Understanding UI for Xamarin and Linker Behavior
Environment
| Platform | Version |
|---|---|
| Xamarin.Forms | Any |
| Xamarin.iOS | Any |
| Xamarin.Android | Any |
Description
When Xamarin.iOS or Xamarin.Android linker is set to Link All, Telerik code is being stripped out causing errors or run-time exceptions.
Solution
As the linker is a static tool, it can not plan for or include types and methods that are called through reflection, or dynamically instantiated. In short, if that type is not explicitly referenced in your project code, it will get removed by the linker.
You can take one of two options to resolve this:
Option 1 - Change Linker Behavior
This is our recommended approach. Change the linker behavior to strip out SDK assemblies only:
- On Android, change the linker to SDK Assemblies Only
- On iOS, change the setting to Link Framework SDKs Only
Option 2 - Define Skip Assemblies
If you must set the linker behavior to Link All, you can instruct the linker to skip certain assemblies. In this list, you can included any Telerik assemblies that is causing your errors.
Xamarin.Android
For Xamarin.Android you can directly enter the assembly names into the Properties > Android Options tab's Skip Linking assemblies text box.
Alternatively, you can edit the csproj file and add the PropertyGroup manually:
<PropertyGroup>
<AndroidLinkSkip>assemblyName1;assemblyName2</AndroidLinkSkip>
</PropertyGroup>
Xamarin.iOS
For Xamarin.iOS, you need to pass a --linkskip argument in the Properties > iOS Build tab's Additional mtouch arguments text box..
--linkskip assemblyName1 --linkskip assemblyName2
Example
For example, if you're getting a Missing Method Exception for Telerik.XamarinForms.Common.SomeMethod(), you can instruct the linker to skip that Common assembly.
On iOS it would look like this:
--linkskip Telerik.XamarinForms.Common
On Android, it would look like this:
<PropertyGroup>
<AndroidLinkSkip>Telerik.XamarinForms.Common</AndroidLinkSkip>
</PropertyGroup>
Resources
For more settings and to gain an better understanding of what the linker does, visit the following documentation articles: