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 ( ).
Install Xamarin in Visual Studio. Note that you can use Visual Studio Community, which is free. If you already have Visual Studio installed, you have to add Xamarin support to it.
Install Android Studio to get Android SDK Manager and Android virtual devices.
On macOS, you can develop, build and run fully cross-platform Xamarin applications.
Install Visual Studio for Mac.
(for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.macOS), install Xcode. You will need an Apple ID for installing and signing into Xcode. If you do not already have it, you can create a new one at https://appleid.apple.com.
Install Android Studio to get Android SDK Manager and Android virtual devices.
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
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 .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: