Xamarin forms Shell Custom icon for selected tab

Question

I'm playing with the COOL xamarin shell, but I didn't found a way to change icon of the selected tab.

<TabBar Route="sections">
    <Tab Title="home">
        <Tab.Icon>
            <FontImageSource FontFamily="{StaticResource AppIcons}" Glyph="{x:Static framework:Icons.HomePage}" />
        </Tab.Icon>
        <ShellContent ContentTemplate="{DataTemplate home:HomePage}" Route="home" />
    </Tab>

The goal is to use Icons.HomePageFilled instead of Icons.HomePage for this tab only when it's selected. Same logic should apply to other tabs.

I think I got lost in the solutions found on the web. They talk about Custom renderers(ShellTabLayoutAppearanceTracker), Visual states, effects etc ... But I do not know if it is feasible and what is the ideal solution

Answer 1

You need to use custom renderer of shell to customize the tabbar selected icon on each platform.

In iOS, override the CreateTabBarAppearanceTracker method:

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(AppShell), typeof(MyShellRenderer))]
namespace App30.iOS
{
    public class MyShellRenderer : ShellRenderer
    {
        protected override IShellSectionRenderer CreateShellSectionRenderer(ShellSection shellSection)
        {
            var renderer = base.CreateShellSectionRenderer(shellSection);
            if (renderer != null)
            {

            }
            return renderer;
        }

        protected override IShellTabBarAppearanceTracker CreateTabBarAppearanceTracker()
        {
            return new CustomTabbarAppearance();
        }
    }

    public class CustomTabbarAppearance : IShellTabBarAppearanceTracker
    {
        public void Dispose()
        {

        }

        public void ResetAppearance(UITabBarController controller)
        {

        }

        public void SetAppearance(UITabBarController controller, ShellAppearance appearance)
        {
            UITabBar myTabBar = controller.TabBar;

            if (myTabBar.Items != null)
            {
                UITabBarItem itemOne = myTabBar.Items[0];

                itemOne.Image = UIImage.FromBundle("tab_about.png");
                itemOne.SelectedImage = UIImage.FromBundle("tab_feed.png");


                UITabBarItem itemTwo = myTabBar.Items[1];

                itemTwo.Image = UIImage.FromBundle("tab_feed.png");
                itemTwo.SelectedImage = UIImage.FromBundle("tab_about.png");

                //The same logic if you have itemThree, itemFour....
            }

        }

        public void UpdateLayout(UITabBarController controller)
        {

        }
    }
}

In Android, override the CreateBottomNavViewAppearanceTracker method:

[assembly: ExportRenderer(typeof(AppShell), typeof(MyShellRenderer))]
namespace App30.Droid
{
    public class MyShellRenderer : ShellRenderer
    {
        public MyShellRenderer(Context context) : base(context)
        {
        }

        protected override IShellBottomNavViewAppearanceTracker CreateBottomNavViewAppearanceTracker(ShellItem shellItem)
        {
            return new CustomBottomNavAppearance();
        }
    }

    public class CustomBottomNavAppearance : IShellBottomNavViewAppearanceTracker
    {
        public void Dispose()
        {

        }

        public void ResetAppearance(BottomNavigationView bottomView)
        {

        }

        public void SetAppearance(BottomNavigationView bottomView, ShellAppearance appearance)
        {
            IMenu myMenu = bottomView.Menu;

            IMenuItem myItemOne = myMenu.GetItem(0);

            if (myItemOne.IsChecked)
            {
                myItemOne.SetIcon(Resource.Drawable.tab_about);
            }
            else
            {
                myItemOne.SetIcon(Resource.Drawable.tab_feed);
            }

            //The same logic if you have myItemTwo, myItemThree....

        }
    }
}

I uploaded a sample project here and you can check it.