iPhone Application Development For topic has five main parts.
Part I: Getting Started
Part I introduces you to the iPhone world. You’ll find out what makes a great iPhone application, and how an iPhone application is structured. You also find out how to become an “official” iPhone developer and what you need to do to in order to be able to distribute your applications through Apple’s App Store.
Part II: Using the iPhone Development Tools
I start Part II by showing you how to download the Software Development Kit (SDK) — and then help you unpack all the goodies contained therein, including Xcode (Apple’s development environment for the OS X operating system) and Interface Builder. (You’ll soon discover that the latter is more than your
run-of-the-mill program for building graphical user interfaces.) I’ll also explain how everything works together at runtime, which should give you a real feel for how an iPhone application works. Parts I and II give you the fundamental background that you need to develop iPhone applications.
Part III: From “Gee, That’s a Good 1dea,” to the App Store
With the basics behind you and a good understanding of the application architecture under your belt, it’s finally time to have some fun doing something useful. In this part, I show you how to create a simple application that people can actually use — it displays a phone number to call if you lose your iPhone. (My friends thought it was sheer genius.) What’s more, the Good Samaritan who finds your phone only has to tap that number where it’s shown on-screen, and the phone dials the number automatically. Putting this handy little app together will give you some practice at creating a useful, single-screen program with controls. It’s a great application to learn about iPhone development — big enough to be useful, but small enough not to make your head explode.
It is also a “real” application. I go through the process I used to (successfully) submit it to the App Store, and you can download it and see it for yourself.
Part IV: An 1ndustrial-Strength Application
Part IV takes you into the world of applications that contains major functionality. I show you how to design an application with lots of data, views, and access to the Web. I won’t go slogging through every detail, but I will demonstrate almost all the technology you need to master if you’re going to create a compelling application like this on your own. I also touch on a few advanced topics — such as creating self-configuring objects so you don’t find your classes multiplying like rabbits.
Part V: The Part of Tens
Part V consists of some tips to help you avoid having to learn everything the hard way. It talks about approaching application development in an “adult” way right from the beginning (without taking the fun out of it, I assure you). I also take you on a tour of the iPhone sample code, pointing out some samples I really like and have found to be the most useful.
