The past two weeks have been an absolute joy to take Michael James’ My StepCounter app for iOS and bring it to Android with C# and Xamarin. I have been quietly working out of my own personal fork trying out the latest Android KitKat sensor and user interface APIs. I ran a very successful beta test with nearly 40 people with great feedback and I am extremely proud to announce that My StepCounter is available today on Google Play! And heck, we even launched a website for the apps: http://mystepcounterapp.com/
Starter Compatible
Xamarin Starter Edition holds a special place in my heart as it allows anyone to try out Xamarin for FREE to build full apps and publish them to the app store! There are some limitations, but I am extremely proud to say that My StepCounter is 100% Starter Compatible just like the iOS version! By leveraging an ADO.NET database and a few other optimizations I have plenty of room to continue to grow the application.
Open Source
I basically put everything on GitHub that I work on and My StepCounter is no different. Michael James’ has officially excepted my pull request to merge Android into his main repo. We have added full documentation, license, support forums, and a whole bunch more awesome. Head over to the main repo at: https://github.com/MichaelJames6/My-StepCounterLearning Experience
I have been documenting my experience this entire time as I have been developing and I have a few more things to cover still as I explore all the new APIs with C#. Here is a recap of what I have blogged about so far:- Project Goals & Using Step Sensors
- Binding Services to Activities
- Make Pretty UIs with fonts & full screen styles
- Animations in Android
- Leveraging an ADO.NET database
- Project Retrospective
A Special Thanks
I have to thank a few people who helped me out with this project:- Jérémie Laval - for some android help and testing. Also he launched an awesome new Android app today called Bikr, you should check it out if you cycle!
- Michael James - for starting My StepCounter!
- All my beta testers!
- Android Design Community - for the awesome UI ideas
- My Translators: Jérémie, PatrikSelin, rasumseeg, jramirezdev, claudiut, d1m0nh, & fsdachs for helping me launch the app with Finnish, German, French, Romanian, and Spanish support! More to come soon, feel free to contribute
I hope you give My StepCounter a try and I would love your feedback! My StepCounter uses the built in step sensor on select devices running Android 4.4+. This means as of today I support 85 devices (20+ are unique)! Here is the full list of supported devices: Nexus 5, G2 Mini, G Pro 2, Vu3, L90, G Flax, G2, K91, Moto X, Secret Up, Secret IP, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Noe 3, Tab Pro 8.4, Galaxy Round, Z2 Table, Z1, Z2, Z2 Ultra, Z1 Compact.
This is a joint release with Jérémie Laval’s Bikr Android app, check it out too!
