I’m really excited because I use this program in my in-person training events when I do iPhone Boot Camp and I’ve wanted badly to integrate Storyboards and Core Data into the program. Now, I’ve been able to manage to get these two complex topics into the program by using a Case Study approach.

Before I go on though, check out this video below to see an example of the program and how it works in the broader Mobile App Mastery Institute community.

Here is what I’m going to do for this iOS Code Camp and all future iPhone Boot Camps:

iOS NoteMaker App Case Study

Students have been asking for “real-world” examples – essentially, everyone wants to know how all the pieces fit together. In the past, I would do this by having everyone rebuild a few different applications that were all simple but followed the essential pattern.

We still do that, but now we are focusing on building one application that I’m naming NoteMaker. For each major topic we will add another component to NoteMaker until we have a real-world working app. This is the sequence of topics we’ll follow to build NoteMaker:

Building the NoteMaker App

• Building New Xcode Projects
• Objective-C to start the Object Graph
• Cocoa-Touch Design Patterns (Implement Singleton)
• Storyboards (Compose NoteMaker UI with a Storyboard for iPhone)
• Core Data (Add persistence to the Object Graph)
• View Controllers (Connect the Object Graph to the Storyboard)
• Table Views (Flesh out the note list)
• iPad (Turn NoteMaker into a Universal App by adding iPad support)
• Skinning Apps (Using UIAppearance and more to skin NoteMaker)

Note iOS Code Camp is also going to feature these three additional topics and labs that aren’t directly related to NoteMaker:

• Location Based Services (Core Location and MapKit)
• Background Processing (Grand Central Dispatch)
• Web Services (JSON, XML and NSURLConnection)

if you’re interested in learning more about iOS Code Camp, then clickity-click here!

Why Does Reading Fall Short?

The problem with starting out is that you’re starting out and you think that you can digest the whole Internet at once. All this does is lead to confusion and inaction. With iOS as with anything else, there’s a hundred ways to do hundreds of tasks.

What’s the Solution?

It’s simple really: you need a roadmap and a little bit of guidance, at least in the beginning. Do the math: is it easier and more effective to learn the one best way, or would you rather slog through the 1000s of possible second-best ways of doing things?

This is why iPhone Training is so important to new developers. You can shave weeks, months and even years off the time you need to become a successful app developer just by taking a online class like iOS Code Camp.

Are You Ready To Invest In Yourself?

This is really the question… The mobile opportunity isn’t going to be here forever, but there’s still time to get in before things get even bigger. Are you ready to get started with iPhone developer training?

Why or why not?

Usually, your application will have a sub-set of objects in your object graph that you are using to store user generated content.  For Tasting Notes, this was a Notebook object that was made up of Note objects.

This is the part of the object graph that you probably have managed by Core Data or saved locally to your app’s filesystem in one way or another. This is also the part of the object graph that you might want your users to be able to save or backup.

Archive It!

This is where object archiving comes into play. In Objective-C you can archive your object’s state and store the content in a file. This file can be sent to another app, stored or transmitted in some way.

To make this work is a lot simpler than you would think at first glance. All you need to do is have the class that you want to archive adopt the NSCoding protocol and then implement two methods that the class must know to do archiving. Then you may use the NSKeyArchiver class to save the contents of those objects to the filesystem of your Mac or iOS app.

Adopt and Implement the NSCoding Protocol

Let’s say that we have a class named Worker that will be archiving content. The first thing to do is adopt the NSCoding protocol in the Worker interface:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Worker : NSObject<NSCoding>

@property(strong)NSString *name;
@property(strong)NSString *role;

@end

Next, we’ll head to the Worker implementation to implement the two delegate methods associated with NSCoding . These two methods will be used by the archiver to populate object data and to store the object data to a file so we will be letting the class know who to index the property values using key-value coding like scheme.

#import "Worker.h"

@implementation Worker
@synthesize name, role;

-(NSString *)description{
    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@, %@", name, role];
}

- (void) encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder {
    [encoder encodeObject:self.name forKey:@"namekey"];
    [encoder encodeObject:self.role forKey:@"rolekey"];
}

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder {
    self.name = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"namekey"];
    self.role = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:@"rolekey"];

    return self;
}

@end

Essentially, we’re associating string keys with property values in these two methods.

Save Objects to Filesystem

Once your class supports archiving you can use the NSKeyedArchiver to save the content to the file system. In iOS, you would need to use the documents directory but Mac apps can save to any directory on your Mac. Here’s an example of how you could do this:

BOOL dataArchived = [NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:workerObject
                                                toFile:@"/Users/Shared/workerObject.dat"];

Of course, this is assuming that you already have a Worker object already set up with content. You can try this from a Mac to see the file that was created easily.

