iOS 13 Programming for Beginners

Get started with building iOS apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 11, 4th Edition

Ahmad Sahar, Craig Clayton

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781838820633
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming
• Index: Computer Science

A step-by-step guide to learning iOS app development and exploring the latest Apple development tools

Key Features

• Explore the latest features of Xcode 11 and the Swift 5 programming language in this updated fourth edition
• Kick-start your iOS programming career and have fun building your own iOS apps
• Discover the new features of iOS 13 such as Dark Mode, iPad apps for Mac, SwiftUI, and more

Book Description

iOS 13 comes with features ranging from Dark Mode and Catalyst through to SwiftUI and Sign In with Apple. If you're a beginner and are looking to experiment and work with these features to create your own apps, then this updated fourth edition gets you off to a strong start. The book offers a comprehensive introduction for programmers who are new to iOS, covering the entire process of learning the Swift language, writing your own apps, and publishing them on the App Store. This edition is updated and revised to cover the new iOS 13 features along with Xcode 11 and Swift 5.

The book starts with an introduction to the Swift programming language, and how to accomplish common programming tasks with it. You'll then start building the user interface (UI) of a complete real-world app, using the latest version of Xcode, and also implement the code for views, view controllers, data managers, and other aspects of mobile apps. The book will then help you apply the latest iOS 13 features to existing apps, along with introducing you to SwiftUI, a new way to design UIs. Finally, the book will take you through setting up testers for your app, and what you need to do to publish your app on the App Store.

By the end of this book, you'll be well versed with how to write and publish apps, and will be able to apply the skills you've gained to enhance your apps.

What you will learn

• Get to grips with the fundamentals of Xcode 11 and Swift 5, the building blocks of iOS development
• Understand how to prototype an app using storyboards
• Discover the Model-View-Controller design pattern, and how to implement the desired functionality within the app
• Implement the latest iOS features such as Dark Mode and Sign In with Apple
• Understand how to convert an existing iPad app into a Mac app
• Design, deploy, and test your iOS applications with industry patterns and practices

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone who has programming experience but is completely new to Swift and iOS app development. Experienced programmers looking to explore the latest iOS 13 features will also find this book useful.

Section 1: Swift

Welcome to part one of this book. In this part, you will begin by exploring Xcode, Apple's programming environment, which is also known as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Next, you will start learning the foundations of Swift 5, the programming language used in iOS apps, and see how it is used to accomplish common programming tasks.

This part comprises the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, Getting Familiar with Xcode
• Chapter 2, Simple Values and Types
• Chapter 3, Conditionals and Optionals
• Chapter 4, Range Operators and Loops
• Chapter 5, Collection Types
• Chapter 6, Functions and Closures
• Chapter 7, Classes, Structures, and Enumerations
• Chapter 8, Protocols, Extensions, and Error Handling

By the end of this part, you'll understand the process of creating an app and running it on a simulator or device, and you'll have a working knowledge of how to use the Swift programming language, in order to accomplish common programming tasks. This will prepare you for the next chapter, and will also enable you to create your own Swift programs. Let's get started!

Getting Familiar with Xcode

Welcome to iOS 13 Programming for Beginners. I hope you will find this a useful introduction to writing and publishing iOS 13 apps on the App Store.

This book is divided into four parts. Each is designed to accomplish a specific set of goals.

In Section 1, Swift, you start by learning Swift 5.1, which is the latest version of the Swift language. Swift is the programming language used to write apps for all Apple hardware. You'll see how common programming tasks are accomplished in Swift. At the end of this part, you should have a working knowledge of the Swift language.

In Section 2, Design, you'll create the design of an iOS 13 application from scratch using storyboards. This is accomplished using Xcode's Interface Builder, and coding is kept to a minimum. At the end of this part, you should have a clear idea of the app's user interface and flow.

Section 3, Code, will focus on coding. You will learn many important iOS app development concepts, and as you go along, you'll learn strategies and techniques that you can use in your own apps.

Section 4, Features, covers the exciting new technologies first introduced by Apple at WWDC 2019, such as Dark Mode, Catalyst, SwiftUI, and Sign In with Apple. You'll also learn how to create resources for App Store submission, submit your app to the App Store, and beta test your app.

The app you'll write is a restaurant reservation app named Let's Eat. This app was originally written by Craig Clayton, who wrote the previous edition of this book. I have updated this app for the latest version of Xcode and iOS.

In this chapter, we'll cover the following topics:

• Downloading and installing Xcode from the App Store
• Understanding the Xcode user interface
• Running the app in the Simulator
• Using an iOS 13 device for development

Technical requirements

To do the exercises for this chapter, you will need the following:

• An Apple Mac computer running macOS 10.15 Catalina
• An Apple ID (if you don't have one, you will create one in this chapter)
• Optionally, an iOS device running iOS 13

The Xcode project for this chapter is in the Chapter01 folder of the code bundle for this book, which can be downloaded here:

https://github.com/PacktPublishing/iOS-13-Programming-for-Beginners.

You'll start by downloading Xcode, Apple's integrated development environment for developing iOS apps from the App Store.

Check out the following video to see the code in action:

http://bit.ly/38B50D5

Downloading and installing Xcode from the App Store

Before you begin writing iOS Apps, you need to download and install Xcode from the App Store. Perform the following steps:

1. Open the App Store on your Mac (it's in the Apple menu).
2. In the search field in the top-right corner, type Xcode and press the Return key.
3. You should see Xcode in the search r...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright and Credits
• About Packt
• Contributors
• Preface
• Section 1: Swift
• Getting Familiar with Xcode
• Simple Values and Types
• Conditionals and Optionals
• Range Operators and Loops
• Collection Types
• Functions and Closures
• Classes, Structures, and Enumerations
• Protocols, Extensions, and Error Handling
• Section 2: Design
• Setting Up the Basic Structure
• Building Your App Structure in Storyboard
• Finishing Up Your App Structure in Storyboard
• Modifying and Configuring Cells
• Section 3: Code
• Getting Started with MVC and Collection Views
• Getting Data into Collection Views
• Getting Started with Table Views
• Getting Started with MapKit
• Getting Started with JSON Files
• Displaying Data in a Static Table View
• Getting Started with Custom UIControls
• Getting Started with Cameras and Photo Libraries
• Understanding Core Data
• Saving and Loading from Core Data
• Section 4: Features
• Getting Started with Dark Mode
• Getting Started with Mac Catalyst
• Getting Started with SwiftUI
• Getting Started with Sign In with Apple
• Testing and Submitting Your App to the App Store
• Other Books You May Enjoy