How to get started building an iPad app using ProMotion and RubyMotion Tweet

Last modification by jamonholmgren January 29, 2013, 9:18 pm → version: 2 Language: English Rating: Viewed: 450 times

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You need a few things first: 1. A relatively modern Mac (I'm using my 2012 Mac Mini I bought for home) 2. A licensed copy of RubyMotion (www.rubymotion.com, $199) 3. Latest version of Xcode installed Let's get started!

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First, open Terminal and go to your code projects folder.

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Run `motion create ipad-demo` to create a new RubyMotion app.

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Now open it in your favorite code editor. Mine is Sublime Text 2.

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Create a Gemfile (so we can use Bundler) and add the following: source :rubygems gem "ProMotion", :git => "git://github.com/clearsightstudio/ProMotion.git", :branch => "refactor"

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From the Terminal, run `bundle` to install ProMotion.

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Open the app_delegate.rb file and replace the contents entirely with this: class AppDelegate < ProMotion::AppDelegateParent def on_load(app, options) end end

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Now we need to tell the simulator that we want to target iPad. Go to your Rakefile and add this line: app.device_family = [:ipad] Also add this to the top in place of `require 'motion/project'`: require "rubygems" require 'motion/project' require 'bundler' Bundler.require

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Now run `rake` in Terminal to compile and run your new app.

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The simulator will show a black screen. We want something a little more exciting.

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Add a folder named "screens" in your /app folder and create a file named "home_screen.rb" with these contents: class HomeScreen < ProMotion::Screen title "Home Screen" def on_load set_tab_bar_item system_icon: UITabBarSystemItemContacts end end

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We want the app to open this screen in a tab bar on startup, so open up your app_delegate and add this line to the middle of the on_load method: open_tab_bar HomeScreen

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Kill the app by pressing Ctrl+C in your terminal and re-run `rake`. This time you'll see the tab bar below.

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Let's add an about_screen.rb too. class AboutScreen < ProMotion::Screen title "About Us" def on_load set_tab_bar_item system_icon: UITabBarSystemItemFeatured end end

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Go back to your app_delegate.rb and add it as a second tab. open_tab_bar HomeScreen, AboutScreen

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Re-run `rake` and admire the two tabs.

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That's all I have time for today. Go to my web design website, http://www.clearsightstudio.com/, to learn more about ProMotion and see other tutorials!