Using the CoreDataDemo project created in the chapter entitled A SwiftUI Core Data Tutorial, this chapter will demonstrate how to add CloudKit support to an Xcode project and migrate from Core Data to CloudKit-based storage. This chapter assumes that you have read the chapter entitled An Overview of SwiftUI Core Data and CloudKit Storage.
Enabling CloudKit Support
Begin by launching Xcode and opening the CoreDataDemo project. Once the project has loaded into Xcode, the first step is to add the iCloud capability to the app. Select the CoreDataDemo target located at the top of the Project Navigator panel (marked A in Figure 46-1) so that the main panel displays the project settings. From within this panel, select the Signing & Capabilities tab (B) followed by the CoreDataDemo target entry (C):
Figure 46-1
Click on the “+” button (D) to display the dialog shown in Figure 46-2. Enter iCloud into the filter bar, select the result and press the keyboard enter key to add the capability to the project:
Figure 46-2
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If iCloud is not listed as an option, you will need to pay to join the Apple Developer program as outlined in the chapter entitled “Joining the Apple Developer Program”. If you are already a member, use the steps outlined in the chapter entitled “Installing Xcode 13 and the iOS 15 SDK” to ensure you have created a Developer ID Application certificate.
Within the iCloud entitlement settings, make sure that the CloudKit service is enabled before clicking on the “+” button indicated by the arrow in Figure 46-3 below to add an iCloud container for the project:
Figure 46-3
After clicking the “+” button, the dialog shown in Figure 46-4 will appear containing a text field into which you will need to enter the container identifier. This entry should uniquely identify the container within the CloudKit ecosystem, generally includes your organization identifier (as defined when the project was created), and should be set to something similar to iCloud.com.yourcompany.CoreDataDemo.
Figure 46-4
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Once you have entered the container name, click the OK button to add it to the app entitlements. Returning to the Signing & Capabilities screen, make sure that the new container is selected:
Figure 46-5
Enabling Background Notifications Support
When the app is running on multiple devices and a data change is made in one instance of the app, CloudKit will use remote notifications to notify other instances of the app to update to the latest data. To enable background notifications, repeat the above steps, this time adding the Background Modes entitlement. Once the entitlement has been added, review the settings and make sure that Remote notifications mode is enabled as highlighted in Figure 46-6:
Figure 46-6
Now that the necessary entitlements have been enabled for the app, all that remains is to make some minor code changes to the project.
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Switching to the CloudKit Persistent Container
Locate the Persistence.swift file in the project navigator panel and select it so that it loads into the code editor. Within the init() function, change the container creation call from NSPersistentContainer to NSPersistentCloudKitContainer as follows:
.
.
let container: NSPersistentCloudKitContainer
.
.
init() {
container = NSPersistentCloudKitContainer(name: "Products")
container.loadPersistentStores { (storeDescription, error) in
if let error = error as NSError? {
fatalError("Container load failed: \(error)")
}
}
}Since multiple instances of the app could potentially change the same data at the same time, we also need to define a merge policy to make sure that conflicting changes are handled as follows:
init() {
container = NSPersistentCloudKitContainer(name: "Products")
container.loadPersistentStores { (storeDescription, error) in
if let error = error as NSError? {
fatalError("Container load failed: \(error)")
}
}
container.viewContext.automaticallyMergesChangesFromParent = true
}Testing the App
CloudKit storage can be tested on either physical devices, simulators, or a mixture of both. All test devices and simulators must be signed in to iCloud using your Apple developer account and have the iCloud Drive option enabled. Once these requirements have been met, run the CoreDataDemo app and add some product entries. Next, run the app on another device or simulator and check that the newly added products appear. This confirms that the data is being stored and retrieved from iCloud.
With both app instances running, enter a new product in one instance and check that it appears in the other. Note that a bug in the simulator means that you may need to place the app in the background and then restore it before the new data will appear.