Note to decode the object graph you can use NSKeyedUnarchiver . Does anyone have any thoughts on what this will look like? Please post that code in the comments below!

 Skip right the part where you get your free iMAM iOS SDK Training Module

Ahead of this content revision, I’ve completely refurbished the iMAM website to include full social networking for students including working groups (think BaseCamp for learning), a document sharing and collaboration system, achievements (let’s make learning like playing video games!), Twitter-like activity streams and loads more.

What I’m giving you today is a sneak peak at this new content system for iOS Training.  You will see the venerable Hello World application of course and you will see the format of the videos, labs and code so you know exactly what you are signing up for.  I’m throwing in some thoughts about my teaching philosophy as well so you can really see what you’re in for.

To get your free iOS SDK iMAM module click here.

Achievements

I want to inject a some more fun into the iOS training experience, so I’ve started experimenting with Achievements. The idea is to give you some props for when you reach critical milestones like publishing an app or starting a career around iOS.

In the Catch Up activity stream that some people have already been awarded Achievements for completing iOS Code Camp and publishing their own applications.

To see all the Achievements and who has unlocked them click here:

http://institute.mobileappmastery.com/achievements/

Lifetime Group

Lifetime members are people who  have taken iOS Code Camp or iPhone Boot Camp in the past. I’ve created this exclusive group for these people. But, to get invited you must Friend me before I invite into the group (and you have to accept). I’m planning on adding some content to that group. For example, the first draft of my new book chapters on Web Services and Core Data will be added soon.

See the FAQ page on the iMAM website for more details on exactly how to friend me and get an invite to the Lifetime Group.

Profile Pages

I’ve added new Profile Page links that you can add to your profile. I’m keeping it simple and allowing you to link to your personal blog (or facebook page), company URL and app URL. The idea is that we don’t need you to reproduce what you’ve setup on other social networks but it would be nice for people to have a way to network with you outside of iMAM.

I really hope that these profile links will give you a way to share what you are doing + help promote your app or website.

See my public profile on iMAM as an example of how you can use this feature.

What do you think of these additions to iMAM so far?

What are you doing in May? I hope you said, “Crushing It With iPhone Apps!”. That’s what I’ll be doing and helping 15 of my readers do the same at iOS Code Camp.

In the last iOS Code Camp I expanded the training program to six weeks covering about 60 hours worth of content and it’s proving to be the a great fit. This next time around, I’m retooling the entire program from the ground up. But, you still get access to the original program so now you will get twice the content!

What Do You Get With iOS Code Camp Again?

The purpose of iOS Code Camp is to get you up to speed as a mobile app developer as quickly as possible. Keeping this in mind, I provide you with:

Graduates of iOS Code Camp Get a Super Bonus!

FYI: after you finish the program, you continue to have access to the content itself, all future content programs created for Mobile App Mastery Institute and you get to use the iMAM social network.

Sounds Good Right?

To learn more about iOS Code Camp click here: iOS Code Camp.

BTW: There are only 15, 13 spots available total for each iOS Code Camp as of today.

I’ve got a great idea for an app, but no idea how to program or time to make an app myself.  Would you like to do it for me?  I already asked a developer to do it, but she wanted way too much money.  Maybe we can just do a profit share.  It’s a REALLY GREAT/ORIGINAL/NOVEL IDEA and I’m pretty good at business or at least a people person.

Ok.  There are variations on this email like “what is the cheapest way to make the simplest app” or “do you know someone who will work for free or for very little”.

Today, I’m Answering Your Question!

First off, that’s great that you are interested in getting involved in this platform.  Mobile is really an exciting technology and working on mobile technology is just plain fun.

Before I answer your question directly I just want to list some of the assumptions that I make when deciding whether to pass on a request like this to my network of developers just so you know.

Software developers are professionals just like lawyers, accountants and doctors.  So when software developers charge a consulting rate it will be similar to other professionals.  Most of the software developers who I know would charge at least $125 per hour for consulting work and that’s not necessarily for mobile app development.

What figures in for me is this:

• Is the emailer (that’s you) likely to be willing to pay $125 per hour for a few weeks to a consultant to make your application.
• How likely is your idea going to be so great that it’s worthwhile for a developer to spend a few weeks or months working your your idea?  Keep in mind that developer could be earning $125 per hour instead of working on your project.

BTW: the answer to the first question is almost never and the answer to the second question is very unlikely!

