iOS Components and Frameworks

Kyle Richter is the founder of Dragon Forged Software, an award-winning iOS and Mac Development Company, and co-founder of Empirical Development, a for-hire iOS shop. Kyle began writing code in the early 1990s and has always been dedicated to the Mac platform. He has written several books on iOS development, as well as articles on many popular developer blogs and websites. He manages a team of more than 20 full-time iOS developers and runs day-to-day operations at three development companies. Kyle travels the world speaking on development and entrepreneurship; currently he calls Key West his home, where he spends his time with his border collie Landis.   Joe Keeley is the CTO of Dragon Forged Software, and Project Lead at Empirical Development. Joe works on Resolve and Slender, and has led a number of successful client projects to completion. He has liked writing code since first keying on an Apple II, and has worked on a wide variety of technology and systems projects in his career. Joe has presented several different technical topics at iOS and Mac conferences around the U.S. Joe lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and two daughters, and hopes to get back into competitive fencing again in his spare time.

1  UIKit Dynamics   1

Sample App   1

Introduction to UIKit Dynamics   2

Implementing UIKit Dynamics   3

  Gravity   3

  Collisions   4

  Attachments   6

  Springs   8

  Snap   9

  Push Forces   9

  Item Properties   11

In-Depth UIDynamicAnimator and UIDynamicAnimatorDelegate   13

Summary   13

Exercises   14

 

2  Core Location, MapKit, and Geofencing   15

The Sample App   15

Obtaining User Location   15

  Requirements and Permissions   16

  Checking for Services   19

  Starting Location Request   20

  Parsing and Understanding Location Data   22

  Significant Change Notifications   23

  Using GPX Files to Test Specific Locations   24

Displaying Maps   26

  Understanding the Coordinate Systems   26

  MKMapKit Configuration and Customization   26

  Responding to User Interactions   28

Map Annotations and Overlays   29

  Adding Annotations   29

  Displaying Standard and Custom Annotation Views   32

  Draggable Annotation Views   35

  Working with Map Overlays   36

Geocoding and Reverse-Geocoding   37

  Geocoding an Address   37

  Reverse-Geocoding a Location   41

Geofencing   44

   Checking for Regional Monitoring Capability   44

   Defining Boundaries   45

   Monitoring Changes   46

Getting Directions   48

Summary   52

Exercises   53

 

3  Leaderboards   55

Whack-a-Cac   55

  Spawning a Cactus   57

  Cactus Interaction   60

  Displaying Life and Score   62

  Pausing and Resuming   63

  Final Thoughts on Whack-a-Cac   64

iTunes Connect   65

Game Center Manager   68

Authenticating   70

  Common Authentication Errors   71

  iOS 6 Authentication   73

Submitting Scores   75

  Adding Scores to Whack-a-Cac   78

  Presenting Leaderboards   80

  Score Challenges   82

  Going Further with Leaderboards   84

Summary   86

Exercises   86

 

4  Achievements   87

iTunes Connect   87

Displaying Achievement Progress   89

Game Center Manager and Authentication   91

The Achievement Cache   91

Reporting Achievements   93

Adding Achievement Hooks   95

  Completion Banners   96

  Achievement Challenges   97

  Adding Achievements into Whack-a-Cac   100

  Earned or Unearned Achievements   101

  Partially Earned Achievements   102

  Multiple Session Achievements   104

  Piggybacked Achievements and Storing Achievement Precision   105

  Timer-Based Achievements   106

Resetting Achievements   107

Going Further with Achievements   108

Summary   110

Exercises   110

 

5  Getting Started with Address Book   111

Why Address Book Support Is Important   111

Limitations of Address Book Programming   112

Introduction to the Sample App   112

Getting Address Book Up and Running   112

  Reading Data from the Address Book   115

  Reading Multivalues from the Address Book   116

  Understanding Address Book Labels   117

  Working with Addresses   118

Address Book Graphical User Interface   120

  People Picker   120

Programmatically Creating Contacts   125

Summary   128

Exercises   128

 

6  Working with Music Libraries   129

Introduction to the Sample App   129

Building a Playback Engine   131

  Registering for Playback Notifications   131

  User Controls   133

  Handling State Changes   135

  Duration and Timers   139

  Shuffle and Repeat   140

Media Picker   141

Programmatic Picker   143

  Playing a Random Song   144

  Predicate Song Matching   145

Summary   147

Exercises   148

 

7  Working with and Parsing JSON   149

JSON   149

  Benefits of Using JSON   149

  JSON Resources   150

Sample App Overview   150

Accessing the Server   150

Getting JSON from the Server   151

  Building the Request   151

  Inspecting the Response   152

  Parsing JSON   153

  Displaying the Data   154

Posting a Message   155

  Encoding JSON   156

  Sending JSON to the Server   158

Summary   159

Exercise   159

 

