On the Map

Tech Used

• Xcode 8+ (last tested: 10.2)
• Swift 3+ (lasted tested: 5.0)
• iOS 9.3+ (last tested: 12.2)
• REST API

Frameworks:

• Foundation
• UIKit
• MapKit

Description

On the Map allows a user to login via Udacity to view and place pins with informational links.

Interesting Twists

I was curious how to create a view that would work in conjunction with Interface Builder (IB). As part of On the Map, I needed to display a gradient-color background. After researching, I decided to make a specialty view that integrated with IB to handle this background. LoginView.swift is the result.

The gradientColor variable is decorated with @IBInspectable and is property observing-compliant (note the didSet). This causes IB to display this variable in the Attributes Inspector. To see it in action:

• Click on the view in Interface Builder.
• At the top of the Attribute Inspector, use the dropdown to choose a Login View color.
• The chosen color becomes the center of a 3-tone gradient, determined in the view's code.

The class itself is decorated with @IBDesignable. This tells IB to display the view directly in the canvas. You can then edit the view directly as you would a normal UIView - with the color gradient displayed in the view as you work.

This is a cool way to make your own fully customized view, allowing developers to adjust properties as they would with any other UIKit framework view.

Setup Requirements

Requires a Udacity login:

Signup Page

Sitemap link to a list of Udacity's Free Courses

Once you have a login, you'll be able to place yourself On the Map, as well as seeing what others have posted.

Other Notes

• Although, I added a sign up link and a Facebook login to the initial view, those features are not implemented in this version of the code.
• Updated for Swift 5.0.
• On the "Info Posting View Controller scene", the Cancel button has a warning for a missing leading constraint as of Xcode 10.1. However, top and trailing constraints do keep the button in its expected location.