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• 2: Write a Client

iOS Swift Tutorial

Overview

In this first phase of the tutorial, you will create a task tracker app that allows users to:

• Register themselves with email and password.
• Sign in to their account with their email and password and sign out later.
• View, create, modify, and delete tasks.

This tutorial should take around 30 minutes.

Check Out the Quick Start

If you prefer to explore on your own rather than follow a guided tutorial, check out the iOS Quick Start. It includes copyable code examples and the essential information that you need to set up a MongoDB Realm application.

Download the Complete Source Code

We host this tutorial application’s complete and ready-to-compile source code on GitHub. Just follow the instructions in README.md to get started. Don’t forget to update the AppDelegate.swift file with your App ID, which you can find in the Realm UI.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Xcode version 11.0 or higher, which requires macOS 10.14.4 or higher.
• Target of iOS 13.0.
• CocoaPods 1.6.0 or later.
• Set up the backend.

Procedure

1

Create a New iOS Project

Open Xcode and create a new iOS Project. Use the “Single View App” template. Enter your project details, select “Storyboard” for user interface, deselect “Include Unit Tests”, and save.

2

Confirm That Your App Runs

Before adding new code, it’s a good idea to make sure the project is set up correctly and you can compile and run the app. Test your app by selecting a simulator from the build menu and pressing the Run button. Xcode should build and launch your app successfully and present you with a simulator with the empty app.

3

Install the Realm Frameworks with CocoaPods

Install the Realm frameworks with an iOS dependency manager. This tutorial uses CocoaPods.

Cocoapods uses a Podfile to track, load, and manage your project’s external dependencies. To create the Podfile, quit Xcode and open your Xcode project directory in a new terminal window. Run the following command:

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pod init

This creates an initial Podfile. To specify your dependencies, edit the Podfile in your editor of choice and make the following changes:

• Set the iOS version to 13.0.
• Add the line use_frameworks! if it is not already there.
• Add the line pod 'RealmSwift', '=10.0.0-beta.2' to your main target.

When done, your Podfile should look something like this:

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   platform :ios, '13.0'

   target 'TaskTracker' do
     # Comment the next line if you don't want to use dynamic frameworks
     use_frameworks!

     # Pods for TaskTracker
     pod 'RealmSwift', '=10.0.0-beta.2'

   end

Save your changes, then run the following command from the terminal window to download the required packages and create an Xcode workspace that is configured:

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pod install --repo-update

Open the Xcode workspace file that CocoaPods just created to continue working on your project. For example, you can run open TaskTracker.xcworkspace from the command line.

4

Build and Run the Project So Far

Build and run the project again to verify that everything is configured correctly.

5

Remove Unnecessary UI Files

We’ll build the app’s UI programmatically, so we don’t need some of the files that come with the standard single page app template.

1. Open the Info.plist for your target in the TaskTracker group in the file navigator.
2. Find the Main storyboard file base name entry and remove it by pressing the - icon next to it in the property editor.
3. Find the Application Scene Manifest entry and expand it to reveal Scene Configuration > Application Session Role > Item 0 (Default Configuration). Remove the Storyboard Name entry by pressing the - icon next to it in the property editor.
4. In the file navigator, find the Main.storyboard and LaunchScreen.storyboard files. Delete them by selecting each one and pressing the delete key on your keyboard.

6

Open Your Realm App and Specify the Starting Screen in the SceneDelegate Class

In order to use MongoDB Realm functionality such as user authentication and sync, we need to access the Realm app from our client code.

Let’s declare the Realm app instance as a global variable in the scene entrypoint file, SceneDelegate.swift.

In a production app, you might decide to move the initialization of the Realm app instance elsewhere in your code or defer initialization until you have read some configuration from a file. For now, a global variable is fine. We will hardcode everything the iOS app needs to know about our MongoDB Realm app in a structure called Constants.

Note

To learn how to find your MongoDB Realm appId, read the Find Your App Id doc.

Open SceneDelegate.swift in Xcode and add the following code near the top of the file:

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import RealmSwift

struct Constants {
    // Set this to your Realm App ID found in the Realm UI.
    static let REALM_APP_ID = "<your-realm-app-id>"
}
let app = RealmApp(id: Constants.REALM_APP_ID)

Replace <your-realm-app-id> with your Realm app ID, which you can find in the Realm UI.

Note

Xcode may show errors next to the new import line or other lines. This is normal. These will disappear as we add more code and compile the app.

We also use the SceneDelegate to navigate to our custom login page that we will define soon. Within the SceneDelegate class, declare a UIWindow? property and replace the func scene(_ scene: UIScene, willConnectTo session: UISceneSession, options connectionOptions: UIScene.ConnectionOptions) method:

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var window: UIWindow?

func scene(_ scene: UIScene, willConnectTo session: UISceneSession, options connectionOptions: UIScene.ConnectionOptions) {
    // Use this method to optionally configure and attach the UIWindow `window` to the provided UIWindowScene `scene`.
    // If using a storyboard, the `window` property will automatically be initialized and attached to the scene.
    // This delegate does not imply the connecting scene or session are new (see `application:configurationForConnectingSceneSession` instead).

    guard let windowScene = (scene as? UIWindowScene) else { return }

    window = UIWindow(windowScene: windowScene)
    window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
    window?.rootViewController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: WelcomeViewController())
}

This sets up the UINavigationController with a WelcomeViewController that we will define next.

