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Creating an iPhone Application - Tutorial 1

gengstrand 17y ago
For those who just want to make their site friendly to iPhone users, consider generating your HTML with http://www.aptana.com/iphone http://www.aptana.com/iphone instead of a full featured iPhone SDK in Objective C approach.
- liscio 17y ago
  I couldn't agree with you more. So many well-known sites are publishing terrible native apps for the iPhone which could have been much more effectively implemented by some CSS/js tweaks. For instance, the PayPal app is utterly terrible, and gives only a fraction of the functionality you get from PayPal's full site. A few weeks, at most, could turn the PayPal site into an incredible custom iPhone web app. And to add insult to injury, they don't even take advantage of the benefits that a native app gives you on the iPhone. For instance, they don't use the keychain to securely store login credentials so you don't have to re-login each time you launch the application (if the user requests it).
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- InkweaverReview 17y ago
  The two reasons why you would want to use the Objective C iPhone SDK are: access to advanced multi-touch gestures, the ability to store data on the iPhone. If your app is simple, though, a web application running in Safari might be a feasible solution.
  - whughes 17y ago
    High-performance applications? 3D? Accelerometer usage? Access to data on the iPhone (contact list and such)?
    - mtrichardson 17y ago
      Also, push notifications, in app purchases, simply being able to generate a second revenue stream...
- ankhmoop 17y ago
  As an iPhone user, I strongly prefer native applications. They can integrate with the built-in technologies (address book, location, P2P, MDNS, etc), and they don't simply stop working for 30 minutes while I ride the subway.
  - InkweaverReview 17y ago
    Good point. Web apps are going to be unavailable wherever wireless access is limited. I didn't even think about that.
    - TomOfTTB 17y ago
      It's actually not that good a point. Using JQuery you can get a web app as low as 1k so slow connection isn't that big a problem. Web apps can integrate into most of the iPhone's features like contacts (notable exceptions being location and camera). The other stuff he mentions like p2p, mDNS, etc... are very specialized applications that to the best of my knowledge only work on unlocked iPhones (I could be wrong though I know bit torrent has been banned from the app store) A web app is never going to work for edge case style applications but for the majority of web sites it's probably a good idea just to spend a day customizing their site for an iPhone (I've become fond of iWebkit: http://iwebkit.net/ http://iwebkit.net/) rather than buying a mac, learning objective-c, etc... Bottom Line: Look at your requirements and decide if a Webapp will do. Don't just jump to native.
      - ankhmoop 17y ago
        It's actually not that good a point. Using JQuery you can get a web app as low as 1k so slow connection isn't that big a problem. 1k is still a pretty unpleasant wait when you're looking for 'instant', and unfortunately, if I exit Safari to use another app (which I often will), Safari will very likely need to reload that page. Web apps can integrate into most of the iPhone's features like contacts (notable exceptions being location and camera). Web applications can't integrate with the address book, actually. The other stuff he mentions like p2p, mDNS, etc... are very specialized applications that to the best of my knowledge only work on unlocked iPhones (I could be wrong though I know bit torrent has been banned from the app store) The P2P I was referring to is WiFi/Bluetooth zero-configuration phone-to-phone 'networking', for magically connecting applications on two or more phones. It's pretty neat. A web app is never going to work for edge case style applications but for the majority of web sites it's probably a good idea just to spend a day customizing their site for an iPhone (I've become fond of iWebkit: http://iwebkit.net/ http://iwebkit.net/) rather than buying a mac, learning objective-c, etc... I really don't think they should be considered 'edge cases'. There are so many ways that the user experience is better via integration opportunities, speed, and native look and feel, that I don't think anyone should consider a mobile webapp to be a viable replacement. Webapps are a reasonable substitute assuming nothing else is available and you can't afford to produce a proper application, but I'm not convinced that you'll spend more time and money producing a native app than you'd spend producing an equivalently high-quality webapp alternative.
proee 17y ago
Has anyone given appcelerator a look? It seems you can develop native iphone apps using js/html/css using their mobile sdk. This would be great for simple apps I would think. http://www.appcelerator.com/ http://www.appcelerator.com/
- geuis 17y ago
  I am in the beta program. It has a certain promise to the interface and the team is very responsive when it comes to bugs. However, there are frequent and sometimes significant bugs that have really made it impossible to do serious development. Everything is essentially in a webview with no low level socket connections and only limited native controls. All this being said, it's a lot better than phonegap and will likely win out in the long run.
- wallflower 17y ago
  Here is another potential one that is in beta. Ansca's development environment is based on the Lua game programming environment and compiles to native iPhone. Have not yet had time to check it out yet but it seems to be very promising. http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/ http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/

