Getting Started with Xamarin Gradient View (SfGradientView)

9 Aug 202310 minutes to read

This section explains the steps required to work with the gradient view 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 SfGradientView reference

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

Method 1: Adding SfGradientView reference from nuget.org

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

Xamarin Forms SfGradientView Nuget reference

NOTE

Install the same version of Syncfusion.Core.XForms NuGet in all the projects.

Method 2: Adding SfGradientView reference from toolbox

Syncfusion also provides Xamarin Toolbox. Using this toolbox, you can drag the SfGradientView 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 SfGradientView assemblies manually from the installed location

If you prefer to manually reference the assemblies instead 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

NOTE

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

IMPORTANT

Starting with v17.1.0.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 SfGradientView.

To use the SfGradientView control inside an application, each platform requires some additional configurations. The configurations vary from platform to platform and is discussed in the following sections:

NOTE

If you are adding the references from toolbox, this step is not needed.

iOS

To launch the SfGradientView in iOS, call the SfGradientViewRenderer.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.Graphics.SfGradientViewRenderer.Init();
    LoadApplication (new App ());
    …
}

Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

You need to initialize the gradient view assemblies in App.xaml.cs in UWP project as demonstrated in the following code samples. This is required to deploy the application with gradient view in Release mode in UWP platform.

// In App.xaml.cs

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

Android

The Android platform does not require any additional configuration to render the gradient view.

Adding Gradient View

The SfGradientView control is configured entirely in C# code or in XAML markup. The SfGradientView supports linear gradient and radial gradient. Each gradient is a collection of gradient stops which used to set colors with different offsets. The following steps explain how to create a SfGradientView and configure its elements.

Adding namespace for referred assemblies

XAML
C#
xmlns:gradient ="clr-namespace:Syncfusion.XForms.Graphics;assembly=Syncfusion.Core.XForms"
using Syncfusion.XForms.Graphics;

Adding Linear Gradient Brush

SfLinearGradientBrush is used to create linear gradient effects.

XAML
C#
<Grid>    
    <gradient:SfGradientView>
        <gradient:SfGradientView.BackgroundBrush>           
            <gradient:SfLinearGradientBrush>                
                <gradient:SfLinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>
                    <gradient:SfGradientStop Color="#2d265b" Offset="0.0" />
                    <gradient:SfGradientStop Color="#b8495c" Offset="1.0" />
                </gradient:SfLinearGradientBrush.GradientStops>                
            </gradient:SfLinearGradientBrush>            
        </gradient:SfGradientView.BackgroundBrush>
    </gradient:SfGradientView>  
</Grid>
using Xamarin.Forms;
using Syncfusion.XForms.Graphics;
using System;

namespace GradientViewGettingStarted
{
    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    { 
        Public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            Grid grid = new Grid();
            SfGradientView gradientView = new SfGradientView();
            SfLinearGradientBrush linearGradientBrush = new SfLinearGradientBrush();
            linearGradientBrush.GradientStops = new GradientStopCollection()
            {
                new SfGradientStop(){Color = Color.FromHex("#2d265b"), Offset=0.0},
                new SfGradientStop(){Color = Color.FromHex("#b8495c"), Offset=1.0},
            };
            gradientView.BackgroundBrush = linearGradientBrush;
            grid.Children.Add(gradientView);
            this.Content = grid;
        }
    }
}

SfGradientView

Adding Radial Gradient Brush

SfRadialGradientBrush is used to create radial gradient effects.

XAML
C#
<Grid>    
    <gradient:SfGradientView>
        <gradient:SfGradientView.BackgroundBrush>           
            <gradient:SfRadialGradientBrush>                
                <gradient:SfRadialGradientBrush.GradientStops>
                    <gradient:SfGradientStop Color="Red" Offset="0.0" />
                    <gradient:SfGradientStop Color="Yellow" Offset="0.5" />
                    <gradient:SfGradientStop Color="LightGreen" Offset="1.0" />
                </gradient:SfRadialGradientBrush.GradientStops>                
            </gradient:SfRadialGradientBrush>            
        </gradient:SfGradientView.BackgroundBrush>
    </gradient:SfGradientView>  
</Grid>
using Xamarin.Forms;
using Syncfusion.XForms.Graphics;
using System;

namespace GradientViewGettingStarted
{
    public partial class MainPage : ContentPage
    { 
        Public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            Grid grid = new Grid();
            SfGradientView gradientView = new SfGradientView();
            SfRadialGradientBrush radialGradientBrush = new SfRadialGradientBrush();
            radialGradientBrush.GradientStops = new GradientStopCollection()
            {
                new SfGradientStop(){Color = Color.Red, Offset=0.0},
                new SfGradientStop(){Color = Color.Yellow, Offset=0.5},
                new SfGradientStop(){Color = Color.LightGreen, Offset=1.0},
            };
            gradientView.BackgroundBrush = radialGradientBrush;
            grid.Children.Add(gradientView);
            this.Content = grid;
        }
    }
}

SfGradientView

You can find the complete getting started sample from this link.