Top 10 Tools For iOS Application Development

The call for mobile application development is increasing day by day. Also, mobile apps development in 2020 is becoming easier. Every year, we see the introduction of several mobile application development tools. Developers are taking advantage of app builder tools so that they can build apps more quickly. 

Here are the top 10 tools that you can use for iOS applications development

Jazzy

In any type of application development, the documentation part can prove to be very crucial. As a programmer, the documentation enables you to understand the purpose behind writing the app code. Jazzy is a command-line utility tool, a documentation tool. It is responsible for creating the website with the documentation and the code lying under it.

For Swift and Objective-C, iOS app development 2020 requires Jazzy code for documentation purposes. Jazzy uses SourceKit. It generates an output. The output is then installed on the popular Dash documentation viewer. Moreover, the output is simple and clear. Jazzy just does not parse source files. By using SourceKit and the Clang AST representation of the code, along with the comments, Jazzy provides results with more accuracy. This output is simple, clear, and easy to navigate. The output even matches the look and feel of Apple Ñ¢s, √¢‚ Ǩ official reference documentation.

SwiftDoc.org

Whether it is for phones, desktops, or anything else, Swift is a great way to write code. It is a safe, fast, and interactive language. It is friendly to the new users. Writing code in Swift lets you experiment with the code and see the results immediately. You can check the results without app-building tools.

SwiftDoc.org is another documentation tool. It is complete auto-generated documentation for Swift. The Swift header file generates it. SwiftDoc.org pages provide almost everything. It gives us an easy way to browse all the types, protocols, variables, subscripts, instance methods, inherited items, and the globals defined internally to the language. We can access them without having to command-click around header files located in Xcode.

It is all generated from the Swift header file. This means that the documentation pages already include everything, from variables to methods. The inheritance hierarchy graphs present all the protocols where ever necessary. Is shows all the protocols that a type conforms to or vice versa.

Hyperion

No doubt debugging is a very time-consuming process in iOS applications development. Hyperion is an in-app design review tool. It is a design debugging solution. Developers widely use this tool to inspect the program. While doing so, the developer can do the job without being obstructive to the program. You can integrate Hyperion into and iOS application development for 2020. It stays discreetly under your program so that you can easily use it. It does not cross your application by always being ON. You can inspect your program whenever you need it.

Hyperion is a very powerful tool. It reduces the time and the efforts needed to ensure no bugs are now left behind. Hyperion uses three plugins. They are:

1. View Inspector – You can check the properties of any view.

2. Measurements – You can measure the distance between any two views.

3. Slow Animation – You can reduce the in-app animation speed.

iOS Console

macOS offers iOS console which is a log viewer. iOS is a freeware software It allows a developer to receive any logs directly from macOS and view them. This tool is widely used by the iOS app development companies to access any log from the connected iOS device. Then the tool shows all the information logged by the connected device. 

Moreover, it also allows textual filtering in contrast to any log viewer integrated into Xcode. This is the function of the iOS console that allows the programmer to easily look for any certain log message. You can also add a marker in the console log. This will make it even easier and effortless to find your place.

Dash

Dash is an Application Programming Interface (API) Documentation Browser. It is also a Code Snippet Manager. Dash stores snippets of code. Dash instantly searches and presents offline documentation sets. It contains more than 200 APIs, more than 100 cheat sheets, and other documentation sets. You can even generate your own documentation sets. You can also request them to make your sets add with other sets.

Dash comes with several documentation sets. So, you can choose among those and decide which sets you to want to download. Once you are sure with the set, Dash will take care of the rest. It will make sure that the documentation sets are up to date.

Here are some of the documentation sets that Dash comes with: iOS, macOS, Swift, tvOS, Android, Angular, etc. Dash provides custom documentation sources of its own. It generates documentation sets for anything you need by integrating it with the package manager.

Raygun

Raygun is one of the iOS crash reporting tools that help in error monitoring activities like finding, diagnosing, and fixing software errors and performance problems. Raygun is written in Objective-C programming language. It can be used with both Objective-C and Swift applications. It supports more than 30 languages and frameworks. 

