]]> Hi everybody.

Do you want to develop your own Magento mobile application?

Great! I’ll give you some pointers on how to get a grasp on Magento’s XMLConnect, an extension that serves Magento Mobile application.

Keep in mind that XMLConnect extension comes ‘preinstalled’ in Magento CE 1.5 and later, but you can get it from Magento Connect.

The Big Picture

Awhile ago, Magento Mobile was released for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It consists of two parts: a Magento web store with an XMLConnect extension installed and configured, and a native application itself.

XMLConnect extension’s purpose here is to serve your application with requested data (category listing, product information, etc.) and execute desired actions (buy, log in, checkout, etc.).
Basically, application sends a request (plain HTTP GET/POST) to your Magento store (XMLConnect) and it responds with an XML result.

The best way to get familiar with XMLConnect is to see it in action:

1) Set up a Magento store on your web server with some sample data
2) In Magento admin->Mobile->Manage Apps add a new mobile application
3) Install Magento Mobile on your device
4) Start Magento Mobile on your device with your Magento store url and the app code of the application you just created in Magento admin->Mobile

While exploring Magento Mobile, keep an eye on (Apache) activity log file to see exactly what the application is requesting from the server.
For instance, the first request would probably be the application configuration request.

/xmlconnect/configuration/index/app_code/defand1/screen_size/480×800

We recognize in this request an app code (in this example it is “defand1″) and your device’s screen size (here it’s “480×800″).
Let’s check out what is the result of this request. In your browser navigate to:

http://magentoivica.loc/xmlconnect/configuration/index/app_code/defand1/screen_size/480×800
(obviously, replace “magentoivica.loc” with your web server name. Recognize the rest of the url?)

Voilá, what you should get is an entire configuration of your app (as it is set in your Magento admin) in an XML format.

Using this practice, you can easily explore most of the capabilities of XMLConnect. Also, it may be necessary to get into the code of XMLConnect if you want to master some of the more advanced actions (such as the checkout process).

Ok, now you know basics of using XMLConnect, how to make a request and what to expect as a result. But, how to use this information in an Android (Java) environment?

You probably already know something about parsing XML data. I will show you a better way (probably) which will allow you to have more modularity and sustainability in an Android application development.

So, stay tuned

]]> Our friends and coworkers at Surgeworks Mobile released an awesome iPhone game application called “Letter Blocks World“. We are playing with it for days now and having lots of fun!

There are lots of people that visit inchoo.net who are not natural English speakers. This game will be awesome for you. You’ll start thinking about all sorts of different words and hopefully learn how to spell them correctly. But it is not all about learning, this game is fun! There are 3 different mods you can play with: Story Mode, Arcade Mode and Clear the Board.

Story Mode

An increasingly challenging game with 15 levels and a different target for each level. Reach the target score or compose the number of words required to complete the level before the time runs out! Conquer all 5 Letter Block Worlds by completing the 15 levels in one game. Don’t let the board fill in or you’ll loose the game!

Arcade Mode

Freestyle in a random world. The higher you score, the faster blocks will fall on the board. How long will you last? Challenge the your friends to beat your high score through the Open Feint gaming network!

Clear the Board

Look! A board full of blocks! Can you clean it up without shaking the device to get more blocks? Achieve that to enter the global high scores for this game mode!

Warning: Magento is NOT a word. xD

You can buy the app here.

]]> Our “sister” company Surgeworks Mobile just launched an online store selling components for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad applications.

The store is located here and it’s currently featuring two products:

• A completely free Review Alert component for iPhone SDK that gives you the ability to pop-up an alert after a chosen period of time, asking user to review the app.
• A 3D Tag Cloud Component for iPhone SDK, with a special launch discount of 50% available for only $ 49.00 USD!

We hope many more useful code libraries will be released on Surgeworks Mobile’s shop as the time passes by, so make sure you stay tuned to the links above.

