A presentation at the December Freebase meetup about the Freebase.framework iPhone library

1. Freebase on the iPhone
Alec Flett
<alecf@metaweb.com>

2. Freebase on the iPhone
Tonight:
• Freebase.framework
• PhotoBase
• Hacking

3. Freebase.framework
What’s included:
• Static library
• Fully Asynchronous API access
• CocoaTouch (iPhone) widgets

4. Freebase.framework
• Static library
• Help. I don’t know what I’m doing
• API stuff mostly works on OS X too
• Even works with PyObjC!

5. Freebase.framework
• Freebase APIs
• login
• mqlread, mqlwrite
• search, geosearch
• imageThumb, blurb
• image upload
• touch

6. Freebase.framework APIs
Delegate/selector model
FreebaseSession *session = [FreebaseSession session];
[session <apicall>:<query>
name:@”convenience_name”
delegate:obj
didFinishSelector:@selector(someselector:name:etc:)
options:[NSDictionary dictionary...]];
• “name” is just useful
• “options” is optional

7. Freebase.framework APIs
delegates and didFinishSelector
• specific selector called on success
- (void)querydone:(id)result
name:(NSString*)name
cursor:(NSString*)cursor;
• cursor is mqlread only
• errorDidOccur:name: on failure

8. Freebase.framework
• CocoaTouch widgets
• FreebaseTable - infinite scrolling, sections,
thumbnails
• FreebaseSuggest - pick a topic, with location
support
• FreebaseDetail - minimalistic topic view

9. FreebaseTable

10. FreebaseSuggest

11. Geolocation

12. Topic chosen

13. PhotoBase
More than just a sample app...

14. PhotoBase
Take a picture
Choose a topic
Upload to Freebase

15. PhotoBase
Logging in
[[Freebase session] login:@”alecf”
password:@”nice try”,
delegate:self
didFinishSelector:@selector(loggedin:)];

16. PhotoBase
Choosing a topic
FreebaseSuggest
uses search/geosearch,
mqlread, blurb, imageThumb

17. PhotoBase
Use FreebaseSuggest
FreebaseSuggest *fbs = [[FreebaseSuggest alloc] init];
fbs.delegate = self;
[self presentModalViewController:fbs animated:YES];
// callback definition
- (void)suggest:(FreebaseSuggest*)suggest
itemSelected:(NSDictionary*)item
{
NSString* topicName = [item objectForKey:@”name”];
...
}

18. FreebaseSuggest
Finding topics:
[session search:@”x-men” name:@”suggest”
delegate:self
didFinishSelector:@selector(haveResult:)];
Or geolocate:
NSString *location =
[[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
@"Point", @"type",
[NSArray arrayWithObjects:
[NSNumber numberWithDouble:longtitude],
[NSNumber numberWithDouble:latitude], nil],
@"coordinates",
nil] JSONRepresentation];
[session geosearch:location name:@”suggest-geo”
delegate:self
didFinishSelector:@selector(haveResult:)];
(geolocate + search string is complex)

19. PhotoBase
Choose or take a picture
(Built into iPhone API:
UIImagePickerController)

20. PhotoBase
Now upload...

21. PhotoBase
Upload implementation:
[[FreebaseSession session] uploadImage:image
contentType:@"image/jpeg"
topic:[topic objectForKey:@"id"]
delegate:self
didFinishSelector:@selector(uploaded:)
options:
[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
@"/en/creative_commons_by_sa_2_0", @"license", nil]];

22. PhotoBase
What’s left:
• UI stuff - user feedback, login setup, etc
Whats next:
• Topic geotagging
• QR importing
• Flickr search
• English/metric, distances, etc

23. Freebase.framework

24. Freebase.framework
Do a little dance

25. Freebase.framework
Do a little dance
Make a little app

26. Freebase.framework
Do a little dance
Make a little app
Lets hack tonight

27. Freebase.framework
Do a little dance
Make a little app
Lets hack tonight

28. Freebase.framework
Do a little dance
Make a little app
Lets hack tonight
Questions?