Xamarin Studio version 6.0 and later now have PowerShell editing and debugging support with a PowerShell addin. The PowerShell addin uses the PowerShell Editor Services which is also used by the PowerShell extension for Visual Studio Code.

Features

• Code completion
• Debugging support
  • Immediate window
  • Locals window
  • Watch window
• Find references
• PowerShell file template
• Rename variable or method
• Show API documentation
• Syntax highlighting

Requirements

Xamarin Studio 6.x or MonoDevelop 6.x.

PowerShell 6 needs to be installed on Mac and on Linux.

PowerShell 3 and higher are supported on Windows.

Code Completion

As you type in the text editor you will see code completion for PowerShell variables.

Code completion for PowerShell commands.

An overview of PowerShell command parameters when you press the space key after entering a PowerShell command.

Code completion for PowerShell command parameters.

Hovering the mouse over a PowerShell command will show a tooltip with information about that command.

Syntax Errors

Syntax errors are highlighted in the text editor. Hovering the mouse over the highlighted error will show information about the error.

Find references

To find references of a variable or a method you can right click in the text editor and select Find References.

The references found are then displayed in the Search Results window.

Rename

A variable or method can be renamed in the text editor by right clicking and selecting Rename.

On typing the new name and the text will be replaced.

Show API Documentation

Right clicking on a PowerShell command and selecting Show API Documentation will open the online help for that PowerShell command, if it is available, in the web browser.

Creating a new PowerShell Script

To create a new PowerShell script there is an empty PowerShell file template available from the New File dialog.

After creating a new PowerShell file it must be saved before it can be run or debugged.

Debugging

To debug the currently active PowerShell file open in the text editor, set a breakpoint on a line by clicking in the left hand margin, then select Start Debugging from the Run menu.

Alternatively you can click the Run button in the main toolbar.

A solution does not need to be open in order for a PowerShell script to be run with the debugger. You can open just a PowerShell script into Xamarin Studio and then run the debugger.

Once the debugger has started you can select Step Over, Step In, Step Out or Continue Debugging from the Run menu by clicking one of the main toolbar buttons.

Hovering the mouse over a variable will open a tooltip showing the variable value.

Breakpoints

Breakpoint conditions should use PowerShell syntax and not C# syntax. The Edit Breakpoint dialog says to use a C# boolean expression which is incorrect.

Hit conditions are only partially supported. The PowerShell Editor Services debugger supports the ‘When hit count is equal to’. Due to this restriction the other hit count options may not work as expected.

Printing a message and continuing is not currently supported.

Breaking when the value of an expression changes is not currently supported.

Function and exception breakpoints are not currently supported.

Locals Window

When debugging the Locals window will show the values of variables grouped by each PowerShell scope – Auto, Local, Script and Global.

Watch Window

Variables and expressions can be entered in the Watch Window.

Please note that entering a PowerShell command with missing parameters will cause the debugger to stop working. The PowerShell file will need to be closed and re-opened before the debugger will work again.

Immediate Window

Expressions and variables can be entered in the immediate window to get or set values.

As with the Watch Window, entering a PowerShell command with missing parameters will cause the debugger to stop working.

Passing Arguments when Debugging

To pass arguments when debugging a PowerShell script you can select Debug PowerShell Script… from the Run menu.

This will open a Debug PowerShell Script dialog where arguments can be specified. These arguments will be passed to the PowerShell script being run with the debugger. The settings used in this dialog will be remembered for the active text editor whilst it is open in Xamarin Studio.

Launch Configuration Support

In Visual Studio Code a launch.json file can be used to store launch configurations. These are supported in by the PowerShell addin in Xamarin Studio. The PowerShell addin will look for a launch.json file in the directory where the PowerShell file exists or in a .vscode subdirectory.

The launch configurations are shown under Active Configurations in the Run menu. Only PowerShell launch configurations which have a request type of “launch” are supported.

The currently selected launch configuration will be used when debugging or running the PowerShell script. By default no launch configuration will be selected.

Running without the Debugger

To run the PowerShell file with PowerShell directly, instead of using the debugger, select Start without Debugging from the Run menu.

Output from the PowerShell script will be displayed in the Application Output window.

Installation

The PowerShell addin is available from the MonoDevelop addin repository on the beta channel. To install the addin open the Add-in Manager, search for the PowerShell addin, then click the Install button.

Source Code

• PowerShell addin for Xamarin Studio and MonoDevelop
• PowerShell Editor Services

Xamarin Studio 6.1 was released last week as part of the latest stable Xamarin Platform release and it includes changes made to the NuGet support.

