Updating User Interface Controls

Just like any good programmers we decided to bite this off the same day Apple lifted the NDA even faced with the time constraints. Needless to say the first app will be VERY simple, however it does demonstrate some stuff I stumbled on the first time I started coding against the iPhone SDK. 

The app is "Minutes to Midnight"  it is simply a countdown of the time left I have to finish this app before tomorrow :).  This idea came from my friend Chris Craft who committed (and completed!) 30 day of Windows Mobile development.

To get started fire up xCode and

• Click: File->New Project.

From the "New Project" dialog

• Select: iPhone OS ->Applications-> View-Based Application
• Name It: I named mine "MinutesToMidnight"

This project already has a UIView we that will be the main view of or application.  I imagine a count down looking like a plastic alarm clock which of cource counts backwards to zero.  Let make our text have a red LED look and our back ground black.

First lets open our UIView interface and give it a black background

• Double Click "MinutesToMidnightViewController.xib" to launch "Interface Builder" 
• Click: Tools -> Reveal In Document Window -> View
• Click: Tools -> Attributes Inspector
• Select the background attribute and set it to Black

Now lets add a UILabel that will be the display for our countdown.

• Click: Tools -> Library
• Drag a Label onto the Main View
• Stretch and size the Label to your liking
  
• I recomend centering the text and setting the color to red for this project

We need to reference the label in our code so we can update the label

• In the document window "File's Owner"
  
• Click: Tools->Idenity Inspector
• In the inspector click the + under "Class Outlets"
• Change myOutlet1 to "countdownLabel"
• Change id to UILabel
• Click enter to make sure they commit

Now we need to update our class file

• Still in interface builder make sure "File's Owner" is still selected in the Document Explorer
• Click: File->Write Class Files
• Save As: "MinutesToMidnightViewController"
• Click: Save
• Click: Merge
• In Actions drop down (bottom right) choose "Select Left"
• Click: red circle in title to close the window
  
• Click: Save
• Close the last merge window
• Open xCode and rebuild project

Now we need to wire up the Label in Interface Builder to the UILabel in the class file

• Reopen Interface Builder
• Select the Label in the View or in Document Window
• Click: Tools -> Connection Inspector
• Move your mouse cursor over the empty circle to the right of text "New Referencing Outlet" (the circle will change to a Plus(+)) 
  
• Mouse Click then drag the Plus (+) to "File's Owner" in Document Window
• When you release select countdownLabel in the popup list
• Click: File -> Save then close Interface Builder

Return to xCode and rebuild the project

Okay getting closer,  we need to do the following to finish up.

• Start a timer
• Update the label on timer
• Select a cool (nastalgic) font

Start Timer

• In xCode open 
• In MinutesToMidnightViewController.h add the line -(void)updateLabel; right before the line @end
• In MinutesToMidnightViewController.c add the lines
  

        -(void)updateLabel {