Reviewing the Saved Data in the CloudKit Console
Once some product entries have been added to the database, return to the Signing & Capabilities screen for the project (Figure 46-1) and click on the CloudKit Console button. This will launch the default web browser on your system and load the CloudKit Dashboard portal. Enter your Apple developer login and password and, once the dashboard has loaded, the home screen will provide the range of options illustrated in Figure 46-7:
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Figure 46-7
Select the CloudKit Database option and, on the resulting web page, select the container for your app from the drop-down menu (marked A in Figure 46-8 below). Since the app is still in development and has not been published to the App Store, make sure that menu B is set to Development and not Production:
Figure 46-8
Next, we can query the records stored in the app container’s private database. Set the row of menus (C) to Private Database, com.apple.coredata.cloudkit.zone, and Query Records respectively. Finally, set the Record Type menu to CD_Product and the Fields menu to All:
Figure 46-9
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Clicking on the Query Records button should display a list of all the product items saved in the database as illustrated in Figure 46-10:
Figure 46-10
If, instead of a list of database entries, you see a message which reads “Field ‘recordName’ is not marked queryable”, follow the steps in the next section.
Fixing the recordName Problem
When attempting to query the database, the error message shown below may appear instead of the query results:
Figure 46-11
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To resolve this problem, select the Indexes option in the navigation panel (marked A in Figure 46-12) followed by CD_Product record type (B):
Figure 46-12
Within the list of indexes for the CD_Product record type, click on the Add Basic Index button located at the bottom of the list:
Figure 46-13
Within the new index row, select the recordName field and set the index type to Queryable:
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Figure 46-14
After adding the new index, click on the Save Changes button at the top of the index list before returning to the Records screen. Repeat the steps to configure and perform the query. Instead of the error message, the database records should now be listed.
Filtering and Sorting Queries
The queries we have been running so far are returning all of the records in the database. Queries may also be performed based on sorting and filtering criteria by clicking in the “Add filter or sort to query” field. Clicking in this field will display a menu system that will guide you through setting up the criteria. In Figure 46-15, for example, the menu system is being used to set up a filtered query based on the CD_name field:
Figure 46-15
Similarly, Figure 46-16 shows the completed filter and query results:
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Figure 46-16
The same technique can be used to sort the results in ascending or descending order. You can also combine multiple criteria in a single query. To edit or remove a query criterion, left-click on it and select the appropriate menu option.
Editing and Deleting Records
In addition to querying the records in the database, the CloudKit Console also allows records to be edited and deleted. To edit or delete a record, locate it in the query list and click on the entry in the name column as highlighted below:
Figure 46-17
Once the record has been selected, the Record Details panel shown in Figure 46-18 will appear. In addition to displaying detailed information about the record, this panel also allows the record to be modified or deleted.
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Figure 46-18
Adding New Records
To add a new record to a database, click on the “+” located at the top of the query results list and select the Create New Record option:
Figure 46-19
When the New Record panel appears (Figure 46-20) enter the new data before clicking the Save button:
Figure 46-20
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Viewing Telemetry Data
To view telemetry data, select the Telemetry tab at the top of the console as indicated in Figure 46-21, or by selecting the home screen Telemetry option (Figure 46-7):
Figure 46-21
Within the telemetry screen, select the container, environment, timescale, and database type options:
Figure 46-22
Hovering the mouse pointer over a graph will display a key explaining the metric represented by the different line colors:
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Figure 46-23
The console also provides a menu to display data for different operation types:
Figure 46-24
By default, telemetry data is displayed for database activity. This can be changed to display data relating to notifications or database usage using the menu shown in Figure 46-25:
Figure 46-25
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You are reading a sample chapter from SwiftUI Essentials – iOS 16 Edition.
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Summary
The first step in adding CloudKit support to an Xcode SwiftUI project is to add the iCloud capability, enabling both the CloudKit service and remote notifications, and configuring a container to store the databases associated with the app. The migration from Core Data to CloudKit is simply a matter of changing the code to use NSPersistentCloudKitContainer instead of NSPersistentContainer and re-building the project.
CloudKit databases can be queried, modified, managed, and monitored from within the CloudKit Console.
