CAIRO BOOKS's Description
What .NET C# developers need to enter the hot field of iPhone apps
iPhone applications offer a hot opportunity for developers. Until the open
source MonoTouch project, this field was limited to those familiar with Apple’s
programming languages. Now .NET and C# developers can join the party.
Professional iPhone Programming with MonoTouch and .NET/C# is the first book to
cover MonoTouch, preparing developers to take advantage of this lucrative
opportunity.
This book is for .NET developers that are interested in creating native iPhone
applications written in .NET/C#. These developers want to use their existing
knowledge. While .NET developers are always interested in learning, they also
recognize that learning Objective-C and the specifics of the iPhone can be
overwhelming. Those developers interested in MonoTouch will recognize that the
cost of MonoTouch is easily made up by the ability to quickly target the iPhone
using a language that they are already familiar with.
This book is designed for .NET developers that want to target the iPhone. It
is designed to help you get up to speed with the iPhone, not to really teach
you about the .NET Framework or C# language, which we assume you already know.
This book is designed with introductory material in Chapters 1 thru 4. You
should read Chapters 1 thru 4 sequentially. These chapters introduce the
MonoTouch product, the basics of developing with MonoTouch and MonoDevelop, and
finally, the basics of presenting data to a user with screen and data controls
and how to develop a user interface for the iPhone. Once you are comfortable
with these concepts, you can typically move from one chapter to another and not
necessarily have to read the chapters sequentially. Chapter 1 "Introduction to
iPhone Development with MonoTouch for C# Developers" This chapter looks at how
the largest segment of developers can target the smartphone with the highest
mindshare, and that the smartphone is growing faster in marketshare than any
other device. Chapter 2 "Introduction to MonoTouch" gives you a firm foundation
in MonoTouch, MonoDevelop, Interface Builder, debugging, and deploying. Chapter
3 "Planning Your App's UI: Exploring the Screen Controls" teaches you about
creating your application's UI and specifically how the UI on the iPhone can
differ from UIs that you might have created before. You also explore the Input
& Value objects from the Interface Builder Objects Library. Chapter 4 "Data
Controls" shows the Interface Builder Objects Library Cocoa Touch classes for
Controllers, Data Views, and Windows, Views, & Bars. Chapter 5 "Working with
Data on the iPhone" looks at the SQLite database engine as well as strategies
to store data off the device on a central server through SOAP and REST (using
XML and JSON) without tying up the user interface. Chapter 6 "Displaying Data
Using Tables" looks at displaying information in a table, using tables for
navigation, taking advantage of UITableView's built-in editing features, and
adding a search bar to a table. Chapter 7 "Mapping" covers CoreLocation and
MapKit, using Location Services, and adding maps and geocoding to your
application. Chapter 8 "Application Settings" focuses on application settings,
and looks at two aspects of settings for your MonoTouch app: the Info.plist and
your settings bundle. It covers what settings you might want to set in your
Info.plist and why, and then looks at what code it takes to read and use the
settings that you save in the settings bundle. And it also takes you through
the building of the settings that you might have in a social media-type
application. Going through each step, you will examine the Root.plist inside
the Property List Editor and see the settings dialog that will result from it.
Chapter 9 "Programming with Device Hardware" covers accelerometer device
orientation, and proximity detection support, networking, and developing with
battery life in mind. Chapter 10 "Programming with Multimedia" discussing
integrating images and the image picker, watching and recording videos, playing
and recording audio, and using animation Chapter 11 "Talking to Other
Applications" discusses the ways you can use MonoTouch to talk to other
applications on the iPhone, both Apple-built applications and those downloaded
from the App Store. It also provides helpful ways of accessing the iPhone's
Address Book and the iPod music library. Chapter 12 "Localizing for an
International Audience" first defines internationalization and localization,
then shows displaying translated text and images, formatting dates, times, and
numbers, then extracting text for translation. Chapter 13 "Programming the iPad
" the capabilities of the iPad are, what new APIs and controls have been
introduced that you can use in iPad-specific applications, and how to build
applications that can work on both iPad and iPhone devices. Chapter 14 "Just
Enough Objective-C" provides you with a reference and introduction to
Objective-C that will help you acquire an ability to comprehend Objective-C
which is something that will come in very handy. Chapter 15 "The App Store:
Submitting and Marketing Your App" discusses all things App Store. First, it
talks about the process that you need to go through before you are ready to
submit - this includes final testing with Ad-Hoc builds and a presubmission
checklist. Next it addresses actually submitting to the App Store, and then
finally what to do with your app after it's in the App Store. This chapter also
touches on alternative monetization strategies such as ads or in app purchases.