readme.md

Bendy Tree iOS Library

Overview

This iOS library contains many small bits of code that simplify common iOS tasks.

For example, the iOS SDK has no simple method of showing an alert with a text input (like a JavaScript prompt). So I have a very simple Prompt class that works like this:

[Prompt title:@"Enter your name" delegate:self selector:@selector(promptComplete:)];

- (void) promptComplete:(NSString*)val
{
    NSLog(@"The user entered: %@", val);
}

Available Features

Right now the code documents itself. Here are a few key features so you'll have an idea of what's inside:

• Categories on common types like NSString, UIView, NSMutableArray, etc. For example:

  NSString* msg = [@"Hello %@" format:@"Josh"];

  BOOL contains = [@"OU, TU, OSU, MZU" contains:@"OU"];

  [users moveObjectFromIndex:5 toIndex:3];

  UIColor* color = [@"990011" hexStringToColor];

• Core data wrapper for creating, updating, finding, counting, deleting, etc. This is my favorite module of the whole library:

  NSArray* products = [CD find:[Product class]];

  for(Product* product in products)

  product.Description = @"";

  [CD save];

• Easy alerts, prompts, and loading screens:

  [Alert show:@"Hello World"];

  [Prompt title:@"Enter your name" delegate:self selector:@selector(promptComplete:)];

  [Loading show];

  [Loading hide];

• Easily manage app settings

  NSString* username = [[SettingsRepository current] getString:@"username" orDefault:@"Unknown"];

  [[SettingsRepository current] setString:@"BendyTree" forKey:@"username"];

Annoying Dependencies

Some parts of this library have outside dependencies. For example, the string formatting requires a 3rd party Regular Expression library. If you're not using string formatting, then it would be annoying to satisfy that dependency. But no worries - you don't have to.

The BT.h file controls what pieces of this library compiled. So if you wanted to use string formatting, then you'd set BT_STRING_FORMATTING to 1. See the comments at the top of BT.h for details.

Getting Started

1. Clone this repo into a subfolder of your project

cd my_xcode_project/libs
git clone git@github.com:bendytree/iOS.git bendytree

2. In Xcode, choose "Add Existing Files..." to add these new files

3. Copy BT-DEMO.h as BT.h

4. Remove both lines in BT.h that say "REMOVE THIS LINE" (this activates the page)

5. Add #import "BT.h" to your ProjectName-Prefix.pch

6. Choose which modules to include (follow directions in BT.h)