Changes

• NuGet 3.4.3 support
• Support for project.json files
• A specific NuGet package version can now be installed from a list shown in the Add Packages dialog
• NuGet operations can now be cancelled from the status bar or Package Console
• Support browsing for a local directory when creating a package source
• Support forcefully removing a NuGet package when it is missing from all package sources
• Packages installed in the solution are no longer shown in the Add Packages dialog
• Only global package sources are now shown in Preferences
• NuGet version supported is now displayed in the About dialog

More information on all the new features and changes in Xamarin Studio 6.1 can be found in the release notes.

NuGet 3.4.3 support

Xamarin Studio now includes NuGet 3.4.3 which means project.json files are now supported and NuGet packages that only support NuGet 3 or above can now be installed.

Support for project.json files

The project.json file is a new package file format introduced with NuGet 3 which supports transitive restore. More detailed information on project.json can be found in the NuGet documentation.

A project.json file replaces the packages.config file and holds the NuGet packages being used by the project. One difference you will notice is that the project.json file may not show the same list of NuGet packages that a packages.config file would show. This is because the project.json file only shows the NuGet packages you explicitly install into your project. So if you install say bootstrap you will only see bootstrap in the project.json file even though it depends on jQuery. If you do the same for a packages.config file you would see both bootstrap and jQuery saved in the file. Another difference is that references are not added to your project file (.csproj) when using a project.json file.

In order to use a project.json file with Xamarin Studio you will need to create the file yourself in the project directory and close and re-open the solution. The project.json file needs to be available when you open the project otherwise Xamarin Studio will default to using a packages.config file.

An example project.json file for a .NET 4.5 library project is shown below:

{
  "frameworks": {
    "net45": {}
  }
}

When you add a NuGet package to a project that uses a project.json file the NuGet package information will be added into a dependencies section:

 "dependencies": {
   "NUnit": "3.2.1"
 }

Please note that when using a project.json file the project will not display a From Packages directory inside the References folder. This is because the project file does not have any references added to it when using a project.json and the reference information is currently not available from the project system.

Please note that there are future plans to move the information stored in a project.json file into the project file.

NuGet 3 package source

Xamarin Studio now supports using the NuGet 3 package source:

https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json

This can be added into your package sources in Preferences. It is also the package source that will be created by default if your global NuGet.Config file is missing.

Installing a specific NuGet package version from the Add Packages dialog

Older versions of Xamarin Studio supported being able to install specific package versions by using a package version search in the Add Packages dialog as shown below:

NUnit version:*

This package version search was not easy to discover and so it has been removed and replaced in Xamarin Studio 6.1 with a combo box that allows a particular version to be selected. The Version combo box is in the bottom right hand corner of the Add Packages dialog as shown in the screenshots below.

Note that in order to populate the version combo box a second request is sent to the package source so it may not show all the versions immediately.

Also note that for package sources which are local directories only the latest version will be displayed in the version combo box.

Cancelling a NuGet operation

With Xamarin Studio you can now cancel the currently running NuGet package operation. This can be done by clicking the red Stop button in the Status Bar or in the Package Console.

Adding local package sources

When adding a package source in Preferences it is now easier to create a package source for a directory on your local machine. There is now a browse button which will allow you to browse to a directory and add it rather than having to type the full path into the text box.

The Add Package Source dialog has also been changed to make it more obvious that either a URL or a folder can be used as a package source. The URL label has been changed to Location and the placeholder text now specifies that a URL or a folder can be used.

Forced NuGet package removal

A NuGet package can now be removed when it not restored and is unavailable from all package sources.

With older versions of Xamarin Studio a NuGet package must be restored before it can be removed. This is a requirement of NuGet since it requires the original NuGet package to work out what has been installed so it can determine what needs to be uninstalled. NuGet can do more than just update the project file with references and MSBuild .targets files, it may add new files to the project or it may run app.config or web.config transforms.

When the NuGet package removal fails because the NuGet package cannot be restored a dialog will be displayed asking whether you want to try to remove the NuGet package anyway. If the OK button is selected then Xamarin Studio will:

1. Remove the NuGet package from the packages.config file.
2. Remove any assembly references for the NuGet package from the project file (.csproj).
3. Remove any Imports that refer to .targets or .props files that were included with that NuGet package.

This process may miss files that were added to the project by NuGet but in the majority of cases it should remove the NuGet package successfully without having to manually remove the NuGet package information from the project file.

