Change keyboard appearance of UISearchBar

It's not built-in the API, so this piece of code will do. It makes your search bar display in black, and with transparency... enjoy! :)

for(UIView *subView in searchBar.subviews)
 if([subView isKindOfClass: [UITextField class]])
  [(UITextField *)subView setKeyboardAppearance: UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert];

Mapping UIWebview links to controller/delegate actions

In an iPhone application I'm developing, there are some views that are quite complex to code... and I find them much easier to code in HTML/CSS. Since the Webkit engine available on the iPhone is quite powerful, I find it a much easier way to create complex views...

Now if you want this view to interact with your application it is a bit tricky... but not THAT much. Here is a piece of code I have in my controller... well in my UIWebViewDelegate.

// Map links starting with file://
//            ending with #action
// with the action of the controller if it exists.
//
// Open other links in Safari.
- (BOOL)webView: (UIWebView*)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest: (NSURLRequest*)request navigationType: (UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType {
 NSString *fragment, *scheme;
 
 if (navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationTypeLinkClicked) {
  [webView stopLoading];
  fragment = [[request URL] fragment];
  scheme = [[request URL] scheme];

  if ([scheme isEqualToString: @"file"] && [self respondsToSelector: NSSelectorFromString(fragment)]) {
   [self performSelector: NSSelectorFromString(fragment)];
   return NO;
  }
  
  [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL: [request URL]];
 }

 return YES;
}

Basically we catch the click on a link, and if the link is of the form file://...#action we then look for the selector action in the controller and trigger it if it exists.

It's THAT simple. :)

New portfolio iPhone App released!

I've finally released my first iPhone app under the name Melion Design. This is a photographs portfolio for Andrew Hill. What I want with this app is to demonstrate the engine I've developed to manage your portfolio in your own iPhone application.

The application is free, it's called "The Frog Photos" and you can find it in the app store. Andrew can manage the photos available in the application through a web interface I've developed. It makes it easy to upload, and manage photos. The following features are available:

• Amazon S3 photos storage:  fast download of photos.
• Offline mode: user can still browse your photos when offline.
• Customize the description of each photo.
• Customize the perma-link of each photo.
• Provide a link to your own website.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you're interested in having your own portfolio available in the appstore for everyone to see! :)

Lotto Results for iPhone, version 1.2 released!

Yes, there it is! Version 1.2 has the following additional features:

• Systems - record up to 18 of your favorite winning numbers assisting System Players
• How to win - check what you require to win a division prize for each and every game
• Odds - check the odds of winning each division for each and every game

I'm now working on even more exciting content, but I can't tell you yet what it is!

I just enjoy a lot working on this project. :)

You can find Lotto Result in the app store.

Presentation of my Happy Mapper fork at the last RORO Sydney

Last November I did a presentation of the Happy Mapper fork I developed. The video is available on Vimeo. Unlike the description says, it is a fork using Nokogiri to replace XML Object, but watching it will clear everything out! It's a lightning talk, so I'm sure I won't waste too much of your time :)

You can also find all the videos from RORO on Vimeo. Enjoy!

Calling an authenticated controller action from a rake task

Just wrote that little rake file:

require 'action_controller/integration'

module NoAccessControl
  def has_permission?(rule)
    true
  end
  def logged_in?
    true
  end
end

namespace :reports do
  desc 'Export and email financial reports'
  task :financial => :environment do
    ReportsController.class_eval do
      skip_filter :login_required, :verify_authenticity_token, :role_required
      include NoAccessControl
    end

    sess = ActionController::Integration::Session.new
    sess.post('/reports/financial', :format => 'email', :date => 1.month.ago.end_of_month.strftime('%d/%m/%Y'))
  end
end

I thought that would be useful for some people. It just calls an action from a Rails controller. This action is supposed to be accessed only by the admin user. We also prevent checking for authenticity token. This rake task will be called in a cron job.

Lotto Results for the iPhone

I'm proud to announce my first iPhone application I developped at Front Foot has been released!

Winning Numbers is a mobile website adapted to all phones in australia, but you can enjoy it now as a native application for your iPhone under the name Lotto Results.

It provides for now the latest results and dividends for all of the major australian lottery games: Oz Lotto, Powerball, Lotto, Tattslotto, Gold Lotto, and more... You can also save your winning numbers to quickly find them in the latest results, enjoy!