Fishing UK – iPhone app for fishing in the UK

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:11:07 GMT

The latest (01.03.00) release of the Fishing UK iPhone app is out!

This release has the following updates:

ENH - Fishery details website link now opens in Safari
ENH - Added 5 star rating system
ENH - Added iOS 4.0 compatability
ENH - Added multi-tasking support

MonoTouch – map driving directions

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:18:04 GMT

The iPhone MKMapView doesn’t include driving directions as far as I’m aware, but the default map app does. So what do you do when you want driving directions in your own app? The answer is pretty simple and works on v3 and v4. All you need to do is construct a Url for google maps and pass it to the map app:

                UIButton btnDirections = UIButton.FromType(UIButtonType.RoundedRect);
                btnDirections.Frame = new System.Drawing.RectangleF(160, 320, 150, 40);
                btnDirections.SetTitle("Directions...", UIControlState.Normal);
                btnDirections.TitleLabel.TextAlignment = UITextAlignment.Center;
                double slat = (double)appDelegate.myLocation.Coordinate.Latitude;
                double slng = (double)appDelegate.myLocation.Coordinate.Longitude;
                string saddr = slat.ToString() + "," + slng.ToString();
                string daddr = _fishery.FisheryLat.ToString() + "," + _fishery.FisheryLng.ToString();
                btnDirections.TouchDown += delegate {
                    NSUrl url = new NSUrl("http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=" + saddr + "&daddr=" + daddr);
                    UIApplication.SharedApplication.OpenUrl(url);
                };
                this.View.AddSubview(btnDirections);

MonoTouch – Adding HTTPS web service

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:36:49 GMT

I recently secured one of my web services with HTTPS and when I tried to add the service to a MonoTouch project nothing happened. The screen looked like it was adding it but it didn’t finish I just had to cancel it.

More...

MonoTouch – UITableView async web service with progress

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:52:50 GMT

It’s recommended that web service calls are made asynchronously to make the app more responsive. However, the user needs to know that something is happening during the call. The NetworkIndicator can be used for this but I wanted something more obvious.


User taps the ‘Latest’ button	Async call is made	Latest view is shown

public class LatestViewController : UIViewController
    {
        private UIActivityIndicatorView progressIndicator;
        private UITableView tableView;
        private List Fisheries;
        
        private UIActivityIndicatorView ProgressIndicator ()
        {
            UIActivityIndicatorView pind = new UIActivityIndicatorView (new RectangleF(145f, 165f, 30f, 30f)){
                ActivityIndicatorViewStyle = UIActivityIndicatorViewStyle.Gray,
                AutoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleLeftMargin | UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleRightMargin | UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleTopMargin | UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleBottomMargin,
                Tag = 1
            };
            return pind;
        }
        
        // show the progressIndicator in viewwillappear
        public override void ViewWillAppear (bool animated)
        {                    
            progressIndicator = ProgressIndicator();
            progressIndicator.HidesWhenStopped = true;
            progressIndicator.StartAnimating();
            this.View.AddSubview(progressIndicator);
                
            UIApplication.SharedApplication.NetworkActivityIndicatorVisible = true;
        }
        
        // make the async call in viewdidappear
        public override void ViewDidAppear(bool animated)
        {
            var service = new FishHere();
            service.GetLatestFisheriesCompleted += HandleServiceGetLatestFisheriesCompleted;
            service.GetLatestFisheriesAsync();
        }

        // handle the completed event and hide the progressIndicator
        void HandleServiceGetLatestFisheriesCompleted (object sender, GetLatestFisheriesCompletedEventArgs args)
        {
            // Since the asych call runs on a separate thread,
            // we can't access UIKit obects from there, so we
            // invoke those  on the main thread
            InvokeOnMainThread (delegate {
                progressIndicator.StopAnimating();
                UIApplication.SharedApplication.NetworkActivityIndicatorVisible = false;

                Fisheries = new List();

                System.Xml.XmlNode result = (System.Xml.XmlNode)args.Result;
                XDocument feed = XDocument.Parse(result.OuterXml);
                var query = from item in feed.Descendants("fishery") select new Fishery
                        {
                                FisheryId = (string) item.Element("itemid"),
                                FisheryName = (string) item.Element("itemname"),
                                FisheryDescription = (string) item.Element("itemdesc"),
                                CountyName = (string) item.Element("countyname"),
                                CategoryName = (string) item.Element("categoryname"),
                                FisheryAddress = (string) item.Element("itemaddress"),
                                FisheryPostcode = (string) item.Element("postcode"),
                                FisheryEmail = (string) item.Element("itememail"),
                                FisheryUrl = (string) item.Element("itemurl"),
                                FisheryLat = (string) item.Element("latitude"),
                                FisheryLng = (string) item.Element("longitude"),
                                ParentCategoryID = (string) item.Element("parentcategoryid")
                            };
                
