JetBrains Rider 2018.2 Help

Xamarin

JetBrains Rider supports creating and working with Xamarin applications for both Android and iOS. Although currently JetBrains Rider does not provide a designer or a previewer for Xamarin forms, you can still benefit from code analysis, coding assistance, and debugging features in C#, VB.NET, and other languages, as well as from general IDE features, such as the integrated VCS client.

If other tools that Xamarin relies on (e.g. Android SDK, Android Emulator) are configured properly, you will be able to build and run your Xamarin application right from the JetBrains Rider IDE.

Before you start

Xamarin aims to be executed on a variety of different platforms and therefore Xamarin development relies on several different tools for building and running the applications.

On Windows, you can develop Xamarin applications for any platform, but local build and run/debug is limited to Android devices and emulators. To build and run your application on iOS and macOS, you will need to configure a Mac agent accessible on the network, and then connect to it (Tools | iOS | Xamarin Mac Agent).

On macOS, you can develop, build and run fully cross-platform Xamarin applications.

Although Xamarin.Android on Linux is officially unsupported, it is still possible to manually install Xamarin.Android and configure JetBrains Rider so that it can build and run Xamarin.Android apps on Linux.
There is an article on our support site that describes the details.

Creating and opening Xamarin projects

JetBrains Rider supports creating new and working with existing projects. Project templates are available, too.

You can create a new Xamarin project in a new solution using File | New... or add a new Xamarin project to the existing solution by right-clicking the solution or solution folder node in the Solution Explorer, and choosing Add | New Project.

JetBrains Rider: New Solution wizard. Xamarin

Running and debugging Xamarin applications

When you create or open a Xamarin project, JetBrains Rider automatically creates run/debug configurations for each Xamarin project in the solution.

If you want to adjust something in the way your application starts and executes, you can edit and create new run/debug configurations. When you start a Xamarin application from the IDE, you can use the corresponding selector on the navigation bar to choose which configuration should be used:

JetBrains Rider: Choosing a run/debug configuration for Xamarin application
Last modified: 21 December 2018

See Also