GitHubBrowser

An Objective-C iOS app that searches GitHub repositories using the GitHub REST API. Built as a showcase project to demonstrate proficiency in Objective-C and UIKit.

Screenshots

About

This project is intentionally written in Objective-C to demonstrate hands-on knowledge of the language, its idioms, and its integration with UIKit. It covers core concepts that are still relevant in large-scale iOS codebases maintained by companies like Meta, Google, Uber, and many others.

Features

• Search GitHub repositories by keyword
• View repository details (name, description, stars, forks, language)
• Fully programmatic UI — no Storyboards or XIBs
• Custom loading view with animations
• Empty state handling (initial prompt and "not found" states)

Tech Stack

Area	Details
Language	Objective-C
UI Framework	UIKit (100% programmatic)
Architecture	MVC
Layout	Masonry (Auto Layout DSL)
Networking	NSURLSession with completion block callbacks
Dependency Manager	CocoaPods
Minimum Target	iOS 15.0

Architecture

The project follows MVC (Model-View-Controller) — the idiomatic pattern for UIKit and Objective-C development.

GitHubBrowser/
├── Models/
│   └── GHRepository              # Repository data model with JSON parsing
├── Views/
│   ├── RepositoryCell             # Custom self-sizing collection view cell
│   ├── NotFoundCell               # Empty state cell (search prompt / not found)
│   └── GHLoadingView              # Animated full-screen loading overlay
├── Controllers/
│   └── MainViewController         # Search + collection view controller
├── Networking/
│   └── GHApiClient                # Singleton API client wrapping NSURLSession
├── Categories/
│   └── UICollectionViewCell+Ext   # Reusable cell identifier helper
├── Constants/
│   └── CONSTANTS                  # Centralized app constants (images, colors)
└── Supporting/
    ├── AppDelegate
    ├── SceneDelegate              # Programmatic window setup
    └── main.m                     # App entry point

Objective-C Concepts Demonstrated

Language fundamentals

• Header (.h) / Implementation (.m) separation with clean public interfaces
• Properties with appropriate attributes (nonatomic, strong, weak, copy, assign)
• Lazy property initialization via getter overrides
• Class prefixing (GH) for namespacing
• NS_ASSUME_NONNULL_BEGIN / END for nullability annotations
• Lightweight generics (NSArray<GHRepository *> *)

Design patterns

• Delegate pattern (UISearchBarDelegate, UICollectionViewDataSource)
• Singleton pattern (GHApiClient.shared)
• Block-based callbacks for async networking
• Categories for extending existing classes

UIKit & Layout

• Programmatic UI with no Storyboards or XIBs
• UICollectionViewCompositionalLayout with estimated sizing
• Self-sizing cells with proper Auto Layout constraint chains
• Programmatic UIWindow and UINavigationController setup in SceneDelegate
• UIView animations with CGAffineTransform

Networking

• NSURLSession data tasks with completion handlers
• JSON parsing with NSJSONSerialization
• dispatch_async to main queue for UI updates
• Error handling with NSError

Memory management

• ARC with correct use of strong / weak references
• Proper prepareForReuse in collection view cells

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Xcode 15.0+
• CocoaPods (gem install cocoapods)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/GitHubBrowser.git
cd GitHubBrowser
pod install
open GitHubBrowser.xcworkspace

Note: Always open the .xcworkspace file, not .xcodeproj, after running pod install.

Build & Run

1. Open GitHubBrowser.xcworkspace in Xcode
2. Select a simulator (iPhone 15 Pro recommended)
3. Press Cmd + R to build and run
4. Type a search query and tap Search

API

This app uses the GitHub REST API — no authentication required for basic repository search.

Endpoint used:

GET https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q={query}

License

This project is available under the MIT License.