I see that I can create the the UI controls like buttons, labels and textboxes by writing code in the class, and drawing them through the "pushScreen" method.
My question is: can we draw UI design by drag & drop from a toolbox?
I have been working in iPhone development, and expecting that Eclipse would have a similar approach for UI design.
As much as what I know there is no alternate approach for UI design in blackberry except coding. The only approach for UI design in blackberry is through coding.
Related
I am new to sketch 3. I have a hand on experience with Xcode and iOS development.
My question is wether we can directly use sketch elements in xcode or sketch is only used for prototyping the UI?
For example, If I design Label with a text field in sketch then can I used it as UI Label and UITextField in Xcode?
In my experience as a designer that also develops in Xcode any solutions that claim to go directly from Sketch into Xcode either become vapourware after some time or don't provide a very good solution. I assume it's because Auto Layout is quite complicated and fragile.
It's best to just learn iOS development using Storyboards or possibly SwiftUI for layout. There are some elements that you can get from Sketch into Xcode such as colors, typography and iconography.
Here's a list of apps that can help you with that:
Zeplin: Handoff designs and styleguides with accurate specs, assets, code snippets automatically. https://zeplin.io
InVision: Prepare designs for development. https://www.invisionapp.com/feature/inspect
Avocado: Open designs without design tools. Export images without preparing layers. Click on layers to get code.
https://avocode.com/hand-off-and-inspect
Flawless: A tool to compare the expected design and the real app right inside iOS Simulator (useful for designers who use Xcode or
mobile developers). https://flawlessapp.io
Sketch to Xcode: The fastest way to get colors from Sketch to Xcode. https://sketchtoxcode.com
Disclaimer: I'm the maker of this app.
There is not a way to integrate the sketch elements in xcode, you can use a sketch plug-in you can buy:
https://www.paintcodeapp.com/sketch
I had the same problem, the design was already prepared in the Sketch and wanted to get the code from it easily. My friends and I've working on a solution for converting design into UI codes, last 2 years.
We've developed Monday Hero platform to improve the development phase and actually save time for repetitive code. https://www.mondayhero.io
In Monday Hero, you can upload design and get responsive code with Storyboard, Xib or only code options. You can also select the elements on the design, group them as you wish for your code library and download it easily in like 15 minutes :) It was a dream of me to get the UI code that easily, I hope it can be also useful to you.
I'm porting a PhoneGap application to native iOS targeting iOS 7. One of the elements is a rectangular <div> with another <div> layered on top that has a variable height and produces a meter effect. The best visual I can think of is a thermometer.
Is there a recommended UI element that would simulate this in iOS?
UIView is the closest thing to a general div in HTML. If you override its drawRect: method, you can perform whatever drawing code you'd like using NSGraphicsContext (including just painting the background a certain color). If you want something more elaborate, you can use a UIImageView and display an image for the various parts of your control.
Cocoapods.org has a lot of great reusable iOS components. One that sounds like it may meet your needs is MSSimpleGauge:
https://github.com/sabymike/MSSimpleGauge
I'm in the process of developing an iPad-only survey-app using MonoTouch. With monotouch.dialog (mt.d) I found that building these interfaces can come quickly, which is awesome.
However... I also found that mt.d only does about 80% of what I want. Makes me wonder: should I invest in extending mt.d to my needs or should I choose something differently over mt.d?
Some of my requirements:
Radiogroups without transitions: I like the options to be
presented right away (there's more than enough space on the iPad
screen)
A rating UI control, such as
http://www.cocoacontrols.com/platforms/ios/controls/dyrateview
Mixed radiogroups: like 3 predefined elements and a fourth which
allows for manually added content
What are your thoughts on this? Can this be done easily (I'm a trained programmer, but quite new to both C# and iOS development)? Do you guys know of any online repositories of custom UI components with C#/MonoTouch bindings?
Thanks a lot!
This is of course a subjective opinion, but my take on it is that if you believe you can do your UI in UITableView (which MonoTouch.Dialog is based on), then you should go for MonoTouch.Dialog. If UITableView will not fit your needs, you should look for a different approach. MonoTouch.Dialog is quite flexible, and open-source, so if you need anything to be different you can just use the source code and modify it at will.
Simple question. Does anyone know why Interface Builder doesn't allow for applying custom styles on UI elements? Why is it only possible to do this programmatically?
I can see how this might be difficult for custom UIView subclasses but the default controls definitely only have a tiny subset of the style options available through IB, such as background color or changing font colors. Why is this the case? Is there any way to approach a concept like application themes through IB?
My personal feeling is that Apple does this right. They provide the elements and styles that fit the HIG. If they start adding other elements/styles then where do the start, and where do they draw the line?
Also, it isn't like Apple actively prevents using custom elements/styles, they just don't include it in the tool set.
The last thing we need is a tool set full of bloat.
You'd really have to ask Apple as to the why. I'd guess that it's some combination of promoting consistent use of standard interface elements and limited development resources.
You can, of course, build interfaces using your own custom subclasses of the standard interface elements in IB. It's a little more work, since you have to change the type of each object you add from UIButton to MyGreenButton or whatever, but it's not difficult.
It's also not hard to imagine coming up with a controller-type class that could connect to all your controls and whatnot to customize their appearance in some consistent, theme-like manner. Add an instance of that to each nib, connect all the controls, and let it do it's thing. You wouldn't see the effect until you actually run the app, of course, but it sounds like you're talking about customizing colors and fonts rather than size.
Unfortunately you are at the mercy of the Almighty Apple Deity..... Bow at their feet and give thanks that you have what they give you..... lol...
Seriously tho. Apple puts in what apple wants and you can request additions, but the IB is fairly minimal in the way of features.
I think this may be by design. Somehow an Elegant Simplicity ?
The ability to customize the controls is given to the programmer however I think they want the controls standardized. I just dont know why they didnt give a little more variety in the controls that are available. Like a few more button styles for the ios devices...
If you find out otherwise I would definitely be all ears.
I think that apple should let you to customize more the controls, for games it takes too much time to make the custom control ( you can make it faster in android as you can configure it in xml)
Btw PaintCode is another option to make your own style for components, it will generate the code but its more like interface builder
http://www.paintcodeapp.com/
I would like to use sortable HTML tables driven by a Javascript API (e.g., BBC Glow) with the iPAD - however, I cannot drag an otherwise draggable item using the iPAD as the entire page scrolls instead of the element I would like to drag.
Is there a way around this?
was just about to ask this same question... but in a different way. no, iPad does not support the idea of "double clicking" or "drag/drop"... so my question was going to be "what are best-practices for modifying an existing UI so that it works for iPad/iPhone?"
ran across this project while researching:
http://www.gotproject.com/blog/post2.html
I would start by looking over how this guy's code works, and try something like that...
Firstly, use jquery UI http://jqueryui.com/demos/ for drag and drop functionality
and then add this script https://github.com/furf/jquery-ui-touch-punch for playing it in Ipad or Iphone.
Hope it helps.