How to add animation to MeshGradient in SwiftUI?

July 31, 2024 by Ashish Kakkad

SwiftUI now support for Mesh Gradients.

How to set alternate icon for an iOS app programmatically?

February 7, 2021March 28, 2020 by Ashish Kakkad

Hello iOS Devs,
Hope you guys doing well in this COVID-19 situation. Stay Safe At Home.
In this week Xcode 11.4 released. Many new things came with that. You can check What’s new in Xcode 11.4? blog for the same.

App icon change functionality is available from iOS 10.3. In this tutorial we will learn to set an alternate icon for an iOS application programmatically.

Let’s Start!

Little snippet to know if application is installed via TestFlight

February 7, 2021February 15, 2019 by Ashish Kakkad

I found little snippet from twitter about how to know if application is installed via TestFlight.
Here, appStoreReceiptURL is an instance property, which we can find from main bundle.

Here, I am adding snippet for both Objective-C and Swift.

How to use Alamofire with Codable in Swift?

February 7, 2021March 5, 2018 by Ashish Kakkad

Hello after long time I am writing this blog regarding use of Alamofire with Codable model object for the ease of MVC architecture.
Let’s rewind with some of the post which is used to cover this point:

Let see about use of Alamofire with Codable model object

Step 1 – Create Codable object based on JSON response.

Here I am taking an example of a web service which contains JSON related to the contact.

{
 "id": "c200",
 "name": "Ravi Tamada",
 "email": "ravi@gmail.com",
 "address": "xx-xx-xxxx,x - street, x - country",
 "gender" : "male",
 "phone": {
 "mobile": "+91 0000000000",
 "home": "00 000000",
 "office": "00 000000"
 }
}

{

"id": "c200",

"name": "Ravi Tamada",

"email": "ravi@gmail.com",

"address": "xx-xx-xxxx,x - street, x - country",

"gender" : "male",

"phone": {

"mobile": "+91 0000000000",

"home": "00 000000",

"office": "00 000000"

}

So, we can create two Codable files from this JSON as per hierarchy. These would be like as follows:

struct Contact: Codable {
 var id : String
 var name : String
 var email : String
 var address : String
 var gender : String
 var phone : Phone
}
struct Phone: Codable {
 var mobile : String
 var home : String
 var office : String
}

struct Contact: Codable {

var id : String

var name : String

var email : String

var address : String

var gender : String

var phone : Phone

}

struct Phone: Codable {

var mobile : String

var home : String

var office : String

}

As you can see we have created 2 objects Contact and Phone. Here Phone is in sub hierarchy.

Step 2 – Let’s update AFWrapper

As we have previously revised blogs, there is a blog mentioned about to create a wrapper of the Alamofire and SwiftyJSON. We have to replace the SwiftyJSON code to return normal dictionary objects, and after that we will convert that dictionary to the Codable object.
So here I have updated the AFWrapper class file to do that thing:

import UIKit
import Alamofire
class AFWrapper: NSObject {
    class func requestGETURL(_ strURL: String, success:@escaping ([String : Any]) -&gt; Void, failure:@escaping (Error) -&gt; Void) {
        Alamofire.request(strURL).responseJSON { (responseObject) -&gt; Void in
            print(responseObject)
            if responseObject.result.isSuccess {
                success(responseObject.result.value! as! [String : Any])
            }
            if responseObject.result.isFailure {
                let error : Error = responseObject.result.error!
                failure(error)
            }
        }
    }
}

import UIKit

import Alamofire

class AFWrapper: NSObject {

class func requestGETURL(_ strURL: String, success:@escaping ([String : Any]) -> Void, failure:@escaping (Error) -> Void) {

Alamofire.request(strURL).responseJSON { (responseObject) -> Void in

print(responseObject)

if responseObject.result.isSuccess {

success(responseObject.result.value! as! [String : Any])

}

if responseObject.result.isFailure {

let error : Error = responseObject.result.error!

failure(error)

}

Step 3 – Implement and convert the response in object

We will call a web service which contain that kind of JSON response. And after calling the web-service we will decode the object to create the Codable object.