]]> Mobile Apps team launched a Prayer website as a support for the most complete prayer database available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The app is Easy-to-use, multi-language Christian Prayers database. The ultimate reference to Catholic Prayers for your iPhone and iPod Touch! The App can work without an Internet connection and provided users with access to 1,000+ prayers in English. It also contains over 100 prayers in Italian and the most popular prayers in Latin, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. The newest version of the app also features “favorites” and “search” functionality.

]]> Surgeworks has grown into a pretty big company with several different teams and areas of expertise. In an effort to make it clear for the website visitors what the company does, we started separating teams into different “micro-brands”.

First of these brands was Inchoo, dedicated to e-commerce design, development, and marketing. It’s been a while since we figured out that we need a separate micro-brand such as Inchoo for our mobile application development services, and today, we present you the Surgeworks Mobile website.

Surgeworks Mobile is a web presentation of our mobile applications development unit. Homepage, much like Inchoo, features new blog posts. We hope some of our loyal readers here at Inchoo that are also interested in the mobile application development will like the content over there and start following that blog as well.

Site also features the mobile applications that the team already did and there are sections describing the services and the team.

]]> As Steve Jobs showed us the long anticipated tablet yesterday, internet (as expected) went super-crazy about it. There has been so much coverage that at some point 8 out of 10 trending topics on Twitter were iPad related. I believe everything worth saying about this device has already been written and there’s not much point in me repeating it, so I’ll just link to some good resources and explain them.

I composed a list of some really nice articles about Apple’s iPad published so far:

5 Reasons Why The iPad Fails To Impress (WebProNews)

WebProNews’ Jeremy Muncy lists five reasons of his disappointment with iPad. The reasons are (in order of appearance): the name, no multitasking, no camera, huge ridiculous adapters, same touch keyboard with a bonus one: no flash.

• Similar: 8 Things That Suck About the iPad (Gizmodo)

Video: The iPad In Action (TechCrunch)

MG Siegler of TechCrunch shows us a video (not one of these videos on Apple’s official site) of iPad in action. This 2:14 in length YouTube video called “iPad hands on” is pretty useful in seeing how iPad truly works.

Steve Wozniak Talks iPad (Video) (TechCrunch)

Another TechCrunch article, written by Robin Wauters features a video of Steve Wozniak (Apple’s co-founder) talking about iPad. Steve talks about what we can expect in future (hint: magazine subscriptions and similar features).

Building iPad Applications with Flash (Adobe’s Blog)

Although Apple stated iPad doesn’t support flash, Adobe wrote this great blog posts reminding developers of possibility of developing Flash apps for this platform. Adobe says:

While we put the finishing touches on the Packager for iPhone, we have invited a few developers and designers to join a closed pre-release program. As they are testing it and giving us feedback, they also have been able to use it to build some applications that they have submitted to the iTunes App Store.

Apple iPad: A Comprehensive Guide (Mashable)

Ben Parr created a comprehensive guide about iPad at Mashable that includes the overview, the specifications, interface, web, emails and maps, connectivity, e-books and publishing features, TV movies and video, gaming, productivity and iWork, pricing, availability, competitors, what the iPad lacks and list of recommended additional reading. The closing statement is really interesting:

The point is this: It’s a first generation device, and it’s not going to include a lot of the things we want. With that said, make sure you know the drawbacks before buying.

9 Upcoming Tablet Alternatives to the Apple iPad (Mashable)

The title of the post says it all, it’s a list and explanation of 9 alternatives (I hate when this word is used in plural -.-) to the new Apple iPad. Including: HP Slate, Dell Streak, Asus Eee Tablet, Compal Tablet, Notion Ink Adam, MSI, Quanta, ICD Vega and Google and HTC but not including the JooJoo (ex. CrunchPad).

Editorial: Engadget on the Apple iPad (Engadget)

Nilay Patel wrote a really extensive article about iPad at Engadget. The articles includes the opinion of a lot of Engadget’s staff members including the people who have been actually using the device. Important quotes:

I know that I’ll find a reason to drop $500 (at least) on this thing — but for the vast majority of consumers, I think the case for the iPad has yet to be made.

