I'm a complete noob at Swift (and Xcode), as a matter of fact, the only programming language I (somewhat) know is Javascript.
I'm trying to make a Swift SpriteKit game, and I would like to access the number of calories burned in HealthKit.
The idea is that my game will provide more points the more calories you burn using other apps like Endomondo. My app does not actually track anything, I would just like to access other data left by other apps in the Health App.
Is this even possible? (I'm running the latest version of everything, from Mac OS X to Xcode)
Certainly. I don't think there is anything technically preventing you from making calls to the HealthKit APIs in your game. In fact, you're fairly free to mix and match the use of any public frameworks provided on iOS.
One thing to keep in mind is privacy and disclosure of the use of health data. The user will have to explicitly grant your app permission to see data.
HealthKit is a really rich API with lots of ways to access lots of different kinds of data, and you're really only interested in a small part right now, so a quick way to experiment is to create a new Swift SpriteKit game from the new project template in Xcode, do your research on HealthKit, and see if you can just log the number of calories burned since some time point while your app is running. If you can do that, the rest is details (as in, the entire app :-)).
Here are what I think might be some helpful links, good luck on your project!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/swift-programming-language/id881256329?mt=11
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/HealthKit/Reference/HealthKit_Framework/index.html
You'll also find some good documentation on SpriteKit (references and guides) on the iOS Developer Library site.
Related
Is it possible to create an API inside an iOS app to let 3rd party developers create app add-on that are downloadable for users inside the app?
I could not find any ressources for this topic online.
I think that's going to go against the app store guidelines if your intention is that the 3rd party developers write code, which will be downloaded and executed.
There's something of a grey area between legitimate uses and illegitimate uses of downloaded code:
Legitimate Example 1: Something like Hopscotch where children are creating simple fun shared games. These can be considered user generated content.
Legitimate Example 2: A game which is driven by scripts allows for the run-time downloading of patches to fix bugs in the scripts or even to add new levels. I believe such usages have been rejected occasionally in the past, but are generally accepted these days.
The relevant guideline from the guidelines is (emphasis mine):
2.5.2 Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code, including other iOS, watchOS, Mac OS X, or tvOS apps.
And the all-encompassing:
We will reject apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I'll know it when I see it". And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.
If your idea is to create some sort of app-store within your app-store app, then I would abandon it immediately, because that's going to be way over Apple's line.
That said, you haven't given much detail about your app, so I might have made wrong assumptions about where you're thinking of going.
So I'm looking to create a niche market static yelp-style wine/dine restaurant finder. After asking around, I was suggested to look into cloud kit since apple provides asset storage and synchronization. I'm looking to provide misc. information in regards to restaurants: menu, location, open times, images; this information will be provided by myself.
With that in mind... here is the problem. It appears that cloud kit may be the perfect fit, unfortunately beginner-type tutorials are insufficient in explanation or outdated (obj-c - I only know swift). So for one, would you be able to recommend any tutorials?
Nonetheless, here is the meat of the question...
I am aware that a public database held in a container will be able to hold numerous bits of information: strings, integers, assets, date, etc.
However, would cloud kit (as in, off the device), hold the entirety of instances of a struct in the cloud or are only variables held? In other words, what is held on the device and what is held in the cloud when using cloud kit?
Also, should I create a iCloud id just for development usage or should I use my existing iCloud if?
Jon,
There is a lot of questions here.
1. CloudKit is very easy to get started, but a little bit of a challenge to use in a real app.
2. You can store basic types + assets in cloud kit; an asset being an image for example or just a glob of data.
3. The https://www.raywenderlich.com/video-tutorials#cloudkit website has a number of good tutorials on the subject in SWIFT, although no its not free, you need to pay a small monthly charge; although its worth it if you want to learn more about code development.
I'm currently looking for a way to track user activity. I'm working on an IOS app using swift and i need stats of apps usage. basically I want to get-make a tracking of the used apps. Data like opened apps, start time and shut down time... I know that for get all stats, maybe is necessary run a backgroud service, but, this is another problem that i think to solve after. for now i want to know if it's posible, if there is some way to get stats for used apps. I know that the UIApplication class call the UIApplicationMain function when an app is launched. Maybe, from my app, there is a way for access this info?... Thanks, i have been a long time reading but really, i can't see some clear option.
If (as David has interpreted your question in the comments) you are trying to track usage of other apps that aren't yours, he's right; you can only track your own app's usage.
If you are needing to track events in your own app, there are a good number of analytic frameworks available to do exactly what you are needing to do.
Flurry is one I've used in the past with success, and is one of the more well know solutions. I've also utilized Google's analytics framework. Both are pretty straightforward to integrate into your app and to track the sort of fine grained events you are looking to capture. You can't go wrong with either one of those.
Here is a (slightly old) list of additional tracking/analytics options beyond Flurry and Google's offerings.
You can record your feedback and user experiences, and bug reports with lookback.io
I'm currently looking for a way to track basic user data for mobile iOS application:
how many times the app was launched
what was the average/by session time spent in total while using app
what was the average/by session time spent on particular screen
Additionally, I'd like the solution to:
display a heatmaps or click/tap/maps (clickstreams), to show how users tried to interact with the interface
generate visit graphs (user started from this screen, then went to this screen, etc.)
The most important requirement is that this is for internal application testing (nothing malicious), and we want to categorize data by user logged in (so that we can gather data per user, not some general average).
