Bae Weather

Bae Weather is a weather app that you can personalize. Users are provided with the current weather for their location. The app offers four simple, but convenient weather conditions that are based on a provided temperature. Each of the conditions hot, warm, cold, and freezing includes a weather model photo that can be customized with your bae, kiddos, pets etc.

Try out the app on Testflight: [https://testflight.apple.com/join/tMWToymn]

Implemented Features

• Current weather for current location
• Current low and high temperature for location
• Customizable weather model name (Default name is Bae)
• Upload custom weather model photos

Upcoming Features

• Hourly Weather Forecasts
• Use camera to take custom weather model photos
• Canvas to draw weather model photos
• View/customize temperature ranges for each weather condition

Tech

• [https://openweathermap.org/] - OpenWeather API: for current weather data
• [https://cocoapods.org/] - Cocoapods Alamofire: for network requests
• [https://icons8.com/] - Icons8: for icons
• [https://swift.org/] - Swift 5
• [https://developer.apple.com/xcode/] - XCode 11.13.1

Installation

For best development experience it is recommended to use the following

• XCode 11.13.1 - Swift 5
• Cocoapods 1.8.4

Steps

1. Clone the repository
2. Change into the root of the project directory and install the cocoapods. For information on how to get up and running with cocoapods * [https://cocoapods.org/]
3. Once cocoapad installation completes, proceed by opening the BaeWeatherProject.xcworkspace file at the root of the project structure. It is very important to use this file and not the regular BaeWeatherProject.xcodeproj file.
4. Build and run the app.

How to use the app

Current Location Request: When first launching the application, you are requested to grant the app access to your current location in order to display weather for your location. If you deny access, before proceeding to use the app, you will be require to grant the app location access in your phones settings. Once location access is granted, you will be sent to the weather homepage.

Weather Homepage: Once location access is granted for the first time and on each subsequent app launch, you are sent to the weather homepage. The first time you launch the app, the current weather is fetched and displayed for you along with the default weather model name "Bae", the current low and high temperature for your location, the current date and time the weather was fetched, and the default weather model image associated with the current weather condition. If you have used the app to fetch current weather before, then your homepage will display the date and time of the last fetched weather. To update the weather, you must click the refresh button. If location access is not granted, you will first be required to authorized your current location before the weather is able to update.

Settings: Settings view is primarily to configure the weather model. You are able to view and change the weather model name. To change the name, click on the pencil icon and ensure that "Use Default" switch is turned off. If the "Use Default" switch is on, your weather model will have the default name of "Bae" and the field to change the name will be disabled. In this view, you are also able to view the model image associated with each weather condition by either selecting an image from the collection of thumbnails or by swiping along the image in the larger image preview area. You can use the default image or select your own image for each weather condition To select your own image either 1. click to edit the model images and turn the switch off to use all the default images, or 2. click on a image in the preview area to display it's details. In the details view, turn off the switch to use the default image. Then use the edit button to select your own image from your image library.

Weather Category Image Details: Clicking on an image in the preview area displays the image details and the ability to select a custom image from your photos library. After selecting an image you can then save the image. The image will then be use to model the weather condition.

Project Structure

• Services:
  • Network Service - Open Weather API for getting current weather
  • UserDefaults Service - A shared instance for interacting with user defaults in the app.
  • Location Service - Provides current location data for device
  • File Service - Persist user custom weather model photos to their documents directory
• UIViewControllers:
  • WeatherViewController: Displays current weather, date, last time weather was updated, weather model image for current weather
  • SettingsViewController: Configurations related to weather model such as name and photos for each weather condition
  • ModelImageViewDetailsViewController: Allows editing of a weather model image for a given weather condition
• UIViews:
  • ModelImageView: Custom UIView for displaying weather model photos as thumbnails and previews
  • WeatherCategoryView: Reusuable weathery condition icon and the weather condition it represents
• ViewModels:
  • WeatherViewModel: Manages fetching, updating and providing current weather details
  • ModelImageViewModel: Manages weather model configurations
  • HoulyWeatherViewModel: Manges hourly update section of weather view controller, but is not implemented due to cost of obtaining hourly forecast
• Models:
  • Weather: Weather object that includes basic weather details
  • Settings: Configuration settings used primarily in settings view controller
  • WeatherModelImage: Details about model images such as the collection it belongs too, it's path store on the device and the type of weather it models
• Cocoapods:
  • Alamofire: A network pod that is a wrapper around iOS url session
• Constants:
  • Holds app configuration data such as api base url, keys used in user defaults and default weather model data

Design Patterns

• MVVM: Based on the project structure above, MVVM is the design pattern implemented. Services handle working with API clients, local data storage and location manager. Only view models interact with the services to manipulate the data objects and pass information to and from the view controllers. The view controllers manages the views. The view controllers are slimmer, but there is still room for refactoring especially around moving extensions.

Data Persistence and State

• UserDefaults: The current weather and model name is stored user defaults as well as user defined settings. Giving the simplicity of data that needed to be peristed and that the data is local (ex. just settings and no user account management), user defaults was the peristence store of choice.

• File System: The default images for each weather condition and/or the custom image user selects is stored locally in the users documents directory.

• Delegatation: Delegation was used throughout the app and was the choice for handling asynchronous network calls, and updates between view model and view controllers.

• Completion Handlers: Used for asyn work such as fetching weather data and saving/loading images.