iOS 6 Foundations

Introduction

Getting Started with iOS 6 is easier than ever. Long-time iOS programmers who started programming with iPhone OS all those years ago (in 2007) might scarcely recognize the tools at their disposal. Some people thought that programming iPhone—and later, iPad—was just too hard. And maybe it was, but the engineers at Apple were working feverishly to transfer major aspects of app development from external developers to in-house Apple engineers. The process accelerated with iOS 5 and, with iOS 6, newcomers to iOS development have a wealth of riches in the frameworks and tools at your command.

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is for people who want to learn about developing iOS apps. It provides a hands-on tutorial for you to develop your first app. Some people will use the book to launch themselves on a career as an app developer. For others, the book will serve to introduce the basics of iOS. This means that managers, clients, marketers, and others who need to work with iOS can get up to speed.

The assumption in this book is that you know a programming language and the basics of computer programming and software development. You don’t need an in-depth knowledge of a programming language, and, in some cases, that may actually be a disadvantage. It doesn’t particularly matter which programming language you’re familiar with, although if it is a modern object-oriented programming language such as C++, C#, Java Python, and Ruby, that’s great. If you are familiar with the object-oriented features of Perl and PHP, that knowledge will help you along the way.

What about “the basics of computer programming and software development”? Many people (including many people in the technology world) don’t understand how software is developed today. Unfortunately, you can still find many books and courses that begin by teaching you how to develop a basic program to do something like balance a checkbook. Leaving aside for the moment the fact that most people don’t balance a checkbook manually any more (online banking has changed all that), if your goal is to build the next killer app in the music world or to manage a recycling center or whatever, that checkbook-balancing app may not be relevant. However, if you want to write innovative apps for the 21st Century and the great iOS operating system, this book is for you.

What You Will Learn

The first thing that you’ll learn is right here in this paragraph. iOS is the operating system of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It is written in Objective-C. The iOS software is developed with the Xcode integrated development environment (IDE). iOS (as well as OS X) is a product of Apple, as is Xcode. Although Objective-C is not an Apple product (there are several implementations), most people refer to Apple’s documentation for the last word on Objective-C and its features. (There is no single published standard other than the Apple documentation.)

As a result of these three points, it is sometimes hard to discern where the operating system and its frameworks end and the language begins, not to mention which features are implemented in Xcode and which features are part of the framework or even the language. They all work together in a seamless fashion. Don’t try to tear them apart and learn the language separately from the frameworks or Xcode. Just remember that they are all part of an extraordinary whole. As you work through the book, you’ll see how things fit together.

In Part I, “Introducing iOS 6,” you’ll see how the key components of your development environment fit together. You’ll learn about the structure of iOS 6, and you’ll see how to use Xcode. You’ll walk through the process of thinking about an app and see how to begin defining it.

In Part II, “Storyboards: The Building Blocks of iOS Apps,” you get to work designing your app’s interface. Some people think of the interface as an add-on, thinking that the code you write is the real thing. Don’t fall into that trap; the interface is your app. It’s what people see and use. The interface comes first, and the code is used to support it. This is particularly important with iOS because, as noted previously, the functionality can be implemented in the iOS framework itself, in the Objective-C language, in Xcode, or in some combination of them. But the storyboard—a step-by-step walk through the interface—brings them all together.

And, yes, if you’re wondering if these storyboards are anything like storyboards for movies or games, you’re right. Today’s storyboards can be traced to the Walt Disney studios in the 1930s. Look up storyboards in Wikipedia and you’ll see that long before iOS, they were used to plan Gone with the Wind (1939). You’ll also find earlier references such as Constantin Stanislavski’s use of storyboarding in theatrical productions in the 1890s.

In Part III, “Building the Party Planner App,” you’ll use the Core Data Model editor in Xcode to build your data store using graphical tools. From there, you’ll move on to customize the Xcode template that will become your app. In this section, you also learn how to save and restore data and how to use the debugger.

In Part IV, “Using Tables and Collection Views,” you’ll see how to use a critical component of iOS. Structuring data and allowing users to edit it is a common task for developers and users. With the built-in table functionality, much of your work is already done for you.

Finally, in Part V, “Interacting with Users,” you circle back to the world of storyboards. There are a number of specific user interface elements that need to be covered so that you can complete your app. Here is where you find them.

How to Use This Book

There are no “reading police;” you can read this (or any) book when, where, and how you want to. (Actually, there is one generally accepted taboo with regard to reading a book — do not look at the last page of a murder mystery until you’ve read everything that comes before.)

That said, it’s important to note that the practical example in this book—the Party Planner app— is built, chapter-by-chapter, as you read through the book. However, if you spot something that you want to explore out of sequence, it’s easy to do so. The example code in each chapter is posted at wiley.com/go/treehouse/ios6foundations as well as on my website at northcountryconsulting.com. If you want to jump into Chapter 12, for example, you can download the code from Chapter 11 and modify it as you read on. (Note that the code posted on the web for each chapter represents the code as it is at the end of the chapter.)

This book describes iOS 6. Many of the concepts have been introduced in previous versions, but there also are new features that make their debut in iOS 6. This badge identifies those new features.

Using This Book with Treehouse

Just to be clear, you don’t have to be a Treehouse member to use this book. However, the online videos at teamtreehouse.com do supplement the content quite nicely. When there is a video that covers the same content that is being covered in the book, you will see the Video icon in the margin and a link to the relevant video. Viewing all the videos and completing badges is a good way of testing what you have learned in the book (and of showing off your new skills to others).

If you ever get stuck on a concept in the book, Treehouse has a great community of members who would be more than happy to help you. You can find them in the official Treehouse members group on Facebook.

Ready to go? Let’s get started.