Docset Viewer update v1.5

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The past year has been quite a ride, to say the least! I have been so busy with work, creating awesome features and technologies on iOS apps that over a year has raced by without an update to my blog!

I’ve also been neglecting my own apps due to being so overwhelmed with the requirements of my work as the lead developer for Salesforce.com’s iOS Chatter app, so it wasn’t until recently that I updated Docset Viewer to add support for iOS 7.  I’ve adapted the design to fit more in line with iOS7, while still providing the same experience as before on iOS6 and earlier.

In addition to iOS 7, I’ve added support for full-screen mode in landscape on iPad, hiding the sidebar.  I also added search term highlighting in search results to make it easier to find the matching text you’re looking for.

iOS7 and OSX 10.9 Docsets

Normally whenever a new release of iOS or OSX comes out, I add support for downloading the documentation for it right within the app.  This is done using an Atom feed which contains information about the version, size, and URL of the compressed documentation archive.

Starting with iOS7 and OSX 10.9, Apple is restricting access to this Atom feed to allow only Xcode access.  You can try it yourself, try and fetch the following URL using your browser or the command-line:  http://developer.apple.com/rss/com.apple.adc.documentation.AppleiPhone7.0.atom

Compare that with the previous iPhone6.0 URL, and you’ll see that they’re trying to force users into using Xcode’s new documentation browser instead of allowing 3rd-party access.

Manually adding docset

It’s still possible to add the iOS 7 and OSX 10.9 documentation to your iPad though.  You simply download the documentation with Xcode, zip the docset directory, and drag it into Docset Viewer from within iTunes or using WebDAV.

In Finder, click Go -> Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and open the folder:

~/Library/Developer/Shared/Documentation/DocSets

Select the documentation directory that ends in “.docset” that you want to add to your device and create a zip file from it.  Once the zip file is finished being created, you can add that to your device using iTunes or by following the instructions in the app to transfer the file using WebDAV.

I’m going to continue finding a solution to work around Apple’s restrictions, if I can, to hopefully improve this experience.

Update Nov 25, 2013: Docset Viewer v1.5.1 was just released which fixes a crash related to manually loading iOS7 docsets.

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