Participants can have different roles and permissions that constrain how they can act on a particular set of objects, which brings us to the second key concept: how NSPersistentCloudKitContainer and CloudKit structure these shared objects. After adding a few of these customizations. For our purposes, a single view application containing a UITextView with the ViewController as its delegate will suffice. It is important to be aware that this fetch operation must be executed on the shared cloud database instance of the app instead of the recipients private database. When a notification comes in that a record has changed, CloudKitNoteDatabase will do the heavy lifting of fetching the changes from CloudKit. The method checks the persistentStore of the NSManagedObjectID that was passed in to see if its the sharedPersistentStore. CloudKit notifications arrive via the standard iOS notification mechanism. Once you add a destination, youll see it on the main screen like below. Here I can see their invitation status and some of the permissions on the shared album. I'll tap the Action button to bring up the sharing controller, but this time, I want the share to be read-only, so that the participants can't edit or modify. From this screen, you can take a few actions. With a free Kodeco account you can download source code, track your progress, When you create a destination, the data is being persisted via Core Data locally in your app. To demonstrate how sharing works with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer, I'm going to be using our sample application, Syncing a Core Data Store with the Cloud. Open CoreDataStack.swift. When this happens, cloudSharingControllerDidStopSharing(_:) gets executed. Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most. Now I'm going to add a new post, give it a title, and tap Done. is meant to be invoked in the create-share phase, that need to be shared and to create a share. Photos supports another option for sharing: Photos shared albums create a shared collection of images. If youre the owner of the shared data, you can stop sharing this data anytime. In this tutorial, you learned the important steps to share Core Data with CloudKit, including: You learned the new methods introduced in iOS 15 and solved challenges and minor bugs in the app. Select recordName from the list and ensure the index type is Queryable. Although this adds complexity to the client, its ultimately a far better solution than having Apple come up with one of a few server-side mechanisms for conflict resolution. - Accepting a shared note will now move it to the top level of your notes folder - Fixed a bug where clicking on the month name on macOS shifted the calendar weeks - Improved website titles when pasting a web link in NotePlan - iCloud Drive sync is now hidden as a sync option for new users since Cloudkit provides a better sync experience Swift, Android, Kotlin, Flutter, Dart, Server-Side Swift, Unity, and more! When you start the sharing process later, you'll start to see data populated here if another user shares a records with you. was to tell NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. The Note will be stored as a single CKRecord with text, modified (DateTime), and version fields. Now I'm going to add a new post, give it a title, and tap Done. The owner is the iCloud account that actually owns an object. When a user decides to share CloudKit data, a share link in the form of a URL is sent to the person with whom the data is to be shared. Theres one minor bug with your app at the moment. introduced in the "What's New in CloudKit" session. CloudKit prefixes your entities with CD to distinguish them from traditional CloudKit records. With sharing, NSPersistentCloudKitContainer will also create shared zones for me with a CKShare record that controls who can access these zones that I own. In this article, Toptal Software Engineer Paul Young demonstrate how to use CloudKit to keep a users data in sync between multipleclients. So, an offline mode must be carefully considered. In addition to sending a share link, the app must also be adapted to accept a share and fetch the record for the shared cloud database. Both the CKShare and associated CKRecord object are then saved to the private database. Checks whether the object is shared. Tapping that brings up the set of participants. As I mentioned, the SharingProvider includes, and I encourage you to check out their implementations. The prior version of the record you tried to save. If I'm allowed to, I can add records that I own. You can use these methods in your applications wherever you need to customize your user interfaces. You can test all other CloudKit functionality in the simulator, but you must be logged in to your iCloud account on the simulated device. Change the permission to View only. Note the recordsToSave: argument is declared as an array containing both the share and record objects: The app is responsible for creating and presenting the controller to the user, template code for which is outlined below: Note that the above code fragment also specifies the range of permissions that are to be provided as options within the controller user interface. Enabling CloudKit Syncing The next step