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2017 is ending, and I would introduce my iOS development toolset that I used during this year and that I will continue to use during the coming year.Please note this list is not exhaustive and only includes some of the most tools and libraries that I discovered during this year or that I find really helpful during my work.

Tools

I don’t know why some people despise SourceTree, but I find it really useful to manage my git repos, and currently is my favorite tool for GIT. It has everything I need.
Visual Studio Code: I tried a lot of editors during the past year, from Sublime to Atom, from TextMate to TextWrangler, but I found that VS Code meets my needs. Is not perfect, but it’s a good combination of practicality and speed.
Postman: we use it in my development team at Dottori.it, and is really helpful for build API requests through testing, documentation, and sharing.
PasteBox: I literally love it. It preserves copied data from clipboard and allows easy access to those data through a shortcut. That dramatically increase your daily copy/paste workflow, and I’m more productive.

Libraries

PromiseKit: I started to use it when I joined Dottori.it. Now every asynchronous piece of code is used in combination with PromiseKit.
PMSuperButton: is a wrapper of UIButton written by me during 2017. It allows you to create custom and complex buttons with custom attributes, directly added to the iOS Interface Builder, very easy to integrate into every project.
JTAppleCalendar: is found it really helpful during the development of AgendaDottori. It’s a super customizable calendar that meets everyone’s needs.
ObjectMapper: is a library that allows you to convert your model objects (classes and structs) to and from JSON. I started using it from Swift 2, and now with Swift 4 that support Codable is less relevant, but already useful because support a lot of features like custom transformations.
Couchbase Lite: in the new version of AgendaDottori (rewritten from scratch in Swift 4), we needed a mobile database where to store all the events in a calendar. Potentially a lot of data. I tried CoreData and Realm, but after that i see Couchbase Lite 2, literally a “full-featured embedded NoSQL database that runs locally on mobile devices”, i started to use it and it matched all my needs.
Fakery: I used it to generate fake data in DEBUG mode and in my unit tests. Really helpful and with a lot of data that can be generated.
Toaster: like the GitHub page description is an Android-like toast with a very simple interface. Is really useful to use it to inform a user of an action.
SwiftDate: last but not least, I can not fail to mention the best (for me) library to manage dates on Swift. Is created by my friend Daniele, and I use it for all my iOS projects.

Websites & Services

OneSignal: in January 2017 after the release of the mobile SDK, I started to work on the mobile app of Customerly, a startup launched with some friends in Ireland. One of our major features for the mobile app that is useful for the users that want to offers customer support from mobile, is to have push notifications. After my experience with Firebase Cloud Messaging (that not match totally my needs), we tried OneSignal that is exceptional. They offer realtime analytics, unlimited push notifications, delivery automation, localization, full API, unlimited segments, A/B testing, and much more. Amazing.
Branch.io: in Dottori.it we use a lot the deep linking, and when we need to create a new one, usually we use Firebase. The problem with AgendaDottori was that Firebase offers only one link for the project, and the project of Firebase include two apps, that there is a conflict. Then, this year we tried to move the deep link engine on Branch.io, a service that provides the leading mobile linking platform, with solutions that unify user experience and measurement across different devices, platforms, and channels. Simple and effective.
Grammarly: english is not my native language, and I’m not perfect when I write in English, in particular when there is a lot to write. This service helped me a lot to increase the quality of my written English and to fix some errors.
Indie Hackers: is a website where every week you can read a new interview with one person that start a business from a side project. I really love it because open my mind to some aspect that I not considered, and is helpful to know how much they earned with every single business that they started. Is inspirational and motivational.

Extra: useful articles and links

Listening:

Levitate by Imagine Dragons
Mr. Brightside by The Killers
It’s My Life by Bon Jovi
Everlong by Foo Fighters
Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hotel California by Eagles

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the article as much as I did 🤠

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