SugarCube

Some sugar for your cocoa, or your tea.

About

CocoaTouch/iOS is a verbose framework. These extensions hope to make development in rubymotion more enjoyable by tacking "UI" methods onto the base classes (String, Fixnum, Numeric). With SugarCube, you can create a color from an integer or symbol, or create a UIFont or UIImage from a string.

Some UI classes are opened up as well, like adding the '<<' operator to a UIView instance, instead of view.addSubview(subview), you can use the more idiomatic: view << subview.

The basic idea of SugarCube is to turn some operations on their head. Insead of

UIApplication.sharedApplication.openURL(NSURL.URLWithString(url))

How about:

url.nsurl.open

DISCLAIMER

It is possible that you will not like SugarCube. That is perfectly fine! Some people take milk in their coffee, some take sugar. Some crazy maniacs don't even drink coffee, if you can imagine that... All I'm saying is: to each their own. You should checkout BubbleWrap for another take on Cocoa-wrappage.

CONTRIBUTIONS

SugarCube started out as a Fusionbox project (see the announcement), but as its popularity increased, the decision was made to offer it to the rubymotion community, in the spirit of open-source and collaboration. It is a great compliment to teacup, especially when paired with sweettea!

Documentation

A work in progress. This README is the best source, but I am trying to be more diligent about adding Yard documentation, which is available here:

http://rubydoc.info/gems/sugarcube/latest

Installation

gem install sugarcube

# in Rakefile
require 'sugarcube'

# or in Gemfile
gem 'sugarcube'

# in terminal
$ bundle install

Examples

Array

[1, 3].nsindexpath  # NSIndexPath.indexPathWithIndex(1).indexPathByAddingIndex(3)
[160, 210, 242].uicolor  # => UIColor.colorWithRed(0.6274, green:0.8235, blue:0.9490, alpha:1.0)
[160, 210, 242].uicolor(0.5)  # => UIColor.colorWithRed(0.6274, green:0.8235, blue:0.9490, alpha:0.5)

Fixnum

# create a UIColor from a hex value
0xffffff.uicolor # => UIColor.colorWithRed(1.0, green:1.0, blue:1.0, alpha:1.0)
0xffffff.uicolor(0.5) # => UIColor.colorWithRed(1.0, green:1.0, blue:1.0, alpha:0.5)

# some number-to-string stuff
1.nth  # => 'st'
2.nth  # => 'nd'
3.nth  # => 'rd'
4.nth  # => 'th'
11.nth  # => 'th'
13.nth  # => 'th'
21.nth  # => 'st'
23.nth  # => 'rd'

Numeric

# create a percentage
100.0.percent # => 1.00
55.0.percent # => 0.55

# convert to radians.  does this look weird?
180.degrees # => Math::PI

# convert multiples of pi
2.pi   # => 2 * Math::PI
0.5.pi # => 0.5 * Math::PI

# if you thought conversion from degrees to radians looks weird, you'll hate
# conversion from meters to miles:
distance = 1500  # this is in meters.  why?  because all the methods that return
  # a "distance" return it in meters
distance.miles  # => 0.932056427001953

NSCoder

Shorthands and hash-like access to the coder/decoder objects.

# hash access is the handiest
coder['key'] = self.value
self.value = decoder['key']

# but if you want to store booleans and such (in their C form,
# which will take up less space I suppose):
coder.set('sugarcube_is_neat', toBool:self.is_sugarcube_neat?)
self.sugarcube_is_neat = decoder.bool('sugarcube_is_neat')

coder.set('number_of_things', toInt:self.number_of_things)
self.number_of_things = decoder.int('number_of_things')

# the entire list:
coder.set(key, toBool:value)
coder.set(key, toDouble:value)
coder.set(key, toFloat:value)
coder.set(key, toInt:value)
coder.set(key, toPoint:value)
coder.set(key, toRect:value)
coder.set(key, toSize:value)

decoder.bool(key)
decoder.double(key)
decoder.float(key)
decoder.int(key)
decoder.point(key)
decoder.rect(key)
decoder.size(key)

NSData

Going to and from NSData is really useful when doing HTTP posts.

string_data = 'String'.nsdata  # => default encoding is UTF8.
image = 'an image'.uiimage
image_data = image.nsdata  # PNG data representation

string_data.nsstring  # => 'String'
image_data.nsimage  # => whatever 'an image' was

NSDate

NSDate objects are converted to Time objects automatically by rubymotion. That's the good news. The bad news? That still doesn't help a lot with some of the everyday date&time crap we have to deal with. (I hate dates, especially recurring events)

Adds the following methods to get date and time components: date_array, time_array, datetime_array.

These methods return arrays. Comparing dates, times, or both become simple date1.date_array == date2.date_array.

While I would love to support date + 1.month and have that support "smart" calendar math (e.g. "2/13/2013" + 1.month => "3/13/2013"), I can't fudge with the return value of 1.month (=> Fixnum), and I won't make the terrible assumption that "30 days of seconds is about one month". So instead, a new method that accepts date components as options is introduced. date.delta(month:1)
Something that is often done is checking whether two dates are the same, ignoring the time components. start_of_day and end_of_day methods help you here. They are akin to floor and ceil, if you consider the time to be the "floating" component, and the date to be the nearest "integer".
Formatting is made easier with NSDate#string_with_style(NSDateStyleConstant or Symbol) and NSDate#string_with_format(format_string). See http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr35/tr35-25.html#Date_Format_Patterns for the formatters, they take getting used to, coming from strftime, but they are much more powerful and locale-aware.

