Tips & Tricks

Code documentation can save you a lot of time and headaches. On the other hand, it also takes a lot of effort to write and maintain it. In this article, we will look at the AppCode features that can help you create detailed and well-structured code documentation and keep it updated after code refactorings. The features that we will describe here are available for Objective-C and Swift. Install AppCode 2021.3 to get the full Swift documentation support. Documentation comments To add simple notes to your code, you can use line (⌘/) and block (⌥⌘/) comments: However, these comments are not su

AppCode is constantly analyzing your code to find parts that can be improved. It provides sets of code inspections and intention actions for each supported language for this exact purpose. Inspections locate unused or redundant code, syntax errors, probable bugs, spelling mistakes, obsolete or redundant code constructs, in other words, everything that you may want to revise before compiling or committing your code. For most issues detected by the inspections, the IDE will provide quick-fixes that will help you repair the problems with a single click. Intention actions suggest ways to alter sp

Navigating through files and source code, especially in complex projects, can eat up a lot of time, which is why it is essential to learn how to move around quickly in your IDE. AppCode provides plenty of navigation features that can help you move faster. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the most helpful navigation tools, settings, and shortcuts that you can add to your arsenal. Adjust the Project tool window Using the Project tool window is the simplest way to explore a project. To show/hide the tool window, press ⌘1. You can also press ⌘1 to shift the focus from the editor to

In this short article we’ll take a look at various AppCode features that are useful for server-side Swift development, as now you can open standalone SPM projects in AppCode on macOS. Check out and open the project On the Welcome screen, click the Get from VCS button and enter the address of the Feather repository: Click Clone. As soon as the project is checked out, it will be automatically opened in AppCode. After loading the project, AppCode will start syncing its dependencies declared in Package.swift. You can manually invoke the synchronization later from Tools | Swift Package Manager of

AppCode’s code generation features allow you to avoid having to type in lots of the standard code constructs. With one click, you can add initializers to your classes, implement and override methods, or create properties. In this blog post, we will show how you can use these features in your Swift code. Create and edit file templates If you press ⌘N in the Project tool window, you will see the list of all the available file types that you can create in AppCode, including files from Xcode templates. In addition to the standard file types, you can create custom templates or modify code in existi

Live templates are one of the most powerful coding assistance features in AppCode. You can create a template for any code chunk and quickly add it to your code whenever you need it. In this blog post, we will show you how to use predefined live templates, and also how to create new ones and share them with your team members. Predefined live templates AppCode provides sets of live templates for Swift, Objective-C, and other supported languages out of the box. Go to Preferences | Editor | Live Templates to see the lists of predefined templates. For example, this is what we have for Swift: Expan

In this blog post, we will talk about the most useful basic AppCode actions that can help you edit code much faster. Once you learn these shortcuts and start using them regularly, you’ll come to realize just how much time they save you. 1. Duplicate a line Place the caret at the line you want to duplicate and press ⌘D: 2. Delete a line To delete a line at the caret, press ⌘⌫: 3. Expand/shrink the selection In AppCode, you can select code fragments based on their structure using the Extend Selection (⌥↑) and Shrink Selection (⌥↓) actions: In our example, the code selection is extended in the

In this tutorial, we will write simple unit tests in AppCode using different testing frameworks — XCTest and Quick/Nimble. You will learn how to create test classes and targets, run and debug tests, explore test coverage, and more. Requirements: AppCode 2019.3 or later Xcode 11 or later Initial project: iOSConferences Final project: iOSConferences Before you start For this tutorial, we will use the iOSConferences application that we developed in the Use CocoaPods in your project tutorial. This application displays the up-to-date list of the upcoming conferences from the cocoaconferences.

Like other IntelliJ-based IDEs, AppCode is extremely flexible when it comes to configuring the way it looks. By customizing your set of tool windows and menus at hand, font colors and sizes, and a lot of other settings you can make your development environment as comfortable and visually pleasing as possible. Choose your UI theme Each UI theme defines the appearance of your entire IDE, including dialogs, windows, menus, toolbars, buttons, and other visual elements. AppCode offers four themes out of the box: Darcula (the dark one), IntelliJ Light, macOS Light, and High Contrast (for users with

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the most popular Git operations used on a daily basis and show how they can be performed from the AppCode user interface. You will learn how to add projects to the Git repository, share them on GitHub, commit and push changes, create and merge branches, investigate the files' history, and more. (more…)