Archive for September 16, 2014

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Full-Text Search on iOS with FMDB

Andrew Goodale (via Gus Mueller):

When I started working on an iPhone app to play music from the phone’s library based on GPS location, I needed a way to index the song metadata and other textual content. SQLite is built into iOS, and I wanted to use its full-text module support (FTS3/4). Apple provides no full-text search index functionality for iOS, and other options, such as Lucene, are focused on Java-based environments.

Since I was working with SQLite, I knew the best approach was to work with the excellent FMDB library, which provides an Objective-C wrapper to the SQLite C API. My effort extends that library with additional Objective-C interfaces and protocols to simplify working with the FTS3 module.

Assigning Relationships Between Tasks and People in OmniFocus

Tyler Hall:

For years I’ve used on-hold “waiting” contexts named after coworkers and family members to denote tasks that I’ve assigned to other people and am waiting on them to finish. But a few weeks ago I had a realization that there are two other types of relationships between tasks and people that I haven’t been tracking. And with a few quick modifications to how I title my tasks, it’s possible to track them in OmniFocus.

PCalc Construction Set

Dr. Drang:

With version 3.3 of PCalc, James Thomson has gone Espinosa one better: he’s not only built a customizable PCalc, he’s given all of us the power of Steve Jobs.

[…]

To edit a button, press and hold on it until the display shifts and handles appear at the corners of the button. You can use the handles to resize the button, and you can drag it around to any place you like.

To change what the button does, tap the Edit button along the bottom, and a screen will appear that’ll let you change the name and the behavior of the button. You can have it work like any of the regular commands, run a user function, perform a unit conversion, or insert a constant. You can have the button appear in the normal view, the 2nd view, or both.

This is going to be great. None of layouts were ever quite what I wanted. Now I can tweak them.

Status Magic and iPhone 6/6 Plus Screen Sizes

Dave Verwer:

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best way to take your App Store screenshots and this is the main reason that we’re discontinuing Status Magic. It’s very sad, but I’m not going to fight against something that provides better results and is integrated into the operating systems.

[…]

I loved this app, it wasn’t useful every day but it really made a difference to App Store screenshots and every time I saw a 9:41 on an App Store screenshot I wondered if we had helped create it. Farewell, Status Magic!

iOS 8 and iCloud Drive

Nik Fletcher:

If you upgrade to iCloud Drive, you will only be able to sync with devices running iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite. As OS X Yosemite is still pre-release (and not yet available) upgrading to iCloud Drive will prevent you from syncing with Clear for Mac until both OS X Yosemite is released and you upgrade to OS X Yosemite.

Developers cannot work around the choice made when upgrading to iOS 8, so please make sure you pay close attention to the iCloud Drive screen shown after you update to iOS 8.

If you need to sync with devices that are not (currently) iCloud Drive-compatible, ensure you choose “Not Now”. this will keep iCloud’s “Documents and Data” sync feature enabled on your iOS 8 device so that you can sync with OS X Mavericks (and iOS 7 devices).

Update (2014-09-17): Caitlin McGarry:

You can go back and upgrade at any time, but unless you want a file-syncing nightmare on your hands, you’ll wait for Yosemite’s official release. You don't even have to take our word for it: Developers like Realmac Software and Bloom, which makes Day One have taken to their blogs to warn users about potential syncing problems and the lack of iCloud Drive support for pre-Yosemite versions of OS X.

Adam C. Engst:

Beyond the basic inability to access iCloud-stored documents on the Mac, this limitation also prevents you from working on iCloud-stored documents on both an iOS device and a Mac. So, if you’re a fan of switching back and forth between Pages on your iPad and on your iMac, you really want to postpone upgrading to iCloud Drive until Yosemite ships.

Update (2014-09-19): Apple:

iWork customers who use a Mac with OS X Mavericks or earlier will experience issues keeping their documents up to date if they upgrade to iCloud Drive via iOS 8 or iCloud.com.

If you update to iCloud Drive, you lose access from the iWork apps on Mavericks.

Ian Paul:

Mac users are better off waiting for OS X Yosemite to drop before upgrading to iCloud Drive, but iOS 8-toting Windows users are cleared for takeoff. Apple recently released an upgraded version of iCloud for Windows loaded with iCloud Drive.

Update (2014-09-20): Kirk McElhearn:

This belongs in the Department of WTF. How can Apple have allowed iCloud Drive to go live, hijacking the documents of so many people? Michael Cohen offers a matrix in this article, showing which types of devices can share files with other devices. It’s pretty sad that this has happened; Apple needs to release an iCloud Drive update for Mavericks now, so people don’t lose access to essential documents.

Update (2014-10-19): Michael E. Cohen:

Yosemite is now upon us, and if you are an iCloud user and you upgrade to Yosemite, you won’t be able to avoid iCloud Drive. In most cases, your documents should weather the transition intact, but if you also have an iOS device and you discover that iCloud Drive misbehaves on it in any of your iCloud-enabled apps, do the simplest thing first: sign out of iCloud on the device and then sign back in. This simple act might well brighten up an iCloudy day.