(main)> now = NSDate.new  # Time.new is the same thing
=> 2012-09-13 09:19:06 -0600
(main)> now.date_array
=> [2012, 9, 13]
(main)> now.time_array
=> [9, 19, 6]
(main)> now.datetime_array
=> [2012, 9, 13, 9, 19, 6]

And it is easy to add seconds to the date using the time-related methods added to Numeric, and the useful start_of_day/end_of_day methods.

(main)> now + 5
=> 2012-09-13 09:19:11 -0600
(main)> now - 5
=> 2012-09-13 09:19:01 -0600
(main)> now + 5.minutes
=> 2012-09-13 09:24:06 -0600
(main)> now + 5.days
=> 2012-09-18 09:19:06 -0600
(main)> now.start_of_day
=> 2012-09-13 00:00:00 -0600
(main)> now.end_of_day
=> 2012-09-14 00:00:00 -0600

Time zone objects are available, but the Time#utc_offset method is a little more useful. It returns the offset in seconds, so divide by 1.0.hour to get the offset in hours. utc_offset is built into Time, not added by SugarCube.

(main)> now.timezone
=> #<__NSTimeZone:0x9384c70>
(main)> now.timezone.name
=> "America/Denver"
(main)> now.utc_offset
=> -21600
(main)> now.utc_offset / 1.hour
=> -6

The delta method is smart.

(main)> feb_28_2012 = Time.at(1330473600)
=> 2012-02-28 17:00:00 -0700

# add an hour or two
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(hours:1)
=> 2012-02-28 18:00:00 -0700
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(hours:2)
=> 2012-02-28 19:00:00 -0700

# add some days
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(days:1)
=> 2012-02-29 17:00:00 -0700
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(days:2)
=> 2012-03-01 17:00:00 -0700

# how about a month?
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(months:1)
=> 2012-03-28 17:00:00 -0600  # look, the time didn't change, event though there was a DST change!

# cool, but if you want a more literal "24 hours", specify a time unit
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(months:1, hours:0)
=> 2012-03-28 18:00:00 -0600  # disable the DST fix by specifying hours, minutes, or seconds (a "precise" delta)

# in one year, it will still be Feb 28th
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(years:1)
=> 2013-02-28 17:00:00 -0700

# and we already know what adding a day looks like
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(days:1)
=> 2012-02-29 17:00:00 -0700

# a year and a day is tricky, because do we add a day, then a year?  or add a
# year and then a day?  well, i'll tell you, **I** add a day and then a year,
# which is feb 29th, which is no good, and the algorithm rolls back days to the
# last day of the month, so we get the 28th.
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(days:1, years:1)
=> 2013-02-28 17:00:00 -0700

# adding 2 days puts us into March, which then "looks right", but it's both
# right AND wrong, depending on how you look at it.  Another example is below,
# where we add a month to January 30th.  Really, though, think of this: how
# often do you need to add a year AND a day!?  Adding a year is more common, and
# this is showing that adding a year to Feb 29th will give you Feb 28th, which I
# think is better than March 1st.
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(days:2, years:1)
=> 2013-03-01 17:00:00 -0700

# Crazier: add a day (fab 29th), then a month (march 29th), THEN a year.
(main)> feb_28_2012.delta(days:1, years:1, months:1)
=> 2013-03-29 17:00:00 -0600

# k, for the next examples, we need a new date, and this is a non-leap year.
(main)> jan_29_2013 = feb_28_2012.delta(days:1, months:11)
=> 2013-01-29 17:00:00 -0700

# what is 1/29/2013 plus two months?  easy!  march 29, 2013
(main)> jan_29_2013.delta(months:2)
=> 2013-03-29 17:00:00 -0600

# Yeah, smart guy?  Well then what is 1/29/2013 plus ONE month. It's feb 28th.
# When someone says "see you in a month!" they mean "next month", not "in the
# early part of two months in the future", which is where the math will take you
# if you don't add a "day of month" correction.
(main)> jan_29_2013.delta(months:1)
=> 2013-02-28 17:00:00 -0700
# but last year was a leap year, so we should get Feb 29th, 2012:
(main)> jan_29_2013.delta(months:1, years: -1)
=> 2012-02-29 17:00:00 -0700  # success!

# do other deltas work in reverse?  fuuuuuu...
(main)> jan_29_2013.delta(months:-11)
=> 2012-02-29 17:00:00 -0700
# ...ck yeah!  :-)

# unfortunately you will, in the edge cases, end up with stuff like this:
(main)> feb_28_2012 == feb_28_2012.delta(days:1, months:12).delta(months:-12)
=> true

NSError

NSError.new was just a mess, so I made it a legal method.

