iOS Newsletter
Swift
Using @DebugDescription in Xcode 16
Debugging can be tricky, especially with custom types. Clear and informative debug output is essential for understanding the behavior of your code. That’s where the CustomDebugStringConvertible protocol and @DebugDescription macro come in. In this article, we are taking a look at how to work with this protocol and how to use this new macro in Xcode 16 to make debugging even easier.
iOS App Reverse Engineering
Through reverse engineering, the author of this article was eager to see how much he could tinker with a simple app. He ended up tweaking the pin logic and replaced the usual messages with a playful “Hello World” popup. Hop on to discover how!
UI
Trigger value pattern in SwiftUI
The recent version of the SwiftUI framework introduces a trigger value pattern across its APIs. Trigger value allows us to attach a view modifier that runs its action whenever the trigger value changes. You can find this pattern while using sensory feedback or launching keyframe animation in SwiftUI. Learn how to build custom view modifiers using trigger value pattern with this article.
SwiftUI app lifecycle: issues with ScenePhase and using AppDelegate adaptors
SwiftUI introduced the ScenePhase API in iOS 14 and macOS 11. This was SwiftUI’s answer to handling application lifecycle events. At the same time, SwiftUI introduced UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor for iOS and NSApplicationDelegateAdaptor for macOS, which allow you to provide an AppDelegate on both platforms to receive additional application lifecycle events and other events that were missing from SwiftUI at the time. Unfortunately, many of those application event APIs are still missing and ScenePhase has a number of bugs (or at least, unexpected behavior).
Utils
Unobtrusive and testable issue reporting
It is always exciting to check on a new library from Point-Free and this time it’s one about Issue Reporting. The library provides tools to report issues in your application and library code as Xcode runtime warnings, breakpoints, assertions, and do so in a testable manner.
node-swift
From time to time we stumble upon some interesting Swift packages that go beyond what we thought was possible with the language. node-swift lets you write native Node modules in Swift that can be used with node.js, NPM and Electron. It’s idiomatic, fast, and works on macOS, Linux and Windows.
Privacy
App Tracking Transparency and IDFA on iOS
It’s been a while since Apple had introduced some Privacy-related changes with the AppTrackingFramework but it was only recently that we saw them requiring apps that open links by using an in-app browser to prompt the user for permission to get tracked. Read on to discover how to integrate this with your app.
Meet AccessorySetupKit
There’s a new framework (iOS 18 and above) that allows you to display a beautiful pairing dialog with an image of your Bluetooth or Wi-Fi accessory — no trip to the Settings app required. Discover how to improve privacy by pairing only your app with an accessory with this WWDC session. And learn how you can migrate existing accessories so they can be managed by AccessorySetupKit.