Chapter 11. Collection view, social, reminders, and state restoration—MeetSocial

iOS 6 changed and expanded many frameworks, classes, and protocols. These changes touch a lot of items both in functionality and concept. This chapter covers several of these areas in a new app called MeetSocial.

MeetSocial allows the user to search for meetings from meetup.com by specifying a location or keyword to search for events or groups. The results are displayed in a collection view. A collection view is similar to a table view, but the cells can have varied sizes, including width. Based on the width of the collection view cells, a variable number of cells can fit across the display.

The MeetSocial results may also be shared using the new Social Framework, which includes, but is not limited to, Twitter and Facebook. The MeetSocial project covers how to set up this sharing and display the UI to the user for sharing.

The event results have associated dates so MeetSocial allows the user to create a reminder for the event’s date and time. Reminders are a new addition to the EventKit framework. State restoration is another new addition, but to the UIKit. It allows an app to store its current state to restore the UI on the next execution.

11.1. Presenting data using a collection view

11.2. Sharing via the Social Framework

11.3. Creating calendar items in the OS

11.4. Saving and restoring the UI state

11.5. Summary