Apple Watch for Developers: Advice & Techniques from Five Top Professionals

Apple Watch for Developers: Advice & Techniques from Five Top Professionals

by Gary Riches, Ruben Martinez Jr., Jamie Maison, Matt Klosterman, Mark Griffin
Released July 2015
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781484213384

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Book description

Apple Watch for Developers: Advice & Techniques from 5 Top Professionals gives you the base-knowledge and valuable secrets you'll need for your own projects from a core team of successful, experienced Apple Watch app-development experts. You'll explore elements such as branding within Watch apps, translating audio data into visual information, taming complex data, mastering environment-driven feature sets, and much more.

This book is for developers who already have some knowledge of developing with WatchKit and WatchOS 2, and who are now interested in learning how to use them to create cutting edge Watch apps. It is written by five experienced, industry-leading Apple Watch developers who have created their apps early, and are now ready to pull apart examples to show you how to best create an Apple Watch app. This book will bring your cool Watch ideas to life!

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents at a Glance
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. About the Authors
  8. About the Technical Reviewer
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. Chapter 1: An Apple Watch Introduction
    1. Anatomy of a WatchKit App
      1. The Interface Controller
      2. Glance Interfaces
      3. Notification Interfaces
    2. Interface Navigation
    3. Context Menus
    4. Summary
  11. Chapter 2: Examining the Stopwatch, Timer and Calendar
    1. Stopwatch
      1. Creating the User Interface
      2. Outlets and Actions
      3. Triggering Timing
      4. Adding the Lap Functionality
    2. Timer
      1. Creating the User Interface
      2. Outlets and Actions
      3. Initializing the Application
      4. Handling Text Input with WatchKit
      5. Start and Reset
      6. Creating our Timer Method
    3. Calendar
      1. Introduction to iCloud
      2. Creating Calendars and Events in iOS Using EventKit and iCloud
      3. Creating an Apple Watch Calendar Application
    4. Summary
  12. Chapter 3: Taming Complex Data for the Watch
    1. Background
    2. Find Your User’s Story
    3. Maintain Simplicity Through Relevancy
    4. Increase Recognition Through Repetition
    5. Use Notifications as Punctuation
    6. Looking Forward: Complications in watchOS 2
  13. Chapter 4: Examining Home Remote and its Components
    1. The WatchKit Extension
    2. The User Interface
    3. Populating the Table
      1. Handling the Table’s Input
    4. Sharing Data Between Extension and App
      1. App Groups
      2. iOS
      3. WatchKit
    5. Glances and Extension Communication
    6. The Home Remote Glance
    7. The Glance
    8. Handoff
      1. Handoff Interactions
      2. The Handoff Code
      3. Modal Interface Controllers
    9. Navigation Types Available
    10. Home Remote Navigation
    11. Hierarchy and Page based Navigation
      1. Page based Navigation
      2. Hierarchical Navigation
    12. Force Touch Menus
      1. The Design of the Menu Items
    13. Apple Watch Settings
    14. Home Remote and Voice Recognition
    15. About Voice Dictation
    16. Adding Voice Recognition to the Table
    17. Modifying the Settings and Glance
    18. Submitting Your App for Review
      1. App Identifiers
      2. Version Numbers
      3. App Name and Settings Name
    19. Assets Required for Submission
      1. Screen Shots
    20. The Submission Process
    21. Summary
  14. Chapter 5: Developing Notation – Audio to Musical Score
    1. User Interface on the Apple Watch
    2. Branding Within Apple Watch Applications
      1. Design Considerations
    3. Working with App Groups
      1. What are App Groups?
      2. Setting Up App Groups in Your Project
    4. Using the Apple Watch Microphone in watchOS 2
      1. Swift
      2. Objective-C
    5. Translating Audio Data into Visual Information
      1. Importing and Declaring Images
      2. Updating Our Image
    6. Summary
  15. Chapter 6: Building the Infinitweet Application
    1. Introducing Infinitweet
    2. Environment-Driven Feature Sets
      1. Infinitweet for iOS
      2. Infinitweet for Apple Watch
      3. So Where Does the Magic Happen?
    3. Building Infinitweet
      1. Getting Started
      2. Creating the Infinitweet User Interface
      3. Communicating Between Storyboard and Code
      4. Capturing User Voice Input
      5. Navigating Between WKInterfaceControllers
      6. Working with Social and Account Frameworks
      7. Prompting the User With Options
      8. The Infinitweet Algorithm
      9. Providing User Feedback
      10. Finishing Touches
      11. Additional Notes
  16. Chapter 7: Developing Apple Watch Cross-Platform Apps
    1. The FAIRFX Watch Application
    2. Building Watch Applications as a Cross-Platform Developer
    3. Building Our Main Application with Cordova
    4. Bridging the Gap
    5. Getting a WatchKit App Up and Running
    6. Linking the Applications Together
    7. Common Pitfalls
      1. Different Version Numbers
      2. Differing Deployment Targets
      3. Downgrading the Deployment Target
      4. Building Fine but Rejected at App Store
    8. Additional Features
      1. Notifications
      2. Glances
      3. Android Wear
      4. WatchKit for watchOS 2
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Apple Watch for Developers: Advice & Techniques from Five Top Professionals
  • Author(s): Gary Riches, Ruben Martinez Jr., Jamie Maison, Matt Klosterman, Mark Griffin
  • Release date: July 2015
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781484213384