#ios7.1

Firstly, a belated Merry Christmas to all. Hope all of you had a blessed and happy Christmas. 

So, I usually use my drawings to split into section, but I decided I wanna give a shot and try something new today, using infographics from Piktochart. I'm probably gonna use them when the post is related to informative content, let me know if infographics is a yay or nay.

As stated, no standalone Watch apps at the moment. I guess we'll just have to wait.

3 Main Features

1. Watch App (the app itself)

2. Glance 

Think of glance as the simplest view. Things like, quick summary of information that users can just peek and absorb the necessary info. A widely popular example used was flight information. Perhaps maybe currency rate might be a good Glance content. 

3. Notification

2 sections in Notification. Short and Long.

-- Short Notification

Contains app icon, name and title which retrieved from the notification received. Upon tap, user are then taken to the Long notification view.

-- Long Notification

Contains 3 sections. Header, content and footer.

Header = app icon and app name

Content = Dynamic interface such as images, label, table and etc. Has NO interactive user feedback. Tapping on this area will launch the Watch app, but only the buttons have the actions.

Footer = Buttons (dismiss button)

Challenges

Since this is a new framework with a new hardware device, it's gonna be interesting to see what user really want from the iWatch and WatchKit. But it's definitely a challenge to create the design and user experience of the Watch app. Not too simple, and definitely not too cluttered. 

Anyway, I've played around with the WatchKit framework, and will be sharing what I discovered with all of you soon. Stay tuned! 

Second tutorial in 1 week! A little too soon? I hope not because I just discovered something that I really am excited about. As always, the simplest things that solve a problem blows my mind. 

So for those who had been programming in iOS, you would know that if you used uitextfield, you would be able to have the placeholder text. That would serve as a guide for users to interact with it. But what about uitextview? Till now, I have absolutely no clue why there isn't a placeholder text provided to uitextview. 

Instead of whining about how life is bad without having placeholder text with uitextview, why not write your own? YOU CAN WRITE YOUR OWN PLACEHOLDER TEXT FOR UITEXTVIEW???? Not quite, but the result as you have seen in the video above is pretty similar. 

Are you ready to create your very own placeholder text for uitextview? Let's dive into it.

no.1 - UITextViewDelegate

In order to perform this "trick", you would need to use UITextViewDelegate's method. Before you implement the methods, remember to declare who is the delegate. Having done that, we'll be dealing with textViewDidBeginEditing and textViewDidEndEditing. 

Assign the delegate by doing something like this, 

self.theTextView.delegate = self;

no.2 - Text Color

If you haven't notice (which I'm sure you already did), the placeholder text's color is a little light. To do so, we would need to play around with the text color. Feel free to play around with it, but lightGrayColor seems to work just fine. 

You can set the text color of uitextview by doing this:

self.theTextView.textColor = [UIColor theColorYouWant];

no.3 - Write out the text!!!

Since we are trying to do the "trick", we would first need to assign some text to the UITextView, assign text that are placeholder text material, such as "Enter your name", "Enter description" and etc. 

Perhaps in the viewDidLoad, or in the Interface Builder, you can fill in the text of the uitextview. Example, 

self.theTextView.text = @"I am gonna write a placeholder text for you"

Sample code is as below:

-(void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView

{

    if ([textView.text isEqualToString:@"TextView Placeholder Text"])

    {

        textView.text = @"";

        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];

    }

    [textView becomeFirstResponder];

}

-(void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView

{

    if ([textView.text isEqualToString:@""])

    {

        textView.text = @"TextView Placeholder Text";

        textView.textColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor];

    }

    [textView resignFirstResponder];

}

Today's tips that I will be sharing isn't as exciting as the other tips that I have shared before. Nonetheless, passing data around within the app is really essential in iOS development. There are definitely several ways to do so, like delegation, notification, and of course segue! 

Today's tip will be touching more on unwind segue. In the video, it consists two segues, the normal push segue, and the unwind. The reason why I am writing this tip is because I was just dealing with passing of data in one of the app that I am currently working on, and have used unwind segue. The video just shows the general idea of unwind segue, which is enough to give you an idea of what it can do. It's definitely more exciting or useful than it looks in the video.

Below are some tips to remember about unwind segue! Let's dive into it!

no.1

When you are dealing with unwind segue, write the unwind segue method IN THE VIEW CONTROLLER THAT YOU WANT TO SEGUE TO! NOT FROM! 

Based on the video, the unwind segue method was written in the first View Controller's  (with the title Unwind Segue) .m file. 