As a portable gaming platform, the iPhone represented a sea change in quality; at first blush, the iPad carries no such distinction.

This is simply Cupertino’s answer to the smartbook executed with typical Apple spit and polish, and whether anyone really needs the world’s slickest smartbook remains to be seen.

My initial impulse is always, I have to have that. But then reality sets in: do I really need a third device?

I’m not going to form an opinion until I actually read with the iPad, but it looks like the best alternative to an actual book I’ve ever seen.

Touché, Mr. Jobs, but it’s also easy to argue that a $399 netbook can do a number of things better than the $499 Apple iPad — like multitask, play Flash video and make a video call.

Why the iPad Will Crush Netbooks and Ebook Readers (Gizmodo)

A nice analysis of current state of the industry and prediction of how and why will Apple’s iPad crush netbooks and ebook readers. It talks about iPads targeted audience in a really smart and logical way.

Two ways to win Apple’s iPad using your Twitter account:

• CONTEST: Tweet to Win a Free Apple iPad!
• ReTweet This to Win One of 3 Apple iPad Tablets from @HubSpot

]]> Once again I can proudly say one more application is finished and from first attempt approved by Apple. On this project I was working on user interface development part with all user interaction logic. To reduced, everything you see and feel. Just to clarify, I am still working on same project and we are preparing second version which has many surprises. Bellow you can read few words from ShoutEm company about this fine product.

The ShoutEm iPhone app is actually two apps in one: it’s a fully functional Twitter client, but in addition to Twitter, you can also use it to read and write posts to twitter_timelineany of the networks on ShoutEm, as well as StatusNet, the open source microblogging service.

For example, let’s say that you’ve created a network on ShoutEm for your coworkers, but you also have two accounts on Twitter. With the ShoutEm iPhone application, you can easily read the posts and write new ones for all three networks, all from one place.

Here are the most important features of the ShoutEm iPhone application:

* handle multiple accounts on your favorite microblogging networks: ShoutEm, Twitter or StatusNet (Laconi.ca)
* browse through your friend’s statuses, public statuses or mentions
* update your status (with photo or location attached)
* explore user profiles, their followers or statuses/tweets
* follow or stop following users
* explore received or sent private messages; write direct messages to users
* track conversations in our threaded view (ShoutEm specific)
* status search

Click here to download ShoutEm iPhone app for FREE

]]> Last month I had an opportunity to work on a great iPhone project with winning idea. We’ve built two applications for the same project – full and lite application. After a while we finished testing and both of the applications were 99% ready for submission on the App Store.

So we submitted the applications and soon we’ve received a negative response message from Apple. Unfortunately, lite application didn’t pass revision because it contained a word “Demo”, which in Apple terms is not acceptable from the marketing point of view. Well, it would be funny if it wasn’t sad. What to say on fact that one insignificant word like “Demo” is key point to reject app? Who knows what else is prohibited… Maybe this kind of strictness is crucial to make corporation like Apple. I just hope that this small stain passes as time passes these days (very fast) because there are also many good platforms on the market that don’t have stain like this small one. No anarchy at Apple!

]]> It’s been a while since I wrote my last post. Since then I got married, completed faculty, finished three iPhone applications for clients and three internal. Well, these are the main reasons for my absence and I think they are justified.

Now lets get back on memory leak issue created by CFNetwork class. If you create NSURLConnection object you will get this memory leak. First time I meet with this issue I was thinking it was my fault as developer, but when I tracked leak I realized that memory leak is created by framework internally. Instruments tool says clearly – “Responsible caller – CFNetwork”.

Well, this is my own conclusion and I might not be right but considering all given facts the leak is created by CFNetwork class. Also, I am not only one developer that has same issue. Many of iPhone developers has complain on same memory leak created by CFNetwork class. To solve this issue I try to put autoreleas pool like code below but no luck.

NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
…
[pool release];

Also I tried to create NSURLCache object like code below but no luck.