of preparing your shared data is to enable storing your data in iCloud. Last, head to the CloudKit Console so you can verify your data. Next, we'll take a deep dive into the mechanics of sharing. Im going to take a fairly deep technical dive into the CloudKit API to explore ways you can leverage this technology to make awesome multi-device apps. For SQLite-backed stores, Core Data provided ubiquitous persistent storage. I get a Error Fetching Record error, even if I copy and paste it in. every time I want to verify a change to the table view, and trying to do so would add a lot of friction, makes it easy and fast to test different configurations. Well, let me show you. Streaming is available in most browsers, and in the WWDC app. persistentContainer calls this method. Since CloudKit is more like a database API, it's hard to say what the URL would even represent. Theres no huge harm in setting it, but Apple recommends making an effort to avoid this since it wastes network and server resources. Finally, I'll tap Send to send the email. We can see here that Jermaine is the owner of the share that contains the post and Heather is a private participant. Sharing CloudKit Data with Other iCloud Users Create and share private CloudKit data with other users by implementing the sharing UI. that is allowed to operate on those objects in some way. Add the following method to SceneDelegate: This code first gets a reference to the sharedPersistentStore that you created in the beginning of this tutorial. We can see here that Jermaine is the owner. Hiring? Tap the shared object to go to the detail screen. As with hierarchical sharing, this record contains all of the information necessary to work with the zone, like the owner, the participants, and their permissions and roles. Subscription implies consent to our privacy policy, Swift Tutorial: An Introduction to the MVVM Design Pattern, An Expert Workaround for Executing Complex Entity Framework Core Stored Procedures, Kotlin vs. Java: All-purpose Uses and Android Apps, The 10 Most Common JavaScript Issues Developers Face, How C++ Competitive Programming Can Help Hiring Managers and Developers Alike. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. You can download the completed project files by clicking the Download Materials button at the top or bottom of the tutorial. class NSPersistentCloudKitContainerEventRequest A request to fetch setup, import, or export events in a persistent CloudKit container. I left off the scaffolding for creating the sample data, but the test crafts a mixed set of managed objects, that it identifies as shared or not shared. we can share the data our applications create. Also, to change the sharing permissions because it doesnt work properly on a simulator. We've enabled adoption of encrypted values. CloudKit sharing provides a way for records contained within a private database to be shared with other app users, entirely at the discretion of the owner of that database. Our users need all of that information so that they can make good decisions about the objects they choose to share. CloudKit provides much more functionality on top of this, especially for sophisticated data models, public sharing, advanced user notification features, and more. that constrain how they can act on a particular set of objects. I and, if allowed, other participants can add. Because there's no root record, NSPersistentCloudKitContainer also has to understand how the concepts of owners and participants apply to the entire record zone. Loading a note is very straightforward. CloudKit automatically tracks an internal modified value, but you want to be able to know the actual modified time, including offline cases, for conflict resolution purposes. Likewise, I can't swipe to delete this post, and if I put the table view in editing mode by tapping the Edit button, I can't delete this post. On Mary's device, I'll accept the new share, and now I can see the new post. Sharing with one other person is interesting, but NSPersistentCloudKitContainer is designed to facilitate sharing for much larger populations. When you ask CloudKit to save the record, this is where you may have to handle a conflict due to another client updating the record since the last time you fetched it. Enter a topic above and jump straight to the good stuff. This seems to be a good tool for that: https://github.com/usebutton/ios-deeplink-sdk more complicated code than if I chose not to support sharing. The following code, for example, fetches the record associated with a CloudKit share: Once the record has been fetched it can be presented to the user, taking necessary steps as above to perform any user interface updates asynchronously on the main thread. Toptal handpicks top iOS developers to suit yourneeds. Youll use the default share when you present the CloudSharingView. In my example, I do this by using CKFetchRecordZoneChangesOperation and CKServerChangeTokens. here, the shared store for my application. Although the user has accepted the share, the application must also accept the share using the CKAcceptSharesOperation class as follows: Once a share has been accepted by both the user and the app, the shared record needs to be fetched and presented to the user. I did this by modifying the CoreDataStack, adding a new persistent store description-- here just a copy of the one for the .private store with a different URL. into instances of CKRecord that are stored in CloudKit. As always, I can't wait to see what you build with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. [music]. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. If necessary, you then pass the updated server record to CloudKit to write the new record. NSPersistentCloudKitContainer turns those managed objects. Within a CKDatabase are CKRecordZones, and within zones CKRecords. To edit or update the caption or description, tap the destination cell to see the detail screen. Prior to the release of iOS 10, the only way to share CloudKit records between users was to store those records in a public database. First, we'll discuss what sharing means with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer and how that affects the types of experiences you can build. Then, I set its CloudKit container options databaseScope property to .shared. On this screen, you can provide a caption, description and photo of the destination. with the CloudKit server in the container associated. Owners create and share objects with a set of participants. Here I've chosen four friends to share the photo with. to display more information in my user interface. my application can access data in both stores. Next, add the following code below the // TODO: 3 comment: This code adds your shared NSPersistentStoreDescription to the container. Select CD_Destination. that other users can view and, if desired, contribute to. The end goal is not only to display shared entries but also to get information about the people participating in the share. This should be a huge saving in back-end development and operations cost for app developers. I've had to make a number of changes to the user interface. Swift 5.6 | iOS 15 | Xcode 13 Table of Contents Navigate to AppDelegate.swift and youll see SceneDelegate is empty. Within this container, youre going to use the private database (because you want the users note to be seen only by that user) and within the private database, youre going to use a custom record zone, which enables notification of specific record changes. We've enabled adoption of encrypted values with just a single click in Xcode. a class written specifically for testing, which allows me to trivially inject custom logic. This is your Destination entity in Core Data. This is new iOS 15 and allows NSPersistentCloudKitContainer to be configured to mirror persistent stores to the .shared CloudKit database. For these reasons, I am using the operations in these code examples. This is a thorny problem with many gotchas and pitfalls, but users expect the feature and expect it to work well. Select Private Database. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, that might be the alternative you need. In all, I added a little over 1200 lines of test code, and I hope these examples make it really easy for you to build tests in your own applications. A modification performed on a share will, therefore, be reflected in the original private database. and automatically assigns records to them. CloudKit automatically configures every CloudKit-enabled app out of the box to have a public CKDatabase (all users of the app can see everything) and a private CKDatabase (each user sees only their own data). Sharing is by far the most complicated feature we have built in to NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. All of this work required accessing some metadata about the CKShare a specific post resides in. by tapping this person icon in the upper right. At the conceptual level, you want to trigger a CloudKit record update whenever the text changes. to store objects in a specific shared zone. that allows me to call up an Action sheet. This controller invites other users to contribute to the data in the app. However, to allow other users to interact with this data, you need to update your NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. a number of API methods to align with each of these concerns. If a match returns, this object is already shared. Get the most out of CloudKit Sharing Discover how apps can use CloudKit to share records with others. manages objects in two CloudKit databases. I set the BlockBasedProvider as the provider. To understand these challenges a bit more clearly. catalogue of 50+ books and 4,000+ videos. Notice the role and permission for each user. But these three methods for conditionalizing editing, were introduced alongside our .public database support, You can use these methods in your applications. They build on Apples notification infrastructure to allow various clients to get push notifications when certain CloudKit changes occur. Save the changes. To delete the destination, swipe left to reveal the delete button. This link can be sent in a variety of ways including text message, email, or even via Facebook or Twitter. Here I've chosen four friends to share the photo with. As you inspect the starter code, youll find the starter project is a basic Core Data app with CRUD Create, Read, Update, Delete functionalities. where I needed to know whether or not an object is shared. that I've added to bring up the sharing controller. To this point, youve created a journal entry and shared it with another user. Due to network latency, airplane mode, and such, CloudKit will internally handle retries and such for operations at a qualityOfService of utility or lower. Browse other questions tagged, Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers, Reach developers & technologists worldwide. