iOS 8 Application Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

Book excerpt: In just 24 sessions of one hour each, learn how to build powerful applications for today’s hottest handheld devices: the iPhone and iPad! Using this book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach, you’ll master every skill and technology you need, from setting up your iOS development environment to building great user interfaces, sensing motion to writing multitasking applications. Each lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success! Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common iOS development tasks. Quizzes and Exercises help you test your knowledge. By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion. Did You Know? tips show you easier ways to perform tasks. Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them. John Ray is currently serving as the Director of the Office of Research Information Systems at the Ohio State University. His many books include Using TCP/IP: Special Edition, Maximum Mac OS X Security, Mac OS X Unleashed, Teach Yourself Dreamweaver MX in 21 Days, and Sams Teach Yourself iOS 7 Application Development in 24 Hours. Printed in full color–figures and code appear as they do in Xcode Covers iOS 8 and up Learn to navigate the Xcode 6.x development environment Prepare your system and iDevice for efficient development Get started quickly with Apple’s new language: Swift Test code using the new iOS Playground Understand the Model-View-Controller (MVC) development pattern Visually design and code interfaces using Xcode Storyboards, Segues, Exits, Image Slicing, and the iOS Object Library Use Auto Layout and Size Classes to adapt to different screen sizes and orientations Build advanced UIs with Tables, Split Views, Navigation Controllers, and more Read and write preferences and data, and create System Settings plug-ins Use the iOS media playback and recording capabilities Take photos and manipulate graphics with Core Image Sense motion, orientation, and location with the accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS Integrate online services using Twitter, Facebook, Email, Web Views, and Apple Maps Create universal applications that run on both the iPhone and iPad Write background-aware multitasking applications Trace, debug, and monitor your applications as they run