Packages installed in solution are no longer shown in Add Packages dialog

With previous versions of Xamarin Studio all packages installed in the solution were shown first in the list of packages in the Add Packages dialog. Packages installed in the solution are now no longer shown in the Add Packages dialog.

Only global package sources shown in Preferences

The package sources shown in the Preferences dialog are now only read from the global NuGet config file. Per-solution NuGet.Config files located in individual solution directories are no longer read when showing the package sources in Preferences. This is because changes made in Preferences only modifies the global NuGet.Config file.

The package sources shown in the Add packages dialog will still include package sources defined in a solution’s NuGet.Config file and is unaffected by this change.

NuGet version displayed in About dialog

The version of NuGet supported by Xamarin Studio is now displayed in the About dialog when the Show Details button is selected.

Bug Fixes

Custom MSBuild .targets files were not always added to the end of the project

When installing a NuGet package that has a .targets file the Import element created was grouped with the existing Import elements. This is OK most of the time however if there are other items in the project added after the import then any build targets may fail since these items are included after the import. One example is the netfx-System.StringResources NuGet package which may not find any resource files that occur in the project after its Import element.

Now .targets files are added as the last element in the project file. This also makes the behaviour consistent with how NuGet works in Visual Studio.

Custom MSBuild .props files were not added to the start of the project

Installing a NuGet package that included an MSBuild .props file would add an Import element for the .props file at the end of the project file which is incorrect. Now .props files are added to the project file as the first child element inside the Project’s root element.

Known Issues

Offline package restore

Package restore may not work when you are offline even though the NuGet packages may be available in the local NuGet cache on your machine.

The current workaround is to create a package source that points to a local directory containing all the required NuGet packages and disable all online NuGet package sources. With just the local package source enabled you can then restore the NuGet packages when you are offline. Note that this problem also affects Visual Studio 2015.

When diagnosing why a NuGet package cannot be installed into a project the application I use is the excellent NuGet Package Explorer. Whenever there is an error trying to install a NuGet package, similar to the one shown below, you can open the NuGet package with NuGet Package Explorer and take a look at the target frameworks it supports.

You are trying to install this package into a project that targets 'MonoAndroid,Version=v6.0',
but the package does not contain any assembly references or content files that are compatible with that framework.

Currently NuGet Package Explorer is only available on Windows. On other operating systems you can change the file extension to .zip, extract the contents of the NuGet package, or open it into a zip application, and take a look at the files.

To make exploring NuGet packages easier on operating systems where the NuGet Package Explorer application is not available there is a now NuGet Explorer addin that you can install into Xamarin Studio or MonoDevelop. With this addin you can open and explore NuGet packages from online package sources or from the local file system.

Now let us take a look in more detail of the features provided by the NuGet Package Explorer addin.

Features

• Open and view NuGet packages from online package sources or from the local file system.
• View the NuGet package metadata.
• View the NuGet package files.
• View the NuGet package .nuspec file.
• Open any file stored inside the NuGet package.
• Open other NuGet packages that are listed as dependencies.

Supports Xamarin Studio 6.0 and MonoDevelop 6.0.

Opening a NuGet Package from a Package Source

To open a NuGet package from a package source you can select Open NuGet Package from the File menu.

Alternatively if you have a project open you can right click the Packages folder in the Solution window and select Open NuGet Package.

This will open the Open Package dialog. This dialog is the same as the Add Packages dialog used when installing a NuGet package and allows you to search for NuGet packages. The dialog is based on the version available with Xamarin Studio 6.1 so it has a version combo box where you can select a specific package version instead of having to remember the syntax for the package version search.

Select one or more NuGet packages and click the Open Package button to download and display them in Xamarin Studio.

The NuGet package metadata is shown on the left. On the right are the files that the NuGet package contains. You can also view the .nuspec file stored in the NuGet package by selecting the NuSpec tab at the bottom of the window.

Exploring Dependencies

NuGet package dependencies are displayed with hyperlinks.

If you click one these hyperlinks the Open Package dialog will be opened and the package will be searched for. You can then choose a package version and open the NuGet package.

Opening Files Contained Inside the NuGet Package

To open a file contained inside a NuGet package you can double click the file, or right click the file and select Open.

The file will then be opened inside Xamarin Studio.

Opening a NuGet Package File

If you have a NuGet Package (.nupkg) stored on the local machine that is not available from any package source you can open the file directly in Xamarin Studio by selecting Open from the File menu.

You can also associate .nupkg files directly with Xamarin Studio and have them automatically open inside the IDE.

Opening a NuGet Package Installed in a Project

You can explore NuGet packages that are installed in your project by right clicking the package in the Solution window and selecting Open Package.

