Is it possible to port mac source code to ios (iphone and ipad) easily. The mac application is using both C and Objective C languages. What i asssume is to create xib files for mac nib files, and port the code for ios. Any suggestions???
Cheers
Yes, it's possible. How hard it is depends on how heavily your desktop app relies on a keyboard, mouse and a large screen. In general, porting an app from the desktop to a mobile device is far from trivial, for reasons that have nothing to do with the portability of APIs and project files.
Essentially, you're correct about what you need to do. Since Objective C is a strict superset of C, your code should run fine, although you'll obviously need to change the API calls to iOS-oriented ones. The main task would likely be to recreate your interface and how it hooks into your code, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem for a well-designed MVC application. You may also need to give consideration to your application's lifecycle - compared to Mac applications, iOS apps tend to be used for much shorter periods, and can be quit with little or no notice, so they need to keep a lot more of their state in persistent storage (or be ready to save it quickly and automatically on exit), rather than relying on the user triggering an explicit save.
Without knowing more about your application, I can't give you any more than this general advice. I can only recommend that you give it a shot - the simulator is free.
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I noticed that there are different requirements for each platform here. I was wondering if it's possible to build a single project but with multiple targets where each target is Mac OS X (something like a CD / install build), Apple Mac Store, and iOS device.
IfIi'm going about this the wrong way then I'd love to know! I mostly develop on the PC but with the state of the App Store I'd love to spread out as much as I can!
Keeping separate targets for the Mac app store and an independently-distributed Mac application is simple. You just need to ensure that your receipt validation code is conditionally included on the app store target and not in the other target; and your custom licensing scheme is included the other way round. Things get a bit more complicated if you target different operating systems in the two targets, but they're not insurmountable: you can test for the existence of classes or selectors at runtime to ensure you never call newer API on older systems.
By the way, it's also worth having separate Info.plist files for these targets. Partly because you don't need or want to include things like Sparkle properties in your app store target, but also because each target should have a unique bundle identifier. The app store does odd things when you have an app installed that it thinks came from the store but really didn't, and you don't want to risk your updater or Apple's trying to update the app deployed via the other mechanism. But that's not really about organising your Xcode project, it's a deployment issue.
For the most part, yes. All Mac/iOS apps can be written in Objective-C and the code is very similar. However, you must bear in mind that iOS devices have different screen sizes from the Mac and even from each other. That means that the input metaphor is different, and that the UI is different. While it is possible to do what you want, it's not advisable to just code once and compile thrice.
That said, I don't use Xcode 4 so I can't tell you about that. Of you are looking to do different builds for different devices, you will want to write your app logic and your input logic as separately as possible. Then, you create multiple targets, one for each build. You define compiler flags for each target. In your code you will use those flags to use the appropriate code for your build.
At least as of 3.2.5, this is absolutely not a problem. You won't necessarily be able to apply all of your build settings project-wide, but you can specify them on a per-target basis.
Just add the appropriate-type target (Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, etc.).
I'm whipping up a short specifications/requirements document for a small prototype iPhone app project. Describing the basic functionality and behavior is not an issue for me. But, since my mobile application and iPhone development knowledge is very weak, I'm not really sure what else should be in such a document regarding best practices and such.
Example: In my programming world (server side Java), when spec'ing a project for outsourcing, I state that the project must pass static bug analysis by FindBugs.
Example: I understand that there are API calls Apple does not want app developers invoking. These can be cause for having an app rejected from the app store. But I'm not sure how to say that we want Apple's guidelines respected. (I don't even know how to test for that.)
What should I include in a two-page requirements and specification document that is specific to iPhone app development?
