Tuesday, 22 November 2022

iphone

New project workspace in Xcode development environment


At the top of the workspace, you see the buttons to start or stop the application, the launch settings field, which consists of two parts: what we launch, what we launch on.

We also see the status bar, in which we can observe the current task being performed in the iOS development environment. To the right, we can see the editor view settings: standard editor, editor with assistant, and view changes in the version control system, and there are also buttons to show / hide parts of the environment, which we will consider next: bottom (debug information), right (navigation) and left (utilities).

On the left, we see several buttons that will switch the functionality of the left panel, namely:

Navigating through files and folders

Version control system

Hierarchy of classes in the project

Search by project

Build Warning and Error Notifications

Automated Tests

Debugging

Breakpoints

build logs

On the right we have two parts: top and bottom. The entire right panel is utilities. At the top we will see the settings of the selected file and/or user interface element. At the bottom of the utilities, we see the interface elements that we can use.

At the bottom of the development environment, we can see debug information, application logs, and other useful data needed to verify that the iOS mobile application is working properly. You can open the lower part using the penultimate button at the top of the application, and this panel opens automatically at startup.

And in the main (central) part of the environment, we can observe the editor in which code is written and work is being done on the user interface of the program.

Identity

Display Name – The name of the program that will be displayed on the home screen of the mobile device

Bundle ID – A unique identifier that will be used in the App Store

Version — The current version of the project maintained using semantic versioning

Build – Build number, which should be increased by one with each installation of the application on the device

Signing

Automatically manage signing – automatic management of the application signature

Team – the name of your iOS development team

Provisioning profile – profile for signing

Signing Certificate – a certificate that allows you to sign an application with Apple

Deployment Info

Deployment Target – the minimum version of iOS on which the product under development can be installed

Devices — Types of devices

iPhone

iPad

Universal

Main Interface – Storyboard file that the application will start with after

Device Orientation — Possible device orientations

Portrait

Upside down

landscape counterclockwise

Landscape clockwise

Status Bar Style – Color of the status bar (top information bar with time, operator and battery)

Light coloured

Dark

Hide

App Icons and Launch Images

App Icons Source – application icon

Launch Screen File – the screen that is shown at startup

We don’t need the rest of the items.

Now that we have figured out what our development environment consists of, we can start creating our “Hello World” mobile application for iOS.

CREATING IOS APPS

First of all, we need to find the interface file called Main.storyboard. It can be found on the left side of the navigation bar.

Opening the file, we see the screen of the mobile application. Now we need to drag an element called Label onto this screen. This item is on the bottom left.

Viewing a Label interface element in the application area in Xcode

Drag it anywhere on the screen. Then in the utility panel, look for the field that says “Label”.

Adding a Label interface element to the application area in an Xcode program

And change Label to Hello World. After that, we will see that our element on the screen does not fully show our text that we entered, since it had text initially smaller, and it took on its size.

Changing the Description of a Label Control in Xcode

We fix this element in the center of the screen so that it takes the correct form and our text is fully displayed.

To do this, we need to find the second button at the bottom left, which is called Align and click on it.

UI alignment menu in Xcode

Here we see some options for positioning our element. We need the last two parameters. Activate them and click “Add 2 Constraints”.

After that, we can observe how our element is fixed in the middle of the screen and takes the form in which the text is displayed in full.

Aligning a control horizontally and vertically in the Xcode development environment

ASSEMBLY AND STARTING

Now, we need to launch the mobile application on the device and see if everything is displayed correctly. To do this, we click at the top on the choice of application launch destination and see a drop-down list:

Device selection menu for app emulation in Xcode development environment

In this list we see devices and their emulators on which we can launch. Choose any and click Run. The assembly of the application will begin and Xcode will show us the tasks that it is currently performing:

Preparing to run the application in the Xcode development environment

After successfully building the project, we will see that Xcode will go into launch pending mode and the smartphone simulator window will appear, which will be loaded. After the simulator has loaded, we can observe our finished application on the device.

Browsing app with iPhone 10 emulator in Xcode

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What are the differences between Android and iOS apps to consider when choosing a developer path?

iOS and Android app stores offer approximately the same types of mobile applications, but in the case of Apple technology and their OS, quality control is enhanced, which eliminates the possibility of creating clones of your application, as is the case with Android.

What else needs to be taken into account before creating an application?

– 80% of all gadgets in the world work on the Android system.

+ iOS-smartphone holders are more solvent and make purchases 3 times more often.

— For iOS development, you need a device with MacOS, which requires a significant investment. It also requires an annual payment in the AppStore, which is $99 (Account of an application developer in the Google Play Market is paid once and for all, the price is $25).

+ the demand for iOS developers is higher, because there are fewer of them.

And these are just some of the points that should be considered when choosing the direction of mobile development. For comparison, you can try developing an Android application (beginner level).

How to place a mobile application in the AppStore and promote a finished digital product?

One of the main requirements of the client when developing the delivered business idea is the subsequent placement and development (ASO-promotion) of the application. This is a rather voluminous material, which we have covered in separate articles.