The "iPhone Developer's Cookbook" provides readers with the skills they need to build applications for the iPhone by presenting them with recipes they can apply to their applications, rather than an exhaustive documentation. This approach allows the reader to quickly get up to speed and start building apps for the iPhone right away.
Features and Benefits
Shows readers how to develop native applications to run on the iPhone and iPod touch
Illustrates use of Apple's SDK, including setting up your build and test environment
Includes useful code recipes that readers can take and use in their own applications
Description
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The iPhone Developer's Cookbook offers single-task recipes for the most common issues new iPhone developers face: laying out interface elements, responding to users, accessing local data sources, and connecting to the Internet. This Cookbook approach delivers cut and paste convenience. Programmers can add source recipes into their projects and then customize them to their needs. Each chapter groups related tasks together. Readers can jump directly to the kind of solution they're looking for without having to decide which class or framework best matches that problem.
Features and Benefits
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Shows readers how to develop native applications to run on the iPhone and iPod touch
Illustrates use of Apple's SDK, including setting up your build and test environment
Includes useful code recipes that readers can take and use in their own applications
Table of Contents
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Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
About the Author xxii
1 Introducing the iPhone SDK 1
Apple's iPhone SDK 1
Assembling iPhone Projects 2
iPhone Application Components 4
Application Folder Hierarchy 4
The Executable 4
The Info.plist File 4
The Icon and Default Images 6
XIB (NIB) files 6
Files Not Found in the Application Bundle 7
Sandboxes 7
Platform Limitations 8
Storage Limits 8
Data Access Limits 8
Memory Limits 8
Interaction Limits 9
Energy Limits 9
Application Limits 9
User Behavior Limits 10
SDK Limitations 10
Programming Paradigms 11
Object-Oriented Programming 11
Model-View-Controller 11
Building an iPhone Application Skeleton 18
The Hello World Application 19
The Classes 19
The Code 20
A Note About Sample Code and Memory Management 20
Building Hello World 23
Create an iPhone Project 23
Running the Skeleton 24
Customize the iPhone Project 24
Editing Identification Information 25
Using the Debugger 26
Apple's iPhone Developer Program 28
Development Phones 28
Application Identifiers 29
From Xcode to Your iPhone: The Organizer Interface 30
Projects and Sources List 30
Devices List 31
Summary Tab 31
Console Tab 31
Crash Logs Tab 31
Screenshot Tab 32
About Tethering 32
Testing Applications on Your iPhone 32
Compiling for Distribution 33
Using Undocumented API Calls 34
Ad Hoc Distribution 35
Summary 36
2 Views 37
UIView and UIWindow 37
Hierarchy 37
Geometry and Traits 39
Gestures 42
Recipe: Adding Stepwise Subviews 42
Reorienting 44
Recipe: Dragging Views 45
UITouch 46
Adding Persistence 48
Recipe: Clipped Views 51
Balancing Touches with Clipping 53
Accessing Pixel-by-Pixel Values 54
Recipe: Detecting Multitouch 56
UIView Animations 59
Building UIView Animation Blocks 59
Recipe: Fading a View In and Out 60
Recipe: Swapping Views 62
Recipe: Flipping Views 64
Recipe: Applying CATransitions to Layers 66
Undocumented Animation Types 67
General Core Animation Calls 68
Recipe: Swiping Views 69
Recipe: Transforming Views 72
Centering Landscape Views 74
Summary 74
3 View Controllers 77
View Management 77
Core Classes 77
Specialized Classes 78
Creating a UIViewController 79
Working with Interface Builder to Build Views for
UIViewControllers 81
Temperature Conversion Example 81
Loading XIB Files Directly 90
Navigation Controllers 91
Setting Up a Navigation Controller 91
Pushing and Popping View Controllers 92
The Navigation Item Class 92
Recipe: Building a Simple Two-Item Menu 93
Recipe: Adding a Segmented Control 95
Recipe: Adding a UIToolbar to a Navigation Bar 97
Recipe: Navigating Between View Controllers 100
Popping Back to the Root 102
Loading a View Controller Array 102
Tab Bars 103
Summary 106
4 Alerting Users 107
Talking Directly to Your User Through Alerts 107
Logging Your Results 108
Building Alerts 109
Displaying the Alert 110
Recipe: Creating Multiline Button Displays 110
Recipe: Autotimed No-Button Alerts 112
Recipe: Soliciting Text Input from the User 113
Recipe: Presenting Simple Menus 115
"Please Wait": Showing Progress to Your User 117
Recipe: Invoking the Basic Undocumented UIProgressHUD 117
Recipe: Using UIActivityIndicatorView 119
Recipe: Building a UIProgressView 121
Recipe: Adding Custom, Tappable Overlays 123
Recipe: Building a Scroll-Down Alert 127
Recipe: Adding Status Bar Images 131
Adding Application Badges 132
Recipe: Simple Audio Alerts 134
Vibration 136
Summary 136
5 Basic Tables 139
Introducing UITableView and UITableViewController 139
Creating the Table 140
What the UITableViewController Does 141
Recipe: Creating a Simple List Table 142
Data Source Functions 142
Reusing Cells 143
Font Table Sample 143
Recipe: Creating a Table-Based Selection Sheet 145
Recipe: Loading Images into Table Cells 149
Recipe: Setting a Cell's Text Traits 151
Removing Cell Selections 152
Recipe: Creating Complex Cells 153
Recipe: Creating Checked Selections 155
Recipe: Deleting Cells 157
Creating and Displaying Remove Controls 157
Dismissing Remove Controls 158
Handling Delete Requests 158
Swiping Cells 158
Adding Cells 159
Recipe: Reordering Cells 161
Recipe: Working with Disclosures 162
Summary 164
6 Advanced Tables 165
Recipe: Grouping Table Selections 165
Building a Section-Based Data Source 166
Adding Section Headers 170
Recipe: Building a Section Table with an Index 171
Recipe: Custom Cell Backgrounds 172
Customizing the Table View 176
Recipe: Creating Alternate Blue and White Cells 177
Recipe: Framing Tables 179
Recipe: Adding Coupled Cell Controls 180
Recipe: Building a Multiwheel Table 182
Creating the UIPickerView 183
Recipe: Using the UIDatePicker 186
Creating the Date Picker 186
Recipe: Creating Fully Customized Group Tables 189
Creating Grouped Preferences Tables 189
Summary 195
7 Media 197
Recipe: Browsing the Documents Folder by File Type 197
Locating Documents 198
Loading and Viewing Images 200
Recipe: Displaying Small Images 201
Recipe: Using a UIWebView to Display Images 203
Displaying Web Pages with UIWebView 205
Recipe: Browsing Your Image Library 206
Recipe: Selecting and Customizing Images from the Camera Roll 209
Recipe: Snapping Pictures with the iPhone Camera 212
Working with iPhone Audio 214
Recipe: Playing Audio with Celestial 215
Recipe: Using the Media Player for Audio and Video Playback 217
Recipe: Recording Audio 219
Reading in Text Data 227
Displaying Property Lists 227
Recovering Media from Backup Files 228
Summary 229
8 Controls 231
Recipe: Building Simple Buttons 231
The UIButton class 232
Building Custom Buttons 233
Glass Buttons 236
Recipe: Adding Animated Elements to Buttons 236
Recipe: Animating Button Responses 238
Recipe: Customizing Switches 239
Customizing UIAlertView Buttons 241
Recipe: Adding Custom Slider Thumbs 242
Adding Text to the Slider 246
Recipe: Dismissing a UITextField Keyboard 246
Recipe: Dismissing UITextView Keyboards 248
Recipe: Adding an Undo Button to Text Views 250
Recipe: Creating a Text View-Based HTML Editor 253
Recipe: Building an Interactive Search Bar 255
Recipe: Adding Callout Views 258
Adding a Page Indicator Control 260
Recipe: Customizing Toolbars 263
Toolbar Tips 266
Summary 267
9 People, Places, and Things 269
Address Book Frameworks 269
Address Book UI 269
Address Book 270
Recipe: Accessing Address Book Image Data 271
Recipe: Displaying Address Book Information 273
Recipe: Browsing the Address Book 274
Browsing for (Only) E-Mail Addresses 277
Adding New Contacts 277
Core Location 278
How Core Location Works 278
Recipe: Core Location in a Nutshell 280
Recipe: Reverse Geocoding to an Address 283
Recipe: Accessing Maps Using Core Location Data 286
Recipe: Accessing Core Device Information 288
Recipe: Enabling and Disabling the Proximity Sensor 289
Recipe: Using Acceleration to Locate "Up" 290
Recipe: Using Acceleration to Move Onscreen Objects 292
Summary 295
10 Connecting to Services 297
Recipe: Adding Custom Settings Bundles 297
Declaring Application Settings 297
Recipe: Subscribing Applications to Custom URL Schemes 302
Recipe: Checking Your Network Status 304
Testing the Network Status 304
Recovering a Local IP Address 305
Querying Site IP Addresses 306
Checking Site Availability 307
Recipe: Interacting with iPhone Databases 308
Recipe: Converting XML into Trees 311
Recipe: Storing and Retrieving Keychain Items 313
Storing Multiple Keychain Values 318
Keychain Persistence 319
