iPhone Application Programming Guide （2）

Organization of This Document

This document has the following chapters:
■ “The Core Application” (page 15) contains key information about the basic structure of every iPhone
application, including some of the critical tasks every application should be prepared to handle.
■ “Window and Views” (page 45) describes the iPhone windowing model and shows you how you use
views to organize your user interface.
■ “Event Handling” (page 75) describes the iPhone event model and shows you how to handle Multi-Touch
events.
■ “Graphics and Drawing” (page 85) describes the graphics architecture of iPhone OS and shows you how
to draw shapes and images and incorporate animations into your content.
■ “Text and Web” (page 105) describes the text support in iPhone OS, including examples of how you
manage the system keyboard.
■ “Files and Networking” (page 117) provides guidelines for working with files and network connections.
■ “Multimedia Support” (page 127) shows you how to use the audio and video technologies available in
iPhone OS.
■ “Device Support” (page 139) shows you how to integrate features such as location tracking, the
accelerometers, and the built-in camera into your application.
■ “Application Preferences” (page 147) shows you how to configure your application preferences and
display them in the Settings application.

 

 

 

 

 

Providing Feedback

If you have feedback about the documentation, you can provide it using the built-in feedback form at the
bottom of every page.
If you encounter bugs in Apple software or documentation, you are encouraged to report them to Apple.
You can also file enhancement requests to indicate features you would like to see in future revisions of a
product or document. To file bugs or enhancement requests, go to the Bug Reporting page of the ADC
website, which is at the following URL:

 

http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

 

You must have a valid ADC login name and password to file bugs. You can obtain a login name for free by
following the instructions found on the Bug Reporting page.

 

 

 

 

See Also

The following documents provide important information that all developers should read prior to developing
applications for iPhone OS:
■ iPhone Development Guide provides important information about the iPhone development process from
the tools perspective. This document covers the configuration of devices and the use of Xcode (and
other tools) for building, running, and testing your software.
■ Cocoa Fundamentals Guide provides fundamental information about the design patterns and practices
used to develop iPhone applications.
■ iPhone Human Interface Guidelines provides guidance and important information about how to design
your iPhone application’s user interface.
The following reference and conceptual documents provide additional information about key iPhone topics:
■ UIKit Framework Reference provides reference information for the classes discussed in this document.
■ View Controller Programming Guide for iPhone OS provides information on the use of view controllers in
creating interfaces for iPhone applications.
■ Table View Programming Guide for iPhone OS provides information about working with table views, which
are used frequently in iPhone applications.
■ The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language introduces Objective-C and the Objective-C runtime system,
which is the basis of much of the dynamic behavior and extensibility of iPhone OS.

 

 

 

The Core Application

Every iPhone application is built using the UIKit framework and therefore has essentially the same core
architecture. UIKit provides the key objects needed to run the application and to coordinate the handling of
user input and the display of content on the screen. Where applications deviate from one another is in how
they configure these default objects and also where they incorporate custom objects to augment their
application’s user interface and behavior.
Although customizations to your application’s user interface and basic behavior occur down within your
application’s custom code, there are many customizations that you must make at the highest levels of the
application. Because these application-level customizations affect the way your application interacts with
the system and other applications installed on a device, it is important to understand when you need to act
and when the default behavior is sufficient. This chapter provides an overview of the core application
architecture and the high-level customization points to help you make determinations about when to
customize and when to use the default behavior.