Last April, Jason Beres announced our first entry into the world of iOS controls for Apple Xcode developers: NetAdvantage for iOS. Today I am happy to report that we have entered the public beta phase of this project. This is your chance to download the controls on your Mac and play with them for free until the release of the final version later this summer.
Head over to the NetAdvantage for iOS product page now, download the controls, play with them, put them to the test and make sure to provide your feedback on the corresponding product page. If you build some cool stuff, make sure to let us know on the forums, by contacting @ActiveNick on Twitter or emailing me directly at nlandry@infragistics.com.
NetAdvantage for iOS: Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What iOS controls are you releasing?
A: NetAdvantage for iOS provides the core controls you need to build high performance, highly visual iPad & iPhone applications. In our first release, we are shipping the following native Objective C controls:
Data Charts for iOS, featuring:
- More than 25 chart types, or series (bars, columns, line, area, pie, polar, radial, financial, scatter, ranges & more), allowing you to combine multiple series into advanced hybrid charts
- Chart customization, legends, markers, and 12 different trend lines
- Support for the Motion Framework, giving life to your data through fluid animations
Data Grid for iOS, featuring:
- The ability to style & template the grid to look like almost anything
- Data binding and a Data Source Helper
- Grouping, filtering, sorting, sizing, pull-down-to-refresh, context menu, and much more!
Q: This is awesome! But will you release a [insert favorite control name here] control for iOS?
A: We'll be sure to release our iOS roadmap soon enough. This is just version 1 and I can promise you there will be many more. If there are specific controls you'd like us to prioritize, be sure to let us know on the NetAdvantage for iOS forums.
Q: Can I use your iOS controls for iPhone projects? iPad? Both?
A: Both! We support all iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices running iOS 4.3 or higher, as well as Universal app projects in Xcode. You'll need Xcode version 4.3 or higher.
Q: Isn't Infragistics a Microsoft developer tools company? Aren't you a Windows Phone Dev MVP? Now iOS? What gives?
A: It's true that the majority of our products are for Microsoft .NET developers. However, we also support all HTML5 Web developers with NetAdvantage for jQuery (which also includes jQuery Mobile controls). We also recognize that the mobile market is much more fragmented than the desktop, hence the need to support multiple mobile platforms.
Q: What about mobile controls for Windows Phone? Android?
We've already released several versions of NetAdvantage for Windows Phone, which features over 20 high-performance enterprise-class controls, including charts, a powerful list, gauges, bullet graph, barcodes, treemap, and much more. As for Android, we are cooking up a few things internally and we'll have some announcements in the near future. Make sure to follow @infragistics and @ActiveNick on Twitter to stay tuned.
Q: Can I build iOS apps on Windows with your controls or do I need a Mac?
A: You'll need a Mac. Our iOS controls are used within Xcode (version 4.3 or higher) just as you would any other Cocoa controls for iOS development. Apple makes the rules, not us.
Q: When will NetAdvantage for iOS v1 be released?
A: We'll have an official announcement within a few weeks. All I can say for now is you can expect the iOS controls to RTM this Summer.
Q: Can I build iOS apps with your beta controls and release them to the Apple App Store?
A: Not yet. For now this is a test platform. There is no “Go Live” license attached to this beta product. We’ll probably change that during the beta to allow you to build release apps. Stay tuned.
Q: How much will NetAdvantage for iOS cost?
A: This is where you expect me to say “we’ll announce pricing in a few weeks” or “wait until the announcement at launch”, but no, I’m gonna go right ahead and say it: NetAdvantage for iOS will cost $495 USD per developer license, including Standard Support.
Q: I already need to give 30% of my app revenue to Apple, do I need to pay royalties to Infragistics too if I use your controls?
A: Nope! Just like all other NetAdvantage controls by Infragistics, our iOS controls are royalty-free. You simply need to pay for each developer seat but you can write as many apps as you want. If your app uses our controls and you become the next App Store gazillionaire, please make sure to let us know, we'd love to showcase your app on our website.
Q: Do you make controls for Mac OS X app development?
A: Not yet. We currently don't have any plans to release controls for Mac OS X, but if enough Apple developers let us know what controls they'd like, we might just change our plans.
Q: What about MonoTouch? Can I use your iOS controls for that?
A: MonoTouch is a multi-platform development product created by Xamarin. As such it is not officially supported by NetAdvantage for iOS. We might add support for MonoTouch in the future. If enough developers ask for it, we can prioritize it.
Q: Can I reuse my WPF or Silverlight C# code in iOS if I already use your .NET grids and charts? Is it the same API?
A: Not really, no. Your .NET code is probably in C# while iOS development is based on Objective C. You can expect similar functionality between the XAML grid & charts compared to iOS, but we made sure to follow the Apple conventions when designing the public API in NetAdvantage for iOS. It's very important to us that iOS developers find a familiar API in our native controls, i.e. an API that feels natural when compared to the default Xcode controls.
Q: Is the API final for your iOS controls?
A: We'd like to think it is, but we could be wrong. This is one of the reasons why we are running a public beta. If you feel strongly that some API changes are required, head over to our iOS forums and post your suggestions.
Q: Can I haz your iOS source codez?
A: No.
Q: I found a bug in your iOS controls, who do I yell at?
A: No need for yelling, your feedback is important to us. Please visit our iOS forums and post your feedback there. The more information you can provide for us to reproduce the bug, the easier it becomes for us to fix it. Make sure to provide context, sample code and such. If you really insist on yelling at someone, you can yell at me. I'm the product manager for NetAdvantage for iOS and all our mobile dev products, so send your ALL CAPS tweets to @ActiveNick on Twitter.
Q: I have questions about your iOS controls, who can I talk to?
A: As stated above, the NetAdvantage for iOS forums is your best bet. If you want to contact us regarding other iOS matters you don't want to discuss publicly, ping @ActiveNick on Twitter or email me directly at nlandry@infragistics.com.
Got other questions I have not answered here? Feel free to post them below or ask me on Twitter by contacting @ActiveNick.