Can anyone recommend a suitable tool? Price or paid, doesn't matter. Is Google Analytics up for the job, or do we need something else?
Youve got several options to track the user behavior in the app. You can use frameworks like :
Flurry (http://www.flurry.com/)
Mixpanel (http://mixpanel.com/)
Localytics (http://www.localytics.com/)
Google analytics
Im pretty sure there are more. Flurry is free (for now but you have some special paid features) and it´s broadly used. It´s the framework I use the most for my apps in these moments but it will depend of the client and the information you want to track. You can track events, events with information, see the stats of use, how the user has used the application, find dead holes in your app and broadly speaking, have a general idea about how your application has been used. The other frameworks are not free and you have to pay for the services but you can always use a trial version to see if this is what you want or not. Ive used localytics and its nice.
Ive tried all of them, and there are pros and cons, but to get a general idea about your application, everyone serves. Regarding heatmaps, Im not sure about that, I mean if some of the frameworks offer a solution like that, but you can always build your reports with the provided information (I know it´s not a straightforward thing or a 5 minutes thing).
Take a look, compare and decide which one can fit the best for you.
Well these days app analysis is very important and are of great help. There are large number of analytics tools available. Some of them are free some of them are paid.
below are some of them
Flurry
Google Analytics
Heatmaps
These are few which are used most. For most list visit this link
Hope this will help you. happy coding :)
I am just starting iOS development. I read some tutorials, watched stuff on iTunes U and wrote some sample code myself. Now I want to take the next step. I want to learn about best practices for iOS development in XCode.
Are there any well written and well organized iOS projects that one could take a look at?
(As I see it, iOS is not exactly the place for open source enthusiasts, however.)
Thanks
Mike.
I agree with several of the other answers that state that looking at many, many projects for mini-examples of what you want to do in your own app is the way to go.
However, you asked for an example of an app demonstrating best practices.
You could do worse than to read Matt Gallagher's blog, Cocoa with Love from beginning to end. However, the app example you asked for is right here.
Not only will it show a variety of techniques, some novel design and best-practices, but also he points out where he feels that he might have done something better.
It's a great read.
I would suggest the following process: (it worked for me)
Think of an advanced app. that you eventually want to be proficient enough to create.
Make a top-down problem-solving tree containing the necessary skills required to build your final app.
Use this tree to divide your final app. into 'sub apps'. Start at the bottom of the tree, find a tutorial specifically for that skill, and make a "Hello World" app. that uses that skill.
Keep progressing upwards, creating 'sub apps' as you go.
When you are finally ready to make your final app. (it will take a while), you will have a good handle on how iOS development works. It will also be a great test of your knowledge via direct application!
Getting the hang of iOS development can be tricky; it really does require a top-down approach, and every online resource I've found takes a linear one. The only way that I think a linear approach to learning iOS development would be manageable, is to take it one small task at a time.
As for specific resources, I always google "[what I want to do] iPhone SDK" and browse the tutorials and forum posts that come up.
Here are some open source iOS apps. However, they aren't very well documented and are also very advanced.
TKAWebView - A subclass of UIWebView that handles authentication and downloading.
Welcome to your Mac - An iOS app. to VNC into a PC/Mac and do some cool stuff.
InAppSettingsKit - A settings screen creator for your apps.
Good luck!
The people behind the Parse platform have made two complete projects.
For each project there is the complete source code, a tutorial and the resulting app is also available from the AppStore.
Anywall: https://parse.com/anywall
Anypic: https://parse.com/anypic
They both rely heavily on the Parse platform as the data source, but you still get a feel for an iOS project.
Molecules is a great open-source app that uses 3D OpenGL to render complex models of molecules.
Just keep coding my friend. You'll learn over a period of time. The best way to get dirty in a mud fight is to jump into it... Weird analogy but you get the point.
Maybe someday, we all will learn from you then !
Like you said there many and many source codes are available internet, but most are incomplete.
I found some Open source codes of REAL application currently available through Apple app store are given here
Free iPhone App Source Codes of real apps
and also, you can find many answers here on stackoverflow question - Are there any Open-source iPhone applications around?
You can download free IOS sample projects from http://devcodemarket.com
I realize this is an old thread but I've also been looking for good objective-c code examples recently and I just realized that TextEdit's source code is available at the Mac Developer Library webpage.
Also, here are some popular objective-c libraries that have caught my attention:
CocoaPods
AFNetworking.
you can also go through UICatalog from Developers Library and download the sample code. just google it and you will find a project containing all basics of iphone.
I don't think there is any perfect project that can demonstrate all the qualities of great code. Developers have stylistic preferences and may make mistakes. That said, you should look at a lot of different projects and try to look at the conventions used.
I'd suggest starting on GitHub. Besides for seeing code, you'll see what libraries are out there, which may help further your projects later on. Here's the Objective-C page on GitHub.
(Also, I (GitHub link) think you're wrong about iOS devs not being in favor open source. Yes, there's money to be made, but you can't sell a CSV paring library on the App Store as is.)
Have a look at https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios
That is Firefox for iOS, written in Swift.
Cocoacontrols has a wide range of controls written using Objective-C & Swift.
I believe these days, this is one of the most famous website for iOS Developers.
But, before you jump onto this, you have to learn Objective-C & Swift very well, so that you will understand how to use the controls in your app which makes your app smooth.