Xamarin.Forms, how to find compatible version of Android Support library with my current Xamarin.Forms

Question

As Xamarin document says it's not possible to update Android Support library to the last version unless Xamarin.Forms supports it, as I can see there is update version 25.1.1 for Android support library, I'm not sure if my Xamarin.Forms accepts it! so how can I find the compatible version to each Xamarin.Forms version?

Answer 1

When using the monoandroid10 framework, Xamarin.Forms is locked to a particular Android Support version but assuming you are targeting framework monoandroid70 / monoandroid71, Xamarin.Forms 2.3.3.193 and up are now locked to a minimun Android Support version only.

• Xamarin.Forms 2.3.3.180 (and prior) = MonoAndroid10 support only

  • Each release was locked to a single Android Support version

  • Android Support version = 23.3.0 (only) (Package dep. range: [23.3.0, 23.3.0])

• Xamarin.Forms 2.3.3.193 = First MonoAndroid70 supported version

  • Minimun Android Support version = 23.3.0 (Package dep. range: [23.3.0, ))

So that means Xamarin.Forms versions 2.3.3.193, 2.3.4.224, 2.3.4.231, & 2.3.5.233-pre1 (latest) you can use Android Support 23.3.0 and above for monoandroid70+.

Note: Xamarin.Forms 2.3.3.193 and newer also support the MonoAndroid10 framework and when used against that framework, each Forms version is still locked to a single Android Support version.

Note: Some future version of Forms will increase the minimum Support level version when the Android-based renderers require newer support features.

As a quick online reference, you can always look at the Nuget dependencies for a particular Forms version

• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xamarin.Forms

Or grab the Nuget v3 packed json and use jq to parse it for the Nuget dependency range (I used to auto-generate/publish a version table, but with the newer frameworks it is not really needed anymore)

curl -s https://api.nuget.org/v3/registration1-gz/xamarin.forms/page/2.3.3.193/2.3.5.233-pre1.json | gunzip | jq '.items | .[0] | .catalogEntry | .dependencyGroups | .[0] | .dependencies | .[0] | .range '

"[23.3.0, )"