NSError.new('Error Message')  # code: 0, domain: 'Error'
# with options
NSError.new('Error Message', code: 404)

# error messages ('Error Message' in this example) are stored in a Hash with the
# key 'NSLocalizedDescriptionKey'. If you pass a `userInfo` option, it will get
# merged with this array.  So you can ignore that ugly-looking key.
NSError.new('Error Message', code: 404, userInfo: { warnings: ['blabla'] })

NSURL

# see String for easy URL creation
"https://github.com".nsurl.open  # => UIApplication.sharedApplication.openURL(NSURL.URLWithString("https://github.com"))

NSString

# UIImage from name
"my_image".uiimage  # => UIImage.imageNamed("my_image")
"blue".uicolor  # => UIColor.colorWithPatternImage(UIImage.imageNamed("blue"))

# UIFont from name
"my_font".uifont # => UIFont.fontWithName("my_font", size:UIFont.systemFontSize)
"my_font".uifont(20) # => UIFont.fontWithName("my_font", size:20)

# UIColor from color name OR image name OR hex code
"blue".uicolor == :blue.uicolor # => UIColor.blueColor
"#ff00ff".uicolor == :fuchsia.uicolor == 0xff00ff.uicolor # => UIColor.colorWithRed(1.0, green:0.0, blue:1.0, alpha:1.0)
"#f0f".uicolor(0.5) == :fuchsia.uicolor(0.5) == 0xff00ff.uicolor(0.5) # => UIColor.colorWithRed(1.0, green:1.0, blue:1.0, alpha:0.5)
# note: 0xf0f.uicolor == 0x00f0f.uicolor.  There's no way to tell the difference
# at run time between those two Fixnum literals.
"my_image".uicolor == "my_image".uiimage.uicolor # => UIColor.colorWithPatternImage(UIImage.imageNamed("my_image"))

# NSLocalizedString from string
"hello".localized  # => NSBundle.mainBundle.localizedStringForKey("hello", value:nil, table:nil)
"hello"._          # == "hello".localized
"hello".localized('Hello!', 'hello_table')  # => ...("hello", value:'Hello!', table:'hello_table')

# file location
"my.plist".exists?   # => NSFileManager.defaultManager.fileExistsAtPath("my.plist")
"my.plist".document  # => NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, true)[0].stringByAppendingPathComponent("my.plist")
"my.plist".remove!  # => NSFileManager.defaultManager.removeItemAtPath("my.plist".document, error: error)  (returns error, if any occurred)

# NSURL
"https://github.com".nsurl  # => NSURL.URLWithString("https://github.com")

NSIndexPath

Use the IndexPath class to match NSIndexPath objects, for instance in a UITableViewDelegate.

index_path = [0, 2].nsindexpath
case index_path
when IndexPath[0]
when IndexPath[1, 0..5]
when IndexPath[1, 5..objects.length]
end
[0, 2].nsindexpath.to_a == [0, 2]  # => true

Symbol

This is the "big daddy". Lots of sugar here...

:center.uialignment  # => UITextAlignmentCenter
:upside_down.uiorientation  # => UIDeviceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown
:rounded.uibuttontype  # => UIButtonTypeRoundedRect
:highlighted.uicontrolstate  # => UIControlStateHighlighted
:touch.uicontrolevent  # => UIControlEventTouchUpInside
:change.uicontrolevent  # => UIControlEventValueChanged
:all.uicontrolevent  # => UIControlEventAllEvents
:blue.uicolor  # UIColor.blueColor

# these are really handy for custom buttons - touch_start means the finger is inside the button, touch_stop is outside the button or canceled
:touch_start  # => UIControlEventTouchDown | UIControlEventTouchDragEnter
:touch_stop   # => UIControlEventTouchUpInside | UIControlEventTouchCancel | UIControlEventTouchDragExit

# all CSS colors are supported, and alpha
# (no "grey"s, only "gray"s, consistent with UIKit, which only provides "grayColor")
:firebrick.uicolor(0.25)  # => 0xb22222.uicolor(0.25)
:bold.uifont  # UIFont.boldSystemFontOfSize(UIFont.systemFontSize)
:bold.uifont(10)  # UIFont.boldSystemFontOfSize(10)
:small.uifontsize # => UIFont.smallSystemFontSize
:small.uifont  # => UIFont.systemFontOfSize(:small.uifontsize)
:bold.uifont(:small)  # UIFont.boldSystemFontOfSize(:small.uifontsize)
:large.uiactivityindicatorstyle  # :large, :white, :gray
:bar.uisegmentedstyle   # :plain, :bordered, :bar, :bezeled

# UITableView and UITableViewCell have LOTS of associated constants... I'm
# adding them as I come across them.
:automatic.uitablerowanimation   # or .uitableviewrowanimation
:default.uitablecellstyle        # or .uitableviewcellstyle
:disclosure.uitablecellaccessory  # or .uitableviewcellaccessorytype
:blue.uitablecellselectionstyle  # or .uitableviewcellselectionstyle

UIImage

image = "my_image".uiimage
image.uicolor # => UIColor.colorWithPatternImage(image)

Image Manipulation - VERY handy!

image.scale_to [37, 37]
image.rounded  # default: 5 pt radius
image.rounded(10)

image.in_rect([[10, 10], [100, 100]])  # get part of an image

image.darken  # => good for "pressed" buttons
image.darken(brightness: -0.5, saturation: -0.2)  # these are the defaults

image.rotate(:left)
image.rotate(:right)
image.rotate(:flip)  # 180° - if you have a better name, let me know!
image.rotate(45.degrees)

image.scale_to(new_size)  # won't stretch
image.in_rect(frame)  # stretches

# default insets are UIEdgeInsetsZero
image.tileable
image.tileable(insets)
image.stretchable
image.stretchable(insets)

UIAlertView

Accepts multiple buttons and success and cancel handlers. In its simplest form, you can pass just a title and block.

