Code and Coffee

Let nSoftware Handle The Hard Work

2010-08-23T03:01:36Z

Very rarely does a company come along that has such a diverse product library, in such a diverse array of languages, for such a diverse set of needs, and back it up with great support. nSoftware offers a wide array of development libraries, from POP3, to IMAP, to ZIP, FTP, SSL, SMS, Jabber, SMTP, Amazon S3, RSS, and so much more! What’s impressive, is the wide array of programming languages they offer these libraries for.

At BlueCrestStudios, we use nSoftware’s IMAP, SMTP, and MIME parsing libraries. The libraries are very easy to use, come with a lot of diverse features, and all comply to standards. Additionally, during the couple of times that we have had to request support, it has always been extremely helpful, and usually directly with a developer of some kind. Talking to an actual developer or someone who has development experience is extremely helpful with products like these, and something I can say that most of nSoftware’s competition does not offer. They usually offer some sort of support forum for developers to get help, never allowing the one on one contact with a developer on the inside. nSoftware also offers a bunch of sample applications, as well as in depth help files for each of their libraries.

I am have been compiling a bunch of in depth examples on how to use some of nSoftware’s libraries, and hopefully will get them back to the company to use as examples for their products themselves; so be on the lookout for those to come.

When I find a company that is worth the press, I really like to give back to them. nSoftware deserves it. They write the core libraries that make your applications work. That saves you countless development hours and dollars!

Parse Url Parameters in Cocoa

2010-08-20T15:54:55Z

Recently for a project, I needed to properly parse parameters for a Url and decode them. I needed a class that could accomplish this, and easily return them for usage. After asking the Google, I came across Vincent Demay class that accomplished this; however, I saw it could use a couple of improvements. For one, instead of using an NSArray, it would be more beneficial to use a NSDictionary, especially when it comes to retrieving parameters after parsing. Additionally, I needed to decode Url parameters, which could be accomplished from a function from a class that is floating around the interwebs called “StringAddons”. Putting it all together, I bring you URLParser.

Here is a usage examples:

URLParser *uParser = [[[URLParser alloc] initWithURLString: @"http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=i+love+cocoa"] autorelease];
NSString *sQuery = [uParser valueForVariable: @"q"];

Enjoy!

Guess Who’s Back?

2010-08-20T15:45:21Z

I could not stay away too long! I am back, and in full force. Stay tuned for what’s next!