I want to embed mono into my iOS application. I do not want to use MonoTouch. I want to embed mono manually like this:
http://www.mono-project.com/Embedding_Mono
I've have done this successfully on windows, using the above guide and various online examples, here's a good Windows one:
https://github.com/inkdev/Embedded-Mono-Sample
However I'm having trouble getting started on iOS. I know it can be done, companies like Unity3d use it to power their game engine tech. I can't work out how to compile and link mono for iOS nor can I find any good instructions to do so. I've not found any help using search engines, they exclusively seem to turn up articles about MonoTouch (Xamarin's own commercial wrapper around embedding mono into iOS).
Here's a few more noteworthy links:
http://www.mono-project.com/Mono:ARM
http://web.archive.org/web/20090106023130/http://mono-project.com./Mono:Iphone
Is there somewhere I can get precompiled libraries and headers for Mono for iOS, so in my C code I can simply link and include?
Could someone provide and example of how to compile mono for iOS ARM CPUs?
MonoTouch provides a great wrapper around all of the iOS Objective C APIs, however you don't necessarily need all of that, as I understand it should be possible to compile and then embed mono yourself and then use pInvoke to call the few native functions you will need.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, ty!
While not exactly what you are asking for, iOS 7 has added support for scripting with JavaScript. Many people finding this post may want to use this new capability to achieve what you are attempting. Link
As Rolf said, you need to read Mono Licensing document first. Embedding mono on iOS requires special permission from Xamarin.
You need to change several build settings from XCode, and here's what I did.
Open (or Create) iOS project
Add libmonoboehm-2.0.a to your project(You can use another version of .a file)
It's in Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/{version}/lib folder
Project -> Build Settings -> Header Search
Add path: /Library/Frameworks/Mono.frameworks/Versions/{version}/include/mono-2.0
Project -> Build Settings -> Library Search
Add path: /Library/Frameworks/Mono.frameworks/Versions/{version}/lib
And, code like this in your iOS application
#include <mono/jit/jit.h>
#include <mono/metadata/mono-config.h>
#include <mono/metadata/assembly.h>
#include <mono/metadata/environment.h>
// ....
const char* dllFile = "ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_DLL_OR_EXE";
domain = mono_jit_init(dllFile);
mAssembly = mono_domain_assembly_open(domain, dllFile);
// ... Do whatever you want :)
Please remember. You need to get license from Xamarin when embedding mono on iOS.
Enjoy :)
Related
We are searching best ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Reader/Recognition) for Xamarin.Forms. I have already gone through AnyLine and OpenAlpr.
AnyLine seems to be high cost, based on image capture counts.
Regarding OpenAlpr we have a workable solution for Xcode (IOS) and also Xamarin.Android.
The real problem is we couldn't bind the existing xcode project into xamarin.IOS using the sharpie tool (we tried sharpie for some other project, that works fine). Then we realized, that we can't create static library in xcode using an existing framework(openalpr.framework) files.
My question are,
Can we create static library using .framework file? please explain.
Else, Is there any other ANPR tools already available for Xamarin.Forms of Xamarin.IOS?
MicroFocus IDOL has an excellent ANPR Solution which can be accessed via REST APIs. The product is called Media Server.
https://www.microfocus.com/media/flyer/fast_and_comprehensive_vehicle_identification_flyer.pdf
I am needing to use the widevine api in an ios app written in xamarin. From what I understand I need to make a wrapper for the library and such, but I have no idea where to start. Can anyone either explain in more detail what to do, or point me somewhere that explains it well?
Thanks, I am quite new to Xamarin, and rusty on C#
You definitely want to follow Jason's comment. In short, you need the .a (fat library) and the header files and then create a Xamarin.iOS binding project that exposes the native interface to C#. Access to the source code is not necessary.
I am working on a project using Mono for Android. After reading a cross-platform document with Xamarin. I had my data layer in a separate project and was going to move it to my Mono for Android project and then link those files to my Mono Touch project, and one day perhaps a Windows Phone 8 project.
When I moved the code, I am now unable to compile because of the System.Xml.Linq reference. The reference shows in the Mono for Android project, but I am unable to use it. I thought aiming for Froyo may be the problem, but upgrading the project to Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich didn't help.
