Understanding Objective-C and Swift interoperability Sep 16 2019

There are many reasons to use more than one programming language in a project. In some cases, a lot of work has gone into building a framework (years maybe). Rewriting the whole framework to have the codebase in the same programming language, might not be the best use of resources. You can see this in macOS between the two main programming languages, Swift and Objective-C (three counting C). In this post, I’ll show how to use Swift code in Objective-C, and how to use Objective-C code in Swift. We are going to explore how the interoperability occurs by building the code manually to get a better understanding.

Building a server-client application using Apple's Network Framework Sep 10 2019

Apple’s network APIs are many, the older APIs are well documented, and you’ll find lots of examples. Not so much about the new Network framework. One factor might be that the name is not that search-friendly. In this post, I’ll explain how to use the NWFramework by creating a basic TCP server-client application.

The server will work as an echo, any message received will be sent back to the client. The client will allow us to send messages to the server and display the server response.

Understanding a few concepts of macOS applications by building an agent-based (menu bar) app Sep 3 2019

With advances in the frameworks and tools we use to develop software, creating a new app seems like magic. We just click a few buttons, and everything is created for us. I enjoy magic, but I think that sometimes we end up being Framework “users” without any real understanding of what is happening. In this post, I’ll explain a few concepts of how macOS apps work, so hopefully, we understand the ecosystem better.

Using Xcode's visual debugger and Instruments' modules to prevent memory overuse Aug 27 2019

An essential step before you deliver your application to your users is to make sure that your app is not overusing your user’s resources. In this post, I’ll show how to use Xcode’s visual debugger and the command-line counterparts to check for common memory problems and also how to use Instrument’s to debug memory leaks.

First, let’s see which are the most common memory-related problems.

Memory issues

There are two common types of memory problems.

Understanding XCUITest screenshots and how to access them Aug 20 2019

Getting the screenshots of your app doesn’t need to be complicated, and it shouldn’t require you to install additional applications to do it. Sure you can use any other third-party library, but sometimes simple is better. Also, it is always fun to explore and understand more of the process so you can be the judge on what works best for your case. In this post, I’ll show you how to work with XCUIScreenshot so you can have easier access to your screenshots and later you can build any scripts to process the screenshots.

Solutions to common scenarios when using UITextField on iOS Aug 5 2019

At some point on your app development career, you’ll find yourself working with text fields to get some data from the user. Collecting data from the user sometimes involves additional work than merely reading text from an UITextField. For example, if we have a field at the bottom of the screen, and we show the keyboard, the keyboard might cover it. We have to do additional work to fix this. Like this, there are many other small tasks that we would perform while working with UITextFields. In this post, I’ll show how to handle some of the most common scenarios. I’ll cover:

Building a CLI tool using Swift and Vapor's Console module Jul 30 2019

Building a command-line interface (CLI) tools is a complicated task. We work on the logic of our application and also have to deal with other details like parsing parameters, handling the correct display directives depending on the TTY, etcetera. Vapor, the web framework, uses a module called Console (called ConsoleKit on V4) to build their CLI.

Vapor’s command-line tool provides a lot of functionality, and at the same time, it looks quite smooth. I would like my CLI tools to look more like their command-line tool.

Using Swift for scripting Jul 23 2019

Swift is a powerful language. It can be used to create command-line tools, iOS apps, watch OS apps, macOS apps and server-side applications. However, sometimes, we only need to complete a small task, maybe do some automation on our local setup or build a simple script to process data and then send it to another tool. Using Swift for small tasks is what I want to share in this post, not how to build command-line interfaces (CLIs) but how to use the language you already know, Swift, and use it for scripting.

Sharing information between iOS app and an extension Jul 16 2019

If you decided to create an Extension for your app (maybe a Today Extension), you will quickly find out that you need to access data from your main app. And soon after, you will find out that you can’t access files in your main app directly from the extension. The process is not as easy as you thought when you started. The good news is that there are a few solutions, and they are not that complicated. In this post, I’ll show you how to use App Groups and embedded frameworks to create the bridge between your app and the extension.

Text extraction tools for macOS and iOS app localization Jul 10 2019

Localization is not only translating content but adapting the content to culture, language and customs. This makes our apps more intuitive and engaging for our users. We can localize not only text, but we can also localize images, sounds, shortcuts, etcetera. A crucial part of localization is obtaining the text to be localized. In this post, I’ll focus on text extraction for localization. This post is not a general introduction to localization of apps, but when you finish reading the post, you’ll have a better understanding of crucial aspects of localization and can research other specific topics that you are interested in. As always, check my notes at the end of the posts where I add links and notes to explore related topics, let’s begin.