Appendix A. iOS class reference

After reading this book, your main resource for learning more about iOS development should be the references at http://developer.apple.com. To help you find documents that might interest you, this appendix lists the major classes in the UIKit and Foundation hierarchies that you may want to know more about, excluding classes that only appear as a part of another class.

A.1. UIKit framework classes

The UIKit framework contains those classes most tightly connected to the devices, including all the graphical classes you use to make up pages. A partial listing appears as table A.1. It’s current as of iOS 4.3 and will probably be mostly correct when you read this, but the UIKit does sometimes change between releases.

Table A.1. The most important user interface classes

Class	Parent	Summary
UIActionSheet	UIView	A pop-up window that includes options; similar to a UIAlertView
UIActivityIndicatorView	UIView	An indeterminate progress display
UIAlertView	UIView	A pop-up window that includes options; similar to a UIActionSheet
UIApplication	UIResponder	The main source for application information and control
UIButton	UIControl	A push button
UIColor	NSObject	A color output class
UIControl	UIView	An abstract class that is parent to many user controls
UIDatePicker	UIControl	A wheeled date-selection device
UIDevice	NSObject	A class that holds info about the device itself
UIEvent	NSObject	A container for touches; part of the event model
UIFont	NSObject	A font output class
UIImage	NSObject	A nondisplaying image holder
UIImagePickerController	UINavigationController	A modal controller for image selection
UIImageView	UIView	An image display that holds one or more UIImage objects
UILabel	UIView	A small, non-editable text display
UINavigationController	UIViewController	A hierarchical controller; often linked with a UITableViewController to produce hierarchical menus
UIPageControl	UIControl	A toolbar for navigating among pages using dots
UIPickerView	UIView	A wheel-based selection mechanism
UIProgressView	UIView	A determinate progress display
UIResponder	NSObject	An abstract class that defines all classes that can receive and respond to events
UIScreen	NSObject	A class containing the device’s entire screen
UIScrollView	UIView	A parent class for views with multiple pages of content
UISearchBar	UIView	A text-input mechanism specialized for searches
UISegmentedControl	UIControl	A control for making one of several choices
UISlider	UIControl	A control for setting discrete values
UISwitch	UIControl	A control for selecting binary values
UITabBarController	UIViewController	A controller for moving among multiple screens
UITableViewController	UIViewController	A controller for displaying tables of content; often linked with a UINavigationController
UITextField	UIControl	A control for inputting short text
UITextView	UIScrollView	A display for text of any size
UITouch	NSObject	An individual touch on the device’s screen
UIView	UIResponder	The abstract class that lies at the core of most UIKit objects
UIViewController	UIResponder	A simple view controller
UIWebView	UIView	A Safari-like web browser
UIWindow	UIView	The root for the view hierarchy

A.2. Foundation framework classes

Foundation framework classes, whose names begin with NS, are almost as important as the UI classes because they represent foundational variable types, like strings and numbers. Table A.2 only lists the major classes that have some relevance to the sort of work you’ve done in this book; for more, look at Apple’s developer site under Core Services Frameworks.

Table A.2. A listing of the most important Foundation classes

Class	Parent	Summary
NSArray	NSObject	An array
NSAutoreleasePool	NSObject	A memory-management class
NSBundle	NSObject	A pointer toward a project’s filesystem home
NSCharacterSet	NSObject	Methods for managing characters
NSCountedSet	NSMutableSet	An unordered collection of elements
NSData	NSObject	A wrapper for a byte buffer
NSDictionary	NSObject	An associative array
NSError	NSObject	Encapsulated error information
NSFileHandle	NSObject	A methodology for controlling files
NSFileManager	NSObject	A manager for filesystem work
NSIndexPath	NSObject	A node path
NSLog	NSObject	A very important object for debugging; logs a formatted string to the system log
NSMutableArray	NSArray	An array that can be changed
NSMutableCharacterSet	NSCharacterSet	A character set that can be changed
NSMutableData	NSData	Data that can be changed
NSMutableDictionary	NSDictionary	A dictionary that can be changed
NSMutableSet	NSSet	A set that can be changed
NSMutableString	NSString	A string that can be changed
NSMutableURLRequest	NSURLRequest	A URL request that can be changed
NSNotificationCenter	NSObject	A notification manager
NSNumber	NSValue	A way to encapsulate many types of numbers
NSObject	N/A	The root class for Cocoa Touch
NSString	NSObject	A class for various sorts of string storage and manipulation
NSURL	NSObject	A simple URL object
NSURLRequest	NSObject	A URL plus a cache policy
NSValue	NSObject	A simple container for data
NSXMLParser	NSObject	An XML parser

A.3. Other classes

The UI and NS classes should contain most of the objects you use when programming.

We’ve also covered several other frameworks throughout this book, including the Address Book framework (chapter 9), the Address Book UI framework (chapter 9), the Core Location framework (chapter 10), the Core Audio framework (chapter 12), the Media Player framework (chapter 12), the Core Graphics framework (chapter 11), the Quartz Core framework (chapter 13), the OpenGL ES framework (chapter 13), the CFNetwork framework (chapter 14), the Game Kit Framework (chapter 15), the Event Kit framework (chapter 16), the APNS framework (chapter 17), the Map Kit framework (chapter 18), the Store Kit framework (chapter 19), and the iAd framework (chapter 20). Finally, you may wish to pay some attention to the Core Foundation framework, which we’ve used (as infrequently as possible) throughout the last part of this book.