NSURLCache *sharedCache = [[NSURLCache alloc] initWithMemoryCapacity:0 diskCapacity:0 diskPath:nil];
[NSURLCache setSharedURLCache:sharedCache];
[sharedCache release];

If any of you has meet similar issue or maybe has solution for this memory leak please leave comment bellow. Thanks!

]]> Surgeworks recently developed a new MATHO 2 for the iPhone/iPod Touch. It is a BINGO style math game for students grades K-12 developed for Education 4 Free, LLC. The goal of MATHO is to get five correct answers in a row as quickly as possible, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The problem is placed at the top of the screen and the player must select the correct answer on the gameboard. Each incorrect answer results in a penalty of five seconds. The score at the end of the game is the total time to complete MATHO, so the best scores are the lowest.

The player can choose game types of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication or Division. The difficulty can be set to Easy, Medium, Hard and Custom. The Easy difficulty poses problems with values up to 8, Medium up to 12 and Hard up to 20. Custom difficulty allows the player to choose the maximum values for N1 and N2, and the resulting difficulty is the sum of these values. High scores are stored locally and globally. Local scores are the top 8 scores from games played on the player’s device. Global scores are submitted from all players around the world.

View more images on Surgeworks website.

]]> If you want to ensure best user experience for your app users you just must integrate this two API in your app. First of two is Get Satisfaction iPhone API. Satisfaction Remote Component enables iPhone developers to embed support for Get Satisfaction within their apps. This works somewhat like the “Feedback” widget on many websites (example on getsatisfaction.com homepage). Briefly, this API is integrates feedback forum for user. It has all features like one on websites and it is very confident. For one that doesn’t know what GS Remote Component is here you can find little more information about this great API. 

http://code.google.com/p/satisfactionremotecomponent/ 

Flurry Analytics iPhone API is second one. This is really great API that every better developer would integrate. This API is analytics tool for iphone application which provides complete insight analysis of the every app utilization and not just for iPhone platform. Here is little info about it: “Flurry Analytics provides accurate, real time data to developers about how consumers use their mobile applications, as well as how applications are performing across different handsets. Application developers receive aggregated usage and performance data, as well as robust reporting and analysis tools. With this data, developers can identify issues and opportunities, create a more informed product roadmap, increase retention and grow their user base.” You can find more info on this link. 

http://www.flurry.com/product/index.html

From past experience I can confirm that our app users are very satisfied with services that these two tools give them, together with us.

]]> You think you will find answer on this question here? I am sorry to disappoint but you are not going to find right answer here. Here you will find ways how you can not check internet connection reachability in some wireless local area network.

I know you will now say there is “Reachability” named sample app at developer connect library to download, but it ain’t what I am looking for. What I am looking for is feature that will tell me do I have internet connection while I have network connection, to be more accurate, do I have internet connection while I am connected to some wireless local area network? I know, some of you will now say: “Well you can make NSURLConnection and wait for didFailWithError or connectionDidFinishLoading delegate methods”. Yeah, but this again ain’t what I am looking for.

What I was really looking for is something like pinging some host. Again, you will now say: “Well, you might don’t know but Reachability sample app has way to test reachability of given host.” Yeah, but this again ain’t what I am looking for.

I just hope that Apple’s developers will soon add some really easy way to do something like this. Please don’t hesitate to leave comments, and please tell me I am wrong on this one and easy way really exist. Please that I am blind as mole and I can’t see! Thanks!

]]> This is quite simple, infact it is one row code like everything else in iPhone development. Well, not everything is “quite” simple as this but most of stuff is “quite” easy to implement. Enough with “quite” ! Here is really simple code;

UIImage *myImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"me.png"];

UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(myImage, self, @selector(image:didFinishSavingWithError:contextInfo:), nil);

// And if you wish add this selector method in code;

- (void) image:(UIImage*)image didFinishSavingWithError:(NSError *)error contextInfo:(NSDictionary*)info;

That’s all you have to add! Quite simple, is it?

