Rotten Tomatoes

This is a movies app displaying box office and top rental DVDs using the Rotten Tomatoes API.

Features

Required

• User can view a list of movies. Poster images load asynchronously.
• User can view movie details by tapping on a cell.
• User sees loading state while waiting for the API.
• User sees error message when there is a network error: http://cl.ly/image/1l1L3M460c3C
• User can pull to refresh the movie list.

Optional

• All images fade in.
• For the larger poster, load the low-res first and switch to high-res when complete.
• All images should be cached in memory and disk: AppDelegate has an instance of NSURLCache and NSURLRequest makes a request with ReturnCacheDataElseLoad cache policy. I tested it by turning off wifi and restarting the app.
• Customize the highlight and selection effect of the cell.
• Customize the navigation bar.
• Add a tab bar for Box Office and DVD.
• Add a search bar: pretty simple implementation of searching against the existing table view data.

Walkthrough

Steps:

• git clone https://github.com/linghuaj/rotten-tomato.git
• pod install
• open rottenTomato.xcworkspace
• run simulator

###Notes:

cache policy

let request = NSURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string:currentAPI)!, cachePolicy: NSURLRequestCachePolicy.ReturnCacheDataElseLoad, timeoutInterval:5)

Pull to refresh (UIRefreshControl)

Pull Down to refresh the table view http://courses.codepath.com/courses/ios_for_designers/pages/using_uirefreshcontrol create the UIRefreshControl as an instance variable at the top of the class because you need to access it to stop the loading behavior.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    //  add the refresh control as a subview of the scrollview. It's best to insert it at the lowest index so that it appears behind all the views in the scrollview.
    refreshControl = UIRefreshControl()
    refreshControl.addTarget(self, action: "onRefresh", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.ValueChanged)
    movieList.insertSubview(refreshControl, atIndex: 0)
}

func onRefresh() {
    //get current selected tag
    makeRequest(){
        self.refreshControl.endRefreshing()
    };
}

tabBar

• add tab bar to the bottom

class ViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate, UITabBarDelegate {
	override func viewDidLoad() {
    	tabBar.delegate = self
	}

	func tabBar(tabBar: UITabBar, didSelectItem item: UITabBarItem!) {
		if item.tag != tabBar.selectedItem?.tag {
	    	return
	    }
	    //detecting current tab is handled in making request. because onRefresh needs to do the same thing
	    	makeRequest(){}
	    }
	}
}

simulate network loading

simulate network loading by canceling refreshing after a couple of seconds.

func delay(delay:Double, closure:()->()) {
    dispatch_after(
        dispatch_time(
            DISPATCH_TIME_NOW,
            Int64(delay * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC))
        ),
        dispatch_get_main_queue(), closure)
}

func onRefresh() {
    delay(2, closure: {
        self.refreshControl.endRefreshing()
    })
}

install pods

• pod init
• vi podfile https://github.com/linghuaj/rotten-tomato/blob/master/Podfile
• pod install
• open open rottenTomato.xcworkspace !!
• create a empty objective C file named 'dummy' to create a header file
• delete the dummy file
• edit the header file to add in

//with the import extension to class as UIImageView, the extension will be available after import
#import "UIImageView+AFNetworking.h"

scroll for contents

• add scrollview
• drag contents-view under scroll view
• (use textview if to fit a longtext with scrolling and vertical top align)

override func viewDidLoad() {
    //enable scroller
    scroller.scrollEnabled = true;
    scroller.contentSize = CGSizeMake(320, 624);
}

Credits

---

• Rotten Tomatoes API
• AFNetworking
• icon Image by BenPixels from the Noun Project