applications using Visual Studio.
Developing for iOS inside Visual Studio provides a number of benefits:
Requirements and Installation
There are a few requirements that must be adhered to when developing for iOS in Visual Studio. As briefly mentioned in the overview, a Mac is required to compile IPA files, and applications cannot be deployed to a device without Apple’s certificates and code-signing tools.
There are a number of configuration options available, so you can decide which works best for your development needs. These are listed below:
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In either case, you should follow these steps:
Connecting to the Mac
To connect Visual Studio to your Mac build host, follow the instructionsin the Pair to Macguide.
Visual Studio Toolbar Overview
Xamarin iOS for Visual Studio adds items to the Standard toolbar and to the new iOS toolbar.The functions of these toolbars are explained below.
Standard Toolbar
The controls relevant to Xamarin iOS development are circled in red:
iOS Toolbar
The iOS Toolbar in Visual Studio looks similar in each version of Visual Studio. These are all shown below:
Ios App Development Tools For Mac Windows 10
Each item is explained below:
iOS Output OptionsOutput Window
There are options in the Output pane that you can view to discover build, deployment, and connection messages and errors.
The screenshot below shows the available output windows, which may differ depending on your project type:
Other default Visual Studio Output panes like Debug and Build are still available inside the Output view and are used for Debugging Output and MSBuild Output:
iOS Project Properties
Visual Studio’s Project Properties can be accessed by right-clicking on the Project name and selecting Properties in the context menu. This will let you configure your iOS application, as shown in the screenshot below:
Creating a New Project for iOS Applications
Creating a new iOS project from within Visual Studio is done just like any other project type. Selecting File > New Project will open the dialog shown below, illustrating some of the project types available for creating a new iOS project:
Ios Apps On Mac Catalina
Selecting iOS App (Xamarin) will show the following templates for creating a new Xamarin.iOS application:
Storyboard and .xib files can be edited in Visual Studio using the iOS Designer. To create a Storyboard, choose the one of the Storyboard templates. This will generate a Main.storyboard file in the Solution Explorer as illustrated by the screenshot below:
To start creating or editing your Storyboard, double-click on
Main.storyboard to open it in the iOS Designer:
To add objects to your view, use the Toolbox pane to drag and drop items onto your Design Surface. The Toolbox can be added by selecting View > Toolbox, if not already added. Object properties can be modified, their layouts adjusted, and events can be created by using the Properties pane, as illustrated below:
For more information on using the iOS designer, refer to the Designer guides.
Running & Debugging iOS ApplicationsDownload Ios Apps On MacDevice Logging![]()
In Visual Studio 2017, the Android and iOS log pads are unified.
The new Device Log tool window for Visual Studio allows to show logs for Android and iOS devices. It can be shown by executing any of the following commands:
Run Mac Apps On Ios
Once the tool window is shown, the user can select the physical device from the devices dropdown. When a device is selected, logs will automatically be added to the table. Switching between devices will stop and start the device logging.
In order for the devices to appear in the combobox, an iOS project must be loaded. Additionally for iOS, Visual Studio must be connected to the Mac Server to discover the iOS devices connected to the Mac.
This tool window provides: a table of log entries, a dropdown for device selection, a way to clear log entries, a search box, and play/stop/pause buttons.
Set Debugging StopsIos Apps On Mac Os
Breakpoints can be set at any point in your application to signal to the debugger to temporarily stop the execution of the program. To set a breakpoint in your Visual Studio, click on the margin area of your editor, next to the line number of the code you wish to break at:
Start debugging, and use the simulator or device to navigate your application to a breakpoint. When a breakpoint is hit, the line will be highlighted and Visual Studio’s normal debugging behavior will be enabled: you can step into, over, or out of the code, examine local variables, or use the Immediate Window.
This screenshot shows the iOS Simulator running next to Visual Studio using Parallels on macOS:
Examine Local VariablesSummary
This article described how to use Xamarin iOS for Visual Studio. It listed the various features available for creating,building, and testing an iOS app from within Visual Studio and walked through building and debugging a simple iOS application.
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