                Fisheries = query.ToList();
                
                if (Fisheries.Count > 0)
                {
                    tableView = new UITableView()
                    {
                        Delegate = new TableViewDelegate(this, Fisheries),
                        DataSource = new TableViewDataSource(Fisheries),
                        AutoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleHeight|UIViewAutoresizing.FlexibleWidth,
                        BackgroundColor = UIColor.GroupTableViewBackgroundColor,
                    };
                        
                    tableView.SizeToFit();
                    tableView.Frame = new System.Drawing.RectangleF (0, 0, this.View.Frame.Width, this.View.Frame.Height);
                    this.View.AddSubview(tableView);                    
                }
                else
                {
                    // add the view for the controls
                    UIView noResultView = new UIView();
                    noResultView.BackgroundColor = UIColor.Clear;
                    noResultView.SizeToFit();
                    noResultView.Frame = new System.Drawing.RectangleF(0, 0, this.View.Frame.Width, this.View.Frame.Height);
            
                    // add the main image
                    UIImageView noResultsScreen = new UIImageView(new System.Drawing.RectangleF(0, 0, 320, 375));
                    noResultsScreen.Image = UIImage.FromFile("images/home_back.png");
                    noResultsScreen.Frame = new System.Drawing.RectangleF(0, 0, 320, 375);
                    noResultView.AddSubview(noResultsScreen);
                
                    // Add the no results label
                    UITextView noResultsView = new UITextView(new System.Drawing.RectangleF(0, 0, 320, 200));
                    noResultsView.Editable = false;
                    noResultsView.TextAlignment = UITextAlignment.Center;
                    noResultsView.BackgroundColor = UIColor.Clear;
                    noResultsView.TextColor = UIColor.White;
                    noResultsView.Font = UIFont.FromName("Helvetica", 18);
                    noResultsView.ScrollEnabled = false;
                    noResultsView.Text = "No Fisheries found";
                    noResultView.AddSubview(noResultsView);

                    this.View.AddSubview(noResultView);
                }        
            });
        }
        
        public override void ViewDidLoad ()
        {
            base.ViewDidLoad ();
            this.Title = "Latest";
        }
        
        private class TableViewDelegate : UITableViewDelegate
        {
            private LatestViewController _lvc;
            private List _fisheries;
            
            public TableViewDelegate(LatestViewController controller, List fisheries)
            {
                _lvc = controller;
                _fisheries = fisheries;
            }
            
            public override void RowSelected (UITableView tableView, NSIndexPath indexPath)
            {
                Fishery f = _fisheries[indexPath.Row];
                LatestViewDetailsController latestDetailsView = new LatestViewDetailsController(f);
                latestDetailsView.Title = f.FisheryName;
                _lvc.NavigationController.PushViewController(latestDetailsView, true);    
            }
        }
        
        private class TableViewDataSource : UITableViewDataSource
        {
            static NSString kCellIdentifier = new NSString("MyIdentifier");
            private List Fisheries;
            private Dictionary<int, FisheryCellController> controllers = null;
            
            public TableViewDataSource (List Fisheries)
            {
                this.Fisheries = Fisheries;
                controllers = new Dictionary<int, FisheryCellController>();
            }
            
            public override int RowsInSection (UITableView tableView, int section)
            {
                return Fisheries.Count;
            }
            
            public override UITableViewCell GetCell (UITableView tableView, NSIndexPath indexPath)
            {
                UITableViewCell cell = tableView.DequeueReusableCell (kCellIdentifier);
                FisheryCellController cellController = null;
                if (cell == null)
                {
                    cellController = new FisheryCellController();
                    NSBundle.MainBundle.LoadNib("FisheryCellController", cellController, null);
                    cell = cellController.Cell;
                    cell.Tag = Environment.TickCount;
                    controllers.Add(cell.Tag, cellController);
                }
                else
                {
                    cellController = controllers[cell.Tag];
                }
                Fishery fishery = Fisheries.ElementAt(indexPath.Row);
                cell.Accessory = UITableViewCellAccessory.DisclosureIndicator;
                cellController.Name = fishery.FisheryName;
                cellController.County = fishery.CountyName;
                cellController.CategoryImageView.Image = UIImage.FromFile("images/icon_fishery40x40.png");
                return cell;
            }
        }
    }

Big thanks to Craig’s blog for lots of things in here.

MonoTouch – UITextView rounded borders

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:55:00 GMT

Very simple way of creating rounded borders on a UITextView in MonoTouch.

Before the rounded corners are applied the UITextView looks out of place on the UI:

After rounded corners are applied it makes all the difference:

This can easily be applied by using CornerRadius:

UITextView addTipText = new UITextView(new System.Drawing.RectangleF(30, 70, 260, 80));
addTipText.BackgroundColor = UIColor.White;
addTipText.Hidden = true;
addTipText.Layer.CornerRadius = 8;
addTipText.Font = UIFont.FromName("Helvetica", 14);
addTipText.ScrollEnabled = true;
addView.AddSubview(addTipText);

Talwrn Technology Blog

Fishing UK – iPhone app for fishing in the UK

MonoTouch – map driving directions

MonoTouch – Adding HTTPS web service

MonoTouch – UITableView async web service with progress

MonoTouch – UITextView rounded borders