Introducing iOS Boilerplate A base template for iOS apps

http://iosboilerplate.com/#uitableview

Introducing iOS Boilerplate A base template for iOS apps

What is it?

This project is inspired on HTML5 boilerplate.

It is intended to provide a base of code to start with
It is not intended to be a framework
It is intended to be modified and extended by the developer to fit their needs
It includes solid third-party libraries if needed to not reinvent the wheel
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What is supported

iOS Boilerplate is tested on iPhone / iPod Touch devices with iOS 4.0 or greater. In the future it might support universal applications (iPhone + iPad)

At the moment iOS Boilerplate is just an XCode project. Is planned to be released as a true XCode template in the near future.

What's included

iOS Boilerplate includes helper classes and examples about the following topics:

HTTP requests and an image cache (both in-memory and disk-based)
UITableViews and UITableViewCells: fast scrolling, async images, pull-down-to-refresh, swipeable cells,...
A built-in browser so your users don't leave your application when they browse to a certain URL
Maps and locations: directions between two points, autocomplete a location, etc.

HTTP requests & images

iOS Boilerplate includes ASIHTTPRequest AFNetworking, a great library for handling HTTP requests. See 

HTTPHUDExample

 to view a simple example of how to use this
library.

iOS Boilerplate also includes 

AFURLCache

 that implements both in-memory and in-disk caches (great for images!). AFURLCache has
been developed bysteipete.

See AsyncImageExample.m for a basic example on how to load images.

If you are interested in loading async images in a UITableView there is a complete example about async images inside UITableViewCells. SeeAsyncCellImagesExample.m

UITableView & cells

FastCells

Inspired on this article of Atebits iOS Boilerplate includes a base class for implementing cells with fast scrolling. The base class is 

FastCell

.
There are some examples that extend this class. See 

AsyncCellImagesExample

, 

VariableHeightExample

 and 

SwipeableTableCellExample

.

Pull-down-to-refresh

iOS Boilerplate includes EGOTableViewPullRefresh but simplifies its use. You can extend 

ListViewController

.

// This is the core method you should implement
- (void)reloadTableViewDataSource {
_reloading = YES;

// Here you would make an HTTP request or something like that
// Call [self doneLoadingTableViewData] when you are done
[self performSelector:@selector(doneLoadingTableViewData) withObject:nil afterDelay:3.0];
}

You just need to implement something like the above code and initialize the 

self.table

 object. You can initialize it with InterfaceBuilder (drop a UITableView component and make the link between the outlet and the component). You should also
implement at least the UITableViewDataSource protocol. For a complete example see 

PullDownExample

.

Swipeable cells

There is an example of how to implement a swipeable UITableViewCell extending 

FastCell

. Some code is also needed in the ViewController. See

SwipeableTableViewExample

 for a complete example.

Built-in web browser

Thanks to nbuggia you can now open URLs inside your application just opening them as always:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];

A new viewController will be shown without exiting your app. However, what happens if you really need to open a URL in Safari? No worries, just use this method instead:

[(MyApplication*)[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url forceOpenInSafari:YES];

What if you don't want this to be the default behaviour? What if you want to open URLs by default in Safari? Just edit 

main.m

. Put 

nil

 instead of @"MyApplication"

And now, to use the built-in web browser explicitly use this:

BrowserViewController *bvc = [[BrowserViewController alloc] initWithUrls:url];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:bvc animated:YES];
[bvc release];

Maps & locations

Directions

There is an example of how to calculate the directions between two points using the Google Maps API and showing it on a 

MKMapView

 using map overlays. See 

DirectionsExample.m

.

Autocomplete locations

There is an example of how to autocomplete locations using the Google Maps API. See 

AutocompleteLocationExample.m

.

Other things included

JSONKit

iOS Boilerplate includes JSONKit that is a fast library for generating and parsing JSON documents.

SVProgressHUD

iOS Boilerplate includes SVProgressHUD that is a simple-to-use HUD component. It is used in 

HTTPHUDExample

DictionaryHelper

This helper class adds some methods to the 

NSDictionary

 class. These methods are usful for safe manipulation of data.

- (NSString*) stringForKey:(id)key;
- (NSNumber*) numberForKey:(id)key;
- (NSMutableDictionary*) dictionaryForKey:(id)key;
- (NSMutableArray*) arrayForKey:(id)key;

These method ensure that the object retrieved is of the desired type, otherwise return 

nil

. Also 

NSNull

 is never returned. These methods are very useful when manipulating objects returned by JSONKit or any other JSON library.

StringHelper

This helper class adds some methods to the 

NSString

 class. The most useful are:

- (NSString*)trim;

 returns the original NSString but without white spaces at the beginning or at the end.

- (NSString*)urlEncode;

 url-encodes the original NSString.

- (NSString*)sha1;

 calculates the SHA1 of the given NSString.

DataHelper

This helper class adds one method to the 

NSData

 class. This method is 

- (NSString*)hexString;

 and returns a NSString in hexadecimal representing the content of the original 

NSData

 object.

Not included but recommended

QuickDialog

QuickDialog allows you to create HIG-compliant iOS forms for your apps without having to directly deal with UITableViews, delegates and data sources. Fast and efficient, you can create
forms with multiple text fields, or with thousands of items with no sweat!

IBAForms

IBAForms is a framework for building data entry screens on the iPhone. You can quickly make forms using the built-in form field types or create your own custom fields and the user
interfaces used to enter data for them

PSStackedView

PSStackedView: put your UIViewControllers in a stack, inspired by Twitter's iPAD UI

To infinity and beyond more controls, libraries and frameworks

CocoaControls

CocoaControls Custom UI Controls for iOS and Mac OS X

iOS Frameworks

iOS Frameworks A curated catalog of iOS frameworks and classes for the pragmatic iOS developer

iOS Boilerplate is developed and maintained by @gimenete