Learning App Development in iOS 8

Register as an Apple developer to deploy apps, paying $99/year; use the developer center to manage certificates, identifiers, devices, and provisioning profiles for iOS testing and App Store distribution.

Explore the iOS SDK architecture from the cocoa touch layer to the core OS layer. Learn UI kit, storyboards, and gesture handling across graphics, media, and data services.

Start a new Xcode project using a single view template, set the bundle identifier, and build a hello world UI to run on the iOS 8 simulator.

Learn to build an interactive iOS hello world app by adding and aligning a label, a text field, and a button in a storyboard, using constraints for proper alignment.

Connects storyboard controls to code by creating outlets and actions, formats a hello message from the text field, and updates the label when the button is touched.

Explore the Xcode interface, including the navigator, toolbar, file and symbol views, inspectors, and libraries, and learn to manage project settings, build options, and code or storyboard editing.

Explore Objective-C, Apple's object-oriented c++-style language, focusing on syntax and header (.h) versus (.m) implementation. Learn to declare variables, properties, and instance and class methods in header and implementation files.

Master Objective-C basics by referencing instance variables and properties with self and dot notation, calling methods with square brackets, and using NS array and NS dictionary with mutable variants.

Master storyboard basics for iOS app interfaces, using the object library to add controls like labels, buttons, textfields, and sliders, with constraints and testing across devices.

Learn to build multi-screen iOS apps by adding a second view controller, linking it with a modal segue, and implementing an unwind segue to return to the first screen.

Create a new Xcode project with a storyboard label, then customize its text, color, font, alignment, and wrapping, using the attributes inspector and auto layout to support multiple screens.

Connect a UILabel to code with an outlet, create an action for a button, update the label text, color, and font (courier 24 pt) programmatically in iOS 8.

Add a button to the storyboard, use system or custom types, configure default, highlighted, selected, and disabled states, then wire touch up inside to update a label.

Add and configure a text field in an iOS storyboard, set placeholder text and keyboard type, customize alignment and borders, then transfer input to a label on done.

Learn to use the text view for multiline input, set up outlets and a UI text view delegate, and transfer typed text to a label after tapping done.

Implement the UISegmentedControl in iOS 8 and configure multiple segments in storyboard. Update a label using the value changed event and a switch on the selected index.

Add a UI slider, set min and max values (including negatives), customize images and thumb color, and update a label with the slider value via continuous updates using string formatting.

Explore the ui switch control as an on/off toggle with state and optional on/off images and a flexible label. Handle value changes with isOn and log activity for debugging.

Understand how to use a progress view for determinant tasks by syncing it with a slider, configuring min, max, and progress, and choosing between default and bar styles.

Learn to implement a UIActivityIndicator for indeterminate status in iOS 8, toggle its animation with a switch, and use startAnimating and stopAnimating to control visibility, contrasting with a progress view.

Explore UI stepper, a plus/minus control that increments by a step, wraps between 0 and 100, and shows the current value on a label with auto repeat and continuous options.

Learn to use an image view to display images, adjust its mode (aspect fit, aspect fill, center), and change images in code by tapping a button.

Explore date picker, time picker, and countdown timer in iOS, configure modes and locale, set intervals and min/max dates, and handle value changed events with UTC time logs.

Create a three image gallery controlled by UIPageControl, wiring outlets and image views, and flipping through bear, lizard, and gator images.

Learn to populate a UIPicker with a data source, implement its data source and delegate methods, and handle user selection to display the chosen town.

Add a table view to an iOS storyboard, implement data source and delegate methods, and populate cells with a reuse identifier across two sections, five and ten rows.

Implement section headers and footers in a table view using a two-dimensional data array with seven sections. Learn to set header and footer titles and observe scrolling behavior.

Learn to delete a table view row using a confirmation action sheet, implement commit editing style, and animate updates while adding a section index for long lists.

Learn to respond to table view row selections with the delegate method didSelectRowAt, handle index paths, show alerts for accessory taps, and navigate or log selections.

Learn to build a two-dimensional collection view grid using a template cell with a label, forming a photo gallery with adjustable size, spacing, sections, and horizontal scrolling.

Learn to manage multiple screens in a storyboard with a navigation controller, create a two-view setup with a push segue, and navigate back with a configurable back button and title.

Learn to pass data between views using segues by setting up outlets and a prepare for segue method to transfer text from view one to view two.

Configure a tab bar interface by embedding a tab bar controller, adding two tabs with titles and monochrome icons, and handle tab selection to log which tab is active.

Master the ui toolbar: add bar button items with fixed and flexible spaces, adapt to portrait and landscape via constraints, and connect actions and segues to navigation flows.

Explore ui alert view options, including simple alerts, dynamic buttons, and text inputs for login and password. See how the alert view delegate handles button indices and input styles.

Explore how the web view acts as a browser window inside apps, and learn to set up, load a URL request, and test navigation in iOS 8 and cross-platform frameworks.

Enhance the web view experience by adding an address bar text field, handling the text field delegate and return key, and loading user-entered urls with optional http prepending.

Implement a UIWebView navigation restriction by setting the delegate and using shouldStartLoadWithRequest to block URLs that begin with store, logging attempts.

Explore geocoding and reverse geocoding with Core Location and Address Book frameworks to convert street address to latitude and longitude and back, displaying resulting address in a location-aware iOS app.

Learn to map with MKMapItem by geocoding a user-entered address, creating a place mark and map item, and launching the maps app with the address.

Explore map kit basics in iOS 8 with a storyboard MKMapView and Google static maps vs dynamic map kit. Geocode addresses with CLGeocoder, center the map, and note Tom-Tom differences.

Fetch the user's current location with the Core Location framework, obtain latitude, longitude, altitude, and accuracy, perform reverse geocoding, and manage authorization and battery use.

Learn to post to social networks with the UIActivityViewController, combine text and images via the image picker, and understand its limitations and generic sharing options.

Post to Twitter using the SLComposeViewController by integrating the social and mobile core services frameworks, selecting an image with the image picker, and composing text before posting.

Post to Facebook using the SLComposeViewController, set the service type to Facebook, and use the social framework and mobile core services, with text, image selection, and a preview before posting.

Learn to run asynchronous tasks with an s timer that updates a progress bar. Practice downloading a large file using completion blocks so the user interface stays responsive.

Explore keeping the UI responsive by moving long tasks to a background thread with a dispatch queue and updating the UI on the main thread during a download workflow.

Initialize an event store and request access to create reminders and alarms with EventKit; save them to the default calendar and explore location-based reminders.

Learn how to access the app’s documents directory, create a subdirectory, write and read text files with a file manager, and list directory contents.