We will add social media icons or buttons programmatically in html code of theme in Shopify. We are using free Debut theme. Our Debut theme does come with built-in most of the social icons. We will not be adding or uploading icon image files of our own. We will play with basic code and templating in Shopify.

The built-in social icons are all svg. We are glad they are svg. They are vector so works fluidly when adapting to any size we want it to be. It is very easy to customise the tint color by css or code. We don’t need separate image files for different colors or such. It is widely supported by all modern browsers.

All major files we work with are liquid files. Our whole theme customisation structure is built around Shopify’s liquid templating language that lets us work with all variables and objects to re-use without any heavy lifting work. Our built-in social media icons are in liquid files, which we will shortly see.

We use an MFMessageComposeViewController object to display the standard message composition interface in order to send text messages in our app. Properties of MFMessageComposeViewController lets us populate pre-defined recipients and body message before presenting the interface.

Simple code to create and present MFMessageComposeViewController is:

            
if([MFMessageComposeViewController canSendText]){
    MFMessageComposeViewController *picker = [[MFMessageComposeViewController alloc] init];
    picker.messageComposeDelegate = self;
    picker.recipients =@[“1234”];
    picker.body = @“pre-defined message”;
    [self presentViewController:picker animated:YES completion:nil];
}
else{
    NSLog(@“Cannot send text”);
}
            
            

            
if MFMessageComposeViewController.canSendText() {
    let picker = MFMessageComposeViewController()
    picker.messageComposeDelegate = self;
    picker.recipients =[“1234”];
    picker.body = “pre-defined message”;
    self.present(picker, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
else{
    print(“Cannot send text”);
}
            
            

Not so distant, I had stumbled upon a very silly mistake that caused an MFMessageComposeViewController to show blank after presenting.

In visual editor of our basic free theme called Debut, we have feature to edit the information of social links that we want to use. This feature is in the social media settings inside theme settings of customisation.

When you save it. The value gets saved inside themes built-in settings liquid object. In our example here we are referring to Instagram link. Now for example if we are using Instagram url in our website in multiple places and with some custom layouts. Instead of copy pasting Instagram url into places, it would be much better if it was accessible from single liquid object. If in future Instagram link changes in one global place then it automatically updates throughout the website. This is just an example case scenario here and this can be used in many other situations.

While working with search input in html form I came across steps of information that helped me manipulate iOS keypad. What do I mean by manipulating iOS keypad? It doesn’t mean changing anything about core physical appearance or device capability of software keyboard or device.

• Search should be the text over return/action button
• When I press Search on keypad then action should take place or some event should fire off without redirecting or refreshing the page.
• Lastly when I press ‘Search’ then keypad should also go down or dismissed.

The most common culprit causing AVAudioPlayer not playing sound is ARC. When my audio player's scope is just within a function ARC deallocates the memory before playing sound after function is called. Here is an example code:

func playSoundEffect(assetName: string?) {
    if let sound = assetName{
        if let asset = NSDataAsset(name:sound){
            
            do {
                // Use NSDataAsset's data property to access the audio file stored in Sound.
                let soundEffect = try AVAudioPlayer(data:asset.data, fileTypeHint:"wav")
                // Play the above sound file.
                soundEffect?.play()
            } catch let error as NSError {
                print(error.localizedDescription)
            }
        }
    }
}

Right now I am at the stage where I am writing foundation to manage my sound effects and background music for my upcoming game. I found two most popular way to play sound effects in SpriteKit:

• SKAction
• AVAudioPlayer

By default, Sorting an array of string containing numbers is not sorted in natural order of numbers. They are sorted in natural order of string characters.

For example objects in array have property of type string which are all literal of numbers:

slot1.indexStr = “1”
slot2.indexStr = “14”
slot3.indexStr = “2”

slots = [slot1, slot2, slot3]
 

 slots = slots.sorted { $0.indexStr! < $1.indexStr! }

 1
 14
 2
 

It sorted alphabetically based on first character of string. What we want is to sort based on values of number.

I have this neat view controller setup for my comments system. At the bottom of the screen is inputAccessoryView which will be fixed until interacted with to bring keypad up for user to post comments. When keypad is up view will be above it and if keypad is dismissed then view will stick at the bottom of screen.

To achieve this I override two methods of my UIViewController:

-(BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder{
    return YES;
}

-(UIView *)inputAccessoryView{
    return commentInputView.contentView;
}

I am using custom xib and my custom input view is composed within the class.

It works fine except in iPhone with notch.

The content of my UICollectionView flows in horizontal direction. Height of items are fixed but width of each are dynamic based on the length of text. For this example I am using only UILabel in my UICollectionViewCell. My UICollectionViewCell is custom xib.

• Leading : 0
• Trailing : 0
• Top : 0
• Height : 44

It's amazing how modern Pixel Art captures the true simplicity yet also expressing creative masterpieces. I find so much solace staring at the world presented by games like Stardew Valley and Kynseed.

In my spare time I am making 2d pixel art game for iOS and macOS for my hobby. I found a free pixel art font called PixelDigivolve to use it for my texts. There was this behaviour that caught my attention where font was being rendered very blurry. The edges were not sharp.

SpriteKit has filtering mode called nearest-neighbour for rendering textures.