Xamarin: Tutorial - Page 10

Saving Application State

Application.Properties is a dictionary of string keys and object values used for storing application data. This example uses MVVM.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--MainPageXaml.xaml-->
<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
		xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
		xmlns:local="clr-namespace:HelloXamarinForms"
		x:Class="HelloXamarinForms.MainPageXaml">

	<ContentPage.Padding>
		<OnPlatform x:TypeArguments="Thickness" iOS="20" Android="20, 0, 20, 20" />
	</ContentPage.Padding>

	<StackLayout>
		<Entry x:Name="entry"
					Text="{Binding EntryText}"
					Keyboard="Text"
					Placeholder="text that persists" />
		<Slider x:Name="slider"
					 Value="{Binding SliderValue}" />
	</StackLayout>
	
</ContentPage>

// MainPageXaml.xaml.cs
using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace HelloXamarinForms
{
	public partial class MainPageXaml : ContentPage
	{
		public MainPageXaml()
		{
			InitializeComponent();
		}
	}
}

// ViewModel.cs
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace HelloXamarinForms
{
	class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
	{
		private string entryText;
		public string EntryText
		{
			get
			{
				return entryText;
			}
			set
			{
				if (value == entryText)
					return;
				entryText = value;
				OnPropertyChanged(nameof(EntryText));
			}
		}

		private double sliderValue;
		public double SliderValue
		{
			get
			{
				return sliderValue;
			}
			set
			{
				if (value == sliderValue)
					return;
				sliderValue = value;
				OnPropertyChanged(nameof(SliderValue));
			}
		}

		public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
		void OnPropertyChanged(string propName)
		{
			PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propName));
		}
	}
}

// App.xaml.cs
using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace HelloXamarinForms
{
	public partial class App : Application
	{
		public App()
		{
			InitializeComponent();

			ViewModel viewModel = new ViewModel();

			if(Properties.ContainsKey("EntryText"))
			{
				viewModel.EntryText = (string)Properties["EntryText"];
			}
			if (Properties.ContainsKey("SliderValue"))
			{
				viewModel.SliderValue = (double)Properties["SliderValue"];
			}
			MainPage = new MainPageXaml()
			{
				BindingContext = viewModel
			};
		}

		protected override void OnStart()
		{
			// Handle when your app starts
		}

		protected override void OnSleep()
		{
			// Handle when your app sleeps
			ViewModel viewModel = (ViewModel)((MainPageXaml)MainPage).BindingContext;
			Properties["EntryText"] = viewModel.EntryText;
			Properties["SliderValue"] = viewModel.SliderValue;
		}

		protected override void OnResume()
		{
			// Handle when your app resumes
		}
	}
}

A Better Way: Serialization

Only two code files need to be modified to use XML serialization.

// ViewModel.cs
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.IO;

namespace HelloXamarinForms
{
	public class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
	{
		private string entryText;
		public string EntryText
		{
			get
			{
				return entryText;
			}
			set
			{
				if (value == entryText)
					return;
				entryText = value;
				OnPropertyChanged(nameof(EntryText));
			}
		}

		private double sliderValue;
		public double SliderValue
		{
			get
			{
				return sliderValue;
			}
			set
			{
				if (value == sliderValue)
					return;
				sliderValue = value;
				OnPropertyChanged(nameof(SliderValue));
			}
		}

		public string Serialize()
		{
			XmlSerializer xmlSerial = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ViewModel));
			using (StringWriter strWriter = new StringWriter())
			{
				xmlSerial.Serialize(strWriter, this);
				return strWriter.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
			}
		}

		public static ViewModel Deserialize(string xmlString)
		{
			XmlSerializer xmlSerial = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ViewModel));
			using (StringReader strReader = new StringReader(xmlString))
			{
				return (ViewModel)xmlSerial.Deserialize(strReader);
			}
		}

		public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
		void OnPropertyChanged(string propName)
		{
			PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propName));
		}
	}
}

// App.xaml.cs
using Xamarin.Forms;

namespace HelloXamarinForms
{
	public partial class App : Application
	{
		public App()
		{
			InitializeComponent();

			ViewModel viewModel;

			if (Properties.ContainsKey(nameof(ViewModel)))
			{
				viewModel = ViewModel.Deserialize((string)Properties[nameof(ViewModel)]);
			}
			else
			{
				viewModel = new ViewModel();
			}
			MainPage = new MainPageXaml()
			{
				BindingContext = viewModel
			};
		}

		protected override void OnStart()
		{
			// Handle when your app starts
		}

		protected override void OnSleep()
		{
			// Handle when your app sleeps
			ViewModel viewModel = (ViewModel)((MainPageXaml)MainPage).BindingContext;
			Properties[nameof(ViewModel)] = viewModel.Serialize();
		}

		protected override void OnResume()
		{
			// Handle when your app resumes
		}
	}
}

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