First of all, ❗️ do not use targets for environmental configuration purposes.

Let’s start with creating a new Debug and Release configuration for each of our environments. Like; Development Debug, Test Release, QA Release, Test Debug, Production Release, etc.

Also for CocoaPods, we should update .Podfile for newly created configurations.

Let’s create schemes for each configuration sets. Development, Test, QA, Production, etc. Make sure that we’re sharing those schemes and selected the right Build Configurations.

So, how to set different values for different configurations? App Name, Bundle Identifier, API URL, .framework file?

First things first.

Let’s start with basics like App Name, Bundle Identifier, Icon Set Name, etc. Every configuration set has to have a different name, bundle identifier, and maybe icon for easier recognization.

| Bundle Identifier    | App Name    | Icon Set Name               |
| -------------------- | ----------- | --------------------------- |
| com.mycomp.myapp     | MyApp       | Original Icon               |
| com.mycomp.myapp.dev | Dev - MyApp | Development Icon            |
| com.mycomp.myapp.qa  | QA - MyApp  | Photo of one of the testers |

We also need to create our own properties for other purposes. API URL, API Key, maybe another Info.plist, .so, or another framework?

There are 5 ways of achieving this. User-Defined settings, Xcode configuration files, multiple Info.plists, preprocessor macros, and custom script phases.

1. User-Defined Settings

✅ Easy

⛔️ Not readable, especially on conflicts at .xcodeproj file

⛔ ️Have to pass data to Info.plist

Additional tip before the second option.

❗️Always log your build settings and environment variables. Also, keep your build logs with your .xarchives.

2. Xcode configuration files

✅ Easily readable

✅ Easy to see changes in git

✅ Supports conditional properties

⛔ Have to escape manually

⛔ Have to pass data to Info.plist

3. Using different Info.plists

✅ Semi Readable

✅ Easy to see changes in git

⛔ If you make a change on the project that interests Info.plist. You have to copy change into all of Info.plists.

⛔ Sometimes doesn’t feel right.

4. Preprocessor macros

✅ Most readable choice

✅ Best for quick, non-vital configurations. Like; changing log type for a framework.

✅ Can use the same macro for different configurations and combine them.

⛔ Can be broken with .xcodeproj file merges, changes.

5. Script Phases

✅ Best for changing frameworks, libraries, whole files, etc.

Easier to understand with a Firebase, GoogleService-Info.plist example.

Thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts please feel free to share them in the comments.

a CharacterSet is a struct defined in Foundation Framework. It represents certain character arrays like;

• decimal digits (CharacterSet.decimalDigits)
• white space characters (CharactersSet.whitespaces),
• lowercase letters (CharacterSet.lowercaseLetters)
• illegal characters (CharacterSet.illegalCharacters)
• punctuation characters (CharacterSet.punctuationCharacters)
• and many more.

How To Know What’s Inside a CharacterSet?

Unfortunately, the CharacterSet struct doesn’t have a method or property to get characters by default, but fortunately, we can extend ChracterSet struct to get characters from it.

Let’s look at what’s inside a sample CharacterSet.

As you can see, CharacterSet.decimalDigits CharacterSet includes decimal digit characters from many different languages, also in emoji form.

You can look at the documentation for the list of predefined CharacterSets.

Why And How To Use a CharacterSet?

• Trimming unwanted characters from a String (removing from start and end)
• Filtering unwanted characters from a String (removing from anywhere in String)
• Validating a String
• Representing certain characters to allow in a String (like percentEncoding)

As on the Swift code example, we can extend String struct to add CharacterSet helpers.

Extending CharacterSet

We can extend CharacterSet struct to add our own CharacterSets.

