The Complete Idiot's Guide to iPad and iPhone App Development

451 Pages·2010·4.64 MB·English

by  Troy Brant

iPad and iPhone

App Development

Troy Brant
A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

iPad and iPhone

App Development

Troy Brant
A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ALPHA BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson

Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group

Pty. Ltd.)

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore, Auckland 1311, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New

Zealand Ltd.)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Copyright © 2010 by Troy Brant
All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, elec­
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is
assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the prepara­
tion of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for
damages resulting from the use of information contained herein. For information, address Alpha Books, 800 East 96th Street,
Indianapolis, IN 46240.
THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO and Design are registered trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
International Standard Book Number: 1-101-46204-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2009943484
Note: This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material
on the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering pro­
fessional services in the book. If the reader requires personal assistance or advice, a competent professional should be consulted.
The author and publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is
incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book. Most Alpha
books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fundraising, or educational
use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs.
For details, write: Special Markets, Alpha Books, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.
Publisher: Marie Butler-Knight Copy Editor: Emily Garner
Associate Publisher: Mike Sanders Book Designer: William Thomas, Rebecca Batchelor
Senior Managing Editor: Billy Fields Indexer: Tonya Heard
Acquisitions Editor: Tom Stevens Layout: Ayanna Lacey
Development Editor: Ginny Bess Munroe Proofreader: John Etchison
Senior Production Editor: Megan Douglass
Contents
Part 1: Getting Started ............................................................1

1
Welcome to the Party! ................................................3

Before You Begin ............................................................................ 3

Hardware .................................................................................... 4

Knowledge.................................................................................... 4

New to Mac? ................................................................................... 5

Quick Overview of Mac OS X for Windows Users....................... 5

Keyboard Shortcuts ...................................................................... 9

Device Features .............................................................................. 9

Device Limitations ....................................................................... 10

Getting the SDK .......................................................................... 11

Get a Registered iPhone Developer Apple ID ............................. 12

iPhone Developer Program ........................................................ 15

Installing the SDK ..................................................................... 16

2 Your First App in a Flash .......................................... 19

Creating Your First Project ......................................................... 19

Create a New Window-Based Application ..................................20

Tour of the Xcode Interface......................................................... 21

Tour of Your Project ................................................................... 24

Recommended Xcode Preferences ................................................ 25

Get Up and Running ................................................................... 27

Introducing the iPhone Simulator .............................................. 28

Simulator Limitations ............................................................... 31

Xcode Debugger View ................................................................. 32

Finding Your Way Through the Dark ........................................ 33

3 Interface Building .......................................................35

ICE, ICE, Baby ............................................................................ 35

Making ICE ................................................................................. 36

Views ......................................................................................... 37

Create the Project ...................................................................... 39

What the Heck Is a Nib?............................................................ 40

Interface Builder ...........................................................................40

The Grand Tour........................................................................41

Interface Building......................................................................... 43

Changing the Background Color ................................................44

Adding Text............................................................................... 45
iv The Complete Idiot’s Guide to iPad and iPhone App Development
Adding Images...........................................................................46

Taking ICE for a Spin ............................................................... 49

Looking Ahead .............................................................................50

4
Buttons, Controllers, and Code ............................... 51

iShockU App ................................................................................. 51

Interface Building......................................................................... 52

Adding an Image to the Button..................................................54

Interface Complete ..................................................................... 54

Controllers .................................................................................... 55

Connect the Dots.........................................................................57

Make the Button Do Something Interesting ............................. 60

NSLogging ................................................................................ 61

Shocking Finale............................................................................62

Another App in the Books ...........................................................64

5 Objective-C and Cocoa Touch ................................ 65

What Is Objective-C? .................................................................. 65

Cooking with Cocoa .................................................................... 66

Object-Oriented Programming Review ..................................... 67

The Basics.....................................................................................68

Named Parameters .................................................................... 69

Messages, Selectors, and Methods ............................................... 69

Multiple Parameters .................................................................. 70

Objects .......................................................................................... 70

NSObject ................................................................................... 70

The id Type ................................................................................71

The nil Pointer .......................................................................... 72

Classes in Objective-C ................................................................. 72

Interface .................................................................................... 73

Implementation.......................................................................... 74

Up Next ........................................................................................ 75

6 Memory Management ................................................77

Introduction to Memory Management.......................................77

Reference Counting ....................................................................78

alloc/init .................................................................................... 78

retain/release ............................................................................. 79

dealloc ........................................................................................ 79

Memory-Related Crashes ........................................................... 80

Memory Leaks ........................................................................... 81
Contents v
Autorelease .................................................................................... 81

An Example ............................................................................... 82

Golden Rules of Memory Management......................................83

Properties ...................................................................................... 84

Dot Syntax ................................................................................ 85

Attributes .................................................................................. 86

Instance Variable Not Required .................................................. 87

Objective-C Complete ................................................................. 89

Part 2: Building Your User Interface ...................................91

7 Switches, Sliders, and Controls ...............................93

Basic Built-In Controls ................................................................ 93

Fonts App ......................................................................................94

Build the Interface ........................................................................ 95

Add Outlets and Actions to the Controller ................................ 99

Hook It Up.................................................................................. 101

Time to Code ............................................................................. 103

updateText ............................................................................... 103

updateFont ............................................................................... 104

Glue It Together ...................................................................... 106

Try It Out ...................................................................................106

Another App in the Books ......................................................... 108

8 Text Fields ....................................................................111

Tiptacular ....................................................................................111

UITextField ............................................................................. 112

Interface Challenge .................................................................. 113

Try It Out ................................................................................115

Protocols ......................................................................................116

Required Versus Optional Methods ............................................116

Delegation ....................................................................................118

Using the API in Xcode ..............................................................119

UITextFieldDelegate ................................................................. 120

Customize the Keyboard ........................................................... 122

Computing the Tip .................................................................... 124

Tiptacular Complete ..................................................................126
vi The Complete Idiot’s Guide to iPad and iPhone App Development
9 Picke
rs .........................................................................129

Collections .................................................................................. 129

NSArray ................................................................................. 130

NSDictionary .......................................................................... 131

NSMutableArray and NSMutableDictionary .......................... 132

Property Lists .......................................................................... 133

Intro to Pickers ........................................................................... 135

Ruralfork App ............................................................................. 136

Interface Challenge .................................................................. 137

Here We Go ............................................................................... 138

Adopt the Protocols ................................................................... 139

Initialization ........................................................................... 140

dealloc ...................................................................................... 141

UIPickerViewDataSource ........................................................ 141

UIPickerViewDelegate ............................................................. 143

Try It Out ................................................................................... 144

10 Web Views, Spinners, and Alerts .......................... 147

Web Views .................................................................................. 148

Browser App ................................................................................ 148

Interface Challenge .................................................................. 149

Launching a Web Page............................................................. 150

Alert Views ...............................................................................151

UIWebViewDelegate ................................................................ 152

New Interface Elements............................................................. 154

Toolbars ....................................................................................155

Action Sheets ........................................................................... 156

Spinners................................................................................... 157

Adding Bookmarks ..................................................................... 158

Updating the Interface ............................................................ 158

Updating Connections .............................................................. 159

Controlling the Spinner ............................................................161

Controlling the Bookmark Button .............................................161

UIActionSheetDelegate ............................................................ 162

Try It Out ............................................................................... 164

Browser App Done ..................................................................... 164
Contents vii
Part 3: Multi-View Applications .........................................167

11 View
Controllers........................................................169

Multi-View Applications ............................................................ 169

MVC ............................................................................................171

Tweet App ................................................................................... 173

Building Tweet ............................................................................175

Build the Tweet Screen..............................................................175

Add the Settings View Controller ............................................ 177

Build the Settings Screen ......................................................... 178

Modal Views ............................................................................... 179

Transition Styles ...................................................................... 180

iPad Presentation Styles........................................................... 181

Flip to the Settings Screen........................................................ 181

Flip Back to the Tweet Screen................................................... 183

Models ......................................................................................... 184

Controlling Models................................................................... 185

View Controller Lifecycle Methods.......................................... 188

Add viewWillAppear: to TweetViewController ......................... 190

Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Done ..................................................... 192

12 Navigation Controllers ............................................195

Navigation Controller Basics..................................................... 196

UINavigationController .......................................................... 196

Pushing View Controllers ........................................................ 198

Customizing the Navigation Bar ............................................. 198

CelebriTweets App .....................................................................200

Celebrities View Controller ...................................................... 201

Profile View Controller............................................................204

TwitterUser Model ................................................................... 205

Starter Code ............................................................................ 206

Adding a UINavigationController ............................................ 207

Editing CelebriTweetsAppDelegate........................................... 207

Pushing View Controllers ......................................................... 208

Customizing the Navigation Bar .............................................. 209

Setting the Title ....................................................................... 210

Changing the Back Button ....................................................... 210

Adding a Compose Button........................................................ 211

Twitter Data ............................................................................... 212

All Done .......................................................................................214