8  Getting Started with iCloud   161

The Sample App   161

Setting Up the App for iCloud Support   162

  Account Setup   162

  Enabling iCloud Capabilities   163

  Initializing iCloud   164

Introducing UIDocument   165

  Subclassing UIDocument   165

  Interacting with UIDocument   167

Interacting with iCloud   168

  Listing Documents in iCloud   168

  Detecting Conflicts in iCloud   172

Conflict Resolution   173

Key-Value Store Syncing   178

Summary   180

Exercises   180

 

9  Notifications   181

Differences Between Local and Push Notifications   181

Sample App   182

App Setup   182

Create Development Push SSL Certificate   184

Development Provisioning Profile   188

Custom Sound Preparation   194

Registering for Remote Notifications   194

Scheduling Local Notifications   196

Receiving Notifications   196

Push Notification Server   198

Basic Rails Setup   198

Add Support for Devices and Shouts   199

Device Controller   202

Shout Controller   202

Tying It All Together   204

Sending the Push Notifications   207

Handling APNs Feedback   207

Summary   208

Exercise  208

 

10  Bluetooth Networking with Game Kit   209

Limitations of Game Kit’s Bluetooth Networking   209

Benefits of Game Kit’s Bluetooth Networking   210

Sample App   210

The Peer Picker   215

Sending Data   218

  Data Modes   219

  Sending Data in the Sample App   219

Receiving Data   221

  Receiving Data in the Sample App   221

State Changes   222

Advanced Features  223

  Peer Display Name  223

  Connecting Without the Peer Picker  223

  Session Modes  225

Summary  225

Exercises  225

 

11  AirPrint  227

AirPrint Printers  227

Testing for AirPrint  229

Printing Text   229

  Print Info  230

  Setting Page Range  231

  Error Handling  232

  Starting the Print Job  232

  Print Simulator Feedback  233

Print Center  234

  UIPrintInteractionControllerDelegate  234

Printing Rendered HTML  236

Printing PDFs  237

Summary  239

Exercises  239

 

12  Core Data Primer  241

Deciding on Core Data  242

Core Data Managed Objects  243

  Managed Objects  243

  Managed Object Model  244

  Managed Object Model Migrations  246

  Creating Managed Objects  246

  Fetching and Sorting Objects  247

  Fetched Results Controller  248

The Core Data Environment  248

  Persistent Store Coordinator  249

  Persistent Store  249

  Managed Object Context  249

Summary  250

 

13  Getting Up and Running with Core Data  251

Sample App  251

Starting a Core Data Project  252

  Core Data Environment  254

Building Your Managed Object Model  256

  Creating an Entity  257

  Adding Attributes  257

  Establishing Relationships  258

  Custom Managed Object Subclasses  259

Setting Up Default Data  260

  Inserting New Managed Objects  260

  Other Default Data Setup Techniques  261

Displaying Your Managed Objects  262

  Creating Your Fetch Request  262

  Fetching by Object ID  264

  Displaying Your Object Data  265

  Using Predicates  267

Introducing the Fetched Results Controller  268

  Preparing the Fetched Results Controller  268

  Integrating Table View and Fetched Results Controller  271

  Responding to Core Data Changes  273

Adding, Editing, and Removing Managed Objects  275

  Inserting a New Managed Object  275

  Removing a Managed Object  276

  Editing an Existing Managed Object  277

  Saving and Rolling Back Your Changes  278

Summary  279

Exercises  279

 

14  Language Features  281

Literals  282

  Boxed Expressions  284

Automatic Reference Counting  285

  Using ARC in a New Project  285

  Converting an Existing Project to ARC  286

  Basic ARC Usage  288

  ARC Qualifiers  289

Blocks  290

  Declaring and Using Blocks  290

  Capturing State with Blocks  291

  Using Blocks as Method Parameters  293

  Memory, Threads, and Blocks  294

Properties  295

  Declaring Properties  295

  Synthesizing Properties  297

  Accessing Properties  297

  Dot Notation  298

  Fast Enumeration  298

Method Swizzling  299

Summary  302

Exercises  302

 

15  Integrating Twitter and Facebook Using Social Framework  303

Social Integration  303

The Sample App  303

Logging In  304

Using SLComposeViewController  306

Posting with a Custom Interface  308

  Posting to Twitter  308

  Posting to Facebook  312

  Creating a Facebook App  312

Accessing User Timelines  318

  Twitter  318

  Facebook  324

Summary  328

Exercises  328

 