For those who just want to make their site friendly to iPhone users, consider generating your HTML with http://www.aptana.com/iphone http://www.aptana.com/iphone instead of a full featured iPhone SDK in Objective C approach.

liscio 17y ago
I couldn't agree with you more. So many well-known sites are publishing terrible native apps for the iPhone which could have been much more effectively implemented by some CSS/js tweaks. For instance, the PayPal app is utterly terrible, and gives only a fraction of the functionality you get from PayPal's full site. A few weeks, at most, could turn the PayPal site into an incredible custom iPhone web app. And to add insult to injury, they don't even take advantage of the benefits that a native app gives you on the iPhone. For instance, they don't use the keychain to securely store login credentials so you don't have to re-login each time you launch the application (if the user requests it).
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
InkweaverReview 17y ago
The two reasons why you would want to use the Objective C iPhone SDK are: access to advanced multi-touch gestures, the ability to store data on the iPhone. If your app is simple, though, a web application running in Safari might be a feasible solution.
- whughes 17y ago
  High-performance applications? 3D? Accelerometer usage? Access to data on the iPhone (contact list and such)?
  - mtrichardson 17y ago
    Also, push notifications, in app purchases, simply being able to generate a second revenue stream...
ankhmoop 17y ago
As an iPhone user, I strongly prefer native applications. They can integrate with the built-in technologies (address book, location, P2P, MDNS, etc), and they don't simply stop working for 30 minutes while I ride the subway.
- InkweaverReview 17y ago
  Good point. Web apps are going to be unavailable wherever wireless access is limited. I didn't even think about that.
  - TomOfTTB 17y ago
    It's actually not that good a point. Using JQuery you can get a web app as low as 1k so slow connection isn't that big a problem. Web apps can integrate into most of the iPhone's features like contacts (notable exceptions being location and camera). The other stuff he mentions like p2p, mDNS, etc... are very specialized applications that to the best of my knowledge only work on unlocked iPhones (I could be wrong though I know bit torrent has been banned from the app store) A web app is never going to work for edge case style applications but for the majority of web sites it's probably a good idea just to spend a day customizing their site for an iPhone (I've become fond of iWebkit: http://iwebkit.net/ http://iwebkit.net/) rather than buying a mac, learning objective-c, etc... Bottom Line: Look at your requirements and decide if a Webapp will do. Don't just jump to native.
    - ankhmoop 17y ago
      It's actually not that good a point. Using JQuery you can get a web app as low as 1k so slow connection isn't that big a problem. 1k is still a pretty unpleasant wait when you're looking for 'instant', and unfortunately, if I exit Safari to use another app (which I often will), Safari will very likely need to reload that page. Web apps can integrate into most of the iPhone's features like contacts (notable exceptions being location and camera). Web applications can't integrate with the address book, actually. The other stuff he mentions like p2p, mDNS, etc... are very specialized applications that to the best of my knowledge only work on unlocked iPhones (I could be wrong though I know bit torrent has been banned from the app store) The P2P I was referring to is WiFi/Bluetooth zero-configuration phone-to-phone 'networking', for magically connecting applications on two or more phones. It's pretty neat. A web app is never going to work for edge case style applications but for the majority of web sites it's probably a good idea just to spend a day customizing their site for an iPhone (I've become fond of iWebkit: http://iwebkit.net/ http://iwebkit.net/) rather than buying a mac, learning objective-c, etc... I really don't think they should be considered 'edge cases'. There are so many ways that the user experience is better via integration opportunities, speed, and native look and feel, that I don't think anyone should consider a mobile webapp to be a viable replacement. Webapps are a reasonable substitute assuming nothing else is available and you can't afford to produce a proper application, but I'm not convinced that you'll spend more time and money producing a native app than you'd spend producing an equivalently high-quality webapp alternative.

proee 17y ago

Has anyone given appcelerator a look? It seems you can develop native iphone apps using js/html/css using their mobile sdk. This would be great for simple apps I would think. http://www.appcelerator.com/ http://www.appcelerator.com/

geuis 17y ago
I am in the beta program. It has a certain promise to the interface and the team is very responsive when it comes to bugs. However, there are frequent and sometimes significant bugs that have really made it impossible to do serious development. Everything is essentially in a webview with no low level socket connections and only limited native controls. All this being said, it's a lot better than phonegap and will likely win out in the long run.
wallflower 17y ago
Here is another potential one that is in beta. Ansca's development environment is based on the Lua game programming environment and compiles to native iPhone. Have not yet had time to check it out yet but it seems to be very promising. http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/ http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/