Installing the NuGet Package Explorer addin

The NuGet Package Explorer addin is available from the MonoDevelop addin repository on the beta channel. It can be installed by from the Add-in Manager by searching the gallery and then clicking the Install button.

With recent versions of Xamarin Studio it is not currently possible to nest files without directly editing the project file. In the past it was possible to drag and drop a file so it was then nested inside another file.

Visual Studio also does not support nesting files by using drag and drop however Mads Kristensen created a File Nesting extension that adds support for manual and automatic nesting of files within Visual Studio. There is a demo video of the File Nesting extension that shows the extension being used with Visual Studio. This extension has now been ported to Xamarin Studio and is available from the MonoDevelop Add-in Repository.

Let us take a walkthrough of the features of the File Nesting addin for Xamarin Studio.

Features

• Manual file nesting
• Manual file un-nesting
• Automatic file nesting of selected files based on rules
• Automatic file nesting when files are added to a project
• Options to specify which file nesting rules are applied

Supports

• Xamarin Studio 6.0 or MonoDevelop 6.0.

Manual File Nesting

To manually nest a file select it in the Solution window then right click and select File Nesting – Nest Item…

This will open a file nesting dialog where the parent file can be selected.

Select the parent file and click OK to nest the file under that parent file.

You can also nest multiple files under a parent by selecting multiple files in the Solution window and selecting the Nest Item menu.

Manual File Un-nesting

To un-nest a file select it in the Solution window then right click and select File Nesting – Un-nest Item.

The file will then be un-nested from its parent.

Automatic Nesting Rules

The file nesting rules are available from the Preferences dialog.

Each rule has a tooltip which will show more detailed information about what the rule does.

Enable auto-nesting

The Enable auto-nesting option will enable or disable automatic file nesting when a file is added to a project.

Enable extension rule

This rule will nest files added with an extra extension under their corresponding parent file. For example MyView.xaml.cs nests under MyView.xaml.

Enable interface implementation rule

This nests C# interface implementations under the corresponding interface based on the filename. For example, if there is an interface file IMyInterface.cs then a new file called CustomMyInterface.cs will be nested under the IMyInterface file.

Enable known file type rule

This nests certain known files types. For example, MyPage.ts will be nested under MyPage.html.

Enable path segment rule

This nests files with an added path segment under its parent. For example, MyFile.Designer.cs nests under MyFile.cs.

Automatic Nesting of Selected Files

To automatically nest files, based on the enabled file nesting rules, select the files, or folder, or project, then right click and select File Nesting – Auto-nest selected items.

This will then apply the enabled file nesting rules to the selected files.

Automatic File Nesting on Adding Files

To enable automatic file nesting when files are added right click the project and select File Nesting – Enable automatic nesting.

A check box will be displayed next to this menu item if this feature is enabled. Now when a file is added the enabled nesting rules will be applied and the file will be automatically nested.

Installation

The File Nesting addin is available from the MonoDevelop Add-in Repository on the beta channel. To install the addin open the Add-in Manager, search for the File Nesting addin, then click the Install button.

After installing the addin Xamarin Studio will need to be restarted for the addin to work correctly.

Source Code

• File Nesting addin for Xamarin Studio and MonoDevelop
• File Nesting extension for Visual Studio

The latest version of the .NET Core addin for Xamarin Studio and MonoDevelop now supports .NET Core Test Runners.

Xamarin Studio uses the .NET Core test communication protocol to support .NET Core test runners. This protocol provides a way to discover and run the unit tests provided by a .NET Core test runner.

When Xamarin Studio finds a testRunner in the project.json file it will attempt to discover the unit tests for that project.

{
    "version": "1.1.0-*",

    "testRunner": "nunit",

    "dependencies": {,
        "NUnit": "3.4.0",
        "dotnet-test-nunit": "3.4.0-beta-1"
    },

    "frameworks": {
        "netcoreapp1.0": {
            "imports": [
                "netcoreapp1.0",
                "portable-net45+win8"
            ],
            "dependencies": {
                "Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
                    "version": "1.0.0-*",
                    "type": "platform"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The discovered tests are then shown in the Unit Tests window.

After building the project the Unit Tests window will discover any new tests that have been added.

Tests can be run by clicking Run All or by right clicking a test in the Unit Tests window and selecting Run Test.

The test results are shown in the Test Results window.

Console output from the test runner is shown in the Application Output window.