Does anybody know what I am doing wrong? I am a seasoned .NET developer and am well aware of how references work in project, but this one has me stumped.
The project the original code was working on was targeting the Mono/.NET 4 framework
Is your reference to System.Xml.Linq pointing to the .Net version or the Mono version? The one for Mono will have Version 2.0.5.0.
Also, is the reference to System.Xml.Linq in a Android Class Library/Application or in a regular .Net Class library. If it is a .Net Class library, I would try referencing the library in your Android application as a compiled (dll) reference and not a project reference. It is not a perfect solution, but I have found that this works when I needed to reference libraries that I use across multiple solutions. The reference will generally work out fine, but if there is anything that is not supported in the Mono version, then it can cause issues.
Assuming you have your code in a class library, your best bet may be to create a Mono specific version of your library project. You can import and use the same class files, but just add some Conditional compilation symbols to have it compile properly for Mono. If you are not familiar with this, take a look at how Json.Net or ServiceStack manages code for multiple platforms.
For one of my current iOS project, some business logic has been provided to me through a DLL and Native C++ binding code that i have to recompile in a dynamic library (dylib) and then use the DLL through this dynamic library.
Finally the DLL is used like this example:
int main(int argc, char** argv){
RTEnvironnement::CreateRTEnvironnement("../dll/RT.dll");
RT::RT_Facade * mFacade = new RT::RT_Facade();
RT::RT_Data_Projet * mProjet = new RT::RT_Data_Projet();
mProjet->Load_From_XMLFile(argv[1]);
...
Objects RTEnvironnement, RT_Facade, RT_Data_Projet are provided by the binding C++ dynamic lib. I cannot get the code of the base DLL and i have to use the DLL as it is on IOS.
I'm currently studying if mono touch can able my IOS app (basic iOS Objective C based on Xcode ), to launch the DLL that as been build with the standard mono framework. Before purchasing a license, I have to be sure that MonoTouch is able to do this.
Is someone do something similar ? Is there a simplest way to this ?
If i choose to use MonoTouch, can i keep my project in Xcode and just build the dylib in MonoDevelop and then import the lib the Xcode project ?
Thanks for your help.
the DLL that as been build with the standard mono framework.
MonoTouch (like Mono for Android) provide a base class library (BCL) profile that is similar (a superset) to Silverlight. However it's a subset of the whole Mono framework.
As such it's very common that assemblies compiled against the full framework won't work on MonoTouch unless they are re-compiled (against the MonoTouch BCL).
If i choose to use MonoTouch, can i keep my project in Xcode and just build the dylib in MonoDevelop and then import the lib the Xcode project ?
It's more complicated than that (e.g. MonoDevelop won't give you a .dylib). You might be able to google some instructions to do this, however be aware that this scenario is unsupported.
An supported alternative is to make MonoTouch drive the application, load any assemblies you need, expose those and then transfer control to your Objective-C code.
I'm working on a new app using MonoTouch and I'd like to store data in AWS.
I saw there is an AWS.net library available from Amazon, but I don't know if I can use it with my MonoTouch app. Can I?
standard .NET binaries won't work, per FAQ: http://monotouch.net/FAQ (Can I use standard desktop Mono assemblies or .NET assemblies with MonoTouch?).
Edited: All you need to do is rebuild the source code with Mono's C# compiler
I think the better option is to use the AWS SDK for iOS and write bindings to the Obj-c library. There are examples out there of how to write bindings if you just do a search for it. It probably isn't the quick solution you were hoping for but you probably don't want to use the SDK for .NET anyway as it probably wasn't intended to be used on the iPhone.
If you do end up writing bindings for it, please post it on github for everyone else to use. Solve once for many, right? :)
For standard upload of files from monotouch to S3 I used this Library ,
recompiled in MonoDevelop using MonoTouch Library Template and done ( use System.Web.Services instead of System.Web ).
Recompile AWS for monotouch has to be really difficult because of the heavy use of System.Web and IOrderedDictionary ( ThirdParty Libraries ).
I just built the AWS SDK for Monotouch/Mono for Android. I had to modify some files and add some classes from the current Mono release.
GitHub repo is located here:
https://github.com/fr500/aws_sdk_monotouch_monodroid
It's my first attempt at this, and it's working but I don't know if my approach is correct. Any help will be appreciated