iOS Constraints and view layouts

iOS 5 has a nicely implemented auto layout feature called constraints. This posting provides a quickstart tutorial plus tips & hints. As usual Ray Wenderlich has a great intro tutorial that I used.

It seems the big secret is this button at the bottom of the storyboard. This button will allow Xcode to resolve most of your layout issues.  If you still have problems check out the video tutorial - Beginning Auto Layout by Ray Wenderlich

  The Auto Resolve Layout button displays the following selections;

  Use - Reset to Suggested Constraints in ......... , to allow Xcode to resolve the constraints.

Small blue lines indicate that this view is properly laid out.

Orange lines & text indicate conflicting contraints that need fixing

This screenshot shows both the good (blue) & bad (orange) layouts described above.

I fixed the Map cell layout by;

1. selecting Clear all restraints in tableview cell
2. manually dragging the label & image around for a basic layout
3. selecting Reset to suggested restraints in .........

And you get this;

Easy - Peasey !

CoreData, SQLite and terminal Shtuff

These are some simple commands that can be used in terminal to manipulate data & files

Unix commands:
ls       list files
cd      change directory (directories should have NO embedded spaces for this Unix cmd
md     make directory
cd ..   up a directory help duh?

link for command tool UNIX commands - http://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/vi.html

sqlite3 commands:
sqlite3 filename.db   Opens the filename database
.help                          guess what

Xcode commands: 
-com.apple.CoreData.SQLDebug 1   Add as a schema argument to allow debugging of SQLite code
            goto Product/Edit Schema/Run app/Arguments/Arguments passed on Launch

Working with Dynamic Maps using Google Maps & Spreadsheets

This is a quick start guide to building & adding data to a Google Map created with GPS Visualizer.  Heres how to do it, quickly, with further info & details below.

1. Open the Distribution List spreadsheet in Google docs.
2. Open Google Maps in another window.
3. Size both so you can work easily with Copy <cmd>c and Paste <cmd>v between the windows
4. Copy <cmd>c the business name on the spreadsheet and Paste <cmd>v it into the search ield on the Google Map
5. Find the right business ( you may have to add in the city field to get the right item) and paste it into the Street field on the spreadsheet
6. Repeat steps 4 - 5 until you're done

---Easy Peasey---

Now for some other gory details, please refer to these previous posts;
creating-maps-with-gpsvisualizer
dynamic-linking-of-map-spreadsheet

For locations that DON'T resolve with GPS Visualizers  routine - You can hover over the location on Google maps and the latitude longitude values are displayed.  They can then be manually entered on the spreadsheet.
Google API key -  AIzaSyCOUBN9LPQ0lSMByTWE1JtmAAx35eo2CYs
Bing API key - (use this to geocode big lists)
Am9Z9PSFoZ6sRVh7x5H7SIAFGI1LTJxR7LU-qK4WaJo18DnYoGIk9ORF98_VLDRz
Mapquest API key -  MIUAvSGuQS27RAYgQX4KRrBAOiDKVOHH

Example of the dynamic link URL (note the gid at the end) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yhmKwXDLn40oZTBzPOTja09V8z3x1kVwQNR1qI8Ie3U/view#gid=293688314