]]> If you did not understand from the post title what I am trying to say, here is another explanation. If you have an instance of UIWebView class implemented in your view and you want to call one of your custom method when user clicks on link in that UIWebView instance, first thing you must do to achieve that is set the delegate of that UIWebView class instance on you instance of UIViewController class. This is almost in same time last thing. Now just copy&paste this code into your class that implements UIWebView instance and add call to your method.

- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView*)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest*)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType {

if(navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationTypeLinkClicked) {

if (overrideLinksSwitch.on == TRUE) {

[self myMethodAction];

[myWebView stopLoading];

return YES;
}

else {
return YES;
}
}

return YES;
}

You can download example app here.

]]> Zec Online Jornal made an interview few weeks ago with our iPhone developer: Ivan Kalaica. The interview covered Ivan’s motivation to work on iPhone projects, our partnership with Surgeworks, our portfolio and many other topics.  Recently Ivan started to write a blog in Croatian language about iPhone development: inchoo.hr. His work became recognized in local market and got some media attention.

Here are some of the questions:

One of the most interesting software sales environments on the planet is iPhone. Why programs on the phone ? Do these small programs/apps on the phone make our World better place ? Is this a secret for success ? Why now and not before few years ?

Answer is fairly simple. It’s simple and it is Apple’s. You can make very good money programming software for iPhone and have fun at the same time. Just like I do now. Apple makes world better place. Just kidding but there is still some small amount of true in that sentence.

Why iPhone mobile platform is your choice and since when you are developing apps for iPhone ?

Inchoo company gave me a chance to work along with Surgeworks company on iPhone development in October last year. I accepted the offer and I’m satisfied now I made that decision then. In beginning it was maybe little hard but now I can say I am happy I have then decided to work along with these great people.

Read the rest of interview at this URL:
http://zecina.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-of-most-interesting-software-sales.html

]]> In my last post I written how to code an method invocation with timer. Since then I’ve found yet even easier way to achieve that. All this updating post’s work is part of growing up with the iPhone development, so don’t be surprised if I add something one more time to the same post. Well, that’s why there is same image for this and last post. See code below and all will be clear.

- (void) viewDidLoad {

[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:3.0f target:self selector: @selector(myMethod) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];

[super viewDidLoad];

}

- (void) myMethod {

NSLog(@"Method execution");

}

And that is it. Again!

]]> Method invocation with timer is something every developer sometime needs. First you make an instance of NSInvocation class and you add invocationWithMethodSignature.

invocationWithMethodSignature consists of method selector (which method your invocation will trigger) and target (which object is target). Next you make instance of NSTimer class to define repeat interval. See example below.

- (void) viewDidLoad {

NSInvocation *updateDisplayInvocation = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:[self methodSignatureForSelector: @selector (myMethod)]];

[updateDisplayInvocation setSelector: @selector (myMethod)];

[updateDisplayInvocation setTarget: self];

NSTimer *audioDisplayUpdateTimer;

audioDisplayUpdateTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:3.0 invocation:updateDisplayInvocation repeats:YES];

[super viewDidLoad];

}

- (void) myMethod {

NSLog(@"Method execution");

}

And that is it!

]]> Here is simple code snippet (class) that enables you to add custom sound effects to iPhone application. As you can see procedure is fairly simple.

I always like to prepare app for future changing, for example, if one day I change my mind and want to change existing clicking sound with new one I don’t have to change it everywhere I have create it, I just change value of effect string instance that is implemented in custom made Sound class in static method + (void) soundEffect:(int)soundNumber.

You can see here that I used static method so I don’t have to create instance of that class just to play a sound. When you want to call sound effect from another class just add this line of code [SoundAlert soundEffect:1]; to play for example an click sound effect.  I recommend you to put this call in viewWillDisappear: method so that sound triggers every time when current view exits.

Now finnaly if I want this class to work without errors I must add sound files. Isn’t that logical or what? I am using .aif  audio file so I must be sure to set type string instance value to @”aif” and also set the name of audio file with same name as value of effect string instance. Here is Sound class.

