Book'd! App(2018)

iOS Development

I fancy myself a bit of a programmer, but lack the formal education and patience to do it full time for a living. But with the introduction of Swift to the Apple development world, my dream of writing an iOS app was in reach.

There's Got To Be An Easier Way

I tried learning Objective C years ago, but found it to be to abstract and complex for me. I've programmed in Perl, PHP and JavaScript... but those were far less complicated and far more forgiving. Swift was a step closer in that direction.

So I came up with the idea of a digital red card/yellow card that could live on your phone. If someone at work or home was out of place, you could pull it up on your mobile and serve it up to them. Plus, I would add in a whistle just to get the offenders attention first.

Progress!

After a few fits and starts I was able to figure out how to get it to work! I navigated my way through the Xcode Storyboard feature to build out a screen flow. I watched a couple YouTube tutorials to make sure I understood constraints so it looked good on different screens. And I even figured out how to include an Apple Watch version!

Here's the preview video I made for the app store:

So I packed everything up and shipped it over to the App Store and started writing a draft email to family and friends to check out my new app. Then I got the dreaded "sorry to inform you..." email a few days later from Apple.

Try, Try Again

They said my app had been rejected because of "minimum functionality". What?! Had they seen some of the apps in their store? Oh well... I took my shot and tried my best.

It's all good, though. I learned a lot and had fun building it (I still carry the app on my phone & watch). And I'm better prepared for my next app, whatever that ends up being.

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