Brand new to Xamarin forms here and trying to get started with cross-platform applications using the package. However, right out of the gate, I seem to encounter a problem that was asked several times elsewhere, but in fact I did not see a real answer. I am currently trying to work with the UWP / Universal Windows / Windows 10 user interface in portable form / PCL settings.
Cannot instantiate WindowsPage error message in Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Xaml Designer. I follow the guide at https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/xamarin-forms/platform-features/windows/installation/universal/ , so I added a line for "xmlns: forms =" using: Xamarin.Forms.Platform .UWP "xaml file before changing the page tag from page to forms: WindowsPage, thus referring to the xamarin forms package. I updated all NuGet packages to the latest version. Xamarin formats are something like 2.2 at the moment.
I initially set the default values for the Xamarin VS2015 package, and I just tried to change this setting with every additional component, so I don't think there is anything missing. I believe that Xamarin is installed correctly, as it appears in the Help → Xamarin menu, and I can select new solutions from the Xamarin forms package, but I'm not sure what might cause the problem.
Here is the XAML code
<forms:WindowsPage
x:Class="SoloPathfinderPCL.UWP.MainPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:forms="using:Xamarin.Forms.Platform.UWP"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:SoloPathfinderPCL.UWP"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d">
</forms:WindowsPage>
Here's my stack trace for an exception: cannot create an instance of "WindowsPage".
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.Platform.InstanceBuilders.InstanceBuilderOperations.InstantiateType(Type type, Boolean supportInternal)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.Platform.InstanceBuilders.ClrObjectInstanceBuilder.InstantiateTargetType(IInstanceBuilderContext context, ViewNode viewNode)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.Platform.InstanceBuilders.ClrObjectInstanceBuilder.Instantiate(IInstanceBuilderContext context, ViewNode viewNode)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.WindowsXamlDesigner.InstanceBuilders.FrameworkElementInstanceBuilder.Instantiate(IInstanceBuilderContext context, ViewNode viewNode)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.WindowsXamlDesigner.InstanceBuilders.UserControlInstanceBuilder.Instantiate(IInstanceBuilderContext context, ViewNode viewNode)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.DesignTools.Platform.InstanceBuilders.ViewNodeManager.CreateInstance(IInstanceBuilder builder, ViewNode viewNode)
Hopefully someone can point me and everyone else having this problem in the right direction. Thank.