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POXamarin & Visual Studio, Windows Phone & ASP.NET: Is a true single class library possible?
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copied!<p>I've currently built a service layer and API which I'm consuming from an ASP.NET website, Windows Phone app, and a Windows 8 metro app - the key to all of them being a project containing model classes which is a portable class library project, and is shared as a reference between all of them. This architecture works fine and without any issues.</p> <p>However, I've recently started experimenting with Xamarin - specifically the iOS functionality (with a view to moving onto Android later). My initial assumption was that I would be able to utilise this model library as I do with the other projects - however, I've since realised this this isn't the case. </p> <p>When I first added a reference to my model class library to my Xamarin.iOS project (in Visual Studio), I was greeted by the error:</p> <p>'The current project does not support references to Portable Library projects'. </p> <p>Strange - as I thought this would be a scenario that would be supported. I found a post <a href="http://slodge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/xamarinios-with-mvvmcross-in-vs2012.html">here</a> which suggested a fix that forced Visual Studio to detec the Monotouch (Xamarin) framework as supporting Portable Library Projects. Seemed to be exactly what I needed - but no. When I added the reference again, I was greeted by a different error:</p> <p>'The current project's target framework is not compatible with that of the Portable Library project'. </p> <p>And it suggests I change the target framework in the project properties. Except I can't, as the Xamarin iOS project needs to support Monotouch (and I can't change it to anything else from the GUI anyway). So I tried to change the model library's properties instead - maybe I can do something there. And it looked like I could. I can check Monotouch (Xamarin) as a supported platform here (where Windows phone, Windows store, etc are already checked), but it won't let me save. It just shows the message:</p> <p>'There is no additional functionality that is supported by the target frameworks you have selected'</p> <p>After some research, I discovered that the only way Xamarin suggest to share code is to use separate projects with linked code files (so in effect, a pseudo-single code base. Which I have tried and works - but it seems a hack. See here:</p> <p><a href="http://docs.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/building_cross_platform_applications/sharing_code_options">http://docs.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/building_cross_platform_applications/sharing_code_options</a></p> <p>So is this the only option? Or is there any way to have a <em>true</em> single class (model) library across all platforms, including Microsoft and Xamarin?</p>

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