bencoffman.com/blog - Tools

Looking at Core Data - SQLite Database on My iPhone Device

Ben Coffman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:05:59 GMT

Solution:
Open organizer, select your device, select “Applications” in under your device on the right, select the application you want to look at the SQLite database on, click the download button at the bottom.

Once you have downloaded the file select show file packet contents. In the finder window that opens up look under the documents folder. In this folder you should be able to find the database. It will be the file with the “sqlite” extension. Next, you can download SQLite Studio (download link). It may tell you you need to run in 32 bit mode (easy, right click/ctrl click and select “Get Info” then select 32 bit mode).

View your sql data.

Explanation:
I’ve found this is very helpful when you need to see a large amount of data and want to organize it and search through it, for example, say you are storing a large amount of retailers and want to see how they are grouped together via their region tag you gave them. However, if you are examining just a single record it might be better to use, xCode debug and print out a single record.

Let me answer the first question you are probably asking: Is there a way to examine the Core Data - SQLite database on my iPhone while I’m debugging. Sadly, at this moment, the answer is no.

GiT Tools For Mac

Ben Coffman — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:46:04 GMT

I know I just finished doing a post on code repository tools, but the market is changing fast right now and I have a new favorite.

SourceTree

It's made by Atlassian, which makes some pretty solid products all around....side note they have a pretty fun office space in SF, industrial, open, functional, completely start-up style without being over the top Google style (there are no sleeping chambers). I digress. Upon first opening the tool it may seem a bit daunting. Atlassian is throwing lots of information to you at once, but as you become used to the design, there is no going back. Everything is at your finger tips and you never really have to read one bit of the instructions on how to use SourceTree most of all you don't have to memorize all those silly GiT commands to become a power user (I personally really like this).

Now calming down a bit. I stand behind GitBox. It's a ridiculously easy app to use but has no frils. I see it as a get the job done kind of an app, but as I become more and more of a power user, SourceTree is the clear fit for me plus SourceTree is free where GiTBox is $10. Which really puts GiTBox in a hard place.

P.S. SourceTree can also be used for Mercurial and SVN.

Code Repository Development Tools For My Apple

Ben Coffman — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:19:12 GMT

Soo one can say I swing both ways Windows and OS X. Both have their advantages and each has a particular tool set that I would like to see on the other. In this situation I was wanting a nice GUI for SVN and GiT. I'm on two different projects that use one or the other. With my exhaustive 30 minutes of research here are the two best tools that I came up with and have been using for about 3 months now (screenshots were grabed much earlier).

For SVN I downloaded Versions.
Pro: Best tool around, closest thing you can get to Tortoise SVN for Windows
Con: 60 bucks...sixty freaking bucks. I let Capital One graciously buy this for me. Would I pay sixty for personal use. If I used SVN day in and out for my work, yes. Though most of my personal work resides on GiT now.

For GiT I use GitBox
Pro: Best GiT tool around hands down. Nearly all will agree who use GiTBox in comparison with the others.
Con: While it's free to use, you can only have one project at a time with the freemium version. To get more projects going you need to pay $20. $20 is doable for a tool that you potentially use multiple times a day, nearly everyday.

Remember with both of these tools you cannot checkout the code from a remote repository with them, you must use the Terminal to check out the code base then use either of these tools and point them to wherever you checked out the repository too. NOTE: GiT and SVN are built in natively to OS X

Rapid Mockups -- Balsamiq -- balsamiq.com

Ben Coffman — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:31:09 GMT

Mockups, save you time (see: money) and unquestionably help establish expectations on what an application will generically offer and what the general layout will be.
I believe I have found the tool that does this as quickly as humanly possible: Balsamiq.

There is not much to say about this topic so I'll give you the 15 second sell.
1. Fast
2. Generic enough so the business owner doesn't get caught up on aesthetics but understands exactly how the user will accomplish their task
3. Very easy to use. The first time I used this product I was cranking out mockups in minutes! Think about that.

--This isn't like Visio, (caveat: I have my own personal demons with Visio), but in short, you won't be making mock-ups in minutes. Sure Visio is good for architectural stuff, but the insight architectural diagrams offer are generally high level and I would argue, quite fiercely, pen, paper, and cell phone camera, would be a better/faster/cool in a hip start-up kind of way, solution to Visio...I digress...but seriously Visio is terrible.

4. Balsamiq supports many different types of mock ups: mobile, web, core platform applications (Windows and Mac)
5. Export to PDF
6. FAST. Did I say this already? It's worth mentioning again. Fast means many things here, fast to create, fast to change the design for clients, and fast in helping you get to development quicker.