I recently started trying to develop apps using titanium.
When i ran one basic app containing two table views and some static data, it showed me 80 memory leaks and about 15 warnings - i think coming from the frameworks.
As an iOS developer, i'm used to seeing less than 5 memory leaks in complex apps too.
So, I'd like to know whether applications are getting accepted by apple when developed through titanium.
Also, I'd like to know whether,looking at the state of the titanium frameworks,its worth learning it right now.
Thanks in advance!
Your First Question, Yes! they are being accepted by Apple App Store.
And For your second question, its relative to likings of individual. I started mobile application development with titanium, but soon I realized that there is no better way to create an application then to create it natively. I would say if the applications you are developing are not scaled at enterprise level magnitude (means thousands of lines of code), better develop apps natively.
Titanium is increasing support and improving frameworks rapidly, its also reduces lines of code by third! and the best thing about it is, its cross-platform! but to my personal liking i always prefer native development. The power, the iOS gives you, Titanium wont!
One more thing i would like to add, despite all, you should learn it! :)
Related
Let's assume I want to develop an isometric 2D mobile-game such as Clash of Clans for example.
My main target would be iOS but of course Android would be nice, too (but not a must-have).
Now I have to decide to either program with Apples XCode (therefore Swift as a language, which I am already pretty familiar with), or develop my game with Unity3D (and therefore C# as a language, which I am also pretty familiar with).
Personally, I don't prefer one over the other.
So much for the set-up.
As I don't have any preferences, I'd like to choose the one that offers the most benefits for my 2.5D game to me.
The questions:
Is there a difference in getting an approval for the App-Store if you program in Swift, or use Unity; C#?
How big is the difference of the published package-size of the app between Unity and XCode?
Does my Unity-written app run as smoothly as my XCode-written app?
I hope you could help me with that.
If I missed some points there, feel free to criticize me and give me your opinions on it.
Greetings
Chriz
Is there a difference in getting an approval for the App-Store if you program in Swift, or use Unity; C#?
No, given this general comparison - there should be nothing here favoring or disallowing one over the other.
How big is the difference of the published package-size of the app between Unity and Xcode?
That is very hard to say. There will be added libraries for Unity inclusion whereas Apple would already have shared libraries apart of the OS - used by every app. Think shared libraries here - only Apple is permitted to do this. Not to be confused with the to be newly released iOS 9 'App Thinning'.
The larger weight will be media/images/bitmaps.
Does my Unity-written app run as smoothly as my XCode-written app?
Since they both end up using OpenGL, the end result should be the same or very similar. Obviously as the OS and device mature - if Unity doesn't leverage it, they could end up giving up performance advantages.
But... the flip side of being so tightly coupled with Swift/iOS/Apple, is you abandon your Android market - and if you are even considering it - I'd suggest Unity based on what you shared if there is a remote possibility you want to deploy to Android, desktops, *TV devices in the future.
It's a great thing that it's possible to compile an SWF into iOS native app. I think AIR is now the best option to write e.g. small games or interactive books. Of cause AIR app will be slowler than the same app written on e.g. objective C. The question is how slower AIR app will be. Can simple AIR apps be launched e.g. on iPhone 3G or iPAd 1?
And another question is, can arbitrary flash app be compiled into iOS native app?
Will be grateful for any thoughts!!!!!
Performance of AIR vs. Objective C:
For pure script execution, AIR apps perform rather slower than native, including on iOS. However, in virtually all cases the limiting factor of your app's performance will be rendering, not script, so it depends entirely on what you do visually in your content. This is why Crooksy suggested you look at Starling. Without Starling (or similar libraries that make use of the GPU), it's pretty challenging to get decent performance out of an iPad1. It can be done, but it takes expertise and incurs extra work. It will be much better to start with the huge performance boost of using Starling or similar.
Can arbitrary flash app be compiled into iOS native app?
