iOS Dev Using Objective-C, Part 2 of 4: REST and JSON

Course description

In this course we go over the basics of what it means to have a RESTful interface. We then review the Objective-C objects and methods we will use to interact with the remote service over http. Next we revise an application to use some basic http methods to download data from a Ruby server. Then we review the JSON information format. JSON objects map to Objective-C strings, numbers, dictionaries and arrays. We'll look at the format so we can predict from the raw data what types of objects we will get from the NSJSONSerialization class. Last but not least we create a custom NSObject subclass to hold JSON data.

Each LearnNowOnline training course is made up of Modules (typically an hour in length). Within each module there are Topics (typically 15-30 minutes each) and Subtopics (typically 2-5 minutes each). There is a Post Exam for each Module that must be passed with a score of 70% or higher to successfully and fully complete the course.

Prerequisites

This course assumes that students have a general understanding of programming concepts in Xcode and Objective C.

Meet the expert

David Solberg

David Solberg has been developing iOS applications for several years for both consumers and enterprises. He has multiple applications in the App Store in addition to numerous private applications for internal business use. He is co-organizer of the Twin Cities, Minnesota, Meetup group for iOS developers. In addition to his many years training people to use technology, David has architected online assessment systems.

Video Runtime

128 Minutes

Time to complete

232 Minutes

Course Outline

Rest and JSON

Introduction to Rest (23:50)

• Introduction (00:36)
• RESTful Interfaces (01:31)
• SOAP (01:23)
• Why REST (00:42)
• When/Where to Use REST (00:55)
• How to use REST (01:23)
• HTTP Process in Objective-C (00:45)
• NSURL Request (01:00)
• NSURL Connection (02:18)
• NSURL Response (01:28)
• Accessing Public Resources (00:32)
• Installing Ruby (01:16)
• Demo: Starting Ruby (03:00)
• Demo: App (06:30)
• Summary (00:24)

Introduction to Rest Part 2 (23:19)

• Introduction (00:45)
• Demo: NSString (04:52)
• Demo: NSURL and Error Checking (01:59)
• Demo: NSURLRequest (01:31)
• Demo: NSConnection (03:37)
• Demo: NSResponse (02:42)
• Demo: NSJSON Serialization (02:30)
• Demo: JSON Error Checking (03:37)
• Demo: Inspecting JSON (01:17)
• Summary (00:24)

Understanding JSON (27:01)

• Introduction (00:40)
• Parsing the Data Received (01:39)
• Understanding JSON (01:10)
• Raw JSON (02:12)
• JSON to Objective-C Objects (00:58)
• Mapping JSON array to C (00:56)
• Demo: Table View Cells (05:41)
• Demo: Storyboard (00:59)
• Demo: Subtitles (01:15)
• Demo: NSNull (04:01)
• Demo: Detail (01:47)
• Demo: Segue (03:01)
• Demo: Explaining Issues (02:09)
• Summary (00:26)

JSON and RESTful Database

Representing JSON (35:37)

• Introduction (00:40)
• Custom Objective-C Objects (04:00)
• Steps for Each Object (00:41)
• Saving and Archiving (01:31)
• Demo: Objective-C Objects (06:21)
• Demo: Objective-C Methods (09:11)
• Demo: Convert Member Objects (05:21)
• Demo: Class Instances (05:22)
• Demo: Booleans (02:05)
• Summary (00:19)

Archiving JSON (18:40)

• Introduction (00:37)
• Demo: Saving with encoder (04:14)
• Demo: Init with encoder (04:00)
• Demo: Save Path (02:52)
• Demo: Archiving (03:26)
• Demo: Retrieving from Cache (03:03)
• Summary (00:26)