These are some points you can mention
1. The application should be developed based on Apple's user interface guidelines
2. There should not be any private API call inside the project which makes the application rejected from apple
3. There should not be any memory leak or excess memory allocation issue during the application running state
4. The application should be supported in all iOS after [your option]. (It mainly depends on the features used in the application)
5. The application should be supported in iOS 4
6. The application should work properly on iPhone 4
Hope this helps
A private API wont be mentioned in any header file or in the documentation so one way to test for that would be to manually go through the source files and search for the functions used in the headers and documentation to see that they are there. It's really not feasable if the project grows but for a small app it could work :)
In addition to the things already mentioned here, I'd add a few more:
The app should work fast, no action should give the user the feeling, the device is doing something
Everything that takes a while should be run in background and even better, be cancelable
Make sure you use animation only where it makes sense but not too seldom. A smooth feeling is most important for users.
These things also imply that you try to minimize application startup time.
There are often tricks to work around performance issues. The feeling a users gets from your application is not how fast it is, but how fast if feels. In my opinion this is the single most critical requirement, besides obvious ones like no crashes etc..
What's the problem with using a private API?
Moreover, I would add that it will be tested on iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPod, 4, all with iOS4 and 3.
Is there any equivalent to a Flash projector for iPhone? Flash projectors basically seem to package script and Flash libraries into one executable file that can be run on a PC. I'm wondering if anyone has made a similar thing for iPhone where I can take my existing code and package it with the necessary iPhone stuff to make a PC executable. Of course hardware-specific things would not be available like accelerometer/phone/gps, etc. but I don't need any of those. If not, is there anyone currently attempting this?
Thanks for the input guys, but I think everyone except Noah is misinterpreting my question. Flash was just an example, if you hate Flash just pretend I said something else. I am wondering if it is possible to make code for iPhone run on a PC in a similar way to the way a projector works for Flash.
Right now, the only way to run an iPhone app outside of an iDevice is to compile it from source for a non-iPhone target, so it depends on what you're using to compile. If you're authoring in XCode, you can target the Simulator (which is mac-only), but Apple doesn't currently have a way to compile for any other targets, or a way to compile an object file that runs on Macs without the simulator. If you're authoring in Flash CS5, of course you can just publish a projector.
Not at this time. However, Flash CS5 will create iPhone applications.
Flash is not available on the iPhone.
Furthermore, any company attempting to make a Flash runtime -- which would require doing bytecode interpretation -- would run up against Apple's developer agreement, which specifically forbids that.
I think Adobe is planning for CS5 the export to iPhone app feature. It essentially compiles flash's runtime to Apple's cocoa touch framework and produces a true iPhone app, thus circumventing the bytecode interpretation clause. Time will tell, time will tell...
--- Thanks for the clarification Myz... WTB Noah's reading skills, I thought you had typo'd the PC part due to the outrageousness of your question.
If by PC you mean a windows binary simulator interpreting .ipa files. No, such thing doesn't exist and I don't expect to see it for decades. The platform is much more harder to emulate than the old SNES/N64 and others.
I want to make my iphone run application in the background.I know there is a program called "backgrounder",but it isn't I want.What should I do?
This is flat out not allowed... period.
You may want to look into the development community for jailbroken phones. I think there are projects like that there, although you are severely cutting off your userbase.
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How can I develop for iPhone using a Windows development machine?
I'm looking to build an iPhone app for my wife's phone, but am not interested in buying a Mac as a development platform for a one-off piece of work. The app:
should run standalone on the iPhone (i.e. without network connectivity)
would be perfectly acceptable with a GUI created using one of the iPhone Javascript libraries that are around
will do some database IO to read and update data
has no commercial value and will never be used by anyone else
Here's my thinking:
jailbreak the iPhone
install Ruby + Sinatra on the iPhone
write the app using Sinatra, hitting a database (SQLite?) on the iPhone
To access the app on the iPhone:
start the Sinatra app in the
background (is this possible?)
start a Safari browser session
navigate to the Sinatra app at e.g. http://localhost:12345
etc.
This seems like a strange approach, but I can't think of a simpler way of writing a standalone iPhone app without buying a Mac. Is there a better way of doing this?
The only reliable info I could find is at the always-excellent MetaFilter
http://ask.metafilter.com/110466/Anyway-to-develop-iPhoneiTouch-apps-without-investing-in-a-Mac
The answer is apparently no.
