Cocoa® Programming for Mac OS® X For Dummies®

Chapter 15. Cocoa on the Internet

In This Chapter

• Loading a Web site with Cocoa

• Downloading files from the Internet

• Sending e-mails with only a few lines of code

The last two decades of personal computing have witnessed explosive growth in networking technologies. Consequently, the vast majority of personal computer owners use the Internet, many on a daily basis. Among the various means of communication available to a user on the Internet, the World Wide Web and e-mail stand out as the two main tools that everyone uses.

In this chapter, you explore the wild and wooly world of the Internet and see how it applies to Cocoa applications. The chapter starts by showing you how to load Web pages, download files, and render HTML (HyperText Markup Language) in your own projects. Later, you add e-mail features to your application as well. By the end of this chapter, you'll have a fully functional project that performs some important Internet functions. Although it's not necessarily the kind of application you'll want to use for your next best-selling killer app, it can serve as a handy reference for future projects.

Interacting with the Web

Just over a decade ago, few were familiar with the Internet or the World Wide Web. Now, even your dog has a domain name, an e-mail address, and a MySpace account. Computer users have eaten up all that the Internet has to offer and in the process have become discerning consumers. They expect instant connectivity to any Web site in the world. Luckily, Cocoa has ...