Swift Developments is a hand-curated newsletter containing a weekly selection of the best links, videos, tools and tutorials for people interested in designing and developing their own apps using Swift.
Business
Your Billion Dollar Idea Ain’t Worth A Dime
A reality check from @Jonwestenberg reminding us that it is not our app ideas that are important but building them.
medium.com
That’s Not How the App Store Works!
Following on from the article above @BenRiceM recounts his experience of building and launching Obscura on the App Store. It’s another example of just how difficult it is for an independent developer to make money on the app store. Despite this, I really hope 2016 brings you some success if this is the path you are choosing to walk.
medium.com
Design
People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Themselves
Although not directly app related, I saw this article over Christmas. It’s an intesting read from @BelleBCooper and gives us some hints about a different way of thinking when pitching our apps.
bufferapp.com
Secondary Views in Interface Builder’s Storyboards
I hadn’t come across this before but it turns out that Interface Builder in Xcode 7 added the ability to include views within your storyboards that are not included within the normal view hierarchy. In this article, @parrots dives into the details and highlights some of the benefits this can bring.
curtisherbert.com
Protocol-Oriented MVVM in Swift 2.0
In this article, @natashatherobot revisits protocol-oriented programming and how to apply it to MVVM.
natashatherobot.com
Code
Properties of types conforming to protocols in Swift
Although protocols in Swift bring a lot of benefits, not everything is perfect and in some cases, they add a little more complication than we had with Objective-C. In this article, @ilyapuchka looks at a clean way of accessing the properties of types that conform to protocols in Swift.
puchka.me
Transparent Table View with a Background Image
As you probably know, UITableViews are one of the work horses of iOS Programming. In this article, @GrokSwift looks at adding some bling to UITableViews with transparent cells and background images.
grokswift.com
Creating Custom UIViewController Transitions
Sticking with the theme of adding polish and pizzazz to your apps, in this article, @j_vesza looks at how we can use custom transitions to make your app stand out.
raywenderlich.com
Let’s Build a Network Abstraction Layer
In this article, @alexiscreuzot walks us through some best-practices as he constructs a network abstraction layer on top of Alamofire.
medium.com
Building REST APIs with Zewo
With the Swift now in the land of open source, we have all sorts of possibilities that we didn’t have before. One of these, is using Swift for both your app and server code. In this article, @iachievedit looks at how to developer our very own REST API using Zewo.
iachieved.it
Integrating LinkedIn Sign In with iOS Apps Using OAuth 2.0
With social networks being an almost essential feature for most apps now days, a good understanding of how user authentication works is critical. In this article, @gabtheodor goes back to basics, avoiding the use of SDKs and instead looking at the underlying details of how to use OAuth 2.0 with LinkedIn.
appcoda.com
How to share Keychain between iOS apps
Sticking with the security theme, this article has some good tips for how to share the iOS keychain between different trusted apps using Keychain Groups.
evgenii.com
Libraries
Filterpedia: Core Image Filter Explorer
Ever wanted to know what all the different filters in Core Image looked like? Well now you can take a look with this catalogue tool from @flexmonkey
blogspot.co.uk
Reusable Swift Code
Whether your diving into Swift for the first time or a seasoned professional, code examples are invariably the best way of getting up to speed with new frameworks. The good news in this front is that @carlbutron has created a great repository with code examples from JSON parsing to SpriteKit.
github.com
Conferences
Indie Dev Stock
It looks like we have another new conference on the calendar and if your in or around Nashville, it’s one to watch.
indiedevstock.com
Tools
Little things that can make your life easier in 2016
@merowing_ published this one just before Christmas. A nice set of tips, tricks and Xcode plugins to make your coding a little easier in 2016.
merowing.info
Videos
pomo.tv
It also looks like @chriseidhof was busy over the Christmas period. This new site draws together some of the best iOS and OS X programming videos from around the community.
pomo.tv
Comment
Happy New Year! I hope you had a relaxing break over the Christmas period.
I thought we’d kick of 2017 by shaking things up a little and with this in mind, I’m going to experiment with moving this newsletter to a Tuesday to see how things go. Mostly this is for selfish reasons as it helps spread things out during the week but let me know what you think.
Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of new links and resources for you from over the Christmas period so let’s dive in….