Sound.h

#import <foundation /Foundation.h>
#import <audiotoolbox /AudioToolbox.h>

@interface Sound : NSObject {

}

+ (void) soundEffect:(int)soundNumber;

@end

Sound.m

#import "Sound.h"

@implementation Sound

+ (void) soundEffect:(int)soundNumber {
NSString *effect;
NSString *type;
if (soundNumber == 0) {
effect = @"intro";
type = @"wav";
}
else if (soundNumber == 1) {
effect = @"click";
type = @"aif";
}
else if (soundNumber == 2) {
effect = @"error";
type = @"aif";
}

NSString *value = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"sound"];
if ([value compare:@"ON"] == NSOrderedSame) {

SystemSoundID soundID;

NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:effect ofType:type];
NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];

AudioServicesCreateSystemSoundID ((CFURLRef)url, &soundID);

AudioServicesPlaySystemSound(soundID);

}
}

- (void)dealloc {
[super dealloc];
}

@end

I have also added switch somewhere in my costume made settings menu that enables user to turn OFF or ON all custom used sounds in app. Here we are checking in which state is switch and if it is on ON position sound will play. You can see how to use NSUserDefaults to save state of switch in my previously post. That’s all!

]]> If you have an application that should save for example state of a switch and you don’t want use database for that small request you can simply add instance of NSUserDefaults class in your implementation. It is easy job, see below;

- (IBAction) saveState {

NSString *value = @"ON";
NSUserDefaults *userPreferences = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
if(!switch.on){
value = @"OFF";
[userPreferences setObject:value forKey:@"stateOfSwitch"];
}
[userPreferences setObject:value forKey:@"stateOfSwitch"];

}

This is part of code that loads value in a NSString *value for key stateOfSwitch. When you start your application again and view finisheds with loading button will be in lefted state.

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {

NSString *_value= [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"stateOfSwitch"];

if([_value compare:@"ON"] == NSOrderedSame){
switch.on = YES;
}
else {
switch.on = NO;
}
[super viewWillAppear:animated];
}

NSUserDefaults class gives us an opportunity to save values without database use. This class uses KVC structure model for saving and loading values. Key-value coding (KVC) defines generic property accessor methods—valueForKey: and setValue:forKey:—which identify properties with string-based keys.

KVC is not meant as a general alternative to using accessor methods—it is for use by code that has no other option, because the code cannot know the names of the relevant properties at compile time. Key-value coding and the dot syntax are orthogonal technologies. You can use KVC whether or not you use the dot syntax, and you can use the dot syntax whether or not you use KVC. Both, though, make use of a “dot syntax”.

In the case of KVC, the syntax is used to delimit elements in a key path. It is important to remember that when you access a property using the dot syntax, you invoke the receiver ’s standard accessor methods (as a corollary, to emphasize, the dot syntax does not result in invocation of KVC methods valueForKey: or setValue:forKey:).

]]> Beginning from today there is one iPhone app more on iTunes store developed by Surgeworks. Name of this free application is Dose and it’s ordered by Seachem Laboratories. Here is short description that you can also find on iTunes.

Dose is intended for use with products by Seachem Laboratories. If you use products from our reef line, plant line, or our gravels, then Dose is for you. We’ve taken our online dosing calculators and put them in your pocket.

Seachem provides dosing instructions on all of our products, so you can always determine the proper amounts to dose, but now we’ve made it even easier. We’ve taken our three product lines that normally require some calculation and done the work for you. Some of the values on our labels have been rounded for simplification, but Dose uses precise values to give the most accurate dosing parameters possible. Now all you have to do is enter a few known values and Dose does the rest.

Setting up a new aquarium? Use Dose to figure out how many bags of one of our gravels you’ll need.

You’ve tested your calcium levels in your reef aquarium and they’re low. Use Dose to determine how much of one our calcium supplements to use to get them back up to desired levels.

Dose is also perfect for pet store employees. Help customers determine how much of a product they need to buy or help them set up dosing regimen.

You can check out Dose on iTunes.