Iphone in Action: Introduction to Web and SDK Development [Paperback]

Christopher Allen (Author), Shannon Appelcline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2009

"The entry to the world of iPhone." -Aiden Montgomery, Wile Ltd.

"If you're new to iPhone development, this is your book!" -Larry C. Whipple, Mobile Productivity, Inc.

"Get this book. It's pure gold." -Martijn Dashorst, Author of Wicket in Action

"The quick & easy guide." -Premkumar Rajendran, HCL Technologies

"The only book on iPhone development I will ever need." -Rama Krishna Vavilala, Author of ASP.NET AJAX in Action

The iPhone explodes old ideas of a cell phone. Its native SDK offers a remarkable range of features including easy-to-build graphical objects, a unique navigation system, and a built-in database, all on a location-knowledgeable device. Websites and web apps can now behave like native iPhone apps, with great network integration.

iPhone in Action is an in-depth introduction to both native and web programming for the iPhone. You'll learn how to turn your web pages into compelling iPhone web apps using WebKit, iUI, and Canvas. The authors also take you step by step into more complex Objective-C programming. They help you master the iPhone SDK including its UI and features like accelerometers, GPS, the Address Book, SQLite, and many more. Using Apple's standard tools like Dashcode, Xcode, and Interface Builder, you'll learn how to best use both approaches: iPhone web and SDK programming. This book is intended as an introduction to its topics. Proficiency with C, Cocoa, or Objective-C is helpful but not required.

What's Inside

• A comprehensive tutorial for iPhone programming
• Web development, the SDK, and hybrid coding
• Over 60 web, Dashcode, and SDK examples

Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christopher Allen hosts iphonewebdev.com, the largest iPhone web dev community, and is a founder and organizer of the iPhoneDevCamp conference. A longtime technologist, Chris was one of the authors of TLS, the next-generation SSL protocol. Shannon Appelcline is a widely published writer and technologist, who has written everything from game programming articles to comic books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; 1 edition (January 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193398886X
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988863
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,219,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The best resource for WebKit development March 2, 2009

By Anthony Hillerson

Format:Paperback

I bought this book because I wanted a good discussion of both SDK and web development for the iPhone and this was the only book that gave any serious talk about web development. Although SDK development is definitely hotter right now, Web development continues to make more sense in a lot of situations, and will become even more compelling as time goes on and technology gets better. This book is a great resource because of that. A very good book to have.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars All about HTML Programming April 3, 2009

By Barry A. Starrfield

Format:Paperback

Be aware that this book is strongly focused towards iPhone Web applications development. Sadly, your Web based iPhone app is not what consumers want - they want an SDK application, and those are the applications that you'll get paid for. Note how few - if any - of the iPhone applications selling on the app store are Web based.

With over half this book an introduction to HTML, JavaScript, and AJAX, you'll find that the section on Objective-C development is given short shrift.

This is the first "In Action" book that I would not recommend to a serious developer. This is a survey book on iPhone development, barely superior to the tutorials available online.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for web apps, or experienced Objective-C programmers July 14, 2009

By T. Miller

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the only book I know of that covers how to create web apps (ie. web sites that are specially designed to work on the iPhone and look similar to an actual application, but are not actually applications you install on the phone). It provides a good jumping off point and reference on how to do that. In fact, half of the book is dedicated to it, so if that's what you're looking to do, this is the book for you.

However, if you want to write iPhone applications that you actually install on the phone and could sell through the AppStore, I'd suggest you find a different book unless you are a very experienced Objective-C programmer. I've programmed for 20+ years, in a variety of languages, including for mobile devices, but never in Objective-C or for the iPhone. After reading a review of this book on Slashdot, I thought this would be a great way to learn how to code for the iPhone. I couldn't have been more wrong. The book does give you all the basics, including a short intro to Xcode and interface builder, but this half of the book seems disorganized, rambling, and doesn't provide enough detail for a seasoned, but new to the platform, programmer to pick up what they'd need to be able to really develop an actual app. The examples are extremely rudimentary, and right when I thought I was past the elementary ones and getting into the "real guts" of iPhone programming, the book starts giving overviews of the other frameworks, leaving me with just enough knowledge to write a few variations of "hello world" type apps, but not enough to really understand how to get things wired up properly.

If you're new to Objective-C programming and want to develop apps for the iPhone, I'd recommend Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) (which actually has a small section about iPhone programming, but this is more to learn Obj-C and as a reference), and Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK (a new edition of the book comes out revised and updated for the 3.0 SDK on July 20th, 2009)