Become an iOS Developer from Scratch

Install and configure Xcode via the Mac App Store, explore version differences, and set up device frameworks, simulators, and command line tools for iOS development.

Create a new single view iOS project in Xcode, configure the bundle identifier, run in the iPhone simulator, and wire a button to display a hello world alert.

Explore how the iOS skeleton app boots from the main function through ui application main, reads Info.plist, creates the ui window, and wires the route view controller.

Choose the device family—iPhone, iPad, or universal—based on user experience and development effort. Consider compatibility mode and whether to use two independent targets for iPhone and iPad.

Get up to speed with Xcode's workspace window and core Apple development tools, exploring the toolbar, navigator, editor, debug, and utility areas, run options, schemes, and breakpoints.

Customize Xcode preferences to tailor navigation, editors, and build behaviors, set fonts and colors, adjust code folding and indentation, and configure keyboard shortcuts and locations.

Explore how Interface Builder within Xcode lets you design iOS interfaces by editing nib files, establishing connections between source code and UI, and managing controls in a visual, drag-and-drop workflow.

Master the iOS simulator to test apps across devices and OS versions, simulate gestures, memory warnings, and rotations, and reset content for clean, efficient development.

Master essential Xcode shortcuts to speed up iOS development, including run (command r), build (command b), navigation between header and implementation, open quickly, and using pragma marks for code organization.

Discover the history and key features of Objective-C, a dynamic object-oriented language built as a strict superset of ANSI C, enabling dynamic typing, dynamic binding, and on-demand loading.

Create objective-c classes by defining interfaces and implementations, subclassing from NSObject, and using imports; build artists and albums to illustrate the class structure and hierarchy.

Explore declaring and implementing Objective-C methods, distinguishing class methods from instance methods with plus and minus signs, and writing prototypes in headers and implementations with return types and parameters.

Explore Objective-C messaging by calling methods with brackets, using alloc and init, and importing headers. Create artist and album objects to order albums and log results to the console.

Learn how objects are created and initialized in Objective-C using a two-stage creation pattern: allocate then init, with custom and convenience initializers to keep objects in a valid state.

Enable automatic reference counting to let the compiler manage memory and convert existing iOS projects quickly with the refactor tool.

Master Objective-C conventions by using camel case for classes and methods, and prefixes like NS, UI kit, CG, and SA to prevent naming collisions, per Apple guidelines.

Learn to work with strings in Objective-C by using format strings, concatenation, substrings, ranges, case conversion, and string comparison with isEqual.

Explore how Objective-C categories extend a class without subclassing by adding new methods, illustrated with a string category that trims whitespace using a character set.

Master using Xcode's debugger to test string methods, set breakpoints, and step through code. Compare LLDB and GDB, inspect ranges, and verify contains and equals with case-insensitive checks.

Wrap primitive types with the number class, unwrap values using the value methods, and grasp the class cluster design that hides private subclasses in the foundation number API.

Explore arrays and mutable arrays in Objective-C, create arrays with arrayWithObjects, access elements by index, remove last object, replace object at index, and iterate via for loops or fast enumeration.

Explore dictionaries for key-value pairs, including immutable and mutable forms, creating from key and value arrays, adding and removing entries, accessing by key, iterating, and handling nil or null values.

Learn how the mvc design pattern classifies objects into model, view, and controller to enable modular, reusable iOS apps, with the controller mediating updates between model and view.

Master the role of view controllers as the foundation of iOS apps and the MVC design pattern. Explore navigation and tab bar containers, split view, popover, and custom container APIs.

Create a music app in Xcode from a template, build a main view controller with a nib, and wire the root view controller to enable a wish list and search.

Discover how a view controller manages the UI view lifecycle, including load view, view did load, and view did unload, and handle low memory warnings by unloading and releasing views.

Explore how viewWillAppear, viewDidAppear, viewWillDisappear, and viewDidDisappear in a view controller trigger as views are added to or removed from the window, and how to override them to customize behavior.

Explore the target-action pattern by wiring UI control to target in a view controller, store a reference, and trigger actions like show preferences or show list on touch up inside.

Learn to present and dismiss modal view controllers in iOS using a preferences view controller, with a navigation bar, a done button, nib setup, and completion blocks.

Learn how to build views programmatically in iOS by creating UIViews with frames, setting colors and tags, adding them to the super view, and managing z-order and visibility.

Update the main music app ui by implementing the about dialog and renaming the preferences view controller to about; arrange labels, buttons, and a top logo for a polished interface.

Define IBOutlet connections to link a view controller to nib components, including a logo view outlet for the UI image view stored weakly and verified in viewDidLoad.

Work with images and image views using UI image view in UI kit, load images from the app bundle, display them in the interface, and cache data for performance.

Learn how to support both retina and non-retina displays by providing standard and 2x image assets, ensuring crisp visuals and proper scaling in iOS apps.

Create a data model for a music app by defining artist and album classes with artistId, artistName, albumId, albumName properties, and implement initializers and description methods.

Archive data using NSKeyedArchiver and NSKeyedUnarchiver to store a mutable array in the documents directory, then read it back and log results.

Adopt the NSCoding protocol in the artist and album classes, implement initWithCoder and encodeWithCoder to archive and decode properties with the archiver.

Implement persistence for the album model by adding find all and save methods that store and load albums from a file in the documents directory using archivers.

Explore advanced iOS data options beyond archiving, including sequel lite for simple, large data stores and core data for complex object graphs, with FM DBI, Xcode tooling, and iCloud integration.

Master iOS table views, the scrollable lists used to navigate data and settings. Learn plain and grouped styles, cell rendering, and the data source and delegate interactions that power them.

Introduce the navigation controller to enable push and pop navigation between views, wrap the root view in a UI navigation controller, and set up a navigation bar title.

Explain implementing the UI table view data source, including required row and cell methods, and configuring cells with album image and name using a private albums property loaded in viewWillAppear.

Apply the UI table view delegate to respond to row taps using the delegation pattern. Implement didSelectRowAtIndexPath to show an alert with the selected album and artist, demonstrating customization points.

Add a delete album method and override isEqual and hash to enable swipe-to-delete of albums and keep the persistent data model synchronized with the UI.

design a custom music list table view cell in storyboard, connect outlets for the album image, album name, and artist name, and refine layout for clarity.

Learn to recreate the iOS delete-state animation for custom table view cells, resizing labels as the delete button appears and disappears for a polished user experience.

Build the detail view UI by adding a storyboard scene, a push segue, an image view, and labels for album name, artist, genre, price, and released, plus action buttons.

Build the album detail view controller by wiring outlets and actions, configuring the saved list button, and formatting the release date to display album details.

Use prepare for segue to identify the show details segue, get the selected album from the table view, and pass it to the destination view controller to display details.

Learn to open an album page in the iTunes store by invoking the UI application's shared instance to open the album URL, providing quick access and a seamless user experience.

Prototype the search UI to let users search artists, view results in a table view, and add albums to their lists using a navigation controller and a search bar.

Prototype the search UI in a storyboard-based iOS app by implementing a table view flow with push segues to browse albums and view details, passing data between scenes.