Show HN: Beautiful login and signup views for iOS with a few lines of code

http://blog.parse.com/2012/04/23/a-beautiful-log-in-screen-for-your-mobile-app/

by andwang • 14 years ago

82 36 14 years ago

blog.parse.com

I've been using Parse for a month or so and I've been really impressed by how powerful the platform is, and the rate at which they are adding features and libraries. I also have to say they have some great customer service and take bug reports and feature requests seriously and professionally. I have yet to deploy with them, so I can't speak about performance or scalability, but if anyone is interested I could document my journey. Kudos to the Parse team!

tl• 14 years ago

I'm impressed that your account is a whole 5 minutes older than your post. I'd be even more impressed if Parse was open source instead of yet another walled-garden PaaS hyped by shills.

markerdmann• 14 years ago

I've been following Parse for a while now, and I agree with technogarden. Their platform is impressive, and they're adding useful new features at a rapid rate.

It would definitely be cool if they open-sourced the platform, but, in the meantime, you might be interested in this project:

http://code.google.com/p/openmobster/wiki/learnmore

Personally, though, I don't mind paying for a service like Parse. If someone is willing to not only build the features I need but also to wear a pager and get up at 3am just to keep my users happy, I'm more than happy to give them some of my money.

adelevie2• 14 years ago

Not only is your comment incredibly rude to some really nice folks, but it's also wrong.

Here's some data I exported from one of my Parse accounts: https://gist.github.com/2475461.

hobonumber1• 14 years ago

Not everything needs to be open-source. Its a good product and they deserve to charge for it.

evanwalsh• 14 years ago

My idea of beautiful is a bit different than this.

sunnynagra5• 14 years ago

This is convenient, but I don't know about beautiful.

DavidAbrams3• 14 years ago

It's not convenient, because you have to use this entire Parse thing (and pay for it).

The headline is bullshit click-bait.

podperson• 14 years ago

Also the "x" button on the top left adheres to absolutely no conventions or expectations.

physcab• 14 years ago

Officially adding "beautiful" to the words and phrases that make me shudder:

- beautiful

- ninja

- rockstar

- web 2.0

- social-mobile-local

- ajaxified

- "I have an idea for an iphone app"

- gamification

- hyper-local

toast76• 14 years ago

I better not tell you about my beautiful ajaxified hyper-local social-mobile ninja game then.

rcaraw1• 14 years ago

I absolutely agree with rockstar. I cringe when people use that word to describe programmers or designers

rooshdi• 14 years ago

So is everyone else's. What's your point?

sunnynagra5• 14 years ago

I love using Parse. We are integrating them into two apps we are currently building, Reminders With Friends[1] and Hiiire[2]. If anyone has any questions about my experience feel free to contact me.

[1]http://www.slyceapps.com/reminders

[2]http://www.slyceapps.com/hiiire

aculver• 14 years ago

Tried to get in touch but the only email I could track down on the website in your profile was your support email. :)

sunnynagra5• 14 years ago

snagra[at]slyceapps.com

DrJokepu3• 14 years ago

I think one of the hardest part of login views and other forms in iOS is dealing with the keyboard. You don't want the keyboard to hide stuff but you also don't want emptiness where they keyboard would be when the keyboard is not visible. Also they size of the keyboard is not fixed. In this particular case, the input accessory view of some keyboards, such as the Japanese keyboard would overlap with the button. In the case of a login view, you want to trigger a login event when the user touches the Done button as opposed to making the UITextField resign its first responder status, which means that on the iPhone the user won't be able to dismiss the keyboard, so all the other login options as well as the sign up button will be hidden forever if the user changes his mind. Ultimately, you want to have the whole thing in a UIScrollView (or a UITableView) to avoid such problems. And leave more space for the keyboard.

rimantas• 14 years ago

  > Ultimately, you want to have the whole thing in a
  > UIScrollView (or a UITableView) to avoid such problems.

Or you can just change the class of background view to UIControl and wire it so it calls resignFirsResponder on inputs if touched.

DrJokepu3• 14 years ago

Yes, that would work as well, but if you do that, you have to make sure that you leave a wide enough margin (at least 44 points wide) on each side of the controls to allow for touching the background.

DavidAbrams3• 14 years ago

You can scroll the entire screen up by exactly the amount needed to prevent the keyboard from obscuring the field. It doesn't even need to be on a scrollview.

You'd think the framework would do that (or at least offer that), but nope.

DrJokepu3• 14 years ago

This is also a good approach, but if you do that, you have to remember two things. First, you can only reliably measure the height of the keyboard at runtime, and the keyboard size could change even after it was displayed (if the user touches the globe button to change the language of the keyboard). Second, if your app supports the iPad as well, you have to remember that on the iPad the keyboard is detachable since iOS 5 so make sure you won't have anything ugly (like a big empty black rectangle) where the keyboard would normally be.

rogerbinns2• 14 years ago

For those developers who also have to support Android, please please please stop porting your iOS code and its login/signup code/UI. Android already has a mechanism for dealing with accounts and they are already populated with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Skype, LinkedIn, Dropbox etc. You can add your app too if you want to be a provider of authentication/authorization for your service. All you have to do is use the AccountManager API - http://developer.android.com/reference/android/accounts/Acco...

This is my number one peeve with apps ported from iOS and highly annoying. The AccountManager system already knowns my credentials and can provide the necessary access tokens - there is no need for your app to have yet another crappy username and password prompt. My passwords are also excruciating to enter on mobile devices because they are long and varied.

There seems to be some sort of fetish over repeatedly entering passwords and usernames on iOS. Am I the only one who noticed? https://plus.google.com/110166527124367568225/posts/Xdnbu4RP...

Xuzz• 14 years ago

One of the reasons they added even more of the Apple ID password dialogs is because of issues like this: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-sued-over-apps-luring... Basically, without repeated re-authorization (generally via password), accidental or unintended purchases were causing them issues.

I'll agree it's not ideal.

rogerbinns2• 14 years ago

All they need is a little checkbox "Never ask again". The never ending stream of password prompts I encounter also have nothing to do with paid apps - I don't even have a card associated with my Apple id and only have free apps.

drivebyacct2• 14 years ago

The sad thing is, almost every major app on Android has gotten this wrong. I was personally the one who contacted the Facebook for Android developer to beg him to use their own app's account sync when they released FB Chat for Android. Of course there was a silent update two days later that did not require the silly and redundant login.

There are many things like this. Developers whine that "it doesn't work well on Android" because they don't bother to learn how it should work on Android and just port their iOS app are surprised that it doesn't work well. iOS and Android are pretty darn different when it comes down to the details that matter in applications.

(IE: Instragram on Android is almost silly, whereas it seems nearly necessary to make the camera in iOS worthwhile).

kentosi• 14 years ago

Please elaborate on why you think Instagram on Android is silly. I'm don't quite follow.

arunoda• 14 years ago

Welldone parse. Good job. I hope you guys are moving on to the HTML5 areana pretty soon. I don't like the current HTML5 support you have. It allows JS to handle your full DB. If I am wrong please correct me

mace• 14 years ago

Not related. But their blog served over HTTPS throws an error: https://blog.parse.com/

Show HN: Beautiful login and signup views for iOS with a few lines of code

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