A Review of the SNAPPS iPhone/iPad Jumpstart
Category IPhone
I've been interested in trying to develop for the iPhone for a while but have yet to make much progress on it do to limited time available and not exactly knowing the best way to start. Sure, I knew all roads led to Objective-C and Cocoa. But after looking at some books and online materials I could readily see that the Objective-C learning curve was high. The announcement of the iPad which introduces a much bigger display to an iPhone like portable device only increased my desire to get started. But again, where to begin? Do I just try and grind out Objective-C or is there a better way? I'm happy to report there was.
SNAPPS, who in my opinion has a reputation not only for the highest quality of work but also being an overall classy organization, put together a 1day jumpstart/bootcamp on how to get started with iPhone/iPad development. This seemed like just the thing I was looking for. I knew there was no chance that my company was going to send me and that there was a cost not only in the registration fee but also in needing to take 2 vacation days to accommodate the travel and class. But there was never a doubt in my investment was at risk.
The goals of the day was to learn about 4 key topics:
Web development
Objective-C Development
Tool kits like Appcelerator's Titanium
Navigating the App Store Process
The day was lead by Julian Robichaux with Victor Krantz and Rob Novak contributing as well. This was not intended to make you an expert in any one topic but was designed to introduce the topics and to give you an idea of when one technique might be better then another. I didn't gain the ability to write Objective-C, nor did I expect to, but we've now been introduced and "hung out" together a little bit to establish a comfort zone with each other. When I get home I'll now be more prepared to get started.
Some thoughts on each of the sections:
1: Web
I learned a lot about not only specifically targeting the screens of these devices but also about HTML 5 which the browsers support. As primarily a Notes Client developer I found the HTML 5 stuff particularly interesting because of all the improvements thats been made, especially in local data storage.
2: Objective-C
This is probably where I knew the most going in. That doesn't mean I could write a program but I've spent some time looking at this. Julian did a great job of showing how you combine Xcode, Objective-C, and Interface Builder to create applications. He created an application on the spot and some of the pieces that I've been struggling with started getting clearer.
3: Appcelerator
Victor took over for this section and while other tool kits were mentioned he quickly professed his undying love for Appcelerator's Titanium. It was easy to see why. Not only can you use JavaScript to create NATIVE applications for iPhone / iPad but it comes with an application called "Kitchen Sink" which contains examples of almost anything you could possibly want to do in a business application. It seems very easy to get started on any idea you might have. As a bonus, Titanium has built in hooks to some of the API's of popular websites that you might want to use. So that's one less thing to worry about!
4: Navigating the App Store
In this section Julian, Rob and Victor discussed the App Store and how to handle it. You're going to want to test apps on personal devices, maybe distribute to beta testers and eventually put them on the App store or possibly distribute internally. The complexity of this process was SHOCKING to say the least. Dealing with all these certificates and provisioning is confusing and painful. It took the SNAPPS guys months to figure this out.
The information in this section was probably worth the price of the whole day. I simply can not imagine trying to figure out how to navigate this process on my own. I can't stress enough how confusing it is to deal with device deployment and app store submission. I humbly suggest if you have any interest in this kind of development would be well served to come just for this section.
I left the day with a big book full of all the slides and information. How big? I thought about putting it in my checked luggage but was worried about exceeding the weight limit. Of course there was also lots of code samples that will keep me busy for quite a while and provide a good starting point for development.
If they run this again, I highly recommend this for anyone who's interested in iPhone/iPad Development. This was billed as technology agnostic - so Notes integration was not a featured topic but of course it did come up and they might add some Notes content in future sessions.
I've been interested in trying to develop for the iPhone for a while but have yet to make much progress on it do to limited time available and not exactly knowing the best way to start. Sure, I knew all roads led to Objective-C and Cocoa. But after looking at some books and online materials I could readily see that the Objective-C learning curve was high. The announcement of the iPad which introduces a much bigger display to an iPhone like portable device only increased my desire to get started. But again, where to begin? Do I just try and grind out Objective-C or is there a better way? I'm happy to report there was.
