Discussion

I am a developer, trying to get started with Android development on the TC51.
I have been a developper for almost 30 years, primarily using C, C++, Java and C#.
 
My mobile device: Zebra TC51 with Android Marshmallow.
My development environment: Windows 10 with Visual Studio Community 2015 with Xamarin.
 
Here I try to descibe some of the problems encountered while setting up (trying to setup!) a
development environment (Visual Studio Community 2015 w Xamarin).
 
After completing the tutorial on how to setup the development environment, write the first tutorial
scanner application, and deploy it - it turns out that I can compile it, but NOT deploy it to the TC51,
because the mobile device does not show up in Visual Studio. I can only build.
 
Can anyone here help me, with how to deploy apps from VS to TC51?
 
0) What documentation did I use to setup my development environment and first test programn ?
Here is the tutorial I used:
 
    http://techdocs.zebra.com/emdk-for-xamarin/1-0/tutorial/barcodeapitutor…
 
The tutorial caused me to also read:
 
    http://techdocs.zebra.com/emdk-for-xamarin/1-0/guide/vs/setup/
    http://techdocs.zebra.com/emdk-for-xamarin/1-0/guide/newprojectvisualst…
    http://techdocs.zebra.com/emdk-for-xamarin/1-0/guide/component/install/
 
Note that the page /guide/vs/setup/ says:
    "The IDE extension copies support files to the your file system in order to perform tasks such as Device Runtime Install"
The sentence above, is why I tried what I did, in step 4 below.
 
Note that the page /guide/component/install/ contains the text
    Try the Sample included with in Component Sample
With this link:
    http://techdocs.zebra.com/emdk-for-xamarin/1-0/guide/sample/about
But the link does not exist (page not found).
 
 
1) There are faults in the source code of the tutorial.
 
Note that there tutorial does not result in a MainActivity.cs that can compile, it is easy to correct
the errors, that prevents the compile, and I have described how below.
 
The tutorial tells you which template to use for your project (blank android) and to append these two
statements to your using section:
 
    using Symbol.XamarinEMDK;
    using Symbol.XamarinEMDK.Barcode;
 
The initial using section, for a blank android app, in vs2015, has these 3 using statements:
 
    using Android.App;
    using Android.Widget;
    using Android.OS;
 
In order to compile the barcode scanning tutorial you need to ALSO append these three using statements:
 
    using System; // Exception
    using Android.Util; // Log
    using System.Collections.Generic; // IList
 
 
2) The mobile device can not be connected to the develpment environment.
 
This is my most urgent and important problem. I have not been able to solve this.
 
It is not described in detail, which compile settings, I should chose when developing for the TC51 device.
 
It is not described how to get the mobile unit to show up in Visual Studio 2015 with Xamarin.
According to the documentation, it WILL show up, but it never does.
 
When using the TC51 Mobile Support page, there are no downloads related to USB driver:
 
    https://www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/mobile-computers/handheld…
 
If you google for it (tc51 usb driver zebra android), you find this page:
 
  https://www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/software/drivers/android-…
 
The page does not contain a driver for Android Marshmallow, which is the Android version on the TC51.
I assume we can use / need to use the previous driver for Lollipop. So I downloaded and installed it
and rebooted the development PC.
 
Anyways, if I do as told in the tutorial, after installing the USB driver and rebooting, the mobile
unit, still does not show up in visual studio with xamarin.
 
3) EMDK for Xamarin 2.3.0.43 keeps getting removed from the project.
 
After I have already added it by doing the following in the Solution Explorer:
    right-click "Components" -> Edit Components -> Add Xamarin 2.3.0.43
the component sometimes disappears from the project. I have to re-add it. Why?
 
 
4) Does the device need some kind of runtime, to be recognice by VS ?
 
I assumed some kine of runtime on the mobile device was missing.
So, in visual studio, I selected the menu EMDK -> Install Device Runtime. This fails with the following message:
 
    "Your device appears not to be connected. Please connect and try again."
 
I tried MANY MANY times. It never connected with Visual Studio (developer options and USB debugging have been
enabled on the mobile device).
 
Note that the device shows up fine, in windows explorer, so the device IS connected to the operating system.
 
So, what am I missing here?
 
5) Other documentation
If someone can point me to some documentation that better descrives what to do wrt to the Zebra TC51 and  Visual Studio, then pls reply to the thread.