Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming: Building Applications for Mobile Safari (Wrox Professional Guides) [Paperback]

Richard Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470251557 | ISBN-13: 978-0470251553 | Edition: 1

The Safari-exclusive applications for iPhone and iPod touch assemble various elements, and this book shows you how to integrate these elements with key design concepts and principles in order to develop a highly usable interface for the touch screen. You’ll learn to use existing open-source libraries in your code, imitate the overall look and feel of built-in Apple applications, and migrate existing Web 2.0 apps and sites to this new mobile platform. By the end of the book, you’ll feel untouchable as you create a custom mobile application from scratch.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming

The unprecedented success of iPhone and iPod touch serves as proof positive that application developers are entering uncharted territory when it comes to creating sophisticated, multi-functional mobile applications for the revolutionary interface design of the touch screen. The Safari-exclusive applications for these Apple devices assemble elements of Web 2.0 apps, traditional desktop apps, multimedia video and audio, and the cell phone. this book shows you how to integrate these various elements with key design concepts and principles in order to develop a highly usable interface for the touch screen.

You'll learn to use existing open-source libraries in your code, imitate the overall look and feel of built-in Apple applications, and migrate existing Web 2.0 apps and sites to this new mobile platform. Along the way, you'll discover how to design a user interface that is optimized for the touch-screen display. By the end of the book, you'll feel untouchable as you create a custom mobile application from scratch.

What you will learn from this book:

• How to design and implement an iPhone user interface
• Ways to enable and optimize web sites for iPhone and iPod touch.
• Tips for handling touch interactions and capturing JavaScript events
• Specific CSS styles that are useful for developing applications
• Techniques for integrating applications with core iPhone services including Phone, Mail, and Goolge Maps
• How to minimize constraints and maximize bandwidth and app-execution performance
• Methods of debugging Mobile Safari applications

Who this book is for:
This book is for web developers who want to build new applications for iPhone and iPod touch. A working knowledge of HTML/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and AJAX is necessary.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues t3echnology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

About the Author

Richard Wagner is an experienced Web designer and developer as well as author of several Web - related books on the underlying technologies of the Mobile Safari platform. These books include XSLT For Dummies , Creating Web Pages All - In - One Desk Reference For Dummies , XML All - In - One Desk Reference For Dummies , Web Design Before & After Makeovers , and JavaScript Unleashed (1st, 2nd ed.). Before moving into full - time authoring, Richard was an experienced programmer and head of engineering. He was also inventor and chief architect of the award - winning NetObjects ScriptBuilder. A versatile author with a wide range of interests, he is also author of The Myth of Happiness . Richard can be located online at tech.digitalwalk.net .

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (January 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470251557
• ISBN-13: 978-0470251553
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #809,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have authored several books, focusing on two very different aspects of my life and professional focus. On the faith front, I am author of "The Expeditionary Man", "The Myth of Happiness", and several "For Dummies" books designed to make meaty truth easily approachable for postmodern readers. These books include "C.S. Lewis & Narnia For Dummies", "Christianity For Dummies", and "Christian Prayer For Dummies".

On the technology front, I have authored several web tech books as well, such as "Adobe AIR For Dummies", "XSLT For Dummies" and "Building Facebook Applications For Dummies".

I work as Senior Developer for Maark, a strategic and interactive B2B marketing firm in Boston. Previously, I was V.P. of Product Development at NetObjects, an Internet software company, as well as inventor/architect of NetObjects ScriptBuilder.

I graduated from Taylor University and pursued graduate studies at American University. Though a native Hoosier, I now live in Princeton, Massachusetts with my wife and three boys.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ok but not great, January 26, 2008

By 

Xavier Facon "XF" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming: Building Applications for Mobile Safari (Wrox Professional Guides) (Paperback)

This book contains quite some materials from the book you can also find them in Apple's documentations. It also has quite some details on Joe Hewitt's iUI framework. But generally speaking, it lacks more detailed explanation (on CSS, AJAX, JavaScript). Here's the dilema: if you are an experienced CSS and JavaScript developer, you will find it lacking the depth. It barely scratches the surface of what real AJAX-powered iPhone applications can do. If you are somewhat a newbie developer, you will need more explanation on the subject. Unfortunately, this book falls in-between the above 2 scenarios.

After all, this is the first and only book on iPhone programming, it's a nice start for anyone that's interested.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Coverage of Web-Based iPhone Dev, March 30, 2008

By 

K. Ford - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming: Building Applications for Mobile Safari (Wrox Professional Guides) (Paperback)

I've never owned a Mac (until now) and never done any development for that platform. While this book doesn't intend to cover the recently released iPhone SDK (it was published before the SDK's release), it does provide excellent coverage of web-based development for the iPhone (and iPod Touch). It leverages a free, open-source library to take much of the grunt work out of it, but also provides detailed code samples and examples and enough information so you could probably do it without the library should you desire. If you're interested in making your site look and feel like an iPhone app, this book will get you there. You should understand HTML, CSS and, preferably, a modicum of Javascript to get the most out of the book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than other books that have come out recently., October 17, 2011

By 

The Edge "geoatl" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional iPhone and iPod touch Programming: Building Applications for Mobile Safari (Wrox Professional Guides) (Paperback)

Purchased this book a couple years ago and I thought it was not so good then. When I bought another book recently covering the same topics, I realized how much better this book was. I actually cracked it back open last week and put out some good exmamples. A decent book amoungst the other Iphone web books.