# simple
UIAlertView.alert "This is happening, OK?" { self.happened! }
# a little more complex
UIAlertView.alert("This is happening, OK?", buttons: ["Nevermind", "OK"],
  message: "don't worry, it'll be fine.") {
  self.happened!
}

# Full on whiz bangery.  Note the success block takes the pressed button, but as
# a string instead of an index.  The cancel button should be the first entry in
# `buttons:`
UIAlertView.alert "I mean, is this cool?", buttons: %w[No! Sure! Hmmmm],
  message: "No going back now",
  cancel: proc { self.cancel },
  success: proc { |pressed| self.proceed if pressed == "Sure!" }

UIActionSheet

This is very similar to UIAlertView.alert, but instead of cancel and success handlers, you can have cancel, success, and destructive handlers, and there is no message argument.

If you use an array of buttons (which you probably should), the order of arguments is [:cancel, :destructive, :others, ...]. If you dont want a cancel or destructive button, pass nil in place.

# simple
UIActionSheet.alert 'This is happening, OK?' { self.happened! }
# a little more complex, with cancel and destructive buttons
UIActionSheet.alert('This is happening, OK?', buttons: ['Sure!', 'OK']
  ) {
  self.happened!
}

UIActionSheet.alert('Should I?', buttons: [nil, nil, 'OK', 'Nevermind']) { |pressed|
  self.do_it if pressed == 'OK'
}

UIActionSheet.alert 'I mean, is this cool?', buttons: ['Nah', 'With fire!', 'Sure', 'whatever'],
  cancel: proc { self.cancel },
  destructive: proc { self.kill_it_with_fire }
  success: proc { |pressed| self.proceed if pressed == 'Sure' }

UIView

UIView.first_responder  # => returns the first responder, starting at UIApplication.sharedApplication.keyWindow
my_view.first_responder  # => also returns the first responder, but starts looking in my_view
my_view.controller  # => returns the UIViewController that this view belongs to
self.view << subview  # => self.view.addSubview(subview)
self.view.show  # => self.hidden = false
self.view.hide  # => self.hidden = true

Animations

jQuery-like animation methods.

# default timeout is 0.3
view.fade_out { |view|
  view.removeFromSuperview
}
# options:
view.fade_out(0.5, delay: 0,
                  options: UIViewAnimationOptionCurveLinear,
                  opacity: 0.5) { |view|
  view.removeFromSuperview
}

view.move_to([0, 100])  # move to position 0, 100
view.delta_to([0, 100])  # move over 0, down 100, from current position

view.slide :left   # slides the entire view one "page" to the left, right, up, or down

view.shake  # shakes the view.
# options w/ default values:
shake offset: 8,   # move 8 px left, and 8 px right
      repeat: 3,   # three times
    duration: 0.3, # for a total of 0.3 seconds
     keypath: 'transform.translate.x'

# vigorous nodding - modifying transform.translation.y:
view.shake offset: 20, repeat: 10, duration: 5, keypath: 'transform.translation.y'
# an adorable wiggle - modifying transform.rotation:
superview.shake offset: 0.1, repeat: 2, duration: 0.5, keypath: 'transform.rotation'

View factories

UIButton

UIButton.buttonWithType(:custom.uibuttontype)
# =>
UIButton.custom

UIButton.custom            => UIButton.buttonWithType(:custom.uibuttontype)
UIButton.rounded           => UIButton.buttonWithType(:rounded.uibuttontype)
UIButton.rounded_rect      => UIButton.buttonWithType(:rounded_rect.uibuttontype)
UIButton.detail            => UIButton.buttonWithType(:detail.uibuttontype)
UIButton.detail_disclosure => UIButton.buttonWithType(:detail_disclosure.uibuttontype)
UIButton.info              => UIButton.buttonWithType(:info.uibuttontype)
UIButton.info_light        => UIButton.buttonWithType(:info_light.uibuttontype)
UIButton.info_dark         => UIButton.buttonWithType(:info_dark.uibuttontype)
UIButton.contact           => UIButton.buttonWithType(:contact.uibuttontype)
UIButton.contact_add       => UIButton.buttonWithType(:contact_add.uibuttontype)

UITableView

Default frame is [[0, 0], [0, 0]], but most containers will resize it to be the correct size. But heads up, it used to be [[0, 0], [320, 480]] (until the iphone 5 / 4-inch retina came out).

