Daniel Plaisted dsplaisted

(This is in response to the conversation started by this tweet asking why the portable HttpClient package has platform-specific library folders in addition to the portable folder.)

Sometimes in a portable library you want to be able to call APIs that aren't portable. The functionality may be exposed differently on different platforms, or you may want to "light up" and take advantage of functionality on platforms where it's available. Here are some blog posts about how to do this:

Also, see my [PCL Storag

(This is in response to this conversation on Twitter.)

I don't recommend using dynamic or reflection to call platform-specific APIs in most cases. Generally, create an abstraction and then implement it in a platform-specific API. The nice thing about our portable HttpClient package is that we do that for you so you pretty much don't have to worry about it.

WriteStreamBuffering can be disabled on WP8 (but not WP7). When using the latest RC of portable HttpClient 2.2 on WP8, we will disable it automatically for you under certain conditions. I believe those conditions are that you've disabled automatic redirection and authentication. @theesj can confirm that.

Here are some blog posts about calling platform-specific APIs from PCLs:

Using Target-Specific Code in a Portable Library
[How to Make Portable Class Libraries W

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
	<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
	xmlns:local="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
	android:orientation="vertical"
	android:layout_width="fill_parent"
	android:layout_height="fill_parent">
	<TextView
	android:text="Filename"
	android:layout_width="match_parent"
	android:layout_height="wrap_content"

	using System;
	using System.Collections.Generic;
	using System.Linq;
	using System.Text;
	using Ionic.Zip;
	using System.IO;

	namespace ProjectZipper
	{
	class Program

	// An implementation of IPortableTask which wraps an actual Task.
	// This has to go in a project targeting a platform or platforms which support Task and async/await

	using System;
	using System.Threading.Tasks;

	namespace PortableTasks
	{
	public class AsyncPortableTask : IPortableTask
	{