Design: Creating An App with HTML/CSS And Sencha Touch
As you probably know there are many frameworks that allow you to develop native iOS apps with the interfaces designed with HTML/CSS.
The big question then is how do you create that app’s interface? Sencha Touch is one possibility.
I’ve found a tutorial that goes into detail on how to design a great looking mobile web app that looks like a native one using HTML/CSS using the Sencha Touch library that looks and feels just like a native app. What I really like about the tutorial is that it goes through the design process step-by-step.
Tutorial: iOS Map Kit For Beginners Guide
In the recent past I mentioned a great open source example for beginners interested in using the Map Kit on iOS devices, and utilizing several open source projects.
I’ve come across a couple of excellent beginners tutorial on how to parse an XML feed, and display the contents on the map. Another giving a good explanation of the Map Kit class and several code snippets for solving common Map Kit problems. These tutorials take a different approach form the open source example that I mentioned, and no libraries outside of the iOS sdk are used.
Tutorial: iOS Multithreading With Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) Basics
As a user it can be extremely frustrating if you’re using an application and you have to wait an extended period of time while the application updates.
Sadly this was pretty common when the app store was new. The devices were slower, the networks were slower, and many apps weren’t using multi-threading in places they probably should have. I remember becoming frustrated many times using an RSS reader, waiting for the article list to update, and then waiting again for the article to display.
Tutorial: How To Use The iOS Keychain To Store Names And Passwords
If you have been using the Mac OS for any amount of time then you are likely aware of Apple’s password management system known as the Keychain. iOS devices also have a keychain system for storing user data securely.
If you need to store username/password data for a web service securely within your apps then you will likely want to use the iOS keychain service. I’ve found an excellent guide explaining the basics of reading and writing to the keychain. Also included is a sample project demonstrating keychain usage (you will need to run on an actual device to test real saving/loading to the keychain).
Open Source: Library For Easy Data Saving/Loading
There are many ways to save data on iOS devices. Some like a database are likely overkill for a game, and other methods like serialization are great, but things could still be easier.
I’ve found a very cool time saving library that allows you to easily save and load ints, floats, and NSString’s to an automatically created .PLIST file. No fuss at all just one line of code to save, or one line to load each of these datatypes. A nice simple quick solution if you want to install some simple data saving into an app. If you need to save a few floats of game data it is an ideal solution.