UITableView.alloc.initWithFrame([[0, 0], [0, 0]], style: :plain.uitableviewstyle)
UITableView.alloc.initWithFrame([[0, 0], [320, 480]], style: :plain.uitableviewstyle)
UITableView.alloc.initWithFrame([[0, 0], [320, 568]], style: :plain.uitableviewstyle)
# custom frame:
UITableView.alloc.initWithFrame([[0, 0], [320, 400]], style: :grouped.uitableviewstyle)

# =>
UITableView.plain
UITableView.plain([[0, 0], [320, 480]])
UITableView.plain([[0, 0], [320, 568]])
# custom frame:
UITableView.grouped([[0, 0], [320, 400]])

UISegmentedControle

control = UISegmentedControl.alloc.initItems(["one", "ah-two-whoo", "thr-r-r-ree"])
control.segmentedControlStyle = :bar.uisegmentedstyle

# =>

UISegmentedControl.bar(["one", "ah-two-whoo", "thr-r-r-ree"])

UIActivityViewIndicator

UIActivityIndicatorView.alloc.initWithActivityIndicatorStyle(:white.uiactivityindicatorstyle)
UIActivityIndicatorView.alloc.initWithActivityIndicatorStyle(:large.uiactivityindicatorstyle)
UIActivityIndicatorView.alloc.initWithActivityIndicatorStyle(:gray.uiactivityindicatorstyle)

# =>

UIActivityIndicatorView.white
UIActivityIndicatorView.large
UIActivityIndicatorView.gray

UIControl

Inspired by BubbleWrap's when method, but I prefer jQuery-style verbs and SugarCube symbols.

button = UIButton.alloc.initWithFrame([0, 0, 10, 10])

button.on(:touch) { my_code }
button.on(:touchupoutside, :touchcancel) { |event|
  puts event.inspect
  # my_code...
}

# remove handlers
button.off(:touch, :touchupoutside, :touchcancel)
button.off(:all)

You can only remove handlers by "type", not by the action. e.g. If you bind three :touch events, calling button.off(:touch) will remove all three.

UIViewController

It is nice that any UIViewController can present a modal, but if you have tabs or navs or crap in the way, this is actually NOT what you want. You should use the rootViewController (whatever it may be) to present to modal.

And since this is a property on UIWindow, which is more-or-less a constant, we can make this the easiest to do!

include SugarCube::Modal
view_ctlr = EditSomethingViewController.new
present_modal(view_ctlr)
# ...later, when all is well...
dismiss_modal

These accept completion blocks:

present_modal(view_ctlr) { puts "here!" }
dismiss_modal { puts "gone!" }

If you like these methods, but you want to specify the reciever, they are re-defined on UIViewController for this purpose:

controller.present_modal(other_controller) { puts "presented" }

UINavigationController

push/<< and pop instead of pushViewController and popViewController. ! and !(view) instead of popToRootViewController and popToViewController

animated is true for all these.

nav_ctlr.push(new_ctlr)
nav_ctlr << new_ctlr
nav_ctlr.pop
nav_ctlr.!
nav_ctlr.!(another_view_ctlr)

UITabBarController

I have mixed feelings about adding this extension, but I needed it, so maybe you will, too... Usually UITabBarControllers have a static number of tabs, but in my case, I needed to be able to add one later, when a certain condition was met.

controllers = tabbar_ctlr.viewControllers
controllers << new_ctlr
tabbar_ctlr.setViewControllers(controllers, animated: true)

# =>

tabbar_ctlr << new_ctlr

UITextView

Added some UIControl-like event binding. You MUST call the off methods, because these methods use NSNotifications, and you must turn off listeners.

There are two aliases for each event. I prefer the present tense (jQuery-style on :change), but UIKit prefers past simple (UITextViewTextDidBeginEditingNotification).

So these are all the same:

:editing_did_begin  :begin
:editing_did_change :change
:editing_did_end    :end

text_view = UITextView.new
text_view.on :editing_did_begin do
  p 'wait for it...'
end
text_view.on :editing_did_change do
  p text_view.text
end
text_view.on :editing_did_end do
  p 'done!'
end

# later... like in `viewWillDisappear`.  I'll use the alternative aliases here
text_view.off :change, :end, :begin

NSNotificationCenter

Makes it easy to post a notification to some or all objects.

# this one is handy, I think:
"my notification".post_notification  # => NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter.postNotificationName("my notification", object:nil)
"my notification".post_notification(obj)  # => NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter.postNotificationName("my notification", object:obj)
"my notification".post_notification(obj, user: 'dict')  # => NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter.postNotificationName("my notification", object:obj, userInfo:{user: 'dict'})

# very similar to add or remove an observer
"my notification".add_observer(observer, :method_name)
"my notification".add_observer(observer, :method_name, object)

# remove the observer
"my notification".remove_observer(observer)
"my notification".remove_observer(observer, object)

NSTimer

1.second.later do
  @view.shake
end

1.second.every do
  @view.shake
end

# since that looks funny, an every method is available in the SugarCube::Timer module
include SugarCube::Timer
every 1.minute do
  puts "tick"
end

# might as well make an alias
after 1.minute do
  puts "ding!"
end

# other time-related methods
# for compatibility with Time methods, the mins/secs (and min/sec) aliases are provided.  Personally,
# I like the more verbose minutes/seconds.
1.millisecond  || 2.milliseconds
1.millisec     || 2.millisecs
1.second  || 2.seconds
1.sec     || 2.secs     # aliases
1.minute  || 2.minutes  # 1.minute = 60 seconds
1.min     || 2.mins     # aliases
1.hour    || 2.hours    # 1.hour = 60 minutes
1.day     || 2.days     # 1.day = 24 hours
1.week    || 2.weeks    # 1.week = 7 days
# sensible values for 'month' and 'year', even though we all know you can't
# **really** define them this way (go back to python if you find your brain
# hemorrhaging):
1.month   || 2.months   # 1.month = 30 days
1.year    || 2.years    # 1.year = 365 days

# some comparison methods
date1.today?
date2.same_day? date1

NSUserDefaults

This file does one thing very DANGEROUS... to "help" with defaults.