import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
    var arrContacts = [Contact]()
    @IBOutlet var txtContacts: UITextView!
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        AFWrapper.requestGETURL("https://api.androidhive.info/contacts/", success: { (responseObject) in
            print(responseObject)
            for aContact in responseObject["contacts"] as! [Any] {
                do {
                    let jsonData = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: aContact, options: .prettyPrinted)
                    let reqJSONStr = String(data: jsonData, encoding: .utf8)
                    let data = reqJSONStr?.data(using: .utf8)
                    let jsonDecoder = JSONDecoder()
                    let aContact = try jsonDecoder.decode(Contact.self, from: data!)
                    self.arrContacts.append(aContact)
                    self.txtContacts.text = self.txtContacts.text + aContact.name + " " + aContact.phone.mobile + "\n"
                    print(self.arrContacts)
                }
                catch {
                }
            }
        }) { (error) in
            print(error.localizedDescription)
        }
    }
    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }
}

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

var arrContacts = [Contact]()

@IBOutlet var txtContacts: UITextView!

override func viewDidLoad() {

super.viewDidLoad()

AFWrapper.requestGETURL("https://api.androidhive.info/contacts/", success: { (responseObject) in

print(responseObject)

for aContact in responseObject["contacts"] as! [Any] {

do {

let jsonData = try JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: aContact, options: .prettyPrinted)

let reqJSONStr = String(data: jsonData, encoding: .utf8)

let data = reqJSONStr?.data(using: .utf8)

let jsonDecoder = JSONDecoder()

let aContact = try jsonDecoder.decode(Contact.self, from: data!)

self.arrContacts.append(aContact)

self.txtContacts.text = self.txtContacts.text + aContact.name + " " + aContact.phone.mobile + "\n"

print(self.arrContacts)

}

catch {

}

}) { (error) in

print(error.localizedDescription)

}

override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {

super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()

// Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.

}

In above sample I have added one text view in the view controller and I am fetching the data from the contacts API. After that using JSONSerialization and JSONDecoder we will get our decoded Contact object with Phone object.

Conclusion

Swift 4 comes with so many updates. We are going to have a great time exploring them all and finding out so much more by using it on further projects. We have learned about Codable and use of it. You too should go check it out and share your experiences with us in the comments section.
Hope you liked the article.
Happy Coding 🙂

Use of Codable and Coding Key with JSONEncoder and JSONDecoder in Swift 4

February 7, 2021June 29, 2017 by Ashish Kakkad

Codable is added with Xcode 9, iOS 11 and Swift 4. Codable is used to make your data types encodable and decodable for compatibility with external representations such as JSON.
Codable use to support both encoding and decoding, declare conformance to Codable, which combines the Encodable and Decodable protocols. This process is known as making your types codable.

Let’s Take an Example with Structure of Movie, here we have defined the structure as Codable. So, We can encode and decode it easily.

Email and password based authentication with Firebase in Swift

February 7, 2021April 28, 2017 by Ashish Kakkad

Firebase Authentication gives us backend services to authenticate users with your app. It provides SDKs and ready-made UI libraries. It supports authentication using passwords, and other providers like Google, Facebook and Twitter, Github, and more.
firebase-authentication

Firebase Remote Config [Swift]

February 7, 2021November 25, 2016 by Ashish Kakkad

Firebase Remote Config is used to change the application behavior without publishing update of application.

Basic setup is to create project at firebase console.

I am adding a video here to setup the firebase remote config.

Add core firebase to your project

Follow the steps available at : Add Firebase to your iOS Project

Steps to add remote config to your app

Installation
Update your project with required cocoapods

# Uncomment the next line to define a global platform for your project
platform :ios, '9.0'
target 'FireSwiftRemoteConfig' do
  # Comment the next line if you're not using Swift and don't want to use dynamic frameworks
  use_frameworks!
  # Pods for FireSwiftRemoteConfig
    pod 'Firebase/Core'
    pod 'Firebase/RemoteConfig'
end

# Uncomment the next line to define a global platform for your project

platform :ios, '9.0'

target 'FireSwiftRemoteConfig' do

# Comment the next line if you're not using Swift and don't want to use dynamic frameworks

use_frameworks!

# Pods for FireSwiftRemoteConfig

pod 'Firebase/Core'

pod 'Firebase/RemoteConfig'

end

Run pod install from terminal and open the created .xcworkspace file.