First, we need a suitable data to show with sections and rows. I copied this data from a pizza restaurant menu.

var menuData = {
  menu : [
    {
      menuSectionId : 1,
      menuSectionName : 'Classic Pizzas',
      items : [
        {
          itemId : 1,
          itemName : 'Margharita',
          itemDescription  : 'Cheese & tomato',
          itemPrice :  3.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 2,
          itemName : 'Mediterranean',
          itemDescription  : 'Mushrooms, green peppers, red onion & garlic',
          itemPrice :  4.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 3,
          itemName : 'Pepperoni Passion',
          itemDescription  : 'Heaps of pepperoni',
          itemPrice :  4.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 4,
          itemName : 'Chicken Feast',
          itemDescription  : 'Chicken, mushrooms & sweetcorn',
          itemPrice :  4.95
        },
      ]
    },
    {
      menuSectionId : 2,
      menuSectionName : 'Favourite Pizzas',
      items : [
        {
          itemId : 5,
          itemName : 'Hot & Spicy',
          itemDescription  : 'Onions, spicy mince, jalapenos & mixed peppers',
          itemPrice :  5.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 6,
          itemName : 'Tandoori Sizzler',
          itemDescription  : 'Tandoori chicken, onions, mushrooms, green peppers & jalapenos',
          itemPrice :  6.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 7,
          itemName : 'Vegetarian Supreme',
          itemDescription  : 'Onions, green peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms & tomatoes',
          itemPrice :  5.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 8,
          itemName : 'Meatilicious',
          itemDescription  : 'Spicy mince, pepperoni & chicken tikka',
          itemPrice :  6.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 9,
          itemName : 'Mexican',
          itemDescription  : 'Spicy mince, pepperoni & red onions',
          itemPrice :  5.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 10,
          itemName : 'Prestige',
          itemDescription  : 'Pepperoni, chicken tikka, spicy mince, red onions, green peppers & mushrooms',
          itemPrice :  6.95
        },
      ]
    },
    {
      menuSectionId : 3,
      menuSectionName : 'Sides',
      items : [
        {
          itemId : 11,
          itemName : 'Potato Wedges',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  1.55
        },
        {
          itemId : 12,
          itemName : 'Fries',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  1.55
        },
        {
          itemId : 13,
          itemName : 'Vegetable Pakora',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  1.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 14,
          itemName : 'Chicken Pakora',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  2.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 15,
          itemName : 'Mushroom Pakora',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  1.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 16,
          itemName : 'Chicken Wings (6 pcs)',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  3.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 17,
          itemName : 'Plain Nan',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  1.95
        },
        {
          itemId : 18,
          itemName : 'Garlic Nan',
          itemDescription  : null,
          itemPrice :  2.25
        },
      ]
    },
  ]
};

To show this data as list view we need to restructure this data as list view wants. List view wants 3 things.

1. data blob, which is an object
2. sections ids, which is an array of strings
3. row ids, which is an array of array of strings [[‘s1’, ‘s2’], [‘s3’], [‘s4’]]

You can look the code piece’s comments for more explanation.

_getStructuredData(data){

/* sample of data will return
    dataBlob must be an object
    sectionIds must be an array of strings
    rowIds must be an array of array of strings
    var dataBlob = {
      's1' : {
        'sample' : 'sample1',
        'blabla' : 'blablabla1',
        's1r1' : { a : 1, b : 1 },
        's1r2' : { a : 2, b : 2 },
      },
      's2' : {
        'sample' : 'sample2',
        'blabla' : 'blablabla2',
        's2r1' : { a : 3, b : 3 },
        's2r2' : { a : 4, b : 4 },
      }
    };
    var sectionIds = ['s1','s2'];
    var rowIds = [ ['s1r1','s1r2'], ['s2r1', 's2r2'] ];
    */

var dataBlob = {};
    var sectionIds = [];
    var rowIds = [];

data.menu.forEach(function(menuSection){
      var section = menuSection;
      var menuSectionId = 's' + section.menuSectionId; // section id will be a string
      var rIds = [];

menuSection.items.forEach(function(item){
        var itemId = menuSectionId + 'i' + item.itemId;
        section[itemId] = item;
        rIds.push(itemId);
      });

dataBlob[menuSectionId] = section;
      sectionIds.push(menuSectionId);
      rowIds.push(rIds);
    });

console.log(' dataBlob :', dataBlob );
    console.log(' sectionIds :', sectionIds );
    console.log(' rowIds :', rowIds );

return {
      dataBlob : dataBlob,
      sectionIds : sectionIds,
      rowIds : rowIds
    };

}

Section headers sticks to the top of list view as default on ios. But android doesn’t have this feature now as react native 0.31.

You can find full code at https://rnplay.org/apps/Byto6A . also you can try it from that link.

Here’s a picture of how it looks: