While working at Netsells, I’ve constantly found myself in need of converting a string to an md5 hash. This took too many steps to do, so I created an extension for the marvellous Alfred.

Once installed, you simply launch Alfred (I use cmd+space), type in md5 with a space followed by the string you wish to hash.

Once it’s done, you can paste it wherever you need to :) a35a88e89a88dc8e6a7a8dfb0104fdb4

Download Alfred md5 Extension

I’m happy to announce that Apple have reviewed and accepted my app. You can grab it from the app store right now! :)

More Info | Download App

I’ve recently moved over to Plusnet as my broadband provider as I fancied myself a contract-less broadband due to me having to move out of my flat once I finish uni in May time. One thing that bugged me (having a 60GB allowance) was that there was no iPhone app, mobile site or API to view my current usage without loading their big and slow website.

So… I decided to make my own API and iPhone app ;) In the first version (currently in a closed beta). I’ve started off simple and only show your usage this month (as seen in the post’s header image). With plans to extend to a day-by-day usage view and possible history if people want it.

Update: The app has been submitted to the app store, keep a look out for when it goes live! (I’m guessing around Wednesday ish)

Thanks to @AceJon for the icon! :)

First off, we need some custom images, I’ve quickly made the following in photoshop (icky green, I know) to use in this example (I’m only doing this for the non-retina screen, adding support for retina should be as simple as adding @2x).

[Icons by Joseph Wain]

Next we need to get the library into the project, my project folder is stuck on my desktop so I did the following

cd ~/Desktop/testTabApp/Resources
git clone git@github.com:netsells/customTabBar.git

After git has done it’s thing you should be able to call the customTabBar library in your app.js.

For the example app show at the beginning of this post, I replaced the contents of app.js with:

// Create the tab group
var tabGroup = Titanium.UI.createTabGroup();

// Assign windows & tabs
// IMPORTANT:
// 'tabBarHidden: true' should be set on all windows
// height should be set to 480 - customTabBar's height
// (change 480 to app screen height)
var win1 = Titanium.UI.createWindow({
title:'Tab 1', height: 440,
tabBarHidden: true, backgroundColor: '#111' });
var tab1 = Titanium.UI.createTab({ window:win1 });

var win2 = Titanium.UI.createWindow({
title:'Tab 2', height: 440,
tabBarHidden: true, backgroundColor: '#999' });
var tab2 = Titanium.UI.createTab({ window:win2 });

var win3 = Titanium.UI.createWindow({
title:'Tab 3', height: 440,
tabBarHidden: true, backgroundColor: '#AAA' });
var tab3 = Titanium.UI.createTab({ window:win3 });

var win4 = Titanium.UI.createWindow({
title:'Tab 4', height: 440,
tabBarHidden: true, backgroundColor: '#FFF' });
var tab4 = Titanium.UI.createTab({ window:win4 });

// Add them to the group
tabGroup.addTab(tab1);
tabGroup.addTab(tab2);
tabGroup.addTab(tab3);
tabGroup.addTab(tab4);

// open tab group
tabGroup.open();

// Here is the magic
Ti.include("customTabBar/customTabBar.js");

var myCustomTabBar = new CustomTabBar({
tabBar: tabGroup,
imagePath: 'iphone/images/',
width: 80,
height: 40,
items: [
{ image: 'home.png', selected: 'home_over.png' },
{ image: 'cloud.png', selected: 'cloud_over.png' },
{ image: 'cart.png', selected: 'cart_over.png' },
{ image: 'settings.png', selected: 'settings_over.png' }
]
});

As you can see, I’ve created a standard tabbar, told each window to not show it, then created an instance of the CustomTabBar class and fed it with my settings. If I were to run the app in the simulator, I get the following (woop!):

Finally, if you find yourself in need of hiding the newly created tab bar.. (and then showing it…)

myCustomTabBar.hide(); // Hide the tab bar

// Show after 5 seconds
setTimeout(function() {
myCustomTabBar.show();
}, 5000);

Hope this helps anyone looking to create a tabbar! Please let me know if you use this in any projects as I love my stuff being used! :)

1. Close all apps (not really needed, but simplifies things)
2. Open game center and create a sandbox account (no need to verify email address)
3. Log out of this new account by tapping your email address under the 3 boxes.
4. Close game center and then make sure it’s removed from the multi-tasking bar
5. Open a game center enabled game and be presented with the normal game center login!

I hope this helps people faced with the same problem I was! Let me know if you have any questions via the comments section :)

I’ve recently been developing the Endeavour iPhone app, rather than using my usual Objective-C, I’m giving Appcelerator Titanium a go! I have to say, it really is a fantastic framework and piece of software that has allowed me to recreate the entire app with only a few hundred lines as apposed to the thousands that Objective-C treated me with.