I notice that normal practice is to declare IBAction methods in the header file. I have also noticed that it is not necessary to do so for Interface Builder to recognise the IBAction methods and allow me to link them to controls. So what is the purpose of declaring the IBAction method in the header file?
There is no good reason, unless you have a good reason to expose them to others -or- if you need to open the nibs in Interface Builder.app.
Some people may do it for historical reasons, or out of habit. Prior to Xcode 4, there was a separate app to edit nibs (Interface Builder). Interface Builder was not backed by a compiler in the way you know it in Xc4; It just used a basic objc parser to interpret headers. Over time, it learned to communicate with Xcode. In earlier days, you had to drag and drop headers to sync them ;)
Related
First of all it's not the duplicate of this question because i couldn't find any discussion about offline documentation, suitable answers and about future release of updates in Xcode there.
Actually I am from android and java background and currently starting to develop iOS apps too. As we all know we use to implement all methods of an Interface easily with the help of suggestions given in IDE by pressing Alt + Enter.
And here in the iOS we have to see the reference each time and search for all required & optional methods, and implement them manually one by one which consumes times It's fine for a moment But
My Questions are :
Is there Any easiest way to view all required method at first lookup in documentation OR implement all required methods of protocol with the help of IDE ?
Is it possible that we will get this feature in future release of Xcode's update ?
I can't be ensure availability of Internet all the time, And How can I see the documentation at that time ?
Just go ahead and declare that your class adopts the protocol in question.
Xcode will point the error if you fail to implement any of the required methods:
From the list under the disclosure triangle (items with gray "!" icons), you can get a hint of the names of the missing methods. You can start to type and autocomplete will do the rest.
Update for Xcode 9:
It looks like now, you can auto-fill the methods with one click:
Refactoring
Rename a symbol in a single file or in a project across Swift, C, Objective-C, C++ files, and Interface Builder files.
View all the possible changes in one editor pane.
Convert method signatures between Swift and Objective-C formats.
Update properties, getters, setters, and synthesized iVars as needed.
Apply a fix-it everywhere with one button.
Automatically fill in missing cases in switch statements, and mandatory methods for protocol conformance with one click.
Extract method functionality for all supported languages, along with other language-specific local refactoring.
(emphasis mine)
And indeed:
Clicking "Fix" adds the necessary method stubs.
Go to Xcode -> preferences(on top-left corner) -> downloads -> here you will see list of items that can be downloaded. Download the documentation for iOS x.x version. So now, whenever you are offline.. you can go to help(top bar in window) -> documentation and search for whole ios documentation.. all the development guides etc
I understand that in Objective C we can link buttons and actions together using the interface builder, but the connection must be physically stored in the source code somewhere. I just want to know where is the exact location so I can view it in source code. Not that I am going to manipulate it in anyway I just want to know where they are stored.
Thanks!
Actually there is no linkage, which is why people often mess this up. The xib/storyboard has some names. And the code has some names. But only when the nib loads during runtime is an attempt made to match them up. If they don't match (and it is perfectly possible for them not to match), you can crash.
All the objects and relationships are stored inside the interface builder files like xib or storyboard in the XML format. Those files are parsed during the runtime and the corresponding objects are instantiated along with their relationships. So there is no objective-c code you can find in any of your files. It's all in XML.
I tried to turn a xib project which is downloaded from iOS Developer Library of Apple, into a pure code one for further use, but it didn't work.
I wonder what should I pay attention to when I do this kind of conversion, and I wonder it will help me improve my skill of iOS developing.
Converting the Xib file into pure code part is not a very big task, you just need to be carefully replace the items created via Interface builder by your code part. You can follow this sequence while converting such projects :-
1) Display the elements made via IB with your code.
2) Make sure the delegates and datasources to be connected via code if they were connected via IB.
3) Check for the IBActions, if any to be replaced.
4) Lastly, if you are not using ARC or the Project that is being converted not using ARC then the dealloc part or viewDidUnload method, where we generally make the objects nil and release.
Hope it helps you :)
There are some tool available. For example, http://kosmaczewski.net/projects/nib2objc/
Ruby Motion just came out, and the screencast doesn't seem to say anything about whether or not you can use Interface Builder to build your interfaces and integrate them in your RubyMotion project. Is such a thing possible? Or do I really have code everything by hand, not to mention maintain to different pieces of code for iPhone/iPad?
