The navigator area is split into three sections. The top section is the Navigator Selector Bar; it lets you choose which navigator is active. The middle navigator area lets you navigate through the selected navigator, and the bottom filter bar lets you quickly narrow down on the types of data shown in the main Navigator area.
There are eight different navigators available for viewing within the navigator area. These navigators can be daunting for a new user of Xcode, but they are key to being efficient in using the IDE. By default, the navigator that is selected is the project navigator, and it shows the current file structure of your project.
The Navigation Selector Bar
You can use keyboard shortcuts to access these areas quickly, using the Cmd + 1 ...8 keys:
- Project navigator (Cmd + 1): This displays all the files, folders, assets, frameworks, and so on that are part of this project. It is displayed as a hierarchical view and is the way in which the majority of developers access their files, folders, and so on.
- Symbol navigator (Cmd + 2): This displays all the classes, members, and methods that are available in them within the project. It is the easiest way to navigate quickly to a method/function or an attribute/property.
- Search navigator (Cmd + 3): This allows you to search the project for a particular match and, optionally, perform a replace as well.
- Issues navigator (Cmd + 4): The results of the static analyzer will be shown here. Any warnings or errors that are generated during the build process will also be listed here.
- Tests navigator (Cmd + 5): This shows a list of Unit or UI Tests that have been written and whether the project currently passes or fails them.
- Debug navigator (Cmd + 6): While your app is running in the simulator or on a device, this area will show the program's current use of memory, CPU usage, disk access, and network access. This is very useful for debugging your app without opening Instruments.
- Breakpoint navigator (Cmd + 7): This displays all the breakpoints in your project from all files. It also allows you to create exception and symbolic breakpoints (symbolic breakpoints are an advanced feature and are not discussed in this book).
- Log navigator (Cmd + 8): This displays a log of all actions carried out, namely compiling, building, and running. It is more useful when used to determine the results of automated builds (again, automated builds are an advanced topic and are not covered in this book).