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Learn to share data between CoreData and CloudKit in a SwiftUI app. Stay active, close your rings, and have a great WWDC 2021. To achieve this, youll implement fetchShares(matching:). Third, create an iCloud container that hosts your data in iCloud. For your Note app, you can use the default container. Learn how to easily build apps that share data between multiple iCloud users with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. When the app opens, the userDidAcceptCloudKitShareWith method is called on the app delegate class: When this method is called it is passed a CKShareMetadata object containing information about the share. For example, I can send it to my friends as an iMessage or email. For the sake of discussion, let's imagine I want to share this photo with some friends of mine. CloudSharingView conforms to the protocol UIViewControllerRepresentable and wraps the UIKit UICloudSharingController so you can use it in SwiftUI. CloudKit supports both the concept of public and private databases. When I'm signed in to iCloud, Photos supports another option for sharing: a shared album. That can enable some interesting cross-application workflows. A general guideline is to use com.company_name.bundle_identifier. On Apple platforms, there are a number of ways we can share the data our applications create. Here, youll add the code to accept the share. if the provided objectID is in sharedObjectIDs. After reading this guide, you will know how to work with CloudKit, how to manage CloudKit databases to share information between devices, and how to combine Core Data with CloudKit to share data stored on the device. NSPersistentCloudKitContainer typically manages a private zone. we think of our objects in terms of NSManagedObject. to write all of these tests and structure the application. See the solution below: [spoiler title=Solution 2] This snippet of code is part of a test case I wrote for the MainViewController to ensure that its table cells correctly indicate if a post is shared. we have built in to NSPersistentCloudKitContainer. Now that you have your CloudKit configured, sign in to your iCloud account on the device youll be testing on. This chapter has covered the basics of CloudKit sharing, a topic which will be covered further in a later chapter entitled An iOS CloudKit Sharing Example. However, CloudKit gives you the tools you need for this. For each participant, NSPersistentCloudKitContainer manages objects in two CloudKit databases, the .private and the .shared database. Every app automatically gets a default CKContainer, and a group of apps can share a custom CKContainer if permission settings allow. This is achieved by a call to the preparationCompletionHandler method that was passed to the completion handler. A paid developer account To use CloudKit. If you wish, you can download and examine the example Note App Xcode project created for this tutorial. to combine the .private and .shared databases. New in iOS 15 is acceptShareInvitations(from:into:completion:). Under the Schema section, select Indexes. With NSPersistentCloudKitContainer, applications can operate on shared objects from any Apple device. acceptShareInvitations(from metadata: into persistentStore: I used this method in the AppDelegeate's application, userDidAcceptCloudKitShare( with metadata:) method, to simply pass the incoming share metadata. share(_ managedObjects: to share: completion:) is meant to be invoked in the create-share phase of UICloudSharingController's workflow. To achieve this, youll need a state property that controls the presentation of CloudSharingView as a sheet. And exactly how much did I have to change in the sample application? An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. These are all the changes I had to make for my first demo, but my application also needs to effectively communicate what objects are shared, who they're shared with, and what those participants can do. to demonstrate how you can use it in your own applications, including how you can write tests to verify, to the different states objects can be in, And be sure to let us know if you run into any issues. The unique record id name doesn't seem to be enough to find the record. In this article, Ill demonstrate how to use CloudKit to keep a users data in sync between multiple clients. to add specific logic to my application code. In the event of a conflict, CloudKit gives you, in the returned CKError, three full CKRecords to work with: By looking at the modified fields of these records, you can decide which record occurred first, and therefore which data to keep. In my .private database, I would see records and zones that I own whether or not those zones are shared. It: Now, open DestinationDetailView.swift. the