We're excited to have you enrolled. Please read through this page, as it has lots of important things to be aware of.
All the classes and labs of Xamarin University are based on the Xamarin version available in the Alpha Channel, since the iOS portion uses the fantastic Xamarin iOS Designer. You can do all the class labs using either your own installs, or you can use the Virtual Machines provided below. If you want to use your own install, see the guide on changing your update channel.
If you're doing the iOS or Cross-platform portion of the course, you must have an Apple Computer running Mac OS X. This is both a legal and technical requirement. Apple requires that iOS Developers do their development on a Mac, and Xamarin uses the Xcode build chain to create native iOS packages.
Additionally, Xamarin University has a number of corporate-focused classes that require at least the Business tier of Xamarin products. For the Fundamentals Course, Indie level is sufficient for everything except for development in Visual Studio and the WCF portion of the Intro to Web Services Class. If you're not subscribed to the Business tier, you can start a trial by following the instructions here
For performance and productivity reasons, we recommend doing the Xamarin University classes on your own machine/install, however, if you'd like to use a VM, for instance, if you want to stay on the Stable channel in your primary development environment, we've created two Virtual Machine images that have Xamarin all installed and ready to go. You can download them from the following links:
This image requires the free VMWare Player that can be downloaded from from here. There are two files you will need:
- [Xamarin.Android.vmx](https://s3.amazonaws.com/xamarin-download/XamarinUniversity/Xamarin.Android VM/Xamarin.Android.vmx)
- Xamarin.Android.vmdk Disk Image
The disk image is quite large (22G) and must be placed in the same directory as the .vmx file. If you have a slow Internet connection but more disk space available, you can download a 7zipped version of the disk image from here. Then unzip the file to get the full disk image. To run the VM, make sure you have VMWare or the free VMWare player installed and then double-click on the .vmx file you downloaded.
This image requires the free Virtual Box software to run - you can download Virtual Box from here. The disk image itself is in VMWare format so you can move it to a VMWare product or convert it to Parallels fairly easily if you already own one of those tools. Keep in mind that Apple requires any virtualized OSX system be run on Apple hardware and most VM software tools will require this.
There are two files you will need:
- [Xamarin_iOS.vbox](https://s3.amazonaws.com/xamarin-download/XamarinUniversity/Xamarin.iOS VM/Xamarin.iOS.vbox)
- Xamarin_ios.vmdk
The disk image is quite large (22G) and must be placed in the same directory as the .vbx file. If you have a slow Internet connection but more disk space available, you can download a 7zipped version of the disk image from here. Then unzip the file to get the full disk image. To run the VM, make sure you have VirtualBox installed and then double-click on the .vbox file you downloaded.
Due to the interactive nature of the Xamarin University classes, you will not be allowed to participate in a class if you don't have your development environment setup and configured correctly. Before class, make sure that you're on the alpha channel and you can build and deploy TaskyPro to the Android Emulator and the iOS Simulator.
If you have any issue with installation, let us know at [email protected] and we'll setup a session with a trainer to get it resolved.
You can find the current Class Catalog here. Check this often, we'll be adding many more.
The class schedule can be found at university.xamarin.com/classes. We'll be posting the schedule week by week, and adding new classes all the time, so check back often for class updates. Please note that there are a lot of other links on that site, but none of them are relevant to Xamarin University. You will find all the updated content and information here.
Note: You will need a Xamarin Single Sign On (SSO) account to access the class schedule and register for classes. If you already have a store.xamarin.com or forums.xamarin account (both are SSO sites), then you're good to go, but if you haven't yet created one, you can do so here.
All class materials for Xamarin University will be posted in the course_materials directory, categorized by course. Check back often, we'll be posting new class materials daily.
Say 'hi' to your fellow Xamarin University Classmates, talk about classes, labs, whatever, over at Xamarin University Forum! They're also staffed by your Xamarin University Professors, so don't forget to say hi to them as well! If you don't have access to the forum, email your forum account name to [email protected] and we'll add you right away!
Don't forget your 1 on 1 hours! Send an email to [email protected] to get them scheduled. Include some preferred times on different days, and we'll get them scheduled. We'll be starting the 1 on 1 sessions on January 27th.
For a list of common troubleshooting issues with Xamarin University, click here.