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Showing posts from January, 2019

Helpful XCode command tips

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   Xcode bundled with iOS Simulators has got powerful tools and options. In few cases we need to go beyond those options - via terminal commands. In this article I listed couple of them & You can expect me to keep updating. To show gestures in simulator //Note: Restart simulator after executing command for immediate effect > defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator ShowSingleTouches 1 To record video in the simulator //Note : Close simulator and run command > xcrun simctl io booted recordVideo ~/Desktop/record_file_name.mp4 Delete all unused simulators to free up mammoth Space > xcrun simctl delete unavailable Bonus : To show hidden files in the mac > defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
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Animating label text update - choosing a better way

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Recently I published a countdown app .  At one point of development - I have to show a timer on a UILabel which ticks on each seconds. As usual I started  setting text to a label object - self .timerLabel.text = someString Easy piece of cake right !?   But wait ... it won't take much user attention when timer ticks on every seconds. So I decided to make use of a simple animation while label gets text update. I found there are dozens of ways to animate a label. In this short article, I listed 3 best way you can animate text on a label. ( Spoiler Alert 👀- I decided to go with 3rd option)  1. Fade In - Fade out animation : CATransition class has got transition type `fade`. With timing function of CATransition - I was able to see the below result. let animation: CATransition = CATransition () animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction (name: CAMediaTimingFunctionName .easeInEaseOut) animation.type = CATransitionType .fade animation.subtype = C...
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Backing multiple iOS versions

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A latest iOS version update can cover ~85% of iPhone users which is significant compared to a newly released Android running just ~0.1% of devices. ( @StatistaCharts collected on September 2018 - iOS 11 vs Android Pie). If your application matters for the rest ~15% of “genuine” iOS users, then you have to spend extra time to support. Why does it matters ? Giving uniform user experience irrespective of iOS version and device factors - will give bonus market space for the sales. Essentially it will boost your revenue and popularity of the application. Deployment Target vs Base SDK Before heading to solution, we have to understand Xcode settings for Deployment Target and Base SDK.  A deployment target refers to the oldest version of iOS that is capable of running your project. To change your deployment target, open up your project file in Xcode and check the setting under Build Settings -> Deployment. Base SDK refers to the newest version of iOS that is capable of runn...
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Top App Store rejections and common reasons

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Apple scans on each and every app submitted to App store. Our responsibility is to make sure app followed all  App Store review guidelines  and will get approved before dead line. But sometimes the guidelines are interpreted differently by different reviewers and frequently change over time.  Interestingly, I exposed to some common and "repetitive" rejections. Those I listed below and you are welcome to consider it as your checklist. 1. If the app contains any kind of bugs and crashes will surely rejected. Make sure app involved in testing and cleared test cases. Also involved various iPhone models & iOS version in the process. 2. Lacking of meta data is also leads to rejection. The key point is Apple expects behaviour of app should match with app description.  3. If the app submitted with demo features will be considered as incomplete. So make sure your app  doesn't include keys like 'Beta', 'Demo' or 'Test'. 4. Even missing demo a...
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Upcoming iOS Conferences 2019

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Tech conferences are the source of educational opportunity & gives a chance of networking with peers. 2019 will be yet another busy year for a mobile app developer. An iOS developer just waiting for Swift 5.0 release or next version of iOS is not sufficient to get a brainstorm. When I found a few dev conferences already started selling tickets for this year, I started noting down in this article. I hope you will mark down in your calendar for next event by end of this article. iOS Conf SG 2019   January 17-19 @Singapore This conference starts in next week itself featuring more than 20 pure iOS and Swift programming talks. It also includes one day workshop for 300 attendees. dotSwift    January 28-30 @Paris, France This European Swift Conference focused on training sessions for intermediate and hardcore developers along with many interesting talks. MobOS Feb 14-17 @Cluj-Napoca, Romania MobOS Community Romania intended to build network around mobil...
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Popular posts from this blog