Debugging the unit tests is not yet supported.

xUnit and NUnit provide .NET Core test runners and both of these are supported in Xamarin Studio. More information can be found in existing tutorials on how to use these test runners:

• NUnit 3 Tests for .NET Core RC2 and ASP.NET Core RC2
• Getting started with xUnit.net (.NET Core / ASP.NET Core)

Xamarin Studio 6.0 was released last week and it includes a lot of new features, such as a new dark theme and Roslyn integration. This release also includes some improvements made to the NuGet support.

New Features

• Support NuGet packages targeting tvOS.
• Support updating pre-release NuGet packages.
• Show updates available for pre-release NuGet packages.
• Remember Show pre-release Packages setting in Add Packages dialog.
• Error dialog displayed if NuGet.Config file cannot be read.

More information on all the changes in Xamarin Studio 6.0 can be found in the release notes.

Support NuGet packages targeting watchOS

A new Xamarin.WatchOS target framework is now supported which allows NuGet packages to contain assemblies for watchOS.

Support updating pre-release NuGet packages

Previously it was not possible to update a pre-release NuGet package to a later pre-release from the Solution window, only updates to stable NuGet packages were supported. The only way to update to a later pre-release NuGet package was to use the Add Packages dialog.

Now an individual pre-release NuGet package can be updated by right clicking and selecting Update. When all packages in a project or solution are updated then pre-release NuGet packages will be updated to a later pre-release version if they are available.

Show updates available for pre-release NuGet packages

Previously Xamarin Studio would only show stable NuGet package updates as being available if a pre-release NuGet package was installed. Now Xamarin Studio will check for updates for pre-release NuGet packages as well as stable packages and display this information in the Solution window.

Only if an installed NuGet package is a pre-release version will pre-release updates be shown as available in the Solution window. Xamarin Studio will not check for pre-release updates for stable NuGet package versions that are installed.

Remember Show pre-release Packages setting in Add Packages dialog

The Show pre-release Packages check box setting will now be remembered in the Add Packages dialog on a per solution basis.

Error dialog displayed if the NuGet.Config file cannot be read

Previously if the NuGet.Config file could not be read the error would be silently logged, but not reported, and Xamarin Studio would then switch to using the default official NuGet package source. Now an error dialog is shown indicating that there was a problem reading the NuGet.Config file.

Bug Fixes

Support NuGet packages that use icons from local files

A NuGet package can now use an icon, which will be shown in the Add Packages dialog, taken from the local file system using a file url. Previously this would fail with an invalid cast exception.

Incorrect update count displayed after updating NuGet packages.

When an update caused a NuGet package to be uninstalled the Packages folder in the Solution window would show an incorrect count for the available updates.

NuGet restore and update not working for workspaces

With a workspace opened, or multiple solutions opened in Xamarin Studio, then restoring and updating NuGet packages would only work for one of the solutions.

Unable to add Google Play Services packages

The Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.AppCompat NuGet package depends on a single version of the Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 NuGet package. When a Xamarin Google Play Services NuGet package is installed that depends on a higher version of the Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 NuGet package the install would fail to find a version of the AppCompat NuGet package that is compatible. An error similar to the following would be displayed in the Package Console window:

Could not add Xamarin.GooglePlayServices.Ads.
Updating 'Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 23.1.1.0' to
'Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 23.1.1.1' failed. Unable to find a version
of 'Xamarin.Android.Support.v7.AppCompat' that is compatible with
'Xamarin.Android.Support.v4 23.1.1.1'.

The problem was that the AppCompat NuGet package is not involved in the initial NuGet package resolution using the remote package source so it is initially not considered for installation into the packages directory. When a package reference is then added to the packages.config file a search for a compatible AppCompat package was only using the local solution’s packages directory which fails causing the install to fail.

To fix this the local solution packages directory is used first when looking for a compatible AppCompat NuGet package and will fallback to using the configured remote package sources if no suitable package is found in this directory. To handle a package being added to the packages.config at this point, after the original NuGet packages have already been downloaded to the solution’s packages directory, Xamarin Studio will detect a package is added to the packages.config file and install the NuGet package if it is not already in the local solution packages directory.

Incorrect package version being installed

When installing a NuGet package using the Google Play Services dialog a package version is not specified by the dialog. If the NuGet package being installed was found in the local machine’s NuGet cache it would be used instead of the latest version from the official NuGet gallery at nuget.org. This could result in a lower version being installed than expected.

MSBuild property files (.props) not being added at correct project location

Installing a NuGet package that included an MSBuild .props file would add an Import element for the .props at the end of the project file (.csproj) instead of at the start. The .props files are now added to the project file as the first child element inside the project’s root element.