Yes, it’s really true.  But more on that in a second.

You Have To Pay

Here’s the bottom line: most developers aren’t going to work for free no matter how nice you are or how great your idea is.  Software development is detailed and time consuming even when you believe your idea should be easy to do.  Programming is hard and that’s why it costs money.

The Great Idea Fallacy

This is the point where people usually say that they have the greatest idea ever and you would be crazy to pass on this.  It’s natural to feel that you have a great idea that would be successful if you could just make it happen.

FYI: the Apple App Store along is filled up with 500,000+ ideas that someone thought was a great idea.  Some apps even are great ideas.  Your idea has a 1 in 500,000 chance in being the greatest idea on the app store.  Trying to sell a developer on this slim chance by offering “profit sharing” is mostly just insulting – sorry.

Also: just so you know, most developers who have taken to the time to not only learn programming but also mobile app development did so because they have there own ideas.  In fact, most developers have so many ideas that they’ll never get to them all.

Final Thoughts

Not trying to be harsh, just realistic.  If there is any hope to get a developer on board with you outside of simply hiring the developer, you will have to offer something more than an idea.

Let’e recall some object oriented vocabulary first.

Entity

An entity is the abstraction of something that we are working on. Usually, this is something from the real world or a metaphor for an abstract problem. When I use the word entity, I’m referring to the abstraction itself and not to any particular implementation in code.

Entities are usually described in terms of attributes and behaviors. So, if I’m thinking of a car entity I would probably describe a car that has attributes like: the color red, four tires and sport trim. Car behavior would include driving, braking and turning.

Class

A class is the code used to represent an entity inside of our application. This is where we define what an entity is and does inside of our application. The process involves thinking of the entity and using code to represent the entity as an interface and implementation. We code an entity’s attributes in a class as properties and an entities behavior in a class as methods.

Many people compare class definitions to blueprints.

Objects

By itself, a class is just a definition of something and doesn’t do much. To use a class, you must instantiate an object from a class. An object is a particular instance of a class and you will usually have many objects created from a class definition. Objects are composed of other objects as is specified in the object’s class definition.

The Object Graph

The object graph is an application’s network of objects and their relationships. These are the objects that are created and used when a user is actively using an application. The object graph can quickly become very rich and complicated as the user starts to create objects from our class definitions. You can think of your object graph in terms of every object in your application, including system and user interface objects.

More likely, you will think of your object graph as the objects that are part of your data model.

Note The data model refers to the Model part of a design pattern called Model-View-Controller (MVC) that splits the responsibilities of an application into three areas: the Model (your representation of the entities you are working with), the View (the user interface) and the Controller (the connection between the Model and the View).

• Application Development With XCode
• Working With Strings And Numbers
• Working With Object Collections
• File System
• Dates And Timers
• Multithreading And Asynchronous Processing
• Consuming Web Content
• Memory Management (with and without ARC)
• Working With Your Object Graph
• Core Data
• Using Objective-C On Other Platforms

This is going to save you a ton of time for both your Mac and iOS applications.  Click here to see the Amazon page and pre-order Objective-C Recipes!

Now, another Code Camper has published an app that’s going to help a lot of people in the medical community. Jadie Barringer just launched Critical through his company The Barringer Group, LLC.

What’s the Critical iPhone App?

Here is the description right from the website,

Welcome to Critical, one of the best iPhone medical apps available on the app store. Critical is an educational tool and reference guide that seeks to provide healthcare professionals with the framework to become better clinicians. Please take the time to explore and check out the screenshots and the interactive videos that will help you visualize how this application will work for you. Critical offers a host of references including: Pediatrics, RSI, Lab Values, Hemodynamics, Intraortic Balloon Counter Pulsation (IABP), Waveform Capnography, Imaging and much more here. It also features images, diagrams, and interactive videos in high-definition to teach you what to look for in real life. All of these educational references are bundled into one iPhone application.

Intense right? If you are a medical professional this is one to check out.  Follow this link to find out more about Critical and how you can get it.

Are You a Software Developer, Geek or Coding Hobbyist Who Wants to Make iPhone & iPad Apps Too?

Join the hundreds of iOS Code Camp Alumni who have jumped head first into the mobile app developer space.  The next iOS Code Camp is just days away and there are only one or two spots left.  I’ll personally take you through a journey through iOS SDK, Objective-C programming, Core Data, UIKit, web services and more.  iOS Code Camp lasts six weeks and covers over 60 hours of training including videos and hands-on coding labs.

Click here to learn more about iOS Code Camp!