Sending and Receiving Files 320
Recipe: Building a Simple Web-Based Server 321
Push Notifications 325
Summary 326
11 One More Thing: Programming Cover Flow 327
The UICoverFlowLayer Class 327
Building a Cover Flow View 329
Building a Cover Flow View Controller 331
Cover Flow Data Source Methods 332
Cover Flow Delegate Methods 333
Summary 336
Index 357
Preface
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Preface
Few platforms match the iPhone's unique developer technologies. It combines OS X-based mobile computing with an innovative multitouch screen, location awareness, an onboard accelerometer, and more. When Apple introduced the iPhone Cocoa Touch SDK beta in early March 2008, developers responded in numbers that brought Apple's servers to its knees. Apple delivered more than one hundred thousand SDK downloads in less than one week. The iPhone Developer's Cookbook was written to address this demand, providing an accessible resource for those new to iPhone programming.
Who This Book Is For
This book is written for new iPhone developers with projects to get done and a new unfamiliar SDK in their hands. Although each programmer brings different goals and experiences to the table, most developers end up solving similar tasks in their development work: "How do I build a table?"; "How do I create a secure keychain entry?"; "How do I search the Address Book?"; "How do I move between views?"; and "How do I use Core Location?"
The iPhone Developer's Cookbook is aimed squarely at anyone just getting started with iPhone programming. With its clear, fully documented examples, it will get you up to speed and working productively. It presents already tested ready-to-use solutions, letting programmers focus on the specifics of their application rather than on boilerplate tasks.
How This Book Is Structured
This book offers single-task recipes for the most common issues new iPhone developers face: laying out interface elements, responding to users, accessing local data sources, and connecting to the Internet. The cookbook approach delivers cut-and-paste convenience. Programmers can add source recipes into their projects and then customize them to their needs. Each chapter groups related tasks together. Readers can jump directly to the kind of solution they're looking for without having to decide which class or framework best matches that problem.
Here's a rundown of what you'll find in this book's chapters:
Chapter 1: Getting Started with the iPhone SDK
Chapter 1 introduces the iPhone SDK and explores the iPhone as a delivery platform, limitations and all. It explains the breakdown of the standard iPhone application and enables you to build your first Hello World style samples.
Chapter 2: Views
Chapter 2 introduces iPhone views, objects that live on your screen. You see how to lay out, create, and order your views to create backbones for your iPhone applications. You read about view hierarchies, geometries, and animations as well as how users can interact with views through touch.
Chapter 3: View Controllers
The iPhone paradigm in a nutshell is this: small screen, big virtual worlds. In Chapter 3, you discover the various UIViewController classes that enable you to enlarge and order the virtual spaces your users interact with. You learn how to let these powerful objects perform all the heavy lifting when navigating between iPhone application screens.
Chapter 4: Alerting Users
The iPhone offers many ways to provide users with a heads up, from pop-up dialogs and progress bars to audio pings and status bar updates. Chapter 4 shows how to build these indications into your applications and expand your user-alert vocabulary.
Chapter 5: Basic Tables
Tables provide an interaction class that works particularly well on a small, cramped device. Many, if not most, apps that ship with the iPhone and iPod touch center on tables, including Settings, YouTube, Stocks, and Weather. Chapter 5 shows how iPhone tables work, what kinds of tables are available to you as a developer, and how you can use table features in your own programs.
Chapter 6: Advanced Tables
iPhone tables do not begin and end with simple scrolling lists. You can build tables with titled sections, with multiple scrolling columns, and more. You can add controls such as switches, create translucent cell backgrounds, and include custom fonts. Chapter 6 starts from where "Basic Tables" left off. It introduces advanced table recipes for you to use in your iPhone programs.