You absolutely need an Intel Mac of some description.
The entire iPhone build process is too deeply ingrained in XCode to build elsewhere; and the only other Objective-C compiler I know is gcc, which doesn't support any Apple's additions to the language (nor their libraries).
And, in direct opposition to what people are saying above, Objective-C is absolutely my favorite native, compiled language. Elegant, small (only a few changes from C), late-binding, dynamic, straightforward. It's what C++ should have been.
Lots of people recommend picking up a secondhand Intel (remember, must be Intel!) Mac Mini as the cheapest "port of entry".
What you have described is a viable solution, however you should consider using the open toolchain for the iphone.
You don't need a mac then, only need to jailbreak the phone to make sure your app will work.
For all those who say it can't be done, this was the only way to make Apps for the iphone before the SDK was out :)
Also if you are after a guide to using the open toolchain then I highly recomend this book
If you're considering creating a GUI using a javascript library anyway, why don't you just write a web app instead of an iPhone-native one? It seems like overkill to jailbreak the device just so that you can install a ruby + sinatra web app on it. Can't you just put the ruby web app on a server and create a Safari shortcut to it on the home screen? If you don't have a server, you could always run the website off a PC in your home...
Jailbreaking the OS and running a ruby app onto it would be technically cool, don't get me wrong - I just think it'd end up being a time sink.
Just my 2c!
Depends on what your time is worth, I guess. That seems like a terribly convoluted way to get what is otherwise a simple app on the phone to avoid the US$400 purchase of a used Mac Mini.
There is the hackintosh route, which may work on your existing hardware, but again one has to put a price on time. It's what got me started before I dropped big coin on a Macbook Pro, an MSI Wind then a home-built. It's of questionable legality (the right thing to do is fork over US$129 for Leopard regardless), but you are already talking about jailbreaking. :-)
Get someone else to do it, or rent the resources that you need.
Another option is to find nearby iPhone developer who has it all setup and either get him to write the app or do it together, he provides development environment you code the solution or code it together.
The only problem is that you wont be able to update maintain it.
I would still consider getting older gen Mac or Mac mini - all the other options sound more complicated.
If you are going to be stubborn about not using a mac, but you want an app that will work offline with the iPhone / iPod Touch and Android devices, then I would use HTML 5 to create an offline app.
You can do a lot now with HTML 5 - Google have an email client that uses HTML 5 for the iPhone now and it can work offline etc. If you do this and get the user to add a bookmark to their home screen for your app - it will be almost as good.
If I was you I'd fork out for a mac - or look to see if you could borrow one - or time-share with someone - you will not create a very good quality app without it.
You can jailbreak the phone and install Python. There are some sample applications in Cydia for it (it's called iPhone/Python. Search for Python in cydia).
Then you will have a "native" app, not a web application and you can use the entire iPhone UI library (the part of it that is accessible via py-objc anyway) and you don't need to run a web server in the background.
You can do your development on the phone itself via SSH or you can use an iPod Touch for it. Packaging is also easy (should you need it), just create your own Cydia repository and host your package(s) in there.
Look at iPhone applications in Python for more information.
Come on, just look on eBay for the cheapest intel mac mini you can find. Even a Mac laptop with a busted screen (that you could hook to an external display) would work. You're talking just a few hundred dollars probably and then you can maintain it as her phone/Touch is upgraded.
there's some special meta tags you can put in a webpage to make your web app savable and full screenable to the iphone hard drive. (so it can work offline) Here's an example : http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/125490362/glyphboard2
There's also frameworks like phonegap that let you access cocoa apis from javascript, but it sounds like you don't need that.
Does your wife enrolled in any kind of data plan? If so, you can simply write a small webapp which runs on some cheap webspace and access it via MobileSafari.
If you need a full grown iPhone application, you better look after one of the first intel-based mac minis on eBay, should be to expensive, in my opinion. And as a plus you avoid the hassle of a jailbreak.