My rep isn't high enough to create a rubymotion tag, so please help out if appropriate.
I'd just like to point out that RubyMotion 1.3 now support automatic compilation of .xib files that you put into the resources folder. So now the workflow becomes :
Create your .xib file using XCode (no need to create a project, just use File|New...|File) and save it into the resources folder. As there is no support for outlets yet, be careful to set the tag property for each control you want to use in your code (you'll find in the property sheet of each component under the "View" header).
RubyMotion will take care of compiling your .xib file into a .nib file, so enjoy :)
In your UIViewController derived class, load the nib using loadNibNamed:owner:options:, as shown below.
In viewDidLoad, fetch your various components using viewWithTag: and add events handlers using addTarget:action:forControlEvents:,as show below.
As a bonus, next time you want to edit your xib, just do open resources/MyView.xib, it will only launch the good parts of XCode.
class CalculatorViewController < UIViewController
def loadView
views = NSBundle.mainBundle.loadNibNamed "Keyboard", owner:self, options:nil
self.view = views[0]
end
def viewDidLoad
button = view.viewWithTag 1
button.addTarget self, action:'buttonTapped:', forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside
end
def buttonTapped(button)
# ...
end
end
Yes you can use Interface Builder in RubyMotion.
.xib files that are located in the resources directory are automatically compiled into .nib files and available to your project.
There is even a way to support outlets if you are so inclined :
https://github.com/yury/ib#readme
http://ianp.org/2012/05/07/rubymotion-and-interface-builder/
But if you really want to use IB then you could still probably use it to lay out your UI and just call
NSBundle.mainBundle.loadNibNamed(MY_NIB_NAME, owner:self, options:nil)
or similar. I don't think that RubyMotion does any name mangling so you can use your ruby classes in IB by explicitly setting them.
You can probably build the interface in IB and call the command-line tools to compile the XIB to a NIB.
However, you aren't going to be able to connect outlets or assign actions because IB can't parse the Ruby source files for the IBOutlet and IBAction tokens. Normally, the NIB loading code makes those connections for you after loading your NIB. You'll have to do that yourself, in code.
Of the two glaring weaknesses in RubyMotion, to me this is the worst. (The other is that lack of code completion will make writing to the Cocoa APIs really tedious.)
Cappuccino had the same problem. They developed a tool called XcodeCapp: https://github.com/cappuccino/cappuccino/tree/master/Tools/XcodeCapp
It creates "dummy" Obj-C files that you can connect your outlets and actions to in IB, automatically parses them in the background and enables you to use IB to layout your Cappuccino UIs.
It should be possible to take a similar approach with RubyMotion (if you really want to use IB).
Johannes
There is someone who has made that:
Here is a tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOapNvehbg4
And this is the website https://github.com/yury/ib
Extra-Tipp: To find wrappers for rubymotion check this source
http://rubymotion-wrappers.com/
Hope this helps
I am just about to start a universal iOS application. I want to make this application using interface builder only.
Can some one suggect how can I arrange the two nib files? Whenever I create a class only one xib file is created, but I want two xib files, one for iPhone and the other for iPad application as this a universal application.
Also can you suggest which approach would be better i.e. making UI for this universal application through interface or using coding.
Just add another xib file to the project. You can start by making a copy of the first version you make, or with a blank xib.
To ensure correct xib is loaded at runtime you have a few options. I prefer to overload nibName on UIViewController, but you can also just call initWithNibName:, passing the correct nib name.
If you overload nibName, it might be something like this:
- (NSString*) nibName
{
return UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone ? #"myphonenib" : #"mypadnib";
}
Personally given a choice, I prefer using xib, as the purpose of them is to "hide" GUI code making "function" code uncluttered..also "WYSIWYG" UI design kicks it for speed of development.
As for adding XIB...do As TomSwift suggest, just add them later
or as I did, do them on bulk later...i.e.
develop iphone bits first
Make copy of project
Convert copy to iPad
Rename Appdelegate & xib with your naming standard e.g *iPad suffix
Retrofit copied into your universal original.
(Note making sure you get all references changes and correct can be tidious & backup everything :)
Good luck.