Swift SDK

Bird Swift SDK is a single integration point to bring the power of BirdCRM in building connected user experience to your application.

Using Bird Swift SDK, you get access to:

• Collect Contacts

• Send Push Notifications

Integrating Bird Swift SDK into your application consists of the following steps:

• Step 1: Add Bird Swift SDK dependency

• Step 2: Set Application Key, App Group & Keychain Group

• Step 3: Add Capabilities

• Step 4: Create AppDelegate

• Step 5: Create Notification Service Extension

• Step 6: Create Notification Content Extension

• Step 7: Create App Group & Keychain Group

Step 1: Add Bird Swift SDK dependency

You can add Bird Swift SDK as a dependency to your project using Swift Package Manager

1. In your application in Xcode. Go to File > Add Packages Dependencies to add a new dependency.

2. Specify the URL of the Bird Swift SDK https://github.com/messagebird/swift-sdk.

3. Select the swift-sdk package and click "Add Package"

Step 2: Set Application Key, App Group & Keychain group

All configuration for Bird Swift SDK can be set up in Info.plist file in your application.

1. Inside Info.list file, add an entry for Bird with type Dictionary.

2. Then add the following fields with type String inside the Bird dictionary

   • ApplicationKey: You can get the value of this application key from "Bird Dashboard / Preferences / Applications".

   • AppGroup: This is the name of the app group you will create in Step 7: Create App Group & Keychain Group.

   • AccessGroup: This is a name of the access group for keychain sharing you will create in Step 7: Create App Group & Keychain Group. Usually it has the following format: {TEAM_ID}.{KEYCHAIN_GROUP}.

Info.plist should look like this:

These values need to be added to the Info.plist file for each of the following:

• The iOS application target

• Notification Service Extension target. See Step 5: Create Notification Service Extension.

• Notification Content Extension target. See Step 6: Create Notification Content Extension

Step 3: Add Capabilities

Open your application project in XCode.

• Select your project in XCode

• Select the target of your project under TARGETS

• Go to Signing and Capabilities tab

• Click on + Capability and add the following Capabilities:

  • Push Notifications

  • Background Modes

• From Background Modes section, select Remote notifications

Step 4: Create AppDelegate

You may already have an AppDelegate. If not, you need to create one like in the example below.

Notice that:

• instance of Bird is created once and saved in a static member

• bird.notifications.registerDevice is called inside the method with argument didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken

• bird.notifications.applicationDidReceiveRemoteNotification is called inside the method with argument didReceiveRemoteNotification

• bird.notifications.willPresentNotification and bird.notifications.didReceiveResponse(response) are called from the corresponding methods of UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate

class AppDelegate: NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate {
    static var bird: Bird!
    static let logger = Logger(subsystem: Bundle.main.bundleIdentifier!, category: "AppDelegate")
    
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) -> Bool {
        do {
            AppDelegate.bird = try Bird()
        } catch {
            Self.logger.log("failed to create bird")
        }
        
        UNUserNotificationCenter.current().delegate = self
        return true
    }
    
    func application(
        _ application: UIApplication,
        didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken deviceToken: Data
    ) {
        Self.bird.notifications.registerDevice(deviceToken: deviceToken) 
    }
    
    func application(
        _ application: UIApplication,
        didReceiveRemoteNotification userInfo: [AnyHashable : Any],
        fetchCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UIBackgroundFetchResult) -> Void
    ) {
        Self.bird.notifications.handleBackgroundNotification(
            userInfo: userInfo, 
            completionHandler: completionHandler
        )
    }
    
    // Call this method to request notifications permissions
    static func requestNotificationsPermission() {
        UNUserNotificationCenter.current().requestAuthorization(
            options:[.badge, .alert, .sound]
        ) { granted, error in
            guard granted else {
                self.logger.log("Notification permission is not gratned")
                return
            }
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                UIApplication.shared.registerForRemoteNotifications()
            }
        }
    }
}

extension AppDelegate: UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate {
    func userNotificationCenter(
        _ center: UNUserNotificationCenter,
        willPresent notification: UNNotification,
        withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping (UNNotificationPresentationOptions) -> Void
    ) {
        let options = Self.bird.notifications.willPresentNotification(notification)
        completionHandler(options)
    }

    func userNotificationCenter(
        _ center: UNUserNotificationCenter,
        didReceive response: UNNotificationResponse,
        withCompletionHandler completionHandler: @escaping () -> Void
    ) {
        let result = Self.bird?.notifications.handleNotificationResponse(
            response: response,
            automaticallyOpenLinks: true
        )
        completionHandler()
    }
}

Then you need to use this class as your application delegate. In case you use Swift UI, here is an example:

import SwiftUI

@main 
struct DemoApp: App {
    @UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor(AppDelegate.self) var appDelegate
    
    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

Step 5: Create Notification Service Extension

Add a Notification Service Extension to your project.

1. Select File > New > Target in Xcode.

2. Select the Notification Service Extension target from the iOS > Application section.

3. Click Next.

4. Specify a name and other configuration details for your app extension.

5. Click Finish.

Then change the code in NotificationService.swift to only extend from BirdNotificationService as follows:

import BirdKit

class NotificationService: BirdNotificationService {
}

Remember to add Bird configuration to Info.plist of Notification Service Extension target as explained in Step 2: Set Application Key, App Group & Keychain group.

Step 6: Create Notification Content Extension

Add a Notification Content App Extension to Your Project

1. Select File > New > Target in Xcode.

2. Select Notification Content Extension from iOS Application Extension.

3. Click Next.

4. Provide a name for your app extension.

5. Click Finish.

Then go ahead and do the following steps:

1. Remove the storyboard file from the extension

2. Remove the NSExtensionMainStoryboard entry from the extension's Info.plist.

3. Add a new entry of NSExtensionPrincipalClass to the Info.plist under NSExtension. The value should be $(PRODUCT_MODULE_NAME).NotificationViewController

4. Change the value for entry UNNotificationExtensionCategory to be BIRD

5. Change NotificationViewController.swift to only extend BirdNotificationViewController as follows:

import BirdKit

class NotificationViewController: BirdNotificationViewController {
}

Remember to add Bird configuration to Info.plist of Notification Content Extension target as explained in Step 2: Set Application Key & App Group.

Step 7: Create App Group and Keychain sharing

1. Select your project in XCode

2. Select the target application of your project under TARGETS

3. Go to Signing and Capabilities tab

4. Click on + Capability and add the following Capabilities:

   • App Groups

   • Background Modes

   • Keychain sharing

5. Inside App Groups section:

   • add a new App Group if needed

   • Select an App Group for this target

6. Inside Keychain Sharing section:

   • Add a new Keychain Group (usually it has the same equals to bundle id of the main target of the app)

7. Do the same process of adding App Groups and select the same App Group for:

   • Notification Service Extension target

   • Notification Content Extension target

The go ahead and add the AppGroup and AccessGroup to the Info.plist as explained in Step 2: Set Application Key, App Group & Keychain Group for each of the following:

• The iOS application target

• Notification Service Extension target

• Notification Content Extension target

Examples

You can find examples and report issue on the public repository messagebird/swift-sdk.