Is it true that everything you do in Interface Builder can be done programmatically? If your project uses Interface Builder to make the GUI, can that code be converted to native Xcode and inserted into the project?
It is true that anything you can do in Interface Builder you can do programatically. However, IB does not generate code, so there is not really anything to 'convert' to source code for your project.
Interface Builder creates archived objects -- serialized instances of class instances -- and works directly from those. While you can reuse your .xib files (which some people still insist on calling "nibs") in any number of projects, you should note that:
Your nib is already code: it's just very verbose and hard-to-read XML. This XML contains the serialized (say "archived") instances.
You cannot "convert" your xib to Objective-C code, or at least Xcode does not provide a way to do this (and I don't know who would).
If you do not have the classes that the xib expects, you will run into errors using your xib.
I wrote a utility to convert .xib files to code. It's still experimental, but should do the majority of the grunt work converting to code:
https://github.com/Raizlabs/Eject
You can try it out online:
https://eject.herokuapp.com/
Related
Summary of problem
I'm building a calendar app in Swift, and I'd like to start with the UI in this repo: https://github.com/erichoracek/MSCollectionViewCalendarLayout
This repo is written in Objective-C.
However, I'm not sure how to build on top of this Github repo using Swift.
Example of the UI I'd like to use in my calendar:
What I've tried
I successfully installed this library with CocoaPods.
I ran $pod install.
I successfully ran import MSCollectionViewCalendarLayout.
I added a new CollectionViewController on my Storyboard, and assigned it to my custom CalendarViewController class
I tried (dumbly) with the code below in class CalendarViewController,but I get this error message:
"Cannot assign value of type 'MSCollectionViewCalendarLayout.Type' to type 'UICollectionViewLayout'"
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout = MSCollectionViewCalendarLayout
}
I understand I probably have to use self.collectionView.register(cellClass:forCellWithReuseIdentifier:)...but how?
There's some documentation titled "Usage" in the Github, but unfortunately I'm still lost as to how to use it:
There's also an Example.xcworkspace included, written in Objective-C. I've gone through most of it. They include header (.h) and implementation (.m) files for each of the elements that they use.
There's a good answer to a tangential problem here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/45540130/3979651, but this doesn't directly solve my problem. I'd like to import this Cocoapods library, instead of writing on top of Objective-C files. But I'm also not entirely sure if this is the right / best way to do it.
Summary of questions
How do I link my CollectionViewController to MSCollectionViewCalendarLayout so that it has the same UI?
How do I use self.collectionView.register(cellClass:forCellWithReuseIdentifier:) in this case?
Do I have to write a new file for each element, like in the Example? (Event cell, Day Column Header, etc.)
Or, would it be easier to just copy and paste the Example element files (.h and .m) into my app? If so, how do I build on top of those files?
What I'd like to accomplish
I would like to import MSCollectionViewLayout like a library, attach it to my own CollectionViewControllers, and build my own functionality on top of this, all using Swift.
Thank you all in advance! Hopefully I can commit the correct answers here to the repo's README.md file.
You can better use one of the below repos which are purely written in Swift and has the same UI as of MSCollectionViewLayout
1) CalendarKit
2) Calendar
Note: I personally used these libraries and these are easy to
integrate with your existing application.
I have an Objective-c file which used to work with the older XCode's
with the emergence of XCode 6.x - code no longer performs
I found the same functionality in code written in Swift online
I read Apple's documentation about using bridging header's to allow the use of Swift with Objective-C. I was able to get that setup ok, I do believe.
What is not clear is - can I simply cut and paste the Swift code into my Objective-C file (a viewcontroller.me file actually), or am I limited to having to use a Swift file from the start ?
If I have to use a new file in my (very simple) app, Im not quite sure how to pull off having two viewcontroller.m files do the work where one used to work fine, so this method obviously creates a new problem for me.
Thanks for your assistance in advance !
I would recommend just creating a class or struct for your swift code, and access that class or struct in your Objective-C ViewController.