When storing nil into NSUserDefaults, it is converted into false, because Cocoa complains if you give it nil, and the RubyMotion runtime refuses to allow the NSNull.null object. Without relying on an external project (like [nsnulldammit]https://github.com/colinta/nsnulldammit) I don't know of a sensible workaround...

If you want to "tap into" the defaults system that SugarCube uses, add a to_nsuserdefaults method an that will get called if you hand your object to NSUserDefaults[]=. However, there's no way to get it back later, so the usefulness of this is very limited.

'key'.set_default(['any', 'objects'])  # => NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults.setObject(['any', 'objects'], forKey: :key)
'key'.get_default  # => NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults.objectForKey(:key)

# symbols are converted to strings, so theses are equivalent
:key.set_default(['any', 'objects'])  # => NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults.setObject(['any', 'objects'], forKey: :key)
:key.get_default  # => NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults.objectForKey(:key)

This is strange, and backwards, which is just SugarCube's style. But there is one advantage to doing it this way. Compare these two snippets:

# BubbleWrap
App::Persistance[:test] = { my: 'test' }
# SugarCube
:test.set_default { my: 'test' }
# k, BubbleWrap looks better

App::Persistance[:test][:my] == 'test'  # true
:test.get_default[:my]  # true, and odd looking - what's my point?

App::Persistance[:test][:my] = 'new'  # nothing is saved.  bug
:test.get_default[:my] = 'new'  # nothing is saved, but that's *obvious*

test = App::Persistance[:test]
test[:my] = 'new'
App::Persistance[:test] = test  # saved

test = :test.get_default
test[:my] = 'new'
:test.set_default test

CoreGraphics

Is it `CGMakeRect` or `CGRectMake`? What arguments does `CGRect.new` take?

Instead, just use the coercion methods Rect(), Size() and Point(). They will happily convert most sensible (and some non-sensible) arguments into a CGRect/CGSize/CGPoint struct.

For more CoreGraphics additions, you should use geomotion by Clay Allsopp. It adds methods to CGRect, CGPoint, and CGSize to make these structures more rubyesque (these methods used to be part of SugarCube, but were removed in an attempt to decrease the amount of duplicated code).

These are namespaced in the SugarCube::CoreGraphics module, but I recommend you include SugarCube::CoreGraphics in app_delegate.rb.

f = Rect(view.frame)  # the identity function - returns a copy of the CGRect
o = Point(view.frame.origin)  # returns a copy of CGPoint
s = Size(view.frame.size)  # returns a copy of CGSize

# lots of other conversions are possible.
# a UIView or CALayer => view.frame
f = Rect(view)
# 4 numbers
f = Rect(x, y, w, h)
# or two arrays
f = Rect([x, y], [w, h])
# one array
f = Rect([[x, y], [w, h]])
f = Rect([x, y, w, h])
# a CGPoint and CGSize
p = Point(x, y)  # or just [x, y] works, too
s = Size(w, h)  # again, [w, h] is fine
f = Rect(p, s)
# any combination of the two
f = Rect(p, [w, h])
f = Rect([x, y], s)

CoreLocation

Open up CLLocationCoordinate2D to provide handy-dandies

> denver_co = CLLocationCoordinate2D.new(39.739188,-104.985223)
=> #<CLLocationCoordinate2D latitude=39.7391815185547 longitude=-104.985198974609>
> loveland_oh = CLLocationCoordinate2D.new(39.268128,-84.257648)
=> #<CLLocationCoordinate2D latitude=39.2681274414062 longitude=-84.2576293945312>
> denver_co.distance_to(loveland_oh)
=> 1773425.5  # in meters
> denver_co.distance_to(loveland_oh).miles
=> 1101.955078125
> denver_co.delta_miles(1101.6, -32.556)
=> #<CLLocationCoordinate2D latitude=39.2681427001953 longitude=-84.2577209472656>
> denver_co.delta_miles(1101.6, -32.556).distance_to(loveland_oh)
=> 8.0804328918457   # this is in meters
> denver_co.delta_miles(1101.6, -32.556).distance_to(loveland_oh).miles
=> 0.00502094626426697

REPL View adjustments

Pixel pushing is an unfortunate but necessary evil. Well, at least we can make it a little less painful.

These methods help you adjust the frame of a view. They are in the SugarCube::Adjust module so as not to conflict. If you don't want the prefix, include SugarCube::Adjust in app_delegate.rb

Assume I ran include SugarCube::Adjust in these examples.

