Become an iOS Developer from Scratch

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.