As long as it's made with AS3, then it should compile. For whether it works, two main caveats come to mind: First, a handful of APIs don't work on mobile devices. (I think printing is one example.) Second, if you read in any SWFs at runtime, all actionscript inside them will be ignored. (Not for technical reasons, it's an Apple requirement.) So if your content is split into a bunch of SWFs you'll need to bundle them together at packaging time, and if you absolutely depend on reading in SWFs with script from the network at runtime, you're going to hit a wall.
Hope that helps!
Check out the new Starling frame work.
http://gamua.com/
Here's the start of a nice tutorial series (episodes 1 and 2)
http://www.hsharma.com/tutorials/
Lee Brimelow also has a few tutorials
http://www.gotoandlearn.com/
Regarding converting Flash apps into iOS compatible apps, yes that is possible but it depends on what the app actually does as to whether any modifications will be needed before it will perform correctly on a device.
I am absolutely new to Mobile App Development and was looking for an appropriate platform to start off with. I came across a project where people are looking to implement self-help advertising for a switch and home automation company into a mobile app. They want an iPhone App initially but also want to deploy on Android and other platforms subsequently. A similar app is this one.
After investing a fair amount of time in researching about various SDKs and Developer Programs, Marmalade caught my attention with it's multi-platform deployment feature. However after going through a few tutorials, of which I found these quite helpful, I observed that more often than not the tutorials concern Game Development. So, I was wondering if Marmalade is a more appropriate platform for Game Development and if I am looking to develop a general application I should perhaps consider a native SDK?
Marmalade is great for games: among the games that use Marmalade are Cut the Rope, Plants vs Zombies, Call of Duty: Black Ops, etc
But for general apps you should better use some other tool at least till their Marmalade 6.0. They have native UI support but it's still in development and you may miss some features.
Look at Titanium: http://www.appcelerator.com/showcase/applications-showcase/
I always prefer to use native language for the app development due to easily available help and tutorial for them. You can find lot's of help and tutorial, guidelines, books etc. for Android or Objective C development, but their are very few tutorials on Marmalade.
Marmalade is a great engine for any game developer, but for a non-gaming app, I'd not recommend it, since you'll never need to use the extra features which are it's USP.
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.
What is the best iPhone analytics offering out there? I've seen Pinchmedia but I'm not sure about it since the default application page says "Last Updated July 2008".
Nowadays Pinch Media has been merged into Flurry. Flurry is a decent choice.
If this is a quick project 'afterthought' you'll be pleased to know that basic Flurry integration is a one liner in the AppDelegate :)
I've tried several packages and Pinch Media is by far the best. I don't know where that July 2008 date comes from, they've been releasing updates regularly and are super-responsive to feedback and questions emailed to their support people. Whether by coincidence or not, several of my suggestions have made it into the current Pinch libraries
Aside from the excellent support, the reason I prefer pinch is that they seemed to be the only package that updates several times a day - usually once per hour. This is great if you're trying new advertising techniques, or just like obsessing over your sales figures (as every developer does at first :)
On the downside there are two issues I have with Pinch - their website can be a little clunky and isn't very iPhone friendly (ironic!), and at times they've had problems where stat updates aren't available due to hardware problems. I also wish they had an "overview" for all your applications.
It's worth pointing out that all of the analytics libraries are extremely easy to build into your application and all work with both the simulator and hardware so it's extremely easy to evaluate them to find the one you like best. It's even possible to use several at once - though I would only do this for testing.
Google :)
http://code.google.com/intl/fr-FR/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/mobileAppsTracking.html
Flurry is a very nice option. In my most recent app I have tried Appsee Mobile Analytics which I like if you're looking for something different - they give you video recordings of user sessions and heat maps. It's a little more interactive than other analytics
If you are interested in visual analytic tools, like heatmaps, or you want to get some inside on the way that your users use your app you should try heatma.ps
Quantcast, who is well know for audience demographics measurement for websites, launched it's Quantcast Measure for Mobile Apps program earlier this year. Their iOS, Android, and PhoneGap SDK is available on github.
At this point you may well want to roll your own - on a constrained device do you really want a third party library taking up an unknown amount of limited network bandwidth and processing power?