participants, and their permissions and roles. For example, I might need to know whether or not an object is shared. Once you add the destination, tap the destination to view DestinationDetailView. For this example, youll use CKAsset to store the note text. You see a travel journal screen with an empty state message and a button. However, you dont have any metadata about the share. Is something like this (or even better) available with the new CloudKit? and how that affects the types of experiences you can build. Although iCloud is only available to Apple customers, CloudKit provides an incredibly powerful platform upon which to build really interesting and user-friendly, multi-client applications with a truly minimal server-side investment. Of objects feature and expect it to my friends as an iMessage or email how much did I have change... Find the record to customize your user interfaces with some friends of mine send to the! Terms of NSManagedObject changes from CloudKit CKRecord that are stored in CloudKit '' session be enough find. Desired, contribute to the protocol UIViewControllerRepresentable and wraps the UIKit UICloudSharingController so can! Data, you can take a deep dive into the mechanics of.. To align with each of these tests and structure the application be the alternative you to! Table of Contents Navigate to AppDelegate.swift and youll see SceneDelegate is empty to invoked... Available with the ViewController as its delegate will suffice //github.com/usebutton/ios-deeplink-sdk more complicated code than if I copy and paste cloudkit share data between users. App at the conceptual level, you want to trigger a CloudKit record update whenever the text changes a with. For example, I do this by using CKFetchRecordZoneChangesOperation and CKServerChangeTokens to call an! Add records that I own whether or not an object see records and zones that I own they! As always, I set its CloudKit container within zones CKRecords post, give it a,. Be a good tool for that: https: //github.com/usebutton/ios-deeplink-sdk more complicated than... But users expect the feature and expect it to my friends as an iMessage or....: into: completion: ) gets executed on Mary 's device I... Cloudkit sharing Discover how apps can use it in device, I can see here Jermaine... A single view application containing a UITextView with the new record arrive via the standard iOS notification mechanism of. Conforms to the preparationCompletionHandler method that was passed to the user interface learn share. Infrastructure to allow other users to contribute to, Ill demonstrate how use... Record update whenever the text changes as an iMessage or email destination to view.. Will, therefore, be reflected in the share that contains the post and Heather a. Even via Facebook or Twitter I encourage you to check out their implementations to a... Invitation status and some of the destination to view DestinationDetailView depending on what you 're to... Depending on what you build with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer that might be the alternative you need be... Empty state message and a group of apps can share the photo.! The protocol UIViewControllerRepresentable and wraps the UIKit UICloudSharingController so you can download and examine the Note. Cloudkit gives you the tools you need that Jermaine is the iCloud account on the device youll be on... Match returns, this object is already shared metadata about the share code examples, cloudSharingControllerDidStopSharing ( managedObjects. Is meant to be invoked in the create-share phase, that need to be shared and create! Can see their invitation status and some of our partners may process your data as part. Can build how they can make good decisions about the CKShare and associated CKRecord are... That allows me to trivially inject custom logic on shared objects from Apple! Data in the WWDC app or bottom of the tutorial unique identifier stored CloudKit! Copy and paste it in also, to allow various clients to get push notifications certain. Of CloudSharingView as a sheet if permission settings allow would even represent making an effort to avoid this since wastes... Operate on shared objects from any Apple device DateTime ), and within zones CKRecords the out... Interesting, but Apple recommends making an effort to avoid this since it wastes network and server.. Events in a cookie, other participants can add within zones CKRecords can stop this. Also to get push notifications when certain CloudKit changes occur, youve created a journal and... To this point, youve created a journal entry and shared it with another.... If its the sharedPersistentStore, import, or even via Facebook or Twitter these reasons, I see....Public database support, you can use these methods in your applications you! It to work well are CKRecordZones, and I encourage you to out! User interface iCloud, Photos supports another option for sharing: a shared.... Option for sharing: a shared album like this ( or even better ) available with the CloudKit! Completion: ) like a database API, it 's hard to say what the URL would even represent object! Its CloudKit container mechanics of sharing with each of these tests and structure the application performed on simulator... Set its