Animating label text update - choosing a better way

By
Recently I published a countdown app .  At one point of development - I have to show a timer on a UILabel which ticks on each seconds. As usual I started  setting text to a label object - self .timerLabel.text = someString Easy piece of cake right !?   But wait ... it won't take much user attention when timer ticks on every seconds. So I decided to make use of a simple animation while label gets text update. I found there are dozens of ways to animate a label. In this short article, I listed 3 best way you can animate text on a label. ( Spoiler Alert 👀- I decided to go with 3rd option)  1. Fade In - Fade out animation : CATransition class has got transition type `fade`. With timing function of CATransition - I was able to see the below result. let animation: CATransition = CATransition () animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction (name: CAMediaTimingFunctionName .easeInEaseOut) animation.type = CATransitionType .fade animation.subtype = C...
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Prevent Navigationbar or Tabbar overlapping Subview - solved for Card view

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Recently, I started with a Card view added as a subview of UIView in a view-controller. When a view controller created along subviews, it tends to use entire screen bounds and also slips behind Tab bar or Navigation bar. In my current situation, it's second case. Casually new iOS developers will write a patch by additional value for coordinate y and subtracting bar height from its size. A lot of them posted in SO threads too : How to prevent UINavigationBar from covering top of view? View got hidden below UINavigationBar iOS 7 Navigation Bar covers some part of view at Top So, how I got solved ? self.edgesForExtendedLayout = [] This  will avoid all subviews in a view controller get behind any bars. Read full apple  documentation on here. Full Source code below :  //Simple view controller where its view layed-out as a card. class WidgetCardViewController : UIViewController { var containerView = UIView () //MARK:- View Controller Life Cyc...
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UICollectionViewCell shows with wrong size on First time - Solved

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We commonly use Collection view where its cell size calculated run time. The flow layout delegate is responsible to return individual cell sizes. BUT in most of the cases, delegate method `collectionView: layout sizeForItem:` expects cell size too early. Before generating actual cell size. extension YourViewController : UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout { func collectionView ( _ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, sizeForItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> CGSize { return CGSize (width: externalWidth, height: externalHeight) } } For instance, if a cell size depends on external view and its frame is not yet ready - results with wrong (or outdated) cell size. Typically happens for the first time view controller laid out all views. You can find similar queries in StackOverflow community : Collection view sizeForItemNotWorking UICollectionViewCell content wrong size on first load How to refresh UICollec...
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Implementing autocompletion OTP field in iOS

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Long waiting is over. !!  iOS 12 brings Autofill for OTP text field which is close to Android provided a decade back. Previously in iOS we used to toggle between OTP text screen and message inbox.  Which was hard to remember and time consuming resulting a bad user experience. Personally, I have been asked from the client/customer couple of times to implement autocompletion for OTP field and took me a lot of time to convey that it is not possible in iOS. Why Autofill was not possible previously?  We all know that Apple gives at most care for user privacy. When we see iOS architecture, each individual app is like a separate island. There is no inter-app bridge between apps (exception for Keychain and URLSchemes APIs which gives very limited scope). Thus we cannot read message content from inbox. Where to start Autofilling? First of all, the target SMS need to have the OTP Code with prefix string "Code" or "Passcode"on its message content. Beware of OTP c...
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Static variable vs Class variable in Swift

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How Static properties differs to usual properties ? Used to create type properties with either let or var. These are shared between all objects of a class.  During class loading time, a single memory location allocated for the property if we declared as static. Static property belongs to a class (or struct) Type rather than Instance of class (or struct). Hence it also called  Type Properties What if we declare "static var" ? Since it's a variable, we can change it in future even after initialised. When we change the value of the static variable property, that property is now changed in all future instances. What if we declare "static let" ? static let instance : Singleton = Singleton() Since it's constant, we cannot change once initialised. Its value will remain same even if we share among all the instance or object of a class or struct. Useful to adopt singleton pattern. How class variables differ static variables ? It dif...
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