Cocoa的Foundation Framework学习笔记

Object

Description

UIApplication object

You use the UIApplication object essentially as is—that is, without subclassing. This controller object manages the app event loop and coordinates other high-level app behaviors. Your own custom app-level logic resides in your app delegate object, which works in tandem with this object.

App delegate object

The app delegate is a custom object created at app launch time, usually by the UIApplicationMain function. The primary job of this object is to handle state transitions within the app. For example, this object is responsible for launch-time initialization and handling transitions to and from the background.

In iOS 5 and later, you can use the app delegate to handle other app-related events. The Xcode project templates declare the app delegate as a subclass of UIResponder. If the UIApplication object does not handle an event, it dispatches the event to your app delegate for processing.

Documents and data model objects

Data model objects store your app’s content and are specific to your app. For example, a banking app might store a database containing financial transactions, whereas a painting app might store an image object or even the sequence of drawing commands that led to the creation of that image. (In the case of the drawing commands, an image object is still a data object because it is just a container for the image data.)

Apps can also use document objects (custom subclasses of UIDocument) to manage some or all of their data model objects. Document objects are not required but offer a convenient way to group data that belongs in a single file or file package. For more information about documents, see “Defining a Document-Based Data Model.”

View controller objects

View controller objects manage the presentation of your app’s content on screen. A view controller manages a single view and its collection of subviews. When presented, the view controller makes its views visible by installing them in the app’s window.

The UIViewController class is the base class for all view controller objects. It provides default functionality for loading views, presenting them, rotating them in response to device rotations, and several other standard system behaviors. UIKit and other frameworks define additional view controller classes to implement standard system interfaces such as the image picker, tab bar interface, and navigation interface.

UIWindow object

A UIWindow object coordinates the presentation of one or more views on a screen. Most apps have only one window, which presents content on the main screen, but apps may have an additional window for content displayed on an external display.

To change the content of your app, you use a view controller to change the views displayed in the corresponding window. You never replace the window itself.

In addition to hosting views, windows work with the UIApplication object to deliver events to your views and view controllers.

View, control, and layer objects

Views and controls provide the visual representation of your app’s content. A view is an object that draws content in a designated rectangular area and responds to events within that area. Controls are a specialized type of view responsible for implementing familiar interface objects such as buttons, text fields, and toggle switches.

The UIKit framework provides standard views for presenting many types of content. You can also define your own custom views by subclassing UIView (or its descendants) directly.

In addition to incorporating views and controls, apps can also incorporate Core Animation layers into their view and control hierarchies. Layer objects are actually data objects that represent visual content. Views use layer objects extensively behind the scenes to render their content. You can also add custom layer objects to your interface to implement complex animations and other types of sophisticated visual effects.

Data

Classes

Description

Strings and text

NSString (NSMutableString)

NSAttributedString (NSMutableAttributedString)

Strings in iOS are Unicode based. The string classes provide support for creating and manipulating strings in a variety of ways. The attributed string classes support stylized text and are used only in conjunction with Core Text.

Numbers

NSNumber

NSDecimalNumber

NSIndexPath

When you want to store numerical values in a collection, use number objects. The NSNumber class can represent integer, floating-point, Boolean, and char values. The NSIndexPath class stores a sequence of numbers and is often used to specify multilayer selections in hierarchical lists.

Raw bytes

NSData (NSMutableData)

NSValue

For times when you need to store raw streams of bytes, use data objects. Data objects are also commonly used to store objects in an archived form. The NSValue class is typically extended (using categories) and used to archive common data types such as points and rectangles.

Dates and times

NSDate

NSDateComponents

Use date objects to store timestamps, calendar dates, and other time-related information.

URLs

NSURL

In addition to their traditional use for referring to network resources, URLs in iOS are the preferred way to store paths to files. The NSURL class even provides support for getting and setting file-related attributes.

Collections

NSArray (NSMutableArray)

NSDictionary (NSMutableDictionary)

NSIndexSet (NSMutableIndexSet)

NSOrderedSet (NSMutableOrderedSet)

NSSet (NSMutableSet)

Use collections to group related objects together in a single place. The Foundation framework provides several different types of collection classes.