Configure Firebase Module
Just import firebase module and apply configure method. It will configure by itself by using GoogleService-Info.plist.

import UIKit
import Firebase
@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
    var window: UIWindow?
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        // Firebase Configuration
        FIRApp.configure()
        return true
    }
}

import UIKit

import Firebase

@UIApplicationMain

class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {

var window: UIWindow?

func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {

// Firebase Configuration

FIRApp.configure()

return true

}

Configure remote config
Create Remote Config object, as shown in the following example:

var remoteConfig: FIRRemoteConfig!
override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    remoteConfig = FIRRemoteConfig.remoteConfig()
}

var remoteConfig: FIRRemoteConfig!

override func viewDidLoad() {

super.viewDidLoad()

remoteConfig = FIRRemoteConfig.remoteConfig()

}

Create an plist file for default values of configuration and set it to remote config:

let remoteConfigSettings = FIRRemoteConfigSettings(developerModeEnabled: true)
remoteConfig.configSettings = remoteConfigSettings!
remoteConfig.setDefaultsFromPlistFileName("FireSwiftRemoteConfigDefaults")

let remoteConfigSettings = FIRRemoteConfigSettings(developerModeEnabled: true)

remoteConfig.configSettings = remoteConfigSettings!

remoteConfig.setDefaultsFromPlistFileName("FireSwiftRemoteConfigDefaults")

FireSwiftRemoteConfigDefaults.plist with sampleURL key:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>sampleURL</key>
	<string>http://google.com</string>
</dict>
</plist>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>sampleURL</key>

<string>http://google.com</string>

</dict>

</plist>

Use current default key from your defaults set on plist file and send fetch request in remote config to get the configuration keys set on the firebase console:

func fetchConfiguration() {
    lblResult.text = remoteConfig[sampleURLConfigKey].stringValue
    var expirationDuration = 3600
    if remoteConfig.configSettings.isDeveloperModeEnabled {
        expirationDuration = 0
    }
    remoteConfig.fetch(withExpirationDuration: TimeInterval(expirationDuration)) { (status, error) -> Void in
        if status == .success {
            print("Config fetched!")
            self.remoteConfig.activateFetched()
        } else {
            print("Config not fetched")
            print("Error \(error!.localizedDescription)")
        }
        lblResult.text = remoteConfig[sampleURLConfigKey].stringValue
    }
}

func fetchConfiguration() {

lblResult.text = remoteConfig[sampleURLConfigKey].stringValue

var expirationDuration = 3600

if remoteConfig.configSettings.isDeveloperModeEnabled {

expirationDuration = 0

}

remoteConfig.fetch(withExpirationDuration: TimeInterval(expirationDuration)) { (status, error) -> Void in

if status == .success {

print("Config fetched!")

self.remoteConfig.activateFetched()

} else {

print("Config not fetched")

print("Error \(error!.localizedDescription)")

}

lblResult.text = remoteConfig[sampleURLConfigKey].stringValue

}

Note : If in developer mode cacheExpiration is set to 0 so each fetch will retrieve values from the server. The default expiration duration is 43200 (12 hours).

All Done.
Sample code available at Github. There are many other things with firebase, I will try give update in next tutorials.

If you like then Buy me a coffee ☕️

Happy Coding 🙂

Refined API Naming : Migrating to Swift 3!

February 7, 2021October 18, 2016 by Ashish Kakkad

Xcode 8.0 comes with a Swift Migrator tool that helps you migrate your project to Swift 3, or update it to work with Swift 2.3 and the new SDKs.

Push Notifications in iOS 10 [Swift]

February 7, 2021September 29, 2016 by Ashish Kakkad

The new framework called “UserNotifications” is introduced with iOS 10 SDK. The UserNotifications framework (UserNotifications.framework) supports the delivery and handling of local and remote notifications.

So, Let see what we have to change to get the push notifications in iOS 10.

Bye Bye to NS from Swift!!

February 7, 2021August 5, 2016 by Ashish Kakkad

Logo NeXTSTEP

Many of the types are bridged to the Swift type like as (e.g., NSString being bridged to String).
Other Objective-C types are bridged to Swift are as follows :

Objective-C	Swift
NSString	String
NSArray	Array
NSDictionary	Dictionary
NSData	Data
NSError	Error (Added Swift 3 – Xcode 8 Beta 4)
NSNotificationCenter	NotificationCenter

And more…
Bye Bye to NS from Swift!!
Happy Coding 🙂