Book Image

Mac Application Development by Example: Beginner's Guide

By : Robert Wiebe
Book Image

Mac Application Development by Example: Beginner's Guide

By: Robert Wiebe

Overview of this book

It's never been more important to have the ability to develop an App for Mac OS X. Whether it's a System Preference, a business app that accesses information in the Cloud, or an application that uses multi-touch or uses a camera, you will have a solid foundation in app development to get the job done.Mac Application Development by Example takes you through all the aspects of using the Xcode development tool to produce complete working apps that cover a broad range of topics. This comprehensive book on developing applications covers everything a beginner needs to know and demonstrates the concepts using examples that take advantage of some of the most interesting hardware and software features available.You will discover the fundamental aspects of OS X development while investigating innovative platform features to create a final product which take advantage of the unique aspects of OS X.Learn how to use Xcode tools to create and share Mac OS X apps. Explore numerous OS X features including iCloud, multi-touch trackpad, and the iSight camera.This book provides you with an illustrated and annotated guide to bring your idea to life using fundamental concepts that work on Mac.

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Mac Application Development by Example: Beginner's Guide
Robert Wiebe
Dec, 2012 | 318 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Mac Application Development by Example Beginner's Guide
Mac Application Development by Example Beginner's Guide
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Our First Program – SimpleCalc
Our First Program – SimpleCalc
Locating developer tools
Time for action - Installing the Xcode App
Working with projects
Time for action - creating the SimpleCalc Xcode project
Understanding the Xcode project template
Time for action – examine the items in the project navigator
Configuring an Xcode project
Time for action - configuring the SimpleCalc Xcode project
Running an App
Time for action – run the SimpleCalc App
Customizing an Xcode template's interface
Time for action – creating the SimpleCalc interface
Customizing an Xcode template's implementation
Time for action – implement the SimpleCalc behavior
Building an App
Time for action – building and installing the SimpleCalc App
Summary
2
Debugger – Finding and Fixing Problems
Debugger – Finding and Fixing Problems
The Debug area in Xcode
Time for action – displaying the Debug area in Xcode
The Debug area appears on its own
Time for action - integer division by zero
Examining variable values in the debugger
Time for action – examining a variable value
Unexpected App behavior – no debugger?
Time for action – index out of range
Using breakpoints to get more information from Xcode
Time for action – set a breakpoint
Summary
3
System Preferences – NewDefaults
System Preferences – NewDefaults
Understanding preference panes
The transition to 64 bit from 32 bit
Creating an Xcode preference pane project
Time for action – creating the NewDefaults Xcode project
Configuring an Xcode preference pane project
Time for action – customizing the icon and copyright
Customizing the preference pane template interface
Time for action – creating the NewDefaults interface
Customizing the preference pane Xcode template's .h implementation
Time for action – completing the NewDefaults.h interface definition
Customizing the preference pane Xcode template's .m implementation
Time for action – completing the NewDefaults.m implementation
Time for action – writing the readDefaults:forKey: program code
Time for action – writing the didSelect: program code
Time for action – writing the myButtonAction: program code
Summary
4
Business Application – Global Currency Converter
Business Application – Global Currency Converter
Designing the GUI for global currency converter
Time for action – creating our project and GUI
Connecting the GUI to program elements
Time for action – connecting the App Delegate to the GUI
What is an XML file?
Format of the XML file we will download
Time for action – downloading an XML file
Parsing an XML document
Time for action – parsing the XML Document
How to invoke a background thread
Time for action – invoking a background thread
Managing a pop-up menu
Time for action – implementing the program code for the pop-up menu
Creating the Table View Interface
Time for action – configuring the table view in Interface Builder
Creating the table view implementation
Time for action – implementing the dataSource and delegate
Summary
5
Personal Information – Numbers in the iCloud
Personal Information – Numbers in the iCloud
What is iCloud?
Installing an iCloud enabled development profile
Time for action – creating and installing an iCloud enabled development profile
Designing the GUI for numbers in the cloud
Time for action – creating our project and GUI
Connecting the GUI to program elements
Time for action – connecting the App Delegate to the GUI
Using two tables in one window
Time for action – implementing the TableView delegate
Implementing the toolbar
Time for action – implementing the Toolbar delegate
Accessing iCloud
Time for action – accessing iCloud for key-value storage
Summary
6
Painting – Multi-finger Paint
Painting – Multi-finger Paint
What is multi-touch?
Implementing a custom view
Time for action – creating a GUI with a custom view
How to receive multi-touch events
Time for action – drawing our fingers
How to manage the mouse cursor
Time for action – detaching the mouse cursor from the mouse hardware
Performing 2D drawing in a custom view
Time for action – drawing the active strokes
Saving strokes
Time for action – saving the strokes
How to receive gesture events
Time for action – handling rotate gestures
Summary
7
Capturing Still Images – iSight iMage cApture App
Capturing Still Images – iSight iMage cApture App
What is Image Kit?
Adding framework to a project
Time for action – creating a project and adding the Quartz framework
Browsing images
Time for action – implementing the interface for browsing our pictures folder
Time for action – implementing the methods for browsing our Pictures folder
Capturing and saving images
Time for action – capturing and saving images
Modifying the behavior of the Picture Taker
Time for action – drawing our fingers
Deleting images
Time for action – deleting an image
Summary
8
Video Recording – iSight Recorder
Video Recording – iSight Recorder
What is Quicktime Kit Capture?
Previewing the video capture
Time for action – creating a project and adding the program code to preview video and audio
Capturing a single frame as a still image
Time for action – capturing a frame
Previewing audio capture
Time for action – capturing and saving images
Capturing a movie to disk
Time for action – capturing a Quicktime movie
Capturing compressed movies to disk
Time for action – saving a compressed movie
Summary
9
Video Recording – Full Screen iSight Recorder
Video Recording – Full Screen iSight Recorder
What is the full screen mode?
Enabling the full screen mode
Time for action – enabling full screen mode in iSight Recorder
Disabling auto layout
Time for action – using the traditional layout model
Modifying our user interface to take advantage of full screen
Time for action – refining how we enter and exit full screen
Time for action – refining text colors
Time for action – refining controls using fading
Customizing the full screen window size
Time for action – adding a full screen window that has depth
Customizing the full screen animation
Time for action – customizing the full screen animation
Summary
10
Sharing Our App with Others – Becoming a Mac Developer
Sharing Our App with Others – Becoming a Mac Developer
What is the Mac developer program?
What are the benefits of joining the Mac developer program?
The opportunity to join a paid developer program
Step by step developer program sign up
Time for action – joining the Mac developer program
More developer tools
Time for action – accessing the online developer tools
What is code signing?
What is Gatekeeper?
Signing an App with a Developer ID
Time for action – signing an App with our Developer ID
Summary
Index
Index

Time for action – downloading an XML file

We can easily use a web browser to download the XML file from the Internet.

  1. Launch a web browser that is capable of displaying XML files. This can be Google Chrome or Firefox but it cannot be Safari because Safari will not, by default, display raw XML files (and, as such, is not the best web browser for App developers).

  2. Enter the URL for the XML file.

What just happened?

The web browser downloaded and displayed the XML file. Because we carefully selected a web browser that understands XML, we are able to examine the structure of the XML file and locate the information that we want to extract from it.

It's a good thing that XML files are human readable!

Tip

XML Trees

XML documents are arranged in trees. A tree is very similar to a filesystem and we can think of each element in the tree as a folder. As we navigate down the tree we can think of it as opening the next folder (in XML terminology these are called nodes). As we navigate downwards, we may also...

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