iOS Development Journey

iOS useful resources

2012-06-14T15:27:00.002+08:00

I have also compiled a list of iOS resources which I felt may come in handy.

Beginner

For starters, you can try out the below 3 tutorials. I find it quite useful and it teaches you the fundamentals of iOS Development with tutorials.

http://dev.thecellcity.com/~danielquek/iOS-Apprentice/

Communicating with Web Services

Below are two well-known tools that you can use to communicate with web services. Personally, I prefer AFNetworking.

http://restkit.org/

RestKit is an Objective-C framework for iOS that aims to make interacting with RESTful web services simple, fast and fun. It combines a clean, simple HTTP request/response API with a powerful object mapping system that reduces the amount of code you need to write to get stuff done

https://github.com/AFNetworking/AFNetworking

AFNetworking is a delightful networking library for iOS and Mac OS X. It's built on top of NSURLConnection, NSOperation, and other familiar Foundation technologies. It has a modular architecture with well-designed, feature-rich APIs that are a joy to use.

Blocks & Grand Central Dispatch

Blocks are an incredibly powerful extension to C/Objective-C. They allow you to wrap up chunks of code in self-contained units and pass them around as objects. Below is a good tutorial on blocks for starters like me :)

http://www.raywenderlich.com/9328/creating-a-diner-app-using-blocks-part-1

Apple Push Notifications

Below is a good tutorial on APNs especially for new starter like me. :D

http://www.raywenderlich.com/3443/apple-push-notification-services-tutorial-part-12

UITableView Replacement

Below are two popular tableview controls which you can use and is faster!

https://github.com/sobri909/MGBox

Designed for rapid table creation with minimal code, easy customisation, attractive default styling, and with most common design patterns automated without need for fidgety UIView tweaking.

Key Features

Box lines accept and automatically lay out arbitrary arrays of UIViews, NSStrings, and UIImages

Create box lines with multiline text, automatically formatted and sized

Intelligent handling of space limitations, with optional left or right side precedence

Separate arrays for topLines, middleLines, and bottomLines, to simplify common layout patterns

A convenience screenshot method for capturing UIImages of boxes with OS X screenshot style drop shadows

Animations for box adding, removing, and moving

Optional edge snapping on scroll

https://github.com/vicpenap/PrettyKit

PrettyKit is a small set of new widgets and UIKit subclasses that gives you a deeper UIKit customization. You will be able to change their background color, add gradients, shadows, etc.

Sign Up / Profile Forms

Below resource is the quick way to do it!

https://github.com/escoz/quickdialog

QuickDialog allows you to create HIG-compliant iOS forms for your apps without having to directly deal with UITableViews, delegates and data sources. Fast and efficient, you can create forms with multiple text fields, or with thousands of items with no sweat!

Cool Animations

Tired of using same animations? Below are some cool animations which we can apply in the future..

https://github.com/nicklockwood/iCarousel

iCarousel is a class designed to simplify the implementation of various types of carousel (paged, scrolling views) on iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. iCarousel implements a number of common effects such as cylindrical, flat and "CoverFlow" style carousels, as well as providing hooks to implement your own bespoke effects. Unlike many other "CoverFlow" libraries, iCarousel can work with any kind of view, not just images, so it is ideal for presenting paged data in a fluid and impressive way in your app. It also makes it extremely easy to swap between different carousel effects with minimal code changes.

https://github.com/mwaterfall/MWPhotoBrowser

MWPhotoBrowser is an implementation of a photo browser similar to the native Photos app in iOS. It can display one or more images by providing either UIImage objects, file paths to images on the device, or URLs to images online. The photo browser handles the downloading and caching of photos from the web seamlessly. Photos can be zoomed and panned, and optional (customisable) captions can be displayed. Works on iOS 3.2+. All strings are localisable so they can be used in apps that support multiple languages.

https://github.com/aceisScope/WaterflowView

Resembled datasource and delegate of UITableView, and mainly intended to make a display in the waterflow way of Pinterest. Each cell could be simply initialized with cellAtIndexPath way.

https://github.com/raweng/Scroller

To view Scroller in action, add some contacts in your AddressBook.

Going to Seoul!

2012-06-03T23:15:00.001+08:00

First time traveling to Seoul, Korea.. So excited until I don't have mood to design new apps... Will continue my journey of iOS programming and ruby on rails when I am back! Woohoo :D

Xiao wugui..

2012-05-27T12:31:00.001+08:00

Countdown to our photoshoot in 4 days time and Korea in 7 days time :)

Hope everything will be smooth and fine..

Hope my new career path will be successful too! :)

Diablo III Brady Games Signature Series Strategy Guide

2012-05-20T21:06:00.002+08:00

A Great Guide for Diablo III fans!

