iOS and Swift Essentials

Overview

• Experienced developers wanting to learn the fundamentals of iOS development.

• Developers should have some experience with an object-oriented programming language such as Java before attending this class.

• Understand how Xcode is organized and feel comfortable navigating the development environment.

• Learn about the Swift programming language and best practices in order to write idiomatic code.

• Create interfaces that scale across a variety of screen sizes and devices using Auto Layout and size classes.

• Display lists of data using table views and collection views.

• Interact with web services and JSON to fetch and display data.

• Localize applications to support other locales.

• Persist data using archiving and Core Data.

Pre-Course Assignment

This class is intensive! So that we can make the best use of our time together, please come to class with an understanding of the basic Swift syntax. You can get all you need by working through our Swift pre-course workbook, which will be sent to you after registering for class.

Xcode and iOS

Please download the latest version of Xcode, which is necessary for the class. You can get the latest version of Xcode from the Mac App Store. iOS 14 is available as an over-the-air update for your iOS device if you’ll be bringing one. Please plan to download Xcode and run OS updates prior to arriving for class. Xcode requires that your Mac be running macOS 10.15.4 or later.

Device Provisioning

In order to get the best possible experience from the class, we recommend that you bring an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with you. Testing the apps that we write in class will be much more fun if you can see them on your device.

*We will be using iOS 14 for all examples and exercises in this class, so devices should be running iOS 14.

If you don’t have access to a device, don’t despair! It’s more fun to test your apps during class on a device, but all of the exercises in class can be performed just fine using the iOS Simulator that’s included with Xcode.

SWIFT

• Understand elements of the Swift standard library

• Learn about Swift’s approach to safety and how to use it to write better apps

• Implement Swift’s functional patterns and utilize extensions to extend “out-of-the-box” functionality

XCODE

• Navigate Apple’s IDE for developing iOS applications

• Debug problems with applications using the tools that Xcode provides

USER INTERFACES

• Explore basic interface elements such as labels, buttons, and segmented controls

• Use text fields along with the delegation design pattern to gather user input

• Build interfaces more easily using stack views

• Use containers such as tab bar and navigation controllers to manage more complicated application structures

• Design flexible interfaces that scale across different devices and screen sizes using Auto Layout and size classes

COLLECTIONS

• Learn how to utilize the data source design pattern

• Display lists of elements using table views

• Display grids of elements using collection views

LOCALIZATION

• Remove hard-coded locale-specific information – such as date formatting and decimal separators – from applications

• Localize applications into more than one language

DATA PERSISTENCE

• Learn how the file system is organized on iOS

• Use archiving to persist simple object graphs to the file system

• Use Core Data to manage and persist complex object graphs

WEB SERVICES

• Interact with live APIs to fetch and display external information to the user

• Parse JSON data into Swift model objects

Click this link for a print-friendly syllabus.