-(IBAction)unwindSegueFromDetailsViewController:(UIStoryboardSegue *) segue

{

    if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:@"FromDetailsVC"])

    {

        DetailsViewController *dvc = segue.sourceViewController;

        self.theLabel.text = dvc.takeMeHomeButton.titleLabel.text;

        self.theLabel.numberOfLines = 0;

                 NSLog(@"takeMeHomeButton : %@", dvc.takeMeHomeButton.titleLabel.text);

        NSLog(@"self.theLabel.text: %@", self.theLabel.text);

    }

}

no.2 

Since you will be passing data, most probably you would need to let other view controllers have access to it. So, please place whatever data that you wish to pass via the unwind segue in the .h file of the view controller. That way, it's public and accessible by others.

Take a look at the code below. First thing, in an unwind segue, we do not write segue.destinationViewController, but segue.sourceViewController. 

Another thing to take note is, because I have created the takeMeHomeButton as a property in the .h file of the DetailsViewController, I can access that property in the first View Controller, or any view controller! 

        DetailsViewController *dvc = segue.sourceViewController;

        self.theLabel.text = dvc.takeMeHomeButton.titleLabel.text;

        self.theLabel.numberOfLines = 0;

no.3 

Get into the habit of writing segue identifiers. This may just be my preference, but I sincerely think it would be useful down the  road that each segue has their own identifiers. It's really useful especially when you're working on big projects.

Writing the sample code below will help keep your project slightly more organised. There's bound to have many segues in a big project since there most likely are transitions taking place.

if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:@"FromDetailsVC"])

Design. Extremely important aspect in creating a mobile app. To prove it, there's even a dedicated career line such as UX Designer or UI Designer. It's really competitive in the app industry, not only do users expect the app to function well, there's also certain degree of expectation in terms of design.

In all honesty, I've been trying to figure out for a very long time on how to perform the effect that I'm sharing with you. It's really popular effect in mobile apps. If you do check out, Yahoo News Digest, you'll see it. If you check out Spotify app, you'll have the feeling that they have this effect to a certain degree. The new Foursquare app has something similar to this effect, but Foursquare to an extra step. 

Anyway, let's get to it!!

I don't have nor know the name of this effect. So let's just call it Sticky Header. 

To perform the Sticky Header effect, you'll need 2 main components, UITableView and an UIImage. Go ahead and set it up, and hook up the tableview's delegate. 

I won't be touching on the basic tableview delegate methods in this task because it's exactly the same as how you would set up any uitableview. You can choose to set whatever number of rows or height for the row. You can also choose what text to display in cellForRowAtIndexPath. 

There are 3 main components to create this effect:

1. the y axis of the image

2. TableView's header

3. scrollViewDidScroll

1. Y axis of image

To get the stretch image illusion, we have to make the image to go beyond the 0 y axis. That way, we can give the user the impression that the image grows larger when the table is pulled. 

I created a float type variable called theDefaultY which is needed to be used in scrollViewDidScroll. Here's the sample code below for the first main component of the Sticky Header effect.

UIImage *theImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"your_image_name"];

self.theImageView = [UIImageView alloc] initWithImage: theImage];

self.theImageView.frame = CGRectMake(0,0,320,480);

CGRect frame = self.theImageView.frame;

frame.origin.y = -120;

defaultY = frame.origin.y;

self.theImageView.frame = frame

We're done for the first part. Let's move on to the 2nd.

2. TableView's header

Setting of the tableView's header is important to give a padding to display the image, while it's being stretched. What we are going to do is, attach a UIView that is clear in color, and assign it to tableView's property tableHeaderView. Sample code is as below:

UIView *theHeader = [UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,320,170);

theHeader.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

self.theTableView.tableHeaderView = theHeader;

Now that we have set a negative y-axis for on the image for illusion, and the tableView's header, we can move on to the final main component.

3. scrollViewDidScroll

If you look at the documentation, you'll see UITableView inherits from UIScrollView, which inherits from UIView and etc..Hence, explains the availability of this method.

This method is THE MOST important for the success of this effect. Within this method, we shall set the initial scrollView y value, the stretching action, and reseting the original position. Sample code is as below:

float offsetY = scrollView.contentOffset.y;

CGRect frame = self.theImageView.frame;

if (offsetY < 0) {

frame.origin.y = defaultY - offsetY * 0.8;

}

else {

frame.origin.y = defaultY - offset Y;

}

self.theImageView.frame = frame;

The past few posts have been in regards of what's new in iOS8. I guess that's both good for you and I. Anyway, I've always wondered how some apps managed to display their images in certain shapes or manner. With that, I decided that I should discover the tricks to do so.

The most common UI style today in iOS apps are circular shapes. We see circular images, circular buttons and etc. But what happens when we want to do more than just circular shapes, for instance, triangle, or hexagon and etc? That's what we are going to find out today!