Diablo III Signature Series Strategy Guide includes the following:

Complete Quest Guide, covering all four Acts in the adventure.
Exhaustive Bestiary, detailing every monster in the game.
In-depth coverage of Heroes to maximize player effectiveness in all five Character Classes.
Guide to meeting and leveling up the Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Mystic professions, and how to maximize the relationships and crafting from each Artisan.

Publisher: BRADY GAMES (May 15, 2012)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Diablo 3 & photoshoot

2012-05-20T11:48:00.001+08:00

Distracted lately due to the long waited release of diablo 3.. And also upcoming photoshoot in Singapore and Seoul!

Hopefully will be back to programming when I'm back! Woohoo!!

Don't Be So Picky!! haha

2012-05-17T10:59:00.003+08:00

Ruby on Rails and Xiaxue

2012-05-17T09:01:00.002+08:00

Now on chapter 8 of Ruby on rails and hopefully can complete the changes for Xiaxue app by this weekend :D

Also, wanted to buy white socks and some clothes for my photo shoot and other things for upcoming Korea TRIP!

Woohoo!!

This song is nice! by IU... fav song of the week.. haha

The Good Life app

2012-05-15T07:39:00.001+08:00

I am really happy to see the good life app being top in the AppStore! It was the good life project that cause me to switch to an iOS developer and I still remember that time we have so many issues with the app.. The graphics, designs, push notifications and MOBILE coupons!

I am really glad that the app has now evolved... And is simply awesome...

Congrats to the marketing team and the developers that make this to happen... :)

Fullhouse Singapore event!

2012-05-14T22:30:00.002+08:00

Help me like this post! Winner will win 2 x $50 vouchers from Fullhouse Singapore.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150956392736779&set=o.208220779242973&type=1&theater

Sample app using RubyOnRails + Heroku

2012-05-14T15:33:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Sample App

The Real Escape!

2012-05-12T22:36:00.002+08:00

You lost your way and wandered into a village where werewolves attack people night by night. As the villagers disappear one by one, you can feel the fangs of the werewolves getting closer and closer to you.

Can you reveal all the mysteries in time, and escape the Werewolf Village?

more information >

iCloud and UIDocument: Beyond the Basic

2012-05-12T22:18:00.001+08:00

A very helpful tutorial if you want to learn about saving files locally and in the "cloud"! Although it is a very long tutorials (consists of 4 parts), you will surely gain alot and become a pro in using iCloud and UIDocument!

iCloud and UIDocument: Beyond the Basics. http://bit.ly/IEoozq via @rwenderlich

Injection For Xcode

2012-05-11T20:46:00.001+08:00

Using Injection it is possible to make a change to the implementation of an Objective-C class and have it take effect as soon as the class is saved without having to restart an application. This miracle works for OS X and iOS applications in the simulator and on iOS devices.

Injection works by converting your classes into categories using a small set of preprocessor macros. This category can then be loaded at run time using a bundle. As Objective-C "binds" at runtime it will always chose the new implementation of the class over that which the application was last built with.

To download Injection for Xcode for evaluation now click here.

Rails For Zombies!

2012-05-10T22:51:00.000+08:00

A great interactive tutorial on Ruby on Rails.
http://railsforzombies.org/

Core Plot

2012-05-09T18:05:00.000+08:00

Core Plot is a useful tool especially when you need it for plotting a graph and analysis a pattern.

Below is my result!

RubyMotion

2012-05-07T15:38:00.001+08:00

Trying to learn a new language, Ruby + RubyOnRails + RubyMotion.

The video by RubyMotion seems interested and I might get a hold of the software if I have enough cash :S

Fullhouse Weekend

2012-05-06T21:25:00.000+08:00

On Sat, we go to Fullhouse for lunch and it is a wonderful place! We are planning to have our ROM over there next year :D Hope the price is reasonable as we are intending to invite only around 2 tables of guests/relatives..

Below are the pictures!

Dev Rocket

2012-05-04T10:20:00.002+08:00

Just bought an iOS Photoshop plugin developed by DevRocket. It is wonderful and certainly can save time if you are a designer that design iOS apps :) Below is a video about it.

50% completed for XiaXue all-in-1 app

2012-04-30T08:52:00.001+08:00

Almost completed! Can't wait to finish the app as I really like the design.. :) today is to learn how to use YouTube API

Personal Project For XiaXue

2012-04-23T08:22:00.001+08:00

Just got a deal with SG Awesome blogger XiaXue to design an iPhone app for her!

:D Great week to start with.

Search My Book

2012-04-15T20:48:00.000+08:00

Putting 100% effort to do a mock-up to present to National Library Board!

Hope I can complete it by end of next week or the week after :D

Hee hee..

Looking Back after 7 months

2012-04-13T21:47:00.000+08:00

It has been 7 months since I began my journey as an iOS Developer. Looking back, I did not regret on my decision as iOS development is fun and exciting! In this journey, I learned alot from many v.good developers and designers too!