Up to previous entry, we’ve successfully connected to DZone RSS Feed and parsed its XML. Given we’re working with mobile devices that could be disconnected from the internet, we want to persist the parsed RSS XML. This is helpful as it allows our app to display the most recently downloaded content when there’s no internet connectivity. Persisting RSS Content Following prior tutorial, let’s create a group call “Util” and associate it to a specific file system folder “Util”. Then, add a new file called JSTRRSSUtil, a subclass of NSObject, to this group. Let’s expose a convenience method in our header…
Tag: <span>Development</span>
In previous tutorial, we learn to make a call to a website and download its content. Since we are dealing with RSS, we need to be able to parse the resulting XML data. Here’s an example article from DZone article at the time of writing this blog. With objective-c foundation library, we can easily parse the above XML by simply implementing the optional methods of NSXMLParserDelegate. We will pick out only the relevant data from each item and store them in dictionary. Each item will then be added to an array to be used in our storyboarding tutorial. NSXMLParserDelegate Like in…
Now that we have our idea and our visual mock ups, let’s start coding. I will be using Xcode 4.6.2, it is the latest at the time of this writing If you have never developed in Objective-C but did some other coding in C++ or C for example it should be pretty simple to catch up. I personally haven’t touched C or C++ since college, some 15 years ago. Even with knowledge of Java and C#, I was able to pick up Objective-C. I highly recommend reading iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide as well. Create a blank project Open Xcode from your dock. If it’s not on your dock,…
Now that I have my iPhone App idea, I like to draft out on a piece of paper what my app will look visually. If you’re not a fan of drawing or can’t draw, here’s a simple online tool to help visualize your iPhone app. Looking at the content of the RSS feed from DZone, I want my application to look as follows. Don’t worry about getting every details right the first time. Trust me, it’ll evolve over time. Given the above, I know that I will need a tab bar to switch screens from Feature Links and Latest Links. I also want to…
The hardest part is coming up with the idea. Given the success to failure ratio, don’t expect to make a quick buck building an app. Majority of developers barely break even. I’m in that failures bucket. Luckily, my primary objective is self-education. If the result of it interest/entertains others, great! Regardless, I’ve learned from the experience. For this tutorial, I’ve decided to make a DZone RSS app. This tutorial is a 7-part series: The Idea Putting Pen to Paper Interacting with web sites Parsing RSS XML Persisting RSS content Storyboarding In-App web browsing If you never visited DZone, I highly recommend it.…