As I browsing the web, I came across UIBezierPath, and I was stoked! Shame to admit, but the most complex shape I ever dealt with was just circular. Hence, explains my enthusiasm for UIBezierPath. 

As I was testing out UIBezierPath, I ran into warnings stating that "This is a serious error....Invalid context...and bla bla". There's definitely a way to solve it, but I was reading on various suggestions pointing me to discover CAShapeLayer. 

Alright, so by combining both CAShapeLayer and UIBezierPath, we can get an image shown within a shape. As you have seen in the video, Jennifer Lawrence image...or partial Jennifer Lawrence image was shown in the blur triangle shape.

8 simple code:

1. Create the image 

UIImageView *maskedImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"jlaw5"]];

2. Create UIBezierPath

UIBezierPath *thePath = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];

3. Create a starting point for UIBezierPath (CGPointMake is in coordinates system)

[thePath moveToPoint:CGPointMake(200, 30)];

4. Add the lines to the starting point  (remember to close path)

    [thePath addLineToPoint:CGPointMake(300.0, 400.0)];

    [thePath addLineToPoint:CGPointMake(50.0, 400.0)];

    [thePath addLineToPoint:CGPointMake(200, 30)];

    [thePath closePath];

5. Render the path to CAShapeLayer

CAShapeLayer *theLayer = [[CAShapeLayer alloc] init];

theLayer.path = thePath.CGPath;

6. Create the characteristics of CAShapeLayer

    CAShapeLayer *shapeLayer = [CAShapeLayer layer];

    shapeLayer.path = [thePath CGPath];

    shapeLayer.strokeColor = [UIColor blueColor].CGColor;

    shapeLayer.lineWidth = 15;

    shapeLayer.fillColor = [UIColor clearColor].CGColor;

7. Mask the layer to the image (I created 2 CAShapeLayer)

    maskedImageView.layer.mask = theLayer;

    [maskedImageView.layer addSublayer:shapeLayer];

8. Show the image!!!

   [self.view addSubview:maskedImageView];

That's all! With 8 simple steps, you can create an image within a shape of your choice. 

I was about to type about how many new features are available in iOS 8, but realised I done that in almost all my post regarding iOS 8. But indeed, there's a large bunch of stuff that comes with iOS 8 announcement. If you wanna check them out yourself, head over to the Apple's WWDC video section, and you'll see a long list of cool stuff. 

I am pretty sure you have come across pop ups informing you certain things within the app. That's the UIAlertView. Apparently, it's been replaced! The UI is pretty much the same, it's just the code base is different. From the user's perspective, there isn't any visual changes, and the function is still the same.

Alright, let's get to it!

What's this new replacement called?

UIAlertController is replacing UIAlertView. As stated above, it has the same function same as UIAlertView, and looks similar to it as well.

How do I use it??

With UIAlertView, we have a long code that includes all the necessary items to use it. For instance, title, cancel button and etc. And all you had to do was call the "show" method on UIAlertView. 

It's different for UIAlertController. Check out the code below:

UIAlertController *alertController = [UIAlertController alertControllerWithTitle:@"Hello There" message:@"Please say hello back..." preferredStyle:UIAlertControllerStyleAlert];

UIAlertAction *okAction = [UIAlertAction actionWithTitle:@"OK" style:UIAlertActionStyleDefault handler:^(UIAlertAction *action) { NSLog(@"Done was selected to dismiss alert controller"); }];

[alertController addAction:okAction];

[self presentViewController:alertController animated:YES completion:nil];

What preferred style are available?

There are 2 styles:

UIAlertControllerStyleAlert or UIAlertControllerStyleActionSheet

That's it! Not...that big of a difference. Just got to remember to addAction to the alertController and, present it.

تعرف على ما الجديد في النسخة التجريبية الثالثة من iOS 7.1

اعلنت شركة أبل يوم امس باصدار النسخة التجريبية الثالثة BETA 3 من نظام التشغيل iOS بالاصدار iOS 7.1 كما ذكرنا في السابق بطرح النسخة التجريبية الاولى والثانية حيث جائت النسخة التجريبية الثالثة بتغييرات على الالوان واشكال الازرار كما يلي :

لوحة المفاتيح: حيث حصل تغيير طفيف في لوحة المفاتيح في الخط اكثر وضوحا ، وكذلك تصميم جديد لزر الحذف ، وزر Shift حيث اصبحا بشكل مختلف عن السابق .

  لوحة المفاتيح…

Get UIColour code from website for iOS

Hi,

Here we will get the colour codes that what did you need

here is the Link

-ktrkathir