SNAPPS, who in my opinion has a reputation not only for the highest quality of work but also being an overall classy organization, put together a 1day jumpstart/bootcamp on how to get started with iPhone/iPad development. This seemed like just the thing I was looking for. I knew there was no chance that my company was going to send me and that there was a cost not only in the registration fee but also in needing to take 2 vacation days to accommodate the travel and class. But there was never a doubt in my investment was at risk.
The goals of the day was to learn about 4 key topics:
Web development
Objective-C Development
Tool kits like Appcelerator's Titanium
Navigating the App Store Process
The day was lead by Julian Robichaux with Victor Krantz and Rob Novak contributing as well. This was not intended to make you an expert in any one topic but was designed to introduce the topics and to give you an idea of when one technique might be better then another. I didn't gain the ability to write Objective-C, nor did I expect to, but we've now been introduced and "hung out" together a little bit to establish a comfort zone with each other. When I get home I'll now be more prepared to get started.
Some thoughts on each of the sections:
1: Web
I learned a lot about not only specifically targeting the screens of these devices but also about HTML 5 which the browsers support. As primarily a Notes Client developer I found the HTML 5 stuff particularly interesting because of all the improvements thats been made, especially in local data storage.
2: Objective-C
This is probably where I knew the most going in. That doesn't mean I could write a program but I've spent some time looking at this. Julian did a great job of showing how you combine Xcode, Objective-C, and Interface Builder to create applications. He created an application on the spot and some of the pieces that I've been struggling with started getting clearer.
3: Appcelerator
Victor took over for this section and while other tool kits were mentioned he quickly professed his undying love for Appcelerator's Titanium. It was easy to see why. Not only can you use JavaScript to create NATIVE applications for iPhone / iPad but it comes with an application called "Kitchen Sink" which contains examples of almost anything you could possibly want to do in a business application. It seems very easy to get started on any idea you might have. As a bonus, Titanium has built in hooks to some of the API's of popular websites that you might want to use. So that's one less thing to worry about!
4: Navigating the App Store
In this section Julian, Rob and Victor discussed the App Store and how to handle it. You're going to want to test apps on personal devices, maybe distribute to beta testers and eventually put them on the App store or possibly distribute internally. The complexity of this process was SHOCKING to say the least. Dealing with all these certificates and provisioning is confusing and painful. It took the SNAPPS guys months to figure this out.
The information in this section was probably worth the price of the whole day. I simply can not imagine trying to figure out how to navigate this process on my own. I can't stress enough how confusing it is to deal with device deployment and app store submission. I humbly suggest if you have any interest in this kind of development would be well served to come just for this section.
I left the day with a big book full of all the slides and information. How big? I thought about putting it in my checked luggage but was worried about exceeding the weight limit. Of course there was also lots of code samples that will keep me busy for quite a while and provide a good starting point for development.
If they run this again, I highly recommend this for anyone who's interested in iPhone/iPad Development. This was billed as technology agnostic - so Notes integration was not a featured topic but of course it did come up and they might add some Notes content in future sessions.
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Comments
Posted by Paul Withers At 11:00:47 AM On 04/19/2010 | - Website - |
If you want to accelerate the IPhone/iPad learning experience this is where to start.
There just aren't enough good adjectives to describe SNAPPS, Rob, Victr and Julan.
It was GREAT training by VERY SMART people.
As David said if this opportunity comes up again, JUMP on it.
Posted by Paul Calhoun At 11:08:14 AM On 04/19/2010 | - Website - |
Regarding Paul Withers' comment, we are definitely wanting to turn this into a "road show" of some sort, just not sure about the locations or logistics yet. Stay tuned.
Posted by Julian Robichaux At 01:43:21 PM On 04/19/2010 | - Website - |
PS: no volcanic ash issues here
Posted by Carlos Rodrigues At 06:21:29 PM On 04/21/2010 | - Website - |