Xamarin Studio and MonoDevelop now have support for ASP.NET Core 1.0 RC2 with an alpha release of the .NET Core addin.

This is an update of the original DNX addin which adds support for .NET Core RC2 and also, thanks to David Karlaš, adds support for debugging .NET Core applications on the Mac.

Features

• Debugging .NET Core applications with the .NET Core CLR on Mac.
• Project templates for console, library and web applications
• Code completion
• NuGet integration
• Solution window integration

Supports

• MonoDevelop and Xamarin Studio 6.0 (build 5166). (Note that 6.1 is not yet supported)
• .NET Core 1.0 RC2.

Installing .NET Core SDK

The .NET Core SDK needs to be installed separately before using the .NET Core addin. Detailed installation instructions can be found on Microsoft’s .NET Core web site.

Installing the addin

The addin is currently available from MonoDevelop’s Add-in Repository in the alpha channel. In Xamarin Studio open the Add-in Manager and select the Gallery tab. Click the repository drop down and if Xamarin Studio Add-in Repository (Alpha Channel) is not displayed then click Manage Repositories. In the window that opens tick the check box next to Xamarin Studio Add-in Repository (Alpha Channel) and then click the Close button.

Select the .NET Core addin and then click the Install button.

After installing the .NET Core addin you will need to restart Xamarin Studio before the project templates are available in the New Project dialog.

Creating a .NET Core project

There are three project templates available for .NET Core in the New Project dialog.

Debugging

Thanks to David Karlaš there is a support for debugging .NET Core applications when running on the .NET Core CLR if you have the VSCode Debugger addin installed.

The VSCode Debugger addin is currently available from MonoDevelop’s Add-in Repository on the alpha channel.

Debugging .NET Core console and web projects that target the full .NET framework is supported on all platforms. The .NET Core command line tool (dotnet.exe) will create an executable when targeting the full .NET Framework which can be debugged in Xamarin Studio. On Windows the x86 version of the .NET Core SDK needs be installed since Xamarin Studio currently cannot debug x64 applications on Windows.

Source Code

The source code for the addin is available on GitHub.

• .NET Core addin source code.

Xamarin Studio and MonoDevelop now have support for ASP.NET 5 and DNX with an alpha release of the DNX addin.

The core part of the addin that communicates with the DNX host is taken directly from OmniSharp and is used mostly unchanged.

Features

• Project templates for console, library and web applications
• Code completion
• Debugger support with Mono 4.3
• NuGet integration
• Solution window integration

Supports

• MonoDevelop and Xamarin Studio 5.9 and later versions.
• ASP.NET 5 RC 1 Update 1 and earlier versions.

Installing ASP.NET 5

ASP.NET 5 needs to be installed separately before using the DNX addin. There are instructions on get.asp.net on how to do this for Mac, Linux and Windows.

Installing the addin

The addin is currently available from MonoDevelop’s Add-in Repository in the alpha channel. In Xamarin Studio open the Add-in Manager and select the Gallery tab. Click the repository drop down and if Xamarin Studio Add-in Repository (Alpha Channel) is not displayed then click Manage Repositories. In the window that opens tick the check box next to Xamarin Studio Add-in Repository (Alpha Channel) and then click the Close button.

Back in the Add-in Manager dialog click the Refresh button to update the list of addins. Use the search text box in the top right hand corner of the dialog to search for the addin by typing in DNX.

Select the DNX addin and then click the Install button.

After installing the DNX addin you will need to restart Xamarin Studio before the project templates will be available in the New Project dialog.

Creating an ASP.NET 5 project

There are three project templates available for ASP.NET 5 in the New Project dialog.

Each of the project templates will create a solution and an .xproj file in the same way as Visual Studio 2015 does. The projects created should be compatible with Visual Studio 2015.

Dependencies

When you create or open an ASP.NET 5 project the NuGet packages it uses will automatically be restored.

In the Solution window the dependencies show a warning icon if they are not resolved and the Dependencies folder shows a message that it is restoring the NuGet packages. Once restored you can expand the Dependencies folder and see the dependency hierarchy.

If the DNX runtime being used by the solution is not installed then an error icon will be displayed next to the Dependencies folder.

Hovering the mouse over the error icon will show more information about the error.

Building

When you build the solution or project any errors and warnings are displayed in the Errors window and in the text editor. No assemblies are generated when you build.

Running

The main toolbar shows the currently selected command and the framework that will be used when the application is run. These are taken from the project.json file.

The screenshot above shows the main toolbar for a web project. There are three entries:

• web
• web DNX 4.5.1
• web DNX Core 5.0

The first entry will run the web command and use the default runtime which will currently be DNX 4.5.1. The last two entries will run the web command but will explicitly run the application with the specified runtime.

