Bonus Q&A

This webinar was an especially popular one, and we weren’t able to answer all of the great questions our attendees had. Our engineers were able to answer them offline—check out their responses below!

Thoughts on CoreData + SwiftUI tandem? And to make the question more complex, please touch on CoreData integration with CloudKit as well. 

Core Data is Core Data, regardless of SwiftUI. What a SwiftUI project offers is a full Swift syntax and some nice wrappers around NSManagedObjectContext. Core Data hasn’t had a major update in years. 

SwiftUI didn’t really give it an update other than the syntax and wrappers mentioned. You can certainly use the two in tandem in a production application. One of our engineers is currently on a project that does just that.

What are your predictions for the future of SwiftUI, UIKit, Storyboards and Interface builder? Is SwiftUI Previews better than Interface Builder?

It’s hard to predict, but here’s what I imagine will happen. Apple will continue investing into SwiftUI. They are “dogfooding” SwiftUI in more of their own apps each year, and that should help accelerate progress addressing issues and filling API gaps. 

UIKit, AppKit, Interface Builder—these technologies are not going anywhere anytime soon. In a decade, I imagine you’ll still be able to write UIKit apps in Objective-C using storyboards. But I don’t anticipate major changes to these technologies. They will get small features here and there, but more of the engineering work will be going into newer technologies like SwiftUI.

On comparing Previews to Interface Builder: it’s hard to say whether one is better than another. While there is overlap in their purposes, Previews and Interface Builder have slightly different purposes. Interface Builder is more about the building and less about the previewing—but it can do both. Previews are more about the previewing and less about the builder—but it too can do both.

How do you write automated tests for SwiftUI code?

So, what I do is make sure write comprehensive unit tests for the model and the view model (if applicable), and then, test the view part using UITesting.

Generally you are going to unit test your model or view model code. For SwiftUI, you’d use UI tests. The process and flow for that is identical to UIKit.

Do you have tips on customizing UI (like background color) in standard SwiftUI components? It is notoriously difficult when there is no view modifier for that, or it does not work as one would expect.

I think background should work now. And if all else fails (I had one map that needs some customized behavior on the annotation and the resulting callout), there’s always UIViewRepresentable.

One challenge when learning SwiftUI today is understanding whether a feature is missing from SwiftUI, or if it is represented in a new way/place/name. If a feature is missing, you might benefit most from using one of the Representable types to wrap up UIKit code. There are also a few GitHub repos that do this too, including SwiftUIBackports and SwiftUIX. SwiftUI-Introspect is another useful tool to have for filling in gaps.

All of the articles that I have read about SwiftUI bindings use properties. Can bindings be made to methods and/or subscripts?

A binding is a “portal” to some data that needs to be read and written to. Because of this, bindings only make sense for properties on other types. If you need more control over the Binding behavior, you can manually instantiate a Binding type with a custom getter and setter.

To create a hybrid SwiftUI / UIKit app, I’m considering an architecture with pure SwiftUI model & view models, some SwiftUI views, and some UIViews w/ their respective UIViewControllers observing view models via Combine.

The main thing is pure SwiftUI model & view models for all views, whether the view is SwiftUI or UIKit. Thoughts?

I think you might need to adapt some minority part to work with UIKit, but the rest might be a good idea. View models as ObservedObjects with @Published properties that can be subscribed to seems sound as well.

Is SwiftUI the appropriate framework for building an application that will rely on inputs from multiple external micro-services? Provided this is on recent iOS version.

Yes, I think this should work. When I think about micro-services, I’m thinking less about the view layer and more about the model/networking layer. That will work well in either UIKit or SwiftUI.

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Forging new words for snow and discovering they were more on the same page than they initially thought. In this funny but insightful webinar, Jaythan Elam and John Daub share some of their realizations about the opposite profession, their processes for overcoming pitfalls, and the amazing support they received along the way.

Join us for this webinar to learn more about:

• The importance of finding the right opportunity/environment for collaboration
• Highlighting the core value of curiosity
• What mechanisms do teams have in place to encourage collaboration?
• The importance of support from the entire organization
• The difference between true collaboration vs. solo efforts
• Learning to speak a common language
• The human connection Discovering new outcomes from the collaboration

The post Two Heads are Better Than One appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

What attendees learned: 

• A solid understanding of Flutter as a development kit
• How Flutter stacks up to other multi-platform solutions such as React Native or Kotlin Multi-platform
• Where our developers see Flutter heading in the future

The post Flutter from All Angles appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

There is a stereotypical tension that exists between product managers and engineering leads. The good news is that it’s a tension that’s driven by the desire to get the best product possible, even if the paths are sometimes different. The goal, then, is to bridge that gap so that the engineering team provides the best product possible on a technical level, the product manager provides what the client is looking for, and everyone comes out satisfied with the final product.

Our Director of Project Strategy, Dan Ra, and Projekt202 Chicago’s Director of Product Management, Tess Rethore, walk you through how to best build that bridge and create a harmonious and effective working relationship.

In this webinar you’ll learn:
– How to begin building out a team of product managers and engineering leads
– What product managers and engineering leads should consider as they approach a new project
– How to best define the responsibilities for these roles

This webinar is great for:
– Product managers, project managers, or the head of a product
– Engineering leads, technical architects, or tech lead
– Design lead or senior designers

The post Two teams. One Goal. appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

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What attendees gained:  

• You don’t have to be a developer to get a start in the tech industry. We’ll talk through several ways of entering the space and how to make your mark. 
• Confidence is key. Our Nerds will provide tips on how to own your job even before you apply.
• Entering the tech industry can seem daunting. But it’s not as unattainable as one may think. Best practices were provided on how to approach a new career in tech.

The post The Glass Floor – Rethinking the Barrier of Entry for Women in Tech appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

What attendees gained: 

• The importance of value in remote working
• The downside of remote teams
• Creating and refining your company values
• Setting expectations on communication methods
• Taking your culture thoughts public
• Welcoming New employees of the entire team
• Encouraging an environment of open communication and feedback

The post Collaborating in a Remote Culture appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

Attendees will gain:
Insight into some of the metrics and KPIs that technology service providers tie to User Experience
Real world examples of companies who have tied success to their investment in creating a thoughtful User Experience
A critical path to build buy-in and loyalty from your user

ABOUT THE GUEST PRESENTER: Matchstic
Matchstic is the brand identity house of the South. We believe that identity is essential, and to stand out in your space you have to know who you are. Our work does just that—helping you uncover and express what makes your brand unique and how you can drive your vision forward.

The post Digital Product Development: How UX and Brand Identity Drive Loyalty appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.