Chapter 7: Media
As you'd expect, the iPhone can load and display media from a wide variety of formats. It does music; it does movies. It handles images and Web pages. You can present PDF documents and photo albums and more. Chapter 7 shows way after way that you can import or download data into your program and display that data using the iPhone's multitouch interface.
Chapter 8: Control
The UIControl class provides the basis for many iPhones interactive elements, including buttons, text fields, sliders, and switches. Chapter 8 introduces controls and their use, both through well-documented SDK calls and through less-documented ones.
Chapter 9: People, Places, and Things
In addition to standard user interface controls and media components that you'd see on any computer, the iPhone SDK provides a number of tightly focused developer solutions specific to iPhone and iPod touch delivery. Chapter 9 introduces the most useful of these, including Address Book access ("people"), core location ("places"), and sensors ("things").
Chapter 10: Connecting to Services
As an Internet-connected device, the iPhone is particularly suited to subscribing to Web-based services. Apple has lavished the platform with a solid grounding in all kinds of network computing services and their supporting technologies. The iPhone SDK handles sockets, password keychains, SQL access, XML processing, and more. Chapter 10 surveys common techniques for network computing and offering recipes that simplify day-to-day tasks.
Chapter 11: One More Thing: Programming Cover Flow
Although Cover Flow is not officially included in the iPhone SDK, it offers one of the nicest and most beautiful features of the iPhone experience. With Cover Flow, you can offer your users a gorgeously intense visual selection experience that puts standard scrolling lists to shame. Chapter 11 introduces Cover Flow and shows how you can use it in your applications.
Prerequisites
Here are basics you need on hand to begin programming for the iPhone or iPod touch:
A copy of Apple's iPhone SDK. Download your copy of the iPhone SDK from Apple's iPhone Dev Center (http://developer.apple.com/iphone/). You must join Apple's (free) developer program before you download.
An iPhone or iPod touch. Although Apple supplies a simulator as part of its SDK, you really do need to have an actual unit to test on if you're going to develop any serious software. You'll be able to use the cable that shipped with your iPhone or iPod touch to tether your unit to the computer and install the software you've built.
An Apple iPhone Developer License. You will not be able to test your software on an actual iPhone or iPod touch until you join Apple's iPhone Developer program (http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program). Members receive a certificate that allows them to sign their applications and download them to the platforms in question for testing and debugging. The program costs $99/year for individuals and companies, $299/year for in-house enterprise development.
An Intel-based Macintosh running Leopard. The SDK requires a Macintosh running Leopard OS X 10.5.3 or later. Apple requires an Intel-based computer in 32-bit mode. Many features do not work properly on PPC-based Macs or Intel Macs in 64-bit mode. Reserve plenty of disk space and at least 1GB of RAM.
At least one available USB 2.0 port. This enables you to tether your development iPhone or iPod touch to your computer for file transfer and testing.
An Internet connection. This connection enables you to test your programs with a live WiFi connection as well as with EDGE.
Familiarity with Objective-C. The SDK is built around Objective-C 2.0. The language is based on standard C with object-oriented extensions. If you have any object-oriented and C background, making the move to Objective-C is both quick and simple. Consult any Objective-C/Cocoa reference book to get up to speed.
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Note - Although the SDK supports development for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as possible yet-to-be-announced platforms, this book refers to the target platform as iPhone for the sake of simplicity. When developing for the touch, most material is applicable. This excludes certain obvious features such as telephony and onboard speakers. This book attempts to note such exceptions in the manuscript.
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Contacting the Author
If you have any comments or questions about this book, please drop me an e-mail message at erica@ericasadun.com or stop by http://www.ericasadun.com. My Web site hosts many of the applications discussed in this book. Please feel free to visit, download software, read documentation, and leave your comments.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
About the Authors
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Erica Sadun has written, coauthored, and contributed to about three dozen books about technology, particularly in the areas of programming, digital video, and digital photography. An unrepentant geek, Sadun has never met a gadget she didn't need. Her checkered past includes run-ins with NeXT, Newton, iPhone, and myriad successful and unsuccessful technologies. When not writing, she and her geek husband parent three adorable geeks-in-training, who regard their parents with restrained bemusement.