Debugging

Thanks to David Karlaš and Zoltan Varga there is support for debugging DNX applications with DNX 4.5.1 if you have Mono 4.3 installed.

Debugging ASP.NET 5 projects with the CoreCLR is not supported on Mac nor on Linux. Debugging ASP.NET 5 projects is not supported at all on Windows.

Adding NuGet Packages

To add a NuGet package to a project you can right click the Dependencies folder in the Solution window and select Add NuGet Packages, or alternatively you can double click the Dependencies folder.

This will open up the Add NuGet Packages dialog. Installing a NuGet package using this dialog will add the NuGet package into the project.json file.

Note that using the Add Packages dialog from the Packages folder will not add the NuGet package into the project.json file and will instead download the package to the packages directory and update the packages.config file.

Adding Dependencies

Dependencies can also be added directly into the project.json file. Currently there is no code completion available in the project.json file but changes to the file are monitored and the Dependencies folder will be updated when items are added or removed. New NuGet package dependencies that are added will automatically be restored if they are missing.

Removing Dependencies

A dependency can be removed by selecting it in the Solution window, right clicking and selecting Remove, or by pressing the delete key.

Changing the active framework

In Visual Studio the active framework can be changed by selecting it from the drop down list at the top of the text editor. Currently using the drop down list at the top of the text editor to change the active framework is not supported in Xamarin Studio. Instead you can right click in the text editor, select Active Framework and then select the framework.

The active framework affects the code completion provided in the text editor. In the screenshot below the active framework has been set to DNX Core and you can see that the DateTime type does not show ToShortDateString in its completion list.

You can also see that the code in the #if DNX451 block is grayed out since it is not used with the currently active framework.

DNX Output

Output from the DNX host and from OmniSharp can be seen in the DNX Output window. This window can be opened by selecting DNX Output from the View menu.

By default only warnings and errors will be displayed in the DNX Output window. To see more or less information you can change the DNX output verbosity in preferences in the DNX – General section.

Known Issues

kqueue() FileSystemWatcher has reached the maximum number of files to watch

When opening a project with many source files, such as AutoFac, you may see the above FileSystemWatcher error message. To resolve this problem you can set the MONO_MANAGED_WATCHER to false:

export MONO_MANAGED_WATCHER=false

Xamarin Studio will need to be run from the command line for this environment variable to be used.

project.json file formatting

When adding or removing dependencies from the Solution window will cause the project.json file to be reformatted differently compared to how Visual Studio 2015 formats the file.

Source Code

The source code for the addin is available on GitHub.

• DNX addin source code.

There is also a separate branch that supports MonoDevelop and Xamarin Studio 6.0.

Xamarin Studio 5.10 was released last week as part of the Xamarin 4 release and it includes changes to the NuGet support.

Changes

• Support NuGet 2.8.7.
• Open readme.txt when a NuGet package is installed.
• Support packages.config file named after the project.
• Local Copy settings are preserved for references when updating packages.
• Do not show Checking for package updates message in status bar.
• Do not show warning in the status bar if a NuGet package has PowerShell scripts.
• Prevent the solution being closed when NuGet packages are being added.
• Removing a NuGet package does not update the Solution window when multiple solutions are open.
• Prevent packages.config file being marked as deleted by Git after updating a pre-release NuGet package.
• Prevent retargeting a NuGet package marking packages.config as deleted by Git.
• Allow Microsoft.ApplicationInsights NuGet package to be installed.
• Support NuGet packages targeting watchOS.
• Package license acceptance (Xamarin Studio 5.10.3)

More information on all the changes in Xamarin Studio 5.10 can be found in the release notes.

NuGet 2.8.7 support

Xamarin Studio now supports NuGet 2.8.7. NuGet 2.8.7 adds support for the Universal App Platform (UAP) target framework to support Windows 10 Application Development.

Open readme.txt when a NuGet package is installed

A NuGet package can contain a readme.txt file which Xamarin Studio will now open and display in the text editor when the NuGet package is installed or updated.

Preserve Local Copy on Updating Packages

The Local Copy setting on an assembly reference will now be preserved when updating a NuGet package or retargeting a NuGet package.

By default Local Copy is set to true for assembly references when installing a NuGet package. If you set Local Copy to false for one or more of these references then this setting will now be preserved when updating or retargeting the NuGet package.

