Building An Async "Workflow Engine" (Part One)

Almost every mobile app requires performing work on a background queue. Examples include, but definitely not limited to, networking, SQLite database access, Core Data, image processing, or other long-running "business" work. This talk looks at how to leverage the power and flexibility of Foundation's `NSOperationQueue` and `NSOperation` to enable developers to build arbitrarily complex async workflows.

This is part one of a two part talk.

Topics covered:

• leveraging dependent operations
• how to effectively pass data between dependent operations
• creating composite workflows
• describing techniques for separating work into separate, reusable operations
• progress reporting using `NSProgress`
• building fast and responsive cancellation policies
• real-world production scenarios

Part 2 (later this year) will show how to build a highly customizable progress view (using Core Animation) that integrates with `NSProgress` events published by an async workflow.

We'll get started shortly after 6pm. Feel free to arrive around 5:45.

Food Sponsor:

• NISC is sponsoring the food this month.