Operating systems supported by Raygun are-

● iOS 10+

● tvOS 10+

● macOS 10.10+

Raygun not only helps in monitoring the crashes but also shows you the specific users who are getting affected by the crashes. And this happens because Raygun software can be used together with the real user monitoring technology. 

The software automatically replicates the crash collecting reports including information related to full stack traces, OS and app versions, method, class, and file numbers to locate the error, network, device data, and location. from the user’s device and presents the diagnostics on the user’s Raygun dashboard.

To download Raygun, simply add a short iOS code snippet and deploy your application into production and the crashes will be starting to be monitored. Domino’s Pizza, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft are few of Raygun’s customers.

Firebase Crashlytics

It is a real-time crash reporting tool. It helps in tracking, prioritizing, and fixing stability issues that might corrode the user’s app development qualities. Crashlytics was acquired by Google in 2017, integrated it into its Firebase mobile development platform, and hence, does not only support iOS but also Android and Unity systems.

Crashlytics groups all the crashes into a manageable list of issues, including information on WiFi networks, running processes, operating systems details, including jailbreak status and device features like battery status and sensor proximity. The application also provides information on why a crash occurred and what led it to occur.

Users can get notifications and assistance for all the issues that might require immediate attention through the in-app messaging tool, which is one of the feature’s provided by the Firebase application.

Gameloft, Doodle, Hotstar, and Withings are few of Firebase Crashlytics customers. User’s need to download Crashlytics SDK to their iOS/Android/Unity app, to begin to track the crashes.

Helios

Helios is an open-source framework that provides essential backend services for iOS mobile application development. The services include data synchronization, push notifications, in-app purchases, analytics, and passbook integration. It helps developers by setting up a client-server app incorporating functionality as required. 

Helios is designed for ‘Mobile First’ design which means that the design of the framework starts from the mobile end, which has more restrictions and then expands its features to create a tablet/desktop version.

As Helios is built on the Rack webserver interface, it can be easily added into any existing Rails or Sinatra applications or users can build a new Rails or Sinatra application, if they just started with a Helios application. 

With Helios, it is possible for iOS applications development using the tools and framework they want and can also maintain flexibility with the architecture as the requirement changes.  

Parse

Parse in an open-source platform that helps in building, hosting, and managing the applications. Parse solutions are available on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is a subsidiary of Amazon, providing cloud computing platforms and API to everyone. It also supports queries optimizers, automated scaling, automated backups, and a smart database index.

Parse has an extremely powerful backend platform that delivers several features to make the backend development, quicker and easier. It also helps in adding the push notifications and social integration capabilities in the user’s application.

Parse platform supports operating systems like- iOS, Android, Unity, Windows, JavaScript, and more. With Parse, users can save their entities in the cloud using fewer command lines.

Following libraries are used as dependencies inside of Parse-

● BOLTS, for task management.

● OCMOCK, for unit testing.

Dribbble

Dribbble is an iOS development tool that provides a social platform for designers and creative professionals. It provides lots of wonderful and exhilarating designs, with a simple search of iOS. Through Dribbble, one can discover countless stunning iOS icon designs, UI elements, screen designs, and their creators as well. 

Dribbble supports both iOS and Android operating systems.

Dribble provides features likes- Mobile Uploading, Dribbble for Apple TV, 3D Touch, Split Screen support, Easy Integration, etc.

Dribble accepts exceptional designs from all over the world and helps the creators by showing their designs and getting them hired for the most innovative brands around the world. Since Dribbble has a team that is distributed all over the world, one can apply easily from wherever they want. 

Apple, Airbnb, Facebook, Google, etc. are few of the companies which use Dribbble to hire exceptional creative employees for them.

Consclusion

With the rise in the number of people using iOS electronics, iOS application development is necessary. These are the Top 10 most powerful tools of the year 2020 that one requires for iOS application development. By using these tools, users can efficiently run their programs, with lesser time being wasted on error-fixing.

The developer, using these apps/platforms, must be comfortable with them to give the best results for the success of their projects/work. The developers could give a skills test based on the application/platforms they will work on, to provide customers the satisfaction they want. 

At last, there are many applications available for the customers accordingly to their needs, but these are the most useful solutions preferred by the iOS developers to work with. Hope you got what you were looking for.

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