iPhone Programming Path Made Easy

Hey Guys! Are you interested to learn In this section we focus on important things useful in iPhone Application development. Most of the developers build views through programming. The brief approach is shared here and the detailed discussion with examples will be provided in the next Article. Programming quickly and worried about time and efforts? Here is good picture and short path to initiate iPhone development. Insight /Outlines briefly: One should know the 8 base elements before start doing iPhone programming. The eight base elements indicate the programmer about the things involved and also a big picture on efforts. However everything made easy and clear to you and help you quickly give you a thumbnail view of the big picture. 

1. Platform – Mac OS 2. Processor – 64 bit 3. Compiler – GCC 4. Application Framework – IOS SDK from Apple 5. Target Devices – iPhone, iPod and iPad 6. Language – Object C 7. GUI API – Cocoa 8. IDE – XCode GUI Anatomy briefly: Here is no confusion; the anatomy is simple layout of a native iPhone screen (view). However we see so many other layouts created by different developer groups using web (HTML5 and CSS) and native (Cocoa Touch) which are creative hybrid interfaces. See below the core native view. Learning scope briefly: Step 1: Registering as iPhone developer. Registration is simple first activity to access free resources from Apple Developer site (http://developer.apple.com/). Download IOS SDK from http://developer.apple.com/iphone/. Step 2: Installing of IOS SDK. Installation of IOS SDK is to create development environment. The development environment consists XCode IDE, iPhone development Framework and other tools. Step 3: Joining Developer Program Joining Developer Program is to get access to Apples extended developer facilities to sign and distribute applications. Step4: Building simple App Once the developer environment is ready, it is right time to test the developer environment with a sample application. Follow the below steps to run a simple application. 1. Open XCode (double click on Macintosh HD Developer  Applications  XCode). 2. Create New Project (File  New Project). Select “Application” from “iPhone OS” category and “View-based Application” for template. 3. Name the project as “Hello World”. 4. The finished Project contains folders like “Classes”, “Other Sources”, “Resources”, “Frameworks” and “Products”. Note: Don’t worry about folder names, we will discuss in the later Articles. The Project sub-folders vary from IOS SDK version and Project options. Please don’t select “Story Board” option in case if you setup latest IOS SDK 5 environment. 5. Double click to open “HelloWorldViewController.xib” from “Resources” folder of the Project. 6. It opens the View in Interface Builder where User Controls. 7. Add Label control to the View (drag a Label control to View) and add “Hello, world” to it. Now save and execute. 8. Hello World Application is ready and opened in iPhone Simulator. iPhone Programming Approach briefly: In this section we focus on important things useful in iPhone Application development. Most of the developers build views through programming. The brief approach is shared here and the detailed discussion with examples will be provided in the next Article. 

1. Tools (XCode, Interface Builder and Instruments) XCode is to manage Project and its files. Interface Builder is to design GUI/View using standard UI Controls available in Library. 

2. Language (Object C and Cocoa Touch) Programming languages are based C. Discuss more about Object Programming and Cocoa Touch library in future Articles. 

3. Design (iPhone Human Interface Guidelines) Design involves creative GUI using Cocoa Touch and Object C. Apple provided more detailed information in its best practices document “iPhone Human Interface Guidelines”. 

4. Processes (Testing, Provisioning and Distribution) 

Note: Along with the above four pillars of iPhone programming, we also discuss on the important other pieces like XCode Project Types, View Controllers, Interface Builder, Instruments, Core Data, SQLite, Core Animation, Debugging, Provisioning, Distribution, Auto Release Pools, etc. About the Author: Subramanyam Somayajulu is an Mobile team project manager of iPhone Software Development expert Etisbew Technology Group. Etisbew has an impressive track record and expertise in the latest Information Technology, Website Redesign, Custom Application Development, ColdFusion, iphone, Blackberry, Android, Dotnet, Php and Java.