Preface

With the arrival of the iOS family of devices, the direction of software development has radically changed. Today people are spending considerable amounts of time on smart devices instead of PCs, which is generating an unprecedented amount of revenue that no industry has ever seen. Despite this, it still fits in your pocket.

So far the application development scene for the iOS ecosystem has been dominated by Objective-C. However, with the introduction of the revolutionary RubyMotion tool chain, Ruby developers are no longer outcasts for creating pure native iOS applications. They can make use of every bit of the all-powerful iOS SDK; and the best part is this can be done without using Xcode.

Both Ruby and RubyMotion are the brainchild of folks who wanted to simplify things in a complex world. Yukihiro Matsumoto (also known as Matz) is credited for creating the Ruby programming language, which is often regarded as a developer's best friend. And Laurent Sansonetti is credited for creating the ground-breaking tool chain, RubyMotion.

RubyMotion iOS Development Essentials will appeal to a developer's mind, especially to the technocrats looking for a reliable tool chain for iOS development. This book] is a step-by-step guide to build an iOS application from scratch to deployment.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Ready for RubyMotion, gets you acquainted with RubyMotion. Here, we will start with an introduction to RubyMotion, followed by detailed installation steps.

Chapter 2, Instant Gratification – Your First Application, explains how to create a simple Hello World application and also the structure of RubyMotion applications in general.

Chapter 3, Evolution – From Objective-C to RubyMotion, helps you understand the journey from Objective-C to RubyMotion. This chapter is also a quick guide to understanding the RubyMotion syntax corresponding to its Objective-C syntax.

Chapter 4, Mastering MVC Paradigm, focuses on writing better code with the Model-View-Controller architecture. We will also learn about connecting the application to an external API.

Chapter 5, User Interface – Cosmetics for Your App, describes how the user interface is a key part of an iOS application. Also, this chapter explains how we can use the various user interface elements.

Chapter 6, Device Capability – Power Unleashed, teaches you how to use various device capabilities, such as Camera, Location Manager, Gestures, Core Data, and Address Book. We will create sample applications for each one of them to understand them better.

Chapter 7, Interface Builder and WebView – More Goodies!, explains how to use the interface builder and UIWebView with RubyMotion applications.

Chapter 8, Testing – Let's Fail Gracefully, discusses Unit Testing and Functional Testing in a RubyMotion application by following the philosophy of Test-driven Development.

Chapter 9, Creating a Game Application, helps you create a popular arcade game, Whack-a-Mole, using Cocoa2D and RubyMotion. This is one of the most exciting and unique features of working with RubyMotion where it's possible to create graphical gaming applications.

Chapter 10, Getting Ready for the App Store, explains the process of submitting a RubyMotion application to the Apple App Store.

Chapter 11, Extending RubyMotion, describes how to augment our RubyMotion applications by making use of the already available open source gems, such as TeaCup, BubbleWrap, and Address Book.

What you need for this book

To program with RubyMotion, firstly you require a Macintosh computer. Since RubyMotion is proprietary software, you are required to buy its license from http://sites.fastspring.com/hipbyte/product/rubymotion.

Who this book is for

This book is for developers who are well versed with the Ruby programming language, and are interested in developing native iOS applications. We do not expect you to have any prior knowledge of RubyMotion. With RubyMotion iOS development essentials, we will discover features of this amazing tool chain from beginner to pro level.

Prior knowledge of Objective-C and the iOS SDK can come in handy at times, but no worries, we have covered every little detail to make you a maven by the end of this book.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Create a contact_us_controller.rb file inside the app folder."

A block of code is set as follows:

    @submit_button.addTarget(self,
            action:''send_message'', forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside)

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

def setupNavigationBar
  back= UIBarButtonItem.alloc.initWithTitle(''Back'', style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain,target:nil ,action:nil)
  self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = back;
 contact_us_button = UIBarButtonItem.alloc.initWithTitle(""Contact Us"", style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain ,target:self, action:""contact_us"")
 self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = contact_us_button
end
def contact_us
 contact_us_controller = ContactUsController.alloc.initWithNibName(""ViewController"", bundle:nil)
 presentModalViewController(contact_us_controller, animated:true)
end

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$rake

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes, for example, appear in the text like this: "Open Xcode and click on Create a new Xcode Project."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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RubyMotion iOS Develoment Essentials