I'm working on a plugin for Xcode. It is supposed to be written in Swift.
When I start with a fresh plugin project (I'm using this Xcode Plugin template which is also available via Alcatraz) the project compiles and runs fine.
The pluginDidLoad method is getting called right after Xcode starts. As soon as I add any Objective-C file (and a bridging header of course) the pluginDidLoad method is not getting called anymore.
The Objective-C file might be as simple as an empty class that is a subclass of NSObject.
Removing the target-memberbership (for the plugin-target) from the newly created Objective-C (.m) file the aforementioned mentioned method is getting called again.
Has anyone developed a Xcode plugin in Swift that also uses Objective-C files before and got this working?
Update
It seems that my original solution only works with Swift only projects because Xcode always takes the objective c class if you have one.
So here is another trick: Extend the NSObject class by the function class func pluginDidLoad(bundle: NSBundle) {} and initialize your plugin there. Then it doesn't matter on which class it is called. You might have to check that also all Swift classes subclass NSObject. I pushed it to my repository that you can have a look
Original Post
I think I could reproduce the problem now. To simplify the problem, let's say that we have only two swift classes PluginMain and PluginHelper.
As you said, sometimes the plugin isn't getting called for some mysterious reason. I was struggling with the problem again and I was wondering how Xcode knows which class is the main class. So I came up with the idea to put the following initializer in both classes PluginMain and PluginHelper
class func pluginDidLoad(bundle: NSBundle) {
let appName = NSBundle.mainBundle().infoDictionary?["CFBundleName"] as? NSString
if appName == "Xcode" {
//sharedPlugin = SwiftySafe(bundle: bundle)
//initialize your shared plugin
}
}
By putting a breakpoint or log message in pluginDidLoad in both classes, I notices that Xcode isn't ignoring the plugin, it is just loading the wrong class (e.g. PluginHelper instead of PluginMain).
The Solution
It turns out that Xcode uses the class that is compiled first as the main class and calls pluginDidLoad only on that. So you can change that by reordering the "Compiled Sources" under your target settings->Build Phases. Move your main class so that it is on top. In the following image you find an example from my project. SwiftySafe is my main class.
My example
You will find my project here https://github.com/creinders/SwiftySafe if you want to compare the settings.
The pluginDidLoad method is called on the principal class. When the principal class is a Swift class, you have to include the module name in the NSPrincipalClass Info.plist key.
So if your target name is MyPlugin and your principal class is MyClass, set NSPrincipalClass to MyPlugin.MyClass.
Also make sure that MyClass inherits from NSObject.
Sometimes you need to tell Xcode to reload bundle. Run this and restart Xcode
defaults delete com.apple.dt.Xcode DVTPlugInManagerNonApplePlugIns-Xcode-7.3
When I'm typing up a Cocoa object and calling a selector on that object, I sometimes can see 'documentation' or 'help' information about that method. For instance, as I type [NSArray alloc], I see two help hints. One for NSArray, and one for alloc. Both of these appear in the popup autocomplete suggestions listbox as I type the code.
How do I produce similar method/class decorated help hints which will appear when I type? I want to see my comments as I type my custom class name and custom methods. How can I do this?
For instance, C# provides this feature through XML documentation which can be placed before any method, class, or interface/protocol declaration.
You have to create a “docset”. There are tools like appledoc for creating docsets from your comments. You could set up a build phase that runs appledoc on your code.
The problem is that there's no way to make Xcode 4 reload a docset except by restarting Xcode. So even if you run appledoc automatically as part of your build, you will have to restart Xcode to make it see the changes to your docset.
In Xcode, for Obj-C programs, is there a way to generate skeleton method body in the .m file if I add a new method or implement an interface in the corresponding .h file? Like in Eclipse, if you implement an interface, it will bring in the method skeleton according to the definition of the interface.
if you do a lot of OS X/iOS development, the best option i know of (for objc) is Accessorizer.app.