16  Working with Background Tasks  329

The Sample App  330

Checking for Background Availability  330

Finishing a Task in the Background  331

  Background Task Identifier  332

  Expiration Handler  333

  Completing the Background Task  333

Implementing Background Activities  335

  Types of Background Activities  335

  Playing Music in the Background  336

Summary  340

Exercises  340

 

17  Grand Central Dispatch for Performance  341

The Sample App  341

Introduction to Queues  343

Running on the Main Thread  343

Running in the Background  345

Running in an Operation Queue  347

  Concurrent Operations  347

  Serial Operations  349

  Canceling Operations  350

  Custom Operations  351

Running in a Dispatch Queue  353

  Concurrent Dispatch Queues  353

  Serial Dispatch Queues  355

Summary  357

Exercises  358

 

18  Using Keychain to Secure Data  359

Introduction to the Sample App  360

Setting Up and Using Keychain  360

  Setting Up a New KeychainItemWrapper  361

  Storing and Retrieving the PIN  362

  Keychain Attribute Keys  363

  Securing a Dictionary  364

  Resetting a Keychain Item  366

  Sharing a Keychain Between Apps  367

  Keychain Error Codes  368

Summary  368

Exercises  369

 

19  Working with Images and Filters  371

The Sample App  371

Basic Image Data and Display  371

  Instantiating an Image  372

  Displaying an Image  373

  Using the Image Picker  375

  Resizing an Image  378

Core Image Filters  379

  Filter Categories and Filters  379

  Filter Attributes  382

  Initializing an Image  384

  Rendering a Filtered Image  385

  Chaining Filters  386

Face Detection  387

  Setting Up a Face Detector  388

  Processing Face Features  388

Summary  390

Exercises  391

 

20  Collection Views  393

The Sample App  393

Introducing Collection Views  394

  Setting Up a Collection View  395

  Implementing the Collection View Data Source Methods  396

  Implementing the Collection View Delegate Methods  399

Customizing Collection View and Flow Layout  401

  Basic Customizations  401

  Decoration Views  402

Creating Custom Layouts  406

Collection View Animations  411

  Collection View Layout Changes  411

  Collection View Layout Animations  412

  Collection View Change Animations  414

Summary  415

Exercises  415

 

21  Introduction to TextKit  417

Sample App  417

  Introducing NSLayoutManager  418

NSTextStore  418

Detecting Links Dynamically  421

Detecting Hits  422

Exclusion Paths  423

Content Specific Highlighting  425

Changing Font Settings with Dynamic Type  429

Summary  431

Exercises  431

 

22  Gesture Recognizers  433

Types of Gesture Recognizers  433

Basic Gesture Recognizer Usage  434

Introduction to the Sample App  434

  Tap Recognizer in Action  435

  Pinch Recognizer in Action  436

Multiple Recognizers for a View  438

  Gesture Recognizers: Under the Hood  440

  Multiple Recognizers for a View: Redux  441

  Requiring Gesture Recognizer Failures  443

Custom UIGestureRecognizer Subclasses  444

Summary  445

Exercise  445

 

23  Accessing Photo Libraries  447

Sample App  447

The Assets Library  448

Enumerating Asset Groups and Assets  448

  Permissions  449

  Groups  451

  Assets  455

Displaying Assets  458

Saving to the Camera Roll  462

Dealing with Photo Stream  465

Summary   467

Exercises  467

 

24  Passbook and PassKit  469

The Sample App  470

Designing the Pass  470

  Pass Types  471

  Pass Layout—Boarding Pass  471

  Pass Layout—Coupon  471

  Pass Layout—Event  472

  Pass Layout—Generic  473

  Pass Layout—Store Card  474

  Pass Presentation  474

Building the Pass  476

  Basic Pass Identification  477

  Pass Relevance Information  478

  Barcode Identification  478

  Pass Visual Appearance Information  479

  Pass Fields  479

Signing and Packaging the Pass  482

  Creating the Pass Type ID  482

  Creating the Pass Signing Certificate  484

  Creating the Manifest  489

  Signing and Packaging the Pass  489

  Testing the Pass  490

  Interacting with Passes in an App  490

Updating Passes Automatically  501

Summary  502

Exercises  502

 

25  Debugging and Instruments  503

Introduction to Debugging  503

 

  The First Computer Bug  504

  Debugging Basics with Xcode  504

Breakpoints  506

  Customizing Breakpoints  507

  Symbolic and Exception Breakpoints  508

  Breakpoint Scope  508

Working with the Debugger  509

Instruments  511

  The Instruments Interface  512

  Exploring Instruments: The Time Profiler  514

  Exploring Instruments: Leaks  516

  Going Further with Instruments  519

Summary  519

Exercises  520

 

Index  521