Packages.config file named after project

NuGet supports multiple projects in the same directory each using their own packages.config file. To allow multiple projects in the same directory to each use their own NuGet packages you can name the packages.config file after each project. In the examples below the project filename is on the left and the corresponding packages.config filename is on the right.

• Foo.csproj => packages.Foo.config
• Bar.csproj => packages.Bar.config
• Foo Bar.csproj => packages.Foo_Bar.config

Xamarin Studio now checks for the packages.ProjectName.config file first and will use it if it exists, otherwise it will fall back to the default behaviour and use the packages.config file.

Note that a new project without any NuGet packages will use a packages.config file by default. The basic procedure to enable a project specific packages.config file when creating a new project is:

1. Create new project called Foo.
2. Add a NuGet package to the Foo project.
3. Rename the packages.config file to packages.Foo.config
4. Reload the solution in Xamarin Studio.

Also note that if you remove all the NuGet packages from a project the packages.ProjectName.config file will be deleted and on adding a new NuGet package the default packages.config file will be used.

Do not show Checking for package updates message in status bar

Previously when Xamarin Studio was checking for NuGet package updates a message would appear in the status bar. This status bar message has now been removed since checking for NuGet package updates is a background task and does not prevent Xamarin Studio from being used.

Do not show warning in the status bar if a NuGet package has PowerShell scripts

Previously if a NuGet package was installed and it contained PowerShell scripts then a warning was shown in the status bar. Now this message is only shown in the Package Console window.

Prevent the solution being closed when NuGet packages are being added

A check is now made when Xamarin Studio is closed to see if NuGet packages are still being installed. If this is the case then a dialog will be displayed indicating that it is not currently possible to close Xamarin Studio allowing the NuGet package to finish installing.

Support NuGet packages targeting watchOS

A new Xamarin.WatchOS target framework is now supported which allows NuGet packages to contain assemblies for watchOS.

Package license acceptance

Xamarin Studio 5.10.3 now includes a license acceptance dialog that will be displayed if a NuGet package requires a license to be accepted before it is installed. If the license is declined then the NuGet package will not be installed.

Bug Fixes

Removing a NuGet package does not update the Solution window when multiple solutions are open

With two or more solutions opened at the same time the Packages folder would not be updated for all solutions when a NuGet package was removed. This was because Xamarin Studio was not refreshing the Packages folder for all solutions currently open.

Prevent packages.config file being marked as deleted by Git after updating pre-release NuGet package.

If there was only one pre-release NuGet package installed into a project and then a later version of the NuGet package was installed from the Add Packages dialog then the packages.config file was then being shown as deleted by Git instead of modified.

The packages.config file is deleted by NuGet after the old NuGet package is uninstalled if there are no NuGet packages referenced. A special case to handle this was added in Xamarin Studio 5.3 but that only handled updating a NuGet package from the Solution window. Now updating a pre-release from the Add Packages dialog is also handled.

Retargeting a NuGet package marks packages.config as deleted by Git

This is similar to the previous bug. Retargeting a NuGet package will uninstall and then install the NuGet package. If there is only one NuGet package in the project then the packages.config file is deleted and was causing Git to mark the file as deleted instead of updated.

Unable to install Microsoft.ApplicationInsights NuGet package

Xamarin Studio 5.9.2 added support for NuGet 2.8.5 but it was not possible to install the Microsoft.ApplicationInsights NuGet package into a project. It was possible to install it using Visual Studio with NuGet 2.8.3 or higher installed. The error reported by Xamarin Studio was:

Adding Microsoft.ApplicationInsights...
The 'Microsoft.ApplicationInsights' package requires NuGet client version '2.8.50313' or above, but the current NuGet version is '2.8.5.0'.

Xamarin Studio 5.10 now allows the Microsoft.ApplicationInsights NuGet package to be installed into a project.

A new version of the TypeScript addin for Xamarin Studio and MonoDevelop has been released. The addin is available from MonoDevelop’s Add-in Repository in the alpha channel. More details on how to install the addin can be found in the TypeScript support in Xamarin Studio post.

Changes

• Updated to support TypeScript 1.5.
• Linux 32 bit and 64 bit are now supported with a single addin. Thanks to Christian Bernasko.
• Allow UMD and System modules to be selected in project options.

The separate TypeScript Linux 32 bit addin is now deprecated since the TypeScript addin can now be used on 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Linux.

Bug Fixes

• TypeScript language service host not updated when the project options are changed

For example, switching from ES3 to ES6 in the project options could cause the code completion to be incorrect since the language service host compiler settings were not being updated.

• TypeScript options shown when viewing solution options

The TypeScript options are now only available when the project options are selected.