UI Designer plugin for AppCode is available in early preview
! Update: AppCode 3 released with an integrated UI Designer !
We have exciting news for all Objective-C developers who use AppCode as their IDE of choice—for some time we’ve been working on one of the most desired features: UI Designer.
Today we are going to share with you the first early preview of it. For now, it is available as a plugin which you can already download and play with. The work is still in progress, and at the moment there are some limitations, for instance, plugin only supports .xib format for iOS platform from Xcode 3 up to Xcode 4.6. Support for .xib format for iOS platform from Xcode 5, .xib format for OS X and .storyboards is on its way.
Now, here’s a number of things that you can already do with the plugin:
- Adding new component to Canvas or Component Tree with one click.
- Move, Delete, Copy and Paste operations within Canvas and Component Tree.
- Powerful Properties Editor allows editing any number of selected components.
- Component Tree, which shows the hierarchy of components.
- Component Palette with all the components supported by iOS SDK.
- Creating/editing/deleting connections between components.
- Creating outlet or action for a component in an Objective-C class that is specified for File Owner.
- AutoLayout support.
Watch this short overview of AppCode UI Designer in action:
Installation instructions:
- Update AppCode to 2.5.3.
- Open Preferences | Plugins and click Browse repositories… button, then use Manage repositories… button to add the following custom plugin repository: http://www.jetbrains.com/updates/appcode-updates.xml
- Find AppCode UI Designer plugin in the list and click Download and Install button
- Restart AppCode.
- Enjoy!
The plugin is still under construction, and we need your feedback on it. We encourage you to try the new UI Designer and tell us what you think via forums or tracker.
Sincerely,
The AppCode Team
