Comprovisation

Ruby Helper is now available in the App Store for more than 8 weeks, so we think it's time to take a look at the download statistics. With the end of the 8th week of it's approval, the app has been downloaded 1679 times including 593 upgrades from 1.0 to 1.1. Relating the number of upgrades to the number of downloads before the release of version 1.1 results in an upgrade rate of currently 65%.

After the initial peak, the average number of downloads per week seems to settle at about 80. The lowest daily value was 9 downloads, the highest 119 downloads on the first day or 215 downloads when including the number of upgrades on the first full day of version 1.1 (4th of May).

Looking at the countries, the most downloads came from the USA with about 45% of all downloads. Second is Japan with 11% followed by Germany with 7%, the UK with 5% and France with 3%. All other countries are below 3%. (It would be interesting to correlate this data with the distribution of Ruby developers as well as sold iPhones in these countries...)

Last but not least, three user wrote a review in the App Store, two of them voted with 4 stars, one with 5 stars. The average value of all ratings (including those without text) is 3.5 stars.

Today, Version 1.1 of Ruby Helper finally appeared in the App Store. It contains the following new document sets:

• RSpec 1.2.4
  • 4 Texts
  • 75 Classes
  • 26 Modules
  • 513 Methods

• Spec::Rails 1.2.4
  • 3 Texts
  • 19 Classes
  • 12 Modules
  • 93 Methods

• Webrat 0.4.4
  • 2 Texts
  • 18 Classes
  • 7 Modules
  • 136 Methods

We are still working on the feature to download additional documents directly from within the app, but probably this will come out not before the launch of iPhone OS 3.0.

It's finally there, our first iPhone Application: Ruby Helper.

About the App

Take the API documentation of Ruby and Ruby on Rails always with you on your iPhone or iPod Touch. For free!

Ruby Helper allows you to browse or search for classes, modules and methods. Tapping a class or module shows you the description and the methods of this class or module. Each method is then displayed with its parameters, its description and its source code. In addition, the view Texts provides you with introductory texts about Ruby and Ruby on Rails as well as its license information.

All of the documentation is stored on your iPhone or iPod Touch, so no internet connection is needed. Version 1.0 includes document sets for Rails 2.3.2 (6 Texts, 569 Classes, 496 Modules, 3530 Methods) and Ruby 1.8.7 (6 Texts, 1284 Classes, 251 Modules, 6804 Methods). We are planning to extend the application in the future, e.g. to allow you to download further documents and even create your own sets.

Screenshots

Bugs, Feature Requests, Support

We have set up an issue tracking system to manage bugs, feature or support requests. So if you have a problem with the app, an idea for a new feature or need help, please fill out the new issue form and we will take care of the issue as soon as possible.

Situation

A number of NSLog statements within the source code of an iPhone project, e.g.

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
    NSLog(@"App did finish launching.");

    // ...

Problem

The filename and the line number shall be displayed in addition to the log string when compiling for the Debug configuration. The output shall be completely disabled for the Release configuration.

Solution

Inspired by John Muchows post Filename and Line Number with NSLog: Part II and modified as follows:

#if DEBUG
#define CMLog(format, ...) [LogHelper logWithPath:__FILE__ line:__LINE__ string:(format), ## __VA_ARGS__]
#else
#define CMLog(format, ...)
#endif

@interface LogHelper : NSObject {
}

+ (void)logWithPath:(char *)path line:(NSUInteger)line string:(NSString *)format, ...;

#import "LogHelper.h" 

@implementation LogHelper

+ (void)logWithPath:(char *)path line:(NSUInteger)line string:(NSString *)format, ... {
    NSString *pathString = [[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:path
                                                    length:strlen(path)
                                                  encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    va_list argList;
    va_start(argList, format);
    NSString *formattedString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:format 
                                                       arguments:argList];
    va_end(argList);

    NSLog([NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ (%d): %@", 
           [pathString lastPathComponent], 
           line, 
           formattedString]);
    [formattedString release];
}

@end

After creating the file, control-click Target > AppName, select Get Info, tab Build, configuration Debug and add "-DDEBUG" to the setting Other C Flags. Finally replace all NSLog statements by the new CMLog makro.