# if you are in the REPL, you might not be able to click on the view you want...
> adjust superview.subviews[4].subviews[1]
> up 1
> down 1  # same as up -1, obviously
> down  # defaults to 1 anyway
> left 1
> right 1  # same as up -1, obviously
> left  # => left 1
> origin 10, 12  # move to x:10, y:12
> wider 1
> thinner 1
> taller  # => taller 1
> shorter  # => shorter 1
> size 100, 10  # set size to width:100, height: 10
> shadow(opacity: 0.5, offset: [0, 0], color: :black, radius: 1) # and path, which is a CGPath object.
> center  # See `Centering` section below
> restore  # original frame and shadow is saved when you call `adjust`

> # short versions!
> a superview.subviews[4].subviews[1]  # this is not uncommon in the REPL
> u          # up, default value=1
> d          # down
> l          # left
> r          # right
> o 10, 12   # origin, also accepts an array (or Point() object)
> w          # wider
> n          # thinner
> t          # taller
> s          # shorter
> z 100, 10  # size, also accepts an array (or Size() object)
> # you can also query your view.  You will get nice-looking
> # SugarCube::CoreGraphics objects
> f   # frame
[[0, 0], [320, 480]]
> o   # origin
[0, 0]
> z   # size
[320, 480]
> h   # shadow - this returns an array identical to what you can pass to `shadow`

# if you forget what view you are adjusting, run `adjust` again
> a
=> UITextField(#9ce6470, {{46, 214}, {280, 33}},  child of UIView(#10a6da20)

The most useful feature of the REPL adjustment is the ability to quickly position and size your UI elements visually and then paste the final values into your code. In order to better accomodate that, adjust has an option to modify the output format.

This better facilitates copy/paste of the values. Currently supported is:

Default (RubyMotion) (nil, :default)
Objective-C (:objc)
JSON (:json)

Objective-C style

(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> tree
  0: . UIWindow(#6e27180: {{0, 0}, {320, 480}})
  1: `-- UIView(#8d631b0: {{0, 20}, {320, 460}})
  2:     +-- UIButton(#6d6c090: {{10, 10}, {320, 463.401}})
  3:     |   `-- UIImageView(#8d67e00: {{0, 0}, {320, 463.401}})
  4:     `-- UIRoundedRectButton(#8d68170: {{10, 30}, {30, 200}})
  5:         `-- UIButtonLabel(#8d69c30: {{2, 90}, {26, 19}})
=> UIWindow(#6e27180, {{0, 0}, {320, 480}},

# you can pass the format into the adjust method:
(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> a 4, :objc
=> "UIRoundedRectButton(#8d68170: [[10.0, 30.0], [200.0, 30.0]])"

# or you can assign repl_format explicitly (adjust does this for you when you hand it a format)
(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> repl_format :objc
=> :objc

# either way, it will continue to be used in subsequent calls
(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> wider 15
[[10.0, 30.0], [200.0, 45.0]]
=> "UIRoundedRectButton(#8d68170: [[10.0, 30.0], [200.0, 45.0]]) child of UIView(#8d631b0)"

JSON (or GeoMotion)

(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> a 1, :json
=> "UIView(#8d631b0: [x: 0.0, y: 20.0, height: 460.0, width: 320.0])"
(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> wider 30
=> "CGRect(#6e9c9f0: [x: 0.0, y: 20.0, height: 460.0, width: 350.0])"
(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> right 130
=> "CGRect(#8dc6a40: [x: 130.0, y: 20.0, height: 460.0, width: 350.0])"
(UIImageView(#8d67e00, {{0, 0},...)> tree
  0: . UIWindow(#6e27180: [x: 0.0, y: 0.0, height: 480.0, width: 320.0])
  1: `-- UIView(#8d631b0: [x: 130.0, y: 20.0, height: 460.0, width: 350.0])
  2:     +-- UIButton(#6d6c090: [x: 10.0, y: 10.0, height: 463.400512695312, width: 320.0])
  3:     |   `-- UIImageView(#8d67e00: [x: 0.0, y: 0.0, height: 463.400512695312, width: 320.0])
  4:     `-- UIRoundedRectButton(#8d68170: [x: 10.0, y: 30.0, height: 200.0, width: 45.0])
  5:         `-- UIButtonLabel(#8d69c30: [x: 4.0, y: 90.0, height: 19.0, width: 37.0])
=> UIWindow(#6e27180, {{0, 0}, {320, 480}},

Note: The format parameter can be passed as either a symbol or a string

CENTER (in parent frame)

It is called as center(which_element, of_total_number, horizontal_or_vertical, verbose_output)

you can set 'direction' with any number of forms: 'horiz', 'vert', 'x', 'x and y'

Here are a few examples:

The default is to center the current element horizontally

(main)> center
[[145.0, 30.0], [30.0, 200.0]]
UIRoundedRectButton.origin = [145.0, 30.0]
=> "[[145.0, 30.0], [30.0, 200.0]]"

In order to place that same button in the CENTER of the screen, you can use this shorthand syntax: center 1,1,"xy" or center 1,1,:xy

For the horizontal_or_vertical parameter, strings and symbols are interchangable

If you have three buttons and want them spaced evenly (vertically) across their parent frame, you can call it this way:

(main)> tree
  0: . UIWindow(#6e1f950: [[0.0, 0.0], [320.0, 480.0]])
  1: `-- UIView(#8b203b0: [[0.0, 20.0], [320.0, 460.0]])
  2:     +-- UIButton(#d028de0: [[10.0, 10.0], [320.0, 463.400512695312]])
  3:     |   `-- UIImageView(#d02aaa0: [[0.0, 0.0], [320.0, 463.400512695312]])
  4:     +-- UIRoundedRectButton(#d02adb0: [[55.0, 110.0], [210.0, 20.0]])
  5:     |   `-- UIButtonLabel(#d02af00: [[73.0, 0.0], [63.0, 19.0]])
  6:     +-- UIRoundedRectButton(#d028550: [[60.0, 30.0], [200.0, 20.0]])
  7:     |   `-- UIButtonLabel(#d02afb0: [[68.0, 0.0], [63.0, 19.0]])
  8:     `-- UIRoundedRectButton(#d02b220: [[70.0, 30.0], [300.0, 20.0]])
  9:         `-- UIButtonLabel(#d02b300: [[118.0, 0.0], [63.0, 19.0]])
=> UIWindow(#6e1f950, [[0.0, 0.0], [320.0, 480.0]])
(main)> a 4; center 1, 3, :vert, false; center
[[55.0, 110.0], [210.0, 20.0]]
[[55.0, 110.0], [210.0, 20.0]]
UIRoundedRectButton.origin = [55.0, 110.0]
=> "[[55.0, 110.0], [210.0, 20.0]]"
(main)> a 6; center 2, 3, :vert, false; center
[[60.0, 220.0], [200.0, 20.0]]
[[60.0, 220.0], [200.0, 20.0]]
UIRoundedRectButton.origin = [60.0, 220.0]
=> "[[60.0, 220.0], [200.0, 20.0]]"
(main)> a 8; center 3, 3, :vert, false; center
[[70.0, 330.0], [300.0, 20.0]]
[[10.0, 330.0], [300.0, 20.0]]
UIRoundedRectButton.origin = [10.0, 330.0]
=> "[[10.0, 330.0], [300.0, 20.0]]"

The calculated positions (x,y) are in the REPL output

Don't stop there!

You can analyze UIViewController hierarchies, too. There's even a handy root method to grab the rootViewController:

(main)> tree root
  0: . #<MainScreenController:0xac23b80>
  1: +-- #<ScheduleViewController:0x13185d00>
  2: |   +-- #<ScheduleTableController:0x131862f0>
  3: |   `-- #<ScheduleCalendarController:0x131bba90>
  4: +-- #<CameraViewController:0x13191380>
  5: +-- #<UINavigationController:0xac01ea0>
  6: |   `-- #<UITableController:0xac04e30>
  7: +-- #<PicturesViewController:0x1403ede0>
  8: `-- #<MessagesViewController:0x131a1bc0>
=> #<MainScreenController:0xac23b80>

Nothing is sacred

The adjust and tree methods act on global objects. Once either of these methods is used, you can access that global if you want:

$sugarcube_view  # => the view (or any object) being 'adjusted' (accessible using `adjust` or `a`)
$sugarcube_items  # => the list of views that was output using `tree`

Pointers

These are not UIKit-related, so I reverted to Ruby's preferred to_foo convention.

[0.0, 1.1, 2.2].to_pointer(:float)

floats = Pointer.new(:float, 3)
floats[0] = 0.0
floats[1] = 1.1
floats[2] = 2.2

UUID

Quick wrapper for CFUUIDCreate() and CFUUIDCreateString(). Identical to the BubbleWrap::create_uuid method.

> SugarCube::UUID::uuid
"0A3A76C6-9738-4458-969E-3B9DF174A3D9"

# or
> include SugarCube::UUID
> uuid
# => "0A3A76C6-9738-4458-969E-3B9DF174A3D9"

Ruby on Rails Ripoffs (RoR-R?)

# truthiness with `blank?`
nil.blank?    # => true
false.blank?  # => true
''.blank?     # => true
[].blank?     # => true
{}.blank?     # => true

0.blank?        # => false
true.blank?     # => false
'a'.blank?      # => false
['a'].blank?    # => false
{a: 'a'}.blank? # => false

Gestures

Sugarcube's gesture support is very similar to BubbleWrap's, and it's entirely possible that the two will be merged into one thing. But SugarCube is all about extending base classes, whereas BubbleWrap tends to add new classes to do the heavy lifting. Plus the options you pass to SugarCube are very different, and the prefix is "on" instead of "when" (e.g. "on_pan" instead of "when_panned")

Gestures are an "opt-in" extension. In your Rakefile, add require 'sugarcube-gestures'.

require 'sugarcube-gestures'

view.on_pan { |gesture|
  location = gesture.view.locationInView(view)
}

# other gesture methods, with common options:
view.on_tap   # use system defaults
view.on_tap(1)  # number of taps
view.on_tap(taps: 1, fingers: 1)  # number of taps and number of fingers

view.on_pinch   # no options
view.on_rotate  # no options

view.on_swipe   # use system defaults
view.on_swipe :left
view.on_swipe(direction: :left, fingers: 1)
view.on_swipe(direction: UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirectionLeft, fingers: 1)

view.on_pan   # use system defaults
view.on_pan(2)  # minimum and maximum fingers required
view.on_pan(fingers: 2)
view.on_pan(min_fingers: 2, max_fingers: 3)

view.on_press   # use system defaults
view.on_press(1.5)  # duration
view.on_press(duration: 1.5, taps: 1, fingers: 1)