Getting Started With Xamarin AvatarView (SfAvatarView)

28 Sep 20238 minutes to read

Getting started with SfAvatarView

This section explains the steps required to work with the SfAvatarView control for Xamarin.Forms.

Assembly deployment

After installing Essential Studio for Xamarin, you can find all the required assemblies in the installation folders, {Syncfusion Essential Studio Installed location} \Essential Studio\{Version #}\Xamarin\lib.

E.g.: C:\Program Files (x86) \Syncfusion\Essential Studio\19.1.0.54\Xamarin\lib

NOTE

Assemblies can be found in unzipped package location(Documents/Syncfusion/{Version #}/Xamarin/lib) in Mac.

Adding SfAvatarView reference

You can add SfAvatarView reference using one of the following methods:

Method 1: Adding SfAvatarView reference from nuget.org

Syncfusion Xamarin components are available in nuget.org. To add SfAvatarView to your project, open the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio, search for Syncfusion.Xamarin.Core, and then install it.

Xamarin Forms SfAvatarView Nuget reference

NOTE

Install the same version of SfAvatarView NuGet in all the projects.

Method 2: Adding SfAvatarView reference from toolbox

Syncfusion also provides Xamarin Toolbox. Using this toolbox, you can drag the SfAvatarView control to the XAML page. It will automatically install the required NuGet packages and add the namespace to the page. To install Syncfusion Xamarin Toolbox, refer to Toolbox.

Method 3: Adding SfAvatarView assemblies manually from the installed location

If you prefer to manually reference the assemblies instead of referencing from NuGet, add the following assemblies in respective projects.

Location: {Installed location}/{version}/Xamarin/lib

PCL Syncfusion.Core.XForms.dll
Syncfusion.Licensing.dll
Android Syncfusion.Core.XForms.dll
Syncfusion.Core.XForms.Android.dll
Syncfusion.Licensing.dll
iOS Syncfusion.Core.XForms.dll
Syncfusion.Core.XForms.iOS.dll
Syncfusion.Licensing.dll
UWP Syncfusion.Core.XForms.dll
Syncfusion.Core.XForms.UWP.dll
Syncfusion.Licensing.dll
WPF Syncfusion.Core.XForms.dll
Syncfusion.Core.XForms.WPF.dll
Syncfusion.Licensing.dll

NOTE

To know more about obtaining our components, refer to these links for Mac and Windows.

IMPORTANT

Starting with v16.2.0.x, if you reference Syncfusion assemblies from the trial setup or from the NuGet feed, you also have to include a license key in your projects. Please refer to Syncfusion license key to know about registering Syncfusion license key in your Xamarin application to use our components.

Launching an application on each platform with SfAvatarView

To use the SfAvatarView control inside an application, each platform application must initialize the SfAvatarView renderer. This initialization step varies from platform to platform and is discussed in the following sections:

NOTE

If you are adding the references from toolbox, the following steps are not needed.

Android and UWP

The Android and UWP launch the SfAvatarView without any initialization, and it is enough to only initialize the Xamarin.Forms Framework to launch the application.

iOS

To launch the SfAvatarView in iOS, call the SfAvatarView.Init() in the FinishedLaunching overridden method of the AppDelegate class after the Xamarin.Forms Framework has been initialized and before the LoadApplication is called as demonstrated in the following code example.

public override bool FinishedLaunching(UIApplication app, NSDictionary options)
{
    …
    global::Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init ();
    Syncfusion.XForms.iOS.Core.SfAvatarViewRenderer.Init();
    LoadApplication (new App ());
    …
}

Release mode issue in UWP platform

The known Framework issue in UWP platform is that the custom controls will not be rendered when deploying an application in Release Mode. It can be resolved by initializing the SfBorder assemblies in the App.xaml.cs file in the UWP project as demonstrated in the following code example.

// In App.xaml.cs

protected override void OnLaunched(LaunchActivatedEventArgs e)
    {
        …
    	    rootFrame.NavigationFailed += OnNavigationFailed;
    
        // You will need to add `using System.Reflection;`
        List<Assembly> assembliesToInclude = new List<Assembly>();
    
        //Now, add all the assemblies your app uses                 
        assembliesToInclude.Add(typeof(SfBorderRenderer).GetTypeInfo().Assembly);
    
        // Replaces Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(e);        
        Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(e, assembliesToInclude);	
        …     
    }

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

To launch the border in WPF, call the SfBorderRenderer.Init() method in the MainWindow constructor of the MainWindow class after the Xamarin.Forms framework has been initialized and before the LoadApplication method is called as demonstrated in the following code sample.

  • C#
    • public partial class MainWindow : FormsApplicationPage
{
     public MainWindow()
     { 
            InitializeComponent();

            Forms.Init();

            Syncfusion.XForms.WPF.Border.SfBorderRenderer.Init();

            LoadApplication(new App());
     }
}

    Creating an SfAvatarView control

    The SfAvatarView control is configured entirely in C# or in XAML. The following steps explain how to create an SfAvatarView control and configure its elements.

    Adding namespace for referred assemblies

    xmlns:sfavatar="clr-namespace:Syncfusion.XForms.AvatarView;assembly=Syncfusion.Core.XForms"
    using Syncfusion.XForms.AvatarView;

    Adding the SfAvatarView control as the content of ContentPage

    You can add a custom image for displaying in SfAvatarView using the ImageSource property.

    <ContentPage.Content>
<Grid>
    <sfavatar:SfAvatarView ContentType="Custom"
                           ImageSource="alex.png"
                           VerticalOptions="Center"
                           HorizontalOptions="Center"   
                           HeightRequest="50"
                           CornerRadius="25"
                           WidthRequest="50" />
 </Grid>
 </ContentPage.Content>
    using System;
using Syncfusion.XForms.AvatarView;
using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace AvatarViewGettingStarted
{
    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            
	        //main grid
            Grid mainGrid = new Grid();

            // Create an SfAvatarView control.
            SfAvatarView avatarview = new SfAvatarView();
            avatarview.VerticalOptions = LayoutOptions.Center;
            avatarview.HorizontalOptions = LayoutOptions.Center;
            avatarview.BackgroundColor = Color.FromHex("#ffb6c1");
            avatarview.ContentType = ContentType.Custom;
            avatarview.ImageSource = "alex.png";
            avatarview.WidthRequest = 50;
            avatarview.HeightRequest = 50;
            avatarview.CornerRadius = 25;


            mainGrid.Children.Add(avatarview);
            this.Content = mainGrid;
        }
    }
}

    SfAvatarView

    The Getting Started sample is available in this following link: Getting Started.