Is the use of storyboards in Xcode 4.2 production ready and recommended? (c.f. previous XIB methods)

Question

Is the use of storyboards in Xcode 4.2 production ready and recommended?

That is, would iPhone/iPad developers that have used storyboards recommend (for native iPhone/iPad apps) to definitely use storyboards? Or are there some gotchas and issues still with the concept?

P.S. Also do storyboards assist in getting a Universal Application designed/working?

Scoop

Answer 1

This depends, for the most part, on your target audience. The only potential deal-breaker is the fact that using storyboards requires you to set your app's deployment target to iOS 5.0 or later; a storyboarded app cannot run on any earlier version of iOS.

If you must cater to previous versions of iOS, you have to continue using individual nib files if designing your interface with Interface Builder. I'd also recommend sticking with whatever you're already using in your existing projects. (You can introduce storyboards into your existing projects in steps, but remember that they'll only work in iOS 5. There's a WWDC 2011 presentation that walks you through this process.)

For new projects, storyboards seem to be the way to go, as long as you're sure you won't need to deploy to previous iOS versions.

Also do storyboards assist in getting a Universal Application designed/working?

Not sure what you mean by "assist", but you have to create one storyboard of nibs for each device family. So one for iPhone/iPod touch, and one for iPad.

Charlottetown

thanks - re "one storyboard of nibs for each device family" - so there's no way to reuse NIBs across iPad/iPhone then? For example you can't for an iPAD just create a SplitViewController and assign the left side to an existing iPhone NIB A, and the right hand side to an existing iPhone NIB B, and then do some config magic to tie them together? – Scoop

Answer 2

It would be interesting to know how much of the market you are missing out on by targeting only iOS 5. I have noted that there is a significant percentage of iPhone users who dont upgrade their iOS be it from iOS 3 to iOS 4 or even iOS 5 so any apps targeting iOS 5 will mean they can not download any app you create.

I started out using iOS 5 with storyboard and it's a great feature, but had to pull back and use xibs so that I get backwards compatibility. There's just too much of the market you will miss out on by only targeting iOS 5.

ARC is a great plus, and just for that feature alone I am happy with the transition to iOS 5. Not to mention the new CLGeoCoder class and JSON now included. Anyone who wants to use JSON API have a look at this great tutorial from Ray Wenderlich.

Dratted

Keen to know what others have found on this, but using Xcode 4.3 I can only test on devices from 3GS onwards. Even when I deselect ARC and Storyboard, the app will not run on a 3G or older device. I suspect most will of upgraded to 4G phones as their phone plans will of run out, but it would be nice to still support older devices when writing apps. – Dratted

I occasionally test on a first generation iPod touch and it works fine with Xcode 4.3. If you get “Finished running <X> on <Y>” without the app actually running, make sure it also compiles to armv6 instead of only armv7. – Aubin