2: Responsive Social Gaming with RESTful Web Services in Objective-C

Creator QR Code in Objective-C 2: Responsive Social Gaming with RESTful Web Services

// changes to ViewHighScoresAppDelegate.h #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> @class RootViewController; @interface ViewHighScoresAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate> { UIWindow *window; UINavigationController *navigationController; NSArray *highScores; RootViewController *rootViewController; } @property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window; @property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UINavigationController *navigationController; @property (nonatomic, retain) NSArray *highScores; @property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet RootViewController *rootViewController; - (void)getHighScores; @end // changes to ViewHighScoresAppDelegate.m #import "ViewHighScoresAppDelegate.h" #import "RootViewController.h" #import "ObjectiveResourceConfig.h" @implementation ViewHighScoresAppDelegate @synthesize window; @synthesize navigationController; @synthesize highScores; @synthesize rootViewController; #define HIGH_SCORES_URL @"http://localhost:3000/" - (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application { // Configure and show the window [window addSubview:[navigationController view]]; [window makeKeyAndVisible];

[ObjectiveResourceConfig setSite: HIGH_SCORES_URL]; [self getHighScores]; } - (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application { // Save data if appropriate } - (void)dealloc { [navigationController release]; [window release]; [super dealloc]; } #pragma mark web service connection methods - (void)getHighScores { highScores = [HighScore getTop100Scores]; } // you can delete all the URL loading and XML parsing code // you won't need it! @end // changes to RootViewController.m // Customize the appearance of table view cells. - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell"; UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier]; if (cell == nil) { cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease]; } // Set up the cell... ViewHighScoresAppDelegate *appDelegate = (ViewHighScoresAppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate]; HighScore *highScore = [[appDelegate highScores] objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];

cell.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ - %@", highScore.full_name, highScore.score]; return cell; }

As you can see, the code to use ObjectiveResource is substantially simpler and shorter than the version that uses URL loading and XML parsing.

HighScore newScore = [[[HighScore alloc] init] autorelease]; newScore.full_name = "Bobby"; newScore.score = 10002; [newScore saveRemote];

And that is really it! If you ve used Hibernate on Java or NHibernate on .NET, you ll find that using ObjectiveResource is similar. The difference is that there is no mindless XML configuration, and you re dealing with a web service, rather than a database. ObjectiveResource simplifies communications with RESTful web services significantly. All the URL loading and XML parsing take place behind the scenes. Your objects will inherit code from the ObjectiveResource category to make simple methods calls for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting records on your RESTful web services.

Summary

This chapter walked you through how to use URL loading and XML parsing to create a highscore server. It was very code-heavy, but to be honest, at the time of this writing, very few resources, online or in book form, deal with the subject in this much detail. And this detail is important to get social networking implemented the right way for your iPhone games. When push comes to shove, and you re trying to get a social networking feature built into your app, are you going to be glad I dug in deep, or would you rather I had stuck to pleasing platitudes, all mom and apple pie, about the wonderful dream of social networking built into native iPhone games Yeah, that s what I thought. In the end, I hope I was successful in getting you excited about the possibility of adding social networking features directly into your game. Perhaps I ve made you think about spending a bit more development time doing more than just a high-score server. Wouldn t it be cool to give players at least a My highest score widget It may help promote your game!

Letting your users share their gaming experience with others can help grow a community around your games, which can lead to strong sales. But, for me, it all goes back to being social, playing in groups, with friends and family hovering around the TV and having a good time. With the ubiquitous connectivity in the iPhone and social networking, we may be able to bring some of those good times back to gaming.