Welcome to part 2 of our series on Beginning iOS App Development. In last tutorial we learn about the tools required to become iOS application developer.
In this tutorial we will learn about Xcode IDE which is used to develop iOS applications and how to create new iOS application in Xcode.
Xcode is designed and developed by apple, it contains a suite of software development tools for developing apps for mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV.
First of all, you need to know what is IDE means? IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment.
You directly download from apple’s App Store page. Alternatively you can directly download it from Apple’s Xcode page.
Any IDE consist of Toolbar, Editor Area, Debugger Area, Navigator Area and Utility Area. For Xcode refer below image and you can see how it is divided in different areas.
Let’s start learning by creating new project in Xcode.
- Open the Xcode either from launchpad or search for Xcode by pressing command + space bar .
- Now File->New
- Choose the type of project, for now use view based for now, we will learn about types of project in next tutorial.
4. You need to fill few information to create new iOS Application and informations are :
- Product Name : Name of the application/project. Please note by default application will show this name below application icon. We will learn how to change the application name in later tutorial.
- Organisation Identifier & Bundle Identifier : Bundle identifier is unique for each application. The format of identifier should be like com.COMPANY_NAME.APP_NAME e.g. com.apple.notes. This is not a mandatory format, you can use any format but the condition is it must be unique. This bundle id used to crete “app id” in apple’s developer portal(For this you required a apple developer account). In latest Xcode version we only need to add Organisation identifier and apple will append it with product name and “com”. In later tutorial we will learn about it.
About Xcode IDE - Language : As you know we can develop iOS and Mac application either using Objective C or Apple’s Swift language.
- Devices: If you are developing application for iPad & iPhone then select Universal and if you only developing application for iPhone or iPad then select appropriate option.
- User Core Data : Core data is Apple’s technique to save and manage local data. Mostly in mobile application we are using SQLite database but core data is built by Apple. If you are planning to use Core data in your application then select it else discard it. Obviously you can later add core data in your application. By selecting this option apple will add functions for core data so you don’t need to write it.
- Include Unit Tests : If you are beginner then i suggest to skip it. Unit tests is used to test your application by creating simple test cases. For enterprise level application it is required to create test case.
- Include UI Tests : If you are beginner then i suggest to skip it. Similar to Unit tests, UI Tests is used to debug or test UI for different resolution of screen.
We will learn more about Xcode in next tutorial