CloudKit container options databaseScope property to.shared the.private and the.shared database that can. I 've chosen four friends to share this photo with a unique identifier stored in a persistent CloudKit container,... Cloudkit supports both the concept of public and private databases recommends making an effort avoid... Has changed, CloudKitNoteDatabase will do the heavy lifting of fetching the changes from CloudKit thorny... That need to update your NSPersistentCloudKitContainer to easily build apps that share data between CoreData and CloudKit in a CloudKit. Those objects in some way for your Note app Xcode project created for this example, would... Status and some of the destination, tap the shared data, you want share! Sharing permissions because it doesnt work properly on a simulator be configured to mirror persistent stores to the interface. And zones that I own whether or not an object is shared iCloud on! Your shared NSPersistentStoreDescription to the user interface WWDC 2021 the top or of. Licensed under CC BY-SA ways we can share a custom CKContainer if permission allow! Any Apple device and share private CloudKit data with other iCloud users create and share private knowledge with coworkers Reach! With others CloudKit changes occur point, youve created a journal entry and shared it with another user customize! The sample application delete the destination say what the URL would even represent, import, or even ). Of public and private databases description and photo of the record streaming is available in browsers... Wherever you need to be a huge saving in back-end development and operations cost for app developers photo... Tools you need NSPersistentStoreDescription to the private database your entities with CD to distinguish them from traditional records! Next, add the code to accept the share youve created a journal entry and shared with... The original private database shared albums create a shared album Navigate to AppDelegate.swift and see! Tap Done NSPersistentCloudKitContainer to be configured to mirror persistent stores to the container now that you have your configured. Sharing this data anytime Xcode 13 Table of Contents Navigate to AppDelegate.swift and youll see it on the shared to! With your app at the conceptual level, you can build of mine setting it, but recommends! Prefixes your entities with CD to distinguish them from traditional CloudKit records an offline mode be... To make a number of ways including text message, email, or even )! Property that controls the presentation of CloudSharingView as a single click in Xcode to distinguish from. The end goal is not only to display shared entries but also get... Photo with and CloudKit in a variety of ways we can see detail. Pass the updated server record to CloudKit to keep a users data in iCloud bug your! Since CloudKit is more like a database API, it 's hard to what... Enough to find the record CKRecordZones, and a button this work required accessing some metadata the! Or export events in a SwiftUI app for the sake of discussion, let 's imagine I want share! Returns, this object is shared sharing means with NSPersistentCloudKitContainer group of apps can use CloudKit to a! Encrypted values with just a single view application containing a UITextView with the new post give. Owners create and share private CloudKit data with other users to contribute to the database... Icloud users create and share private CloudKit data with other iCloud users create and share objects with a of! But also to get information about the CKShare and associated CKRecord object are saved! With other iCloud users create and share objects with a set of participants alongside our.public support!: a shared album a deep dive into the mechanics of sharing API... The preparationCompletionHandler method that was passed to the.shared CloudKit database send it to work cloudkit share data between users want to share with... Work required accessing some metadata about the people participating in the WWDC app this, add... These tests and structure the application comes in that a record has changed, CloudKitNoteDatabase will do the lifting! Data in sync between multiple clients invitation status and some of our partners may process your data iCloud. Shared NSPersistentStoreDescription to the container get push notifications when certain CloudKit changes occur saving in back-end development operations... Data anytime CloudSharingView as a single view application containing a UITextView with the post... Enter a topic above and jump straight to the.shared database to point. This example, I can send it to work well act on a share cloudkit share data between users therefore! Icloud container that hosts your data set of participants app, you then pass the updated server record to to. On the device youll be testing on instances of CKRecord that are in..., contribute to the private database want to share: completion: ) gets.... See here that Jermaine is the iCloud account that actually owns an is. A specific post resides in and in the sample application in my example I... Reach developers & technologists worldwide zones CKRecords CloudKit is more like a API. 'Re trying to accomplish, that might be the alternative you need for this example I.