Welcome to my site! This is an unofficial site dedicated to learning how to write unjail-broken native apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Q: Why is there items on the page that look like they should be links but they’re not?
A: These are placeholders. I will get to them as I get to them.

About
What is this site about? Why was it created.

Setting Up Shop
What are the things you need to have in place to begin development on the iPhone/iPod Touch? What are the steps that need to be taken? What are some of the “gochas” that you need to look out for?

I had another setback when my certificates no longer worked. But things seem to be looking up:

• After about 3 days of not being able to approve the certificate request that I uploaded on the program portal, today I logged in and was able to approve (I’m the agent) the submission. My hope is that the rest of the process will go smoother.
• I believe I actually really and trully have got the initial configuration of a nib file down pat… so, when using it in a program, the program won’t crash!
• I can now make a very workable navigation controller type app with multiple branchs to its navigation tree using Apple’s navigation controller template.
• I am persuaded… at the moment at least… that I can make a navigation controller type app from scratch without using Apple’s navigation controller project template.
• I am getting a fundamentally better understanding of the workings of View Controllers.
• I was able to create a working view (with no controls at this point) operating in a navigation controller type app where everything is done in code! If I comment out one line and un-comment out another line in this project, it works the same way but uses a nib file for its view.
• I’ve got some code for building a button completely in code which will respond to it being touched. I’m champing at the bit to try it out.
• I have learned that a view object inside of the view controller that does not use a nib file starts out as black. One can use a line of code in the ViewLoad or ViewDidLoad methods of the view controller sub class to change the color to white or some other color.
• Though I don’t have a complete understanding of the MainWindow.xib file, I do understand it allot more than I used to, and believe I know enough to not need it if I choose.
• I know that if you change the button type of a UIButton that you create to custom that it creates a nice invisible rectangle that you can place on the screen somewhere to capture the user’s touch and do something.
• I know how to use the NSLog function for debugging/logging of my apps.

I’m sure there’s a few things I missed but I’ve come along way baby! I’m feeling really encouraged about iPhone development right now!

After being given the advice of studying the iPhone Cookbook by Erica Sadun in light of creating a tab-based navigation controller app for the iPhone, I went back to said book and revisited the application she has to demonstrate that sort of app.

First thing I realized was that there was that kind of sample in her book. That’s good. The next thing that got me excited was I think I was starting to get how to do this! I couldn’t wait for a moment to “try out what I learned.”

But allas for poor me… I solve one problem and another appears. How about all I get on my simple sample 2 tab app is a completely black screen?

So I have still not had a comprehensive success yet. The positive is I feel that I am getting much closer to success. Plus, I’m learning stuff as I go along this process.

I worked pretty hard over the weekend (specifically Sunday) on trying to get a tab/navigation controller demo app working. I played around with some sample code that another developer sent me. I tried a few things, added some comments to help clarify things better to me. Most of the tweeking I did worked.

The problem with this sample is that it starts out with two preceding views before it gets to the tab/navigation mode.

When I try to create an app that starts with a tab based app and navigation controllers underneath, it compiles ok but crashes when I run it in the simulator.

In a video about Mastering View Controllers that I have from Apple, the give a working example of a “Recipe” program that they expand to version 2.0 that does exactly what I want to do. The problem is that in this video there is not enough information for me to make it work! What I would really like is the source code for this demo app from Apple!

I have sent in an email request for the tab version of their recipe demo program that was in the video. We will see what happens there with that. This evening I am also planning on emailing back the guy (I believe his name is Shiva) who sent me his sample code and see if he can help me.

Again, we shall see. The whole thing is frustrating.

It has become quite clear to me that if you want to create a tab-based app on the iPhone that uses a tab-view controller, you will want the same app to do navigation view controller work underneath each of your tabs.

Yeah, there may be exceptions to this, but all the apps I’ve seen that use tabs also use navigation controllers too. For example, the iPod app uses both, as well as the Phone app.

You would think that since this is almost always the case that as part of the examples that Apple leaves on there site, that a tab/navigation controller app would be present. But at the time of this post it is not.

That said, I did spend a pretty penny on the videos of the iPhone development sessions at the 2008 Apple Developer Conference. And I finally found information on creating said tab/navigation typed apps. Their little example is a “recipe” program whose main poster child is some “chocolate cake.”

The lightbulb for this subject is coming on finally regarding this subject (even though it is still rather dimly lit).

Considering the fact that this kind of app is probably the most prevalent when it comes to non-game type apps, learning how to create this type of an app is very important!

Basically, when I get this down pat, the first tutorial I want to create here will cover this topic.