How do I create a category in Xcode 6 or higher?

Question

I want to create a category on UIColor in my app using Xcode 6. But the thing is that in Xcode 6 there is no Objective-C category file template.

Is there any option to create a category in Xcode 6?

Heritage

how did you do it before Xcode 6? – Eggnog

Just type it out in a source file: @interface UIColor(MyCategory) ... etc – Extraversion

Why not select an answer?? Not doing so wastes time for other users looking for the solution. – Specs

If you are using Swift, then you would create an Extension rather than a Category. See this answer for how to do it. – Sixtyfourmo

Answer 1

They didn't forget. They just moved it without telling anyone.

1. Click File -> New -> File

2. Select Objective-C file under Sources in iOS or Mac OS respectively and Click Next

3. Now under File Type: choose either Category, Protocol, or Extension

PS. Under File Name: whatever you type here will be either the Category, Protocol, or Extension Name.

Shovelhead

This is so confusing. – Angrist

They just accommodated to adding Swift and hidden everything under Objective-C or I think that they did. I personally don't get why Swift was added, Objective-C is such a beautiful and expressive language once you get to know it... It's Objects on top of C... Perrrfect – Shovelhead

Heh, the description given for Objective-C File by XCode 6 is "An Empty Objective-C file.", rather than my description which would be, "one of the old, not at all empty, Objective-C files that you're used to", which threw me off fairly nicely! – Dulosis

@unmircea Thanks for posting such useful information. To Apple: This is stupid! – Surrejoinder

They didn't forget. They just moved it without telling anyone. what is typical, considering the crappy level of Apple documentations in general and most frequently the total lack of documentation. – Transformer

What are you missing on the Documentation level? It's true they always change things but the documentation is very good, although written in a style that is a little different from what other software companies. – Shovelhead

Thanks! I was stumped on this and could not find where they moved it. – Rickrack

Stack Exchange should change theirs algorithms to bring these kind of answers to the top !! – Requite

This should be the preferred answer – Uproot

@unmircea, I don't remember now, but I did stumble upon public methods not documented too. – Sanchez

Answer 2

To create CategoryBaseClass+CategoryName.m/.h:

1. File → New → File... or use ⌘N.
2. Select Objective-C File.

3. Type in category name, select File Type: Category, and then select the base class.

4. Complete the flow to create the category.

Tann

Answer 3

Here's a visual demonstration:

Tachograph

Answer 4

Xcode6-Beta5 update

The interface has now changed and it's possible to add a Category directly from the New > File window.

See unmircea's answer.

---

I was surprised myself, and I guess because of Swift they forgot about good old Objective-C.

You have two options:

1. Create an Objective-C class with the category name, example UIView+Powerups, then manually change the interface to match the one of category. Note that the snippet for the category interface and implementation is still working, so that's extra easy: type @interface-category and @implementation-category.

2. Import it from Xcode 5! Use this command:

   cp -r /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Xcode/Templates/File\ Templates/Cocoa\ Touch/Objective-C\ category.xctemplate /Applications/Xcode6-Beta.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Xcode/Templates/File\ Templates/Source/
   

   Close and reopen Xcode 6 and you'll find "Objective-C Category" in the wizard for the new file.

Cita

FYI: if you're on a later beta, just change Xcode-beta.app in the line to Xcode6-betaX.app where X is the beta number. – Austral

Wrong! Check out the answer by unmircea below for the correct answer - it's not gone, it has just moved.. – Chickabiddy

Answer 5

There is no predefined template to create category in Xcode 6 beta(for time being),they may add this option later. As a work around you can create a Cocoa Touch Class(its not proper i know but no other way) named UIImage+Additions(ClassName+CategoryName) and override its interface and implementation some thing like

UIImage+Additions.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIImage(Additions)

+(void)testMethod;

@end 

UIImage+Additions.m

#import "UIImage+Additions.h"

@implementation UIImage (Additions)

+(void)testMethod
{

}

@end

Edit
This answer was written before finding a way of creating category in the Xcode 6 beta. Check unmircea's answer for the right way of creating category

Scoville

Apple forgot to add Objective-c Category, Objective-c class extension, Objective-c Protocols templates.... – Heritage

I created a bug report #17627118 if you want to duplicate it. – Metamorphosis

No need for the workaround now since final version of XCode 6 has category support built-in. – Tann

@Tann It was answered before the final Xcode 6 version and the work around is not wrong also. Don't simply down vote. – Scoville

Answer 6

Extending unmircea's fantastic answer re: how to create a custom category to implement a custom UIColor palette, you could create a category.

Once you've created your category (in this example, it's a category called ColorPalette of class UIColor), you'll have a header and an implementation file.

UIColor+ColorPalette.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIColor (ColorPalette)

// Your custom colors

+ (UIColor *) customRedButtonColor;
+ (UIColor *) customGreenButtonColor;

@end

UIColor+ColorPalette.m

#import "UIColor+ColorPalette.h"

@implementation UIColor (ColorPalette)

// Button Colors

+ (UIColor *) customRedButtonColor {
    return [UIColor colorWithRed:178.0/255.0 green:25.0/255.0 blue:0.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
}

+ (UIColor *) customGreenButtonColor {
    return [UIColor colorWithRed:20.0/255.0 green:158.0/255.0 blue:96.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
}

To use your custom color palette, just import the header into the class where you'd like to implement your custom colors:

#import "UIColor+ColorPalette.h"

and call the color as you would a standard color like redColor, greenColor, or blueColor.

Here's a link to a slightly more in-depth discussion of creating a custom palette.

Additionally, here is a tool to help you select the custom color values

Finial

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – Amazon

Answer 7

You could just copy the templates you want from an older version of Xcode, I made a shell script for this:https://github.com/cDigger/AddMissingTemplates

Journalist

Although this might be a working solution, it's probably a better idea to use the category support built into Xcode - this way, the templates will always be up to date. – Tann

Answer 8

You can create "extension" file like NSString+Helper:

1: File → New → File... or use ⌘N.

2: Name NSString+Helper (For example)

3: create the file

4: Remove the code from file

5: add 

extension NSString {


}

Done. enjoy coding

Nel