Category: Code Reuse

iOS file management with FileManager in protocol-oriented Swift 4

NOTE: My latest tutorial has just been released, which uses the code shown herein to introduce error handling in Swift 4.

[Download the Xcode 9 project from GitHub so you can follow along with my code explanation and try iOS file management features yourself!]

How many of you have written iOS apps that work with files? I’m talking about developing apps that read, write, create, copy, move, and delete files in the app’s sandboxed file system. I’m not talking about reading an image from your app bundle so you can display it on screen, like so:

I’m talking about apps like Adobe Photoshop Express which is only useful if it can edit image files; Apple’s Pages and Numbers apps which are only useful if they can edit word processor and spreadsheet/chart files, respectively; and, Microsoft Word which is only useful if it can edit word processor documents. Yes, you can solely work from/in the cloud with all these apps, but you can also opt to store files locally on your devices. What if you open an email attachment or download a file from Safari? I guarantee you that many apps with associations to certain file extensions store those attachments or downloads locally first for editing and display, and only later sync files with iCloud or Dropbox.

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Protocol Oriented Programming in Swift: Advanced Applications

The original article – Protocol Oriented Programming in Swift: Is it better than Object Oriented Programming? – was published on appcoda.com.

Introduction

We’re going to talk in-depth about protocol-oriented programming (POP) using Swift 4 in this article. This post is the second and final article in a two part series. If you haven’t read the first, introductory article, please do so before continuing onwards. Today, we’ll: discuss why Swift is considered a “protocol-oriented” language, compare POP and object-oriented programming (OOP), compare value semantics and reference semantics, consider local reasoning, implement delegation with protocols, use protocols as types, use protocol polymorphism, review my real-world POP Swift code, and finally, discuss why I’ve not bought 100% into POP. Download the source code from the article so you can follow along: There are 2 playgrounds and one project on GitHub, both in Xcode 9 format and written in Swift 4.

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Protocol Oriented Programming in Swift: An Introduction

My original article — Protocol Oriented Programming in Swift: An Introduction — was published on appcoda.com.

(The second and final installment of this series is now available.)

The greatest enemy of software developers is complexity, so when I hear about new technologies promising to help me manage chaos, I listen. One of the “hot” methodologies generating much attention recently (at least since 2015) is “protocol-oriented programming” (POP) in Swift. We’ll use Swift 4 herein. While writing my own code, I’ve found POP to be promising. What’s very intriguing is Apple’s assertion that “at its heart, Swift is protocol-oriented.” I’d like to share my experiences with POP in a formal presentation, a clear and concise tutorial on this up-and-coming technology. I’ll explain the key concepts, provide plenty of code samples, make the inevitable comparison between POP and object-oriented programming (OOP), and pour cold water on the fad-oriented programming (FOP?) crowds’ claim that POP is a magic bullet solution to everything.

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Tutorial: delegates and delegation in Swift 4

The original article – Understanding Delegates and Delegation in Swift 4 was published on appcoda.com.

[Download Xcode 9 project with full Swift 4 source from GitHub.]

Introduction

I’m going to talk about “delegates” and “delegation.” I’ll lead you through a simple example of implementing the delegation design pattern in Swift 4, with full source code. My intent here is to show you how delegation works without getting bogged down in some crazy complex example. To help you become the best of the best, I’m going to introduce you to one of the greatest design tools to aid in object-oriented software development, UML. I’ll show you a UML diagram that I drew up to design and document the implementation of the delegation design pattern used in the sample app we’ll build together. Download the Xcode 9 project with full Swift 4 source from GitHub to follow along.

(Note: compare this post’s approach of using delegation with my next post’s approach of using NSNotificationCenter — to accomplish the same goal.)

I’ll show you how to build a user interface (UI) helper, a class that downloads a file at a specified URL. Most importantly, I’ll show you how, through delegation, a UIViewController subclass can be notified by the helper that an image file has finished downloading, and then the view controller can display the image on screen. For the sake of simplicity and clarity, we’ll pretend that Swift has minimal support for downloading a file from a URL. We’ll manually wire up the notification that the file has finished downloading using the delegation design pattern. Here’s the app we’ll build:

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Tutorial: delegates and delegation in Objective-C

[Download Xcode 9 project with full Objective-C source from GitHub.]

Introduction

I’m going to talk about “delegates” and “delegation.” I’ll lead you through a simple example of implementing the delegation design pattern in Objective-C, with full source code, and then show you a more sophisticated scenario. My intent here is to show you how delegation works without getting bogged down in some crazy complex example. Download the Xcode 9 project with full Objective-C source from GitHub to follow along.

I’ll show you how to build a user interface (UI) component, a status/progress indicator, which you can display on screen for processing-intensive tasks… AND I’ll show you how you can customize the behavior of the indicator by using delegation. For example, when the indicator starts, you could disable your UI; when the indicator stops, you could re-enable your UI; and, when the user taps the indicator, you could cancel processing-intensive tasks. Here’s the app we’ll build:

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Understanding Swift 4 protocols and using them in your apps

NOTE: Learn all about protocol-oriented programming in Swift here, here, and here.

[Download two Xcode 9 playgrounds with full Swift 4 source from GitHub.]

We’re going to talk about “protocols” in the Swift 4 language today. I’ll explain them conceptually, and then we’ll start coding protocols with a simple example. We’ll then create our own versions of the Apple built-in Equatable and Comparable protocols, and apply them to two real-world classes, one for tracking financial securities and one for representing geometric lines/vectors. Finally, we’ll test our geometric “Line” class in a type of Swift playground that supports rendering user interface components (like UIView) live in the simulator. But first, please ponder the layman’s definition of the word “protocol” before moving on:

… The official procedure or system of rules governing affairs of state or diplomatic occasions. …

The accepted or established code of procedure or behaviour in any group, organization, or situation. …

A procedure for carrying out a scientific experiment…

Swift Protocols

Apple’s “The Swift Programming Language (Swift 4.0.3)” documentation states:

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Building Swift 4 frameworks and including them in your apps (Xcode 9)

Let’s talk about Swift 4 frameworks, one method for packaging, reusing, and sharing code. We’ll build our own framework and then include it in our own app. We could’ve talked about static libraries, but frameworks offer more advanced features — and will let us expand on code maintainability options in future discussions. (If you want to have that static versus dynamic library discussion, read this excellent article, but we won’t be debating the topic herein.) From Apple (my emphasis added):

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Understanding Swift 4 generics and applying them in your code

The original article – Swift 4 Generics – was published on appcoda.com.

Swift tutorials by iosbrain.comQuestion 1: Can I write one Swift function that can find the index/position of any specific instance of any type stored in any array that stores objects of that type? Question 2: Can I write one Swift function that can determine if any specific instance of any type exists in any array that stores objects of that type? When I say “any type,” I mean including custom types (like classes) that I define myself. NOTE: Yes, I know that I could use the Swift Array type’s built-in functions, index and contains, but I’ll be using simple example code today to illustrate some points about Swift generics.

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