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Home , IOS, WatchOS

Developing for The in Swift

Hampus Nilsson Computas @hjnilsson What’s Up?

• Brief about the Watch

• Experiment with Swift

• Get started with our App

• WatchConnectivity etc. Doing iOS Development

• Been working with iOS since late 2009

• Computas mainly make apps for government entities

• I made the Student ID app

• In consulting: / web apps are more appropriate right now Quick Brief of Apple Watch

• Apple Watch is still new, everyone might not have one

• The Interface might be alien

• I’ll do a quick brief of the UI so we’re all on the same page

• If you already have a Watch, now is an excellent time to play with it! Watch face & Notifications

• Notifications are accessed from the Watch Face

• Swipe down

• Essentially the same as on the Phone

• Can open the app by tapping

• Or 3D Touch

• A “through-the-screen” tap

• Push firmer than normally, a secondary type of tap

• Used to display options & menus on the watch Glances

• Accessed from Watch Face by swiping up

• Short previews of apps

• Can be updated from phone

• Won’t implement this today Text input

• Yes it’s possible

• Done either using , or by suggestion-based input Using Apps (Trivia Crack)

• You launch an app from the home screen

• Apps run on device, and do not need the phone to function.

• App interaction should be quick

• Unless it’s a workout app, it’s dismissed automatically when you “turn off” the watch App Opportunity!

• New market (especially in Norway)

• Since watchOS 2, there are plenty of opportunities for innovation

• “Relatively” easy platform to work with (especially coming from iOS)

• A very limited platform = easy to make apps Where to start?

• Get a Mac

• … also an iPhone… and a Watch

• iOS development is not cheap. :)

• Then get from the , no other programs necessary We need an idea

• Something that’s not included on the Watch

• That is useful on it’s own

• And is not connected to a product (this is usually the challenge)

= Let’s make a

The Watch does not ship with one! ( Outrageous! ) “This should only take an hour”

- Every developer, ever We need to learn Swift

• We’ll have a short live intro!

• Imperative language with functional concepts

• Modern

• Especially compared to Objective- Swift Course

• Step 1: Basic flow

• Step 2: Types & Functions

• Step 3: Working with NS* / UI* Playground!

Let’s get going BREAK Back on Track

• We learned some Swift

• Basic types, loops, classes & optionals

• Now it is time to dive into WatchOS Step 0

• Set up the Project

• I’ve done this for you here:

git clone git@.com:hjnilsson/ watch-calculator.git

• This is tied to com.hjnilsson.watch-calc, less that ideal for you if you try it on the Phone etc. Step 1: Building the Interface

• UI is built in Interface Builder, just as far iOS

• Set of controls are: Labels, Images, Buttons, Pickers, Tables

• Uses a stack layout (rows & columns, similar to HTML flexbox)

• No dynamic interface - everything must be present always, can only show/hide elements Step 1: Building the Interface

• For our app we need:

• A set of buttons to input the calculation

• A label to display the ongoing calculation & result Step 2: Connecting the Interface

• Time to write some code

• Clicking the buttons should add digits to the label

• A clear button is very useful as well Step 3: Calculate!

• We need to actually figure out what 2+2 resolves to

• Easy on iOS (there we can cheat), for watchOS we need to do the hard work of parsing.

• We’ll make a very dumb parser (simple Left-to-Right) Step 4: More Actions

• Finally, let’s add some more actions via Force Touch

• Clear can be a Force Touch action

• Then we have space for a [ . ] button

• Sum can also be one Bonus step: History

• We’ll store completed sums

• Do so in the WatchExtension class (global singleton; equivalent of AppDelegate on iOS, or Program in C#)

• Display them as a new page to the calculator interface So that’s it!

You could almost submit this to the App Store Just need to finish it… Finishing an App

• Making the “Core Interaction” is the easy part

• Stuff that takes time:

• Making all the ancillary functions

• Fixing bugs

• Arriving to something you are proud of

• Addendum: Apps don’t make money, making apps makes money Debugging

• Atrocious experience on the Watch

• Rarely works like the simulator

• Laggy & buggy

• Will take time if you have an advanced app DEBUGGING

More resources

• WWDC Videos: https://developer.apple.com/videos/ wwdc2015/

• WatchKit in Depth 1 & 2

• WatchKit Tips & Tricks

• Introducing Watch Connectivity

• NSHipster: nshipster.com

• Core Intuition podcast (& ), coreint.org Questions?

If you want the working code it can be found here: git clone [email protected]:hjnilsson/ watch-calculator.git working Hampus Nilsson

Computas @hjnilsson / hjnilsson.com