Xamarin Test Cloud Tips&Tricks 2#: Deeplinking test

In my previous post I introduced Xamarin UI Test (XUT) and Xamarin Test Cloud (XTC).

This article we will know how easy it is to test deeplinking capabilities in XTC !

Xamarin Test Cloud Tips&Tricks #1: Twitter TweetCeption

For about a year now I’ve been leading our mobile UI automated tests unit in Xpand-IT leveraging Xamarin Test Cloud, researching and developing mobile UI tests for clients. We came a long way since then, strengthening our relationship with Xamarin by becoming one of the few Xamarin Test Cloud Consulting Partner worldwide (after our Xamarin Premier Consulting Partner mark) and providing tests development services and Xamarin Test Cloud subscription alternatives to the market. Does it show how proud I am of our work? 🙂

Today I’m taking the oportunity to share some Xamarin UI Test / Xamarin Test Cloud knowledge, following Xamarin Evolve 2016 contest. In this article you’ll see how we can automate any Android app (we’ll use Twitter)!

Help, can’t connect my IDE to Xamarin / Genymotion Android Emulator!!1!

Hey, you, yes you, desperate developer, who’s using Genymotion, Xamarin Android Player or something similar, that was just working but now you can’t connect your IDE to it for no apparent reason, have you experience one of the following problems?

adb server is out of date. killing...
* daemon started successfully *

(Exception in IDE) Timeout waiting for device

(Exception in IDE) Can't find devices

If your answer is yes to any of the above (or similar), then brace yourself, for 0.00€ you’ll have your problem solved, that’s correct, 0.00€, no credit card required AND, if you do this in the next 5 minutes, you won’t just stop being desperate but, you’ll be overall awesome instead ! (i.e., until you compile your program and find a bucket full of errors)

After struggling with this for days I found the source of the problem, it all comes down to updates! Momma always said, “Life is a box of updates, you never know what you gonna get“.

How to: Downgrade Visual Studio 2013 and 2012 Ultimate to Premium

Today I had the need to downgrade my Visual Studio 2013 license, due to the Ultimate one expiration. This never crossed my mind before but one would figure it would be similar to the Windows 8 process in which the features are key dependent, well, one (like me) would be wrong. You’ll need to install the Premium version all over.

Problem

Even if you uninstall the Ultimate version and afterwards install the Premium, when you run the app the Ultimate licence will be presented. Didn’t I just uinstalled it? Yes you have (well, at least I suppose) so, wheres the catch?

Solution

Update: Xna for VS2012 and VS2013

Codeplex is yet again the home of another unofficial project that promises to further develop XNA, you can access the repository here: MSXNA.

I don’t know if this is feasible from a legal point of view but, at least they have already uploaded XNA support for Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2013, which you can download here, at your own risk.

As I haven’t tried it yet, feel free to comment here with your feedback!

Unreal Engine 4 and the best Christmas Card ever!

I’ve been using Unreal Engine 4 for some time now, which by the way, I’m positive is going to be the best game development tool out there, you just can’t go wrong with Epic, it’s going to be legen…. Wait for it… !

Having the opportunity to shape this amazing tool and learn a lot in the process is great but, last week I received one of the best perks of being in this great program: A Christmas card, A3 size, signed by Epic Games CEO himself, Sir Tim Sweeney!

Thanks for the card Tim, hope family’s great, all of me here wish you and Epic a great year, ta ta !

Know Your Onions: Hardlinks, Symbolic links and whatnot

I’ve written my second article for GameDevelopment Tuts+, edited by Michael Williams, Workflow Tip: How to Keep Files in Two Places at Once !

In this article I explain what are hard links, symbolic links and junctions, showcasing some useful applications, for instance, how to have your Unreal Development Kit (UDK) 3 project backed up in Dropbox and how to organize your music library by artist, dealing with the VA musics that should be in multiple folders, without extra space usage.

Image icon by P. J. Onori.

Achievement Unlocked: C# Expert, they say?

I’m fortunate enough to say that I have passed the first exam required for my Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) certification, exam 70-483 Programing in C#! I always looked forward to do this but never actually thought of it as something reachable in a short-term.

Whats next? Essentials of Developing Windows Store Apps Using C# next month or so, 2014 is going to be another great year !

Meditation and introspection

And a new year begins, isn’t that great? For me it’s just “another day” but, I try to always take some time to meditate about the past, recent events and what I want to achieve in the future, in my opinion this is something people should start doing with more often and I, for one, am in that group so, meditating on this in the beguining of the year is my way of filling that gap.

In retrospective, 2013 was a year full of extreme ups and downs for me: came home after 3 years abroad studying; got my first job in my field of expertise; went to Barcelona for the first time with my girlfriend (and loved it); one of my dearest friends – a brother – passed away; and other as important that I choose to keep private. Intense, was the first word that came into my mind while trying to describe it.

This year, I have a lot of professional goals that I want to achieve, earn a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer certification, *try to post more often*, finish my college degree, learn more, travel more, know more,… And by the end of it, I want to do this exact same retrospective and feel like it was just another great year.

I wish you all a great 2014 full of achievements, knowledge and love !

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog, loved the work they did on this so, I’m sharing it with you.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 40,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Eclipse IDE dark theme

One of the most things I love about Visual Studio and Sublime Text for that matter is how great they look, I’m an advocate that if you are going to look at something for long periods of time, at least look at something that visually pleases you and doesn’t make you go “D’OH” every time you loose your focus and realize what you’re working with. And then comes their ugly cousin, Eclipse.