For my Flatiron School Presents project, a classmate and I worked on a chat app.

For the chat user interface, I wanted it to look like Apple’s Messages app. There was a perfect CocoaPod for this: JSQMessagesViewController. After reading the Getting Started section, I still had no clue how to bridge the gap between my existing app and this UI. It was overwhelming and I was very discouraged.

9 Steps to Overcoming Fear of Complex CocoaPods

Step 1: Recognizing the problem

I knew that I was avoiding it. I looked for another CocoaPod but they weren’t quite the same. I even thought of building my own chat UI. I realized that I needed to be able to use CocoaPods though, so there was no getting around it.

Step 2: Read Zen Pencils

In need of inspiration, I turned to the Zen Pencils. I have the book too, which makes for very motivating reading.

Step 3: Go to sleep

It was 9 already and so I figured it was better to get some sleep than try that night.

Step 4: Try a simpler CocoaPod.

I hadn’t used enough CocoaPods up to this point, so I tried a smaller one. I looked at HPL chat. It had a tenth as many classes as JSQ did and I went for it. It didn’t work, but got me started.

Step 5: Look at the demo

The challenge of open source software is that there’s not always good documentation. It doesn’t cost money, but it costs time to read and understand how to use the code.

Fortunately, I saw that JSQ had a demo and downloaded it. Playing around with the demo really helped me understand how the pieces related to each other.

Step 6: Start customizing the demo

I didn’t need images or videos so, I got rid of the accessory button on the toolbar. I had to get familiar with the documentation to find which parts I needed to change. Once I removed the button, I felt much more confident about adapting the demo.

Step 7: Move the demo to a new project and make it work

Now I tried to make the demo fit my purpose, removing as much as I could to reduce it to the elements I needed. Here was a sandbox that I could use to unit test the functionality before I put it into my app and get everything tangled up.

Step 8. Add to the app

With the chat working on it’s own, I had to hook it up to my project. By this point, I realized that I just needed to make a couple  subclasses of the classes that the CocoaPod needed and replace my existing messages class with those.

Step 9. Fear Conquered

After I was done, I read the CocoaPod’s Getting Started again and now it all makes sense. Going through implementing this pod has been a process of gradual building of exposure, comfort and confidence with CocoaPods. I’m really happy that I did this. Fear of technology really comes down to not understanding how it works.