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https://github.com/michaeled/uisleuth

A Xamarin.Forms Inspector
https://github.com/michaeled/uisleuth

dotnet xamarin xamarin-forms

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A Xamarin.Forms Inspector

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README 

        


  

    

  



  
UI Sleuth



  


    A Xamarin.Forms Inspector

    


    


    Download Desktop Client

    ·

    Download NuGet Package

    ·

    Installation Guide

    ·

    Wiki

  







# What is UI Sleuth?



UI Sleuth is a Xamarin.Forms debugging tool. If you’ve ever made a web site, it’s similar to Microsoft’s F12 tools or Chrome Developer Tools. You can use it to efficiently track down layout issues, prototype a new design, and remotely control a device.



# Screenshots





    

  


    Attached to Android tablet.






    

  


  Inspecting a ViewModel




## Overview



UI Sleuth is composed of two components: the desktop client and the design server. The desktop client communicates with your mobile app via WebSockets and a simple JSON protocol. The .NET library that you reference in your Xamarin.Forms application is a WebSocket server and workflow engine. 



The workflow engine is implemented using a `BlockingCollection` that dispatches incoming messages to listeners, called `Reaction`s. Once a request has been received, its serialized into the appropriate .NET type. Each request type is associated with a reaction. When the corresponding reaction is determined, its instantiated and invoked. The implementing reaction can read the incoming message, perform some behavior, and return a response to the client.



As an example, the following code is used to respond to a screenshot request from the desktop client.



### 1) Define the request and response types (server code)



```

namespace UISleuth.Messages

{

    internal class ScreenShotRequest : Request {}



    internal class ScreenShotResponse : Response

    {

        public byte[] Capture { get; set; }

    }

}

```



### 2) Create a custom reaction class (server code)



```

    internal class ScreenShotReaction : Reaction

    {

        protected override void OnExecute(UIMessageContext ctx)

        {

            var request = ctx.Get();

            if (request == null) return;



            var screenshot = InspectorContainer.Current.Resolve();

            byte[] capture = null;



            Thread.Invoke(() =>

            {

                capture = screenshot.Capture();

            });



            ctx.SetResponse(r =>

            {

                r.Capture = capture;

                r.Suggest();

            });

        }

    }

```



### 3) Associate the request type to the reaction (server code)



```

Reaction.Register();

```



### 4) Request a screenshot via WebSocket (client code)



```

websocket.send("{action: 'ScreenShotRequest'}");

```



The `action` property above matches the C# type name of `ScreenShotRequest`.

Additional parameters can be present in this message. Utility methods exist to easily deserialize these messages into the appropriate .NET objects.



\* _Request types are optional. You may chose to send an OkResponse_



## Why WebSockets?



When this project started, Xamarin.Forms was a UI toolkit for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone apps only. I needed a simple, out of process way to communicate with external emulators and devices. WebSockets just made sense.



Now that we're seeing Xamarin.Forms target WPF, GTK#, and macOS a whole new level of possibilites for UI Sleuth are emerging. Let's imagine your new client wants to communicate with your Xamarin.Forms app via IPC instead of WebSockets for out-of-process communication. That's great; start by extending the `InspectorSocket` type and register it with the DI service.



# Documentation



This project site is a work in progress. 

You can find all the documentation on the [project's Wiki](https://github.com/michaeled/uisleuth/wiki).



[@mykldavis](https://twitter.com/mykldavis)