7

Implement User Authentication on the Welcome page

When a user starts the app, we want to present them with a form into which they can enter their email address and password. If they do not have an account, the user can press a “sign up” button to register an account. If the account already exists, the user can press a “sign in” button to sign in with that account. We will add a loading indicator so that the user knows when the app is processing their requests and a text area where we can present any error messages to the user.

To create the view controller, select File > New > File... in Xcode. Select “Cocoa Touch Class” from the file type selector panel. Press next then enter “WelcomeViewController” for the class name and set the subclass name to UIViewController. Press next again, navigate to your Xcode project directory in the file browser, and save the file.

With the WelcomeViewController file open, the first thing to add at the top of the file is the import statement for RealmSwift, so that our view controller can use Realm:

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import RealmSwift

To build out the UI programmatically, we need to declare some members to hold our UI elements. Add these members in the new class right after the opening brace of the class definition:

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class WelcomeViewController: UIViewController {
    let usernameField = UITextField()
    let passwordField = UITextField()
    let signInButton = UIButton(type: .roundedRect)
    let signUpButton = UIButton(type: .roundedRect)
    let errorLabel = UILabel()
    let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(style: .medium)

    var username: String? {
        get {
            return usernameField.text
        }
    }

    var password: String? {
        get {
            return passwordField.text
        }
    }
    // ...

Next, add a viewDidLoad method to the view controller. This is where we will set up the login UI programmatically. This just arranges and configures the inputs for username and password, sign in and sign up buttons, an area for a status or error message and a loading indicator.

Note

Excited for SwiftUI? So are we! A tutorial using Realm with SwiftUI is coming soon.

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override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad();
    view.backgroundColor = .white

    // Create a view that will automatically lay out the other controls.
    let container = UIStackView();
    container.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    container.axis = .vertical
    container.alignment = .fill
    container.spacing = 16.0;
    view.addSubview(container)

    // Configure the activity indicator.
    activityIndicator.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    view.addSubview(activityIndicator)

    // Set the layout constraints of the container view and the activity indicator.
    let guide = view.safeAreaLayoutGuide
    NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
        // This pins the container view to the top and stretches it to fill the parent
        // view horizontally.
        container.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: guide.leadingAnchor, constant: 16),
        container.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: guide.trailingAnchor, constant: -16),
        container.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: guide.topAnchor, constant: 16),
        // The activity indicator is centered over the rest of the view.
        activityIndicator.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: guide.centerYAnchor),
        activityIndicator.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: guide.centerXAnchor),
        ])

    // Add some text at the top of the view to explain what to do.
    let infoLabel = UILabel()
    infoLabel.numberOfLines = 0
    infoLabel.text = "Please enter a username and password."
    container.addArrangedSubview(infoLabel)

    // Configure the username and password text input fields.
    usernameField.placeholder = "Username"
    usernameField.borderStyle = .roundedRect
    usernameField.autocapitalizationType = .none
    usernameField.autocorrectionType = .no
    container.addArrangedSubview(usernameField)

    passwordField.placeholder = "Password"
    passwordField.isSecureTextEntry = true
    passwordField.borderStyle = .roundedRect
    container.addArrangedSubview(passwordField)

    // Configure the sign in and sign up buttons.
    signInButton.setTitle("Sign In", for: .normal);
    signInButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(signIn), for: .touchUpInside)
    container.addArrangedSubview(signInButton)

    signUpButton.setTitle("Sign Up", for: .normal);
    signUpButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(signUp), for: .touchUpInside)
    container.addArrangedSubview(signUpButton)

    // Error messages will be set on the errorLabel.
    errorLabel.numberOfLines = 0
    errorLabel.textColor = .red
    container.addArrangedSubview(errorLabel)
}

Since we added a loading indicator, let’s make it easy to use. Add the following method that controls the app UI state, ensuring the app UI is always in one of two states:

• All inputs disabled and activity indicator shown, or
• All inputs enabled and activity indicator hidden.

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// Turn on or off the activity indicator.
func setLoading(_ loading: Bool) {
    if loading {
        activityIndicator.startAnimating();
        errorLabel.text = "";
    } else {
        activityIndicator.stopAnimating();
    }
    usernameField.isEnabled = !loading
    passwordField.isEnabled = !loading
    signInButton.isEnabled = !loading
    signUpButton.isEnabled = !loading
}

Finally, we need to implement the actual business logic of signing in to Realm. When we set up the UI, we wired the “sign up” button to a signUp method and the “sign in” button to the signIn method, but we haven’t defined those methods yet. Let’s define them now, starting with signUp:

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@objc func signUp() {
    setLoading(true);
    app.usernamePasswordProviderClient().registerEmail(username!, password: password!, completion: {[weak self](error) in
        // Completion handlers are not necessarily called on the UI thread.
        // This call to DispatchQueue.main.sync ensures that any changes to the UI,
        // namely disabling the loading indicator and navigating to the next page,
        // are handled on the UI thread:
        DispatchQueue.main.sync {
            self!.setLoading(false);
            guard error == nil else {
                print("Signup failed: \(error!)")
                self!.errorLabel.text = "Signup failed: \(error!.localizedDescription)"
                return
            }
            print("Signup successful!")

            // Registering just registers. Now we need to sign in,
            // but we can reuse the existing username and password.
            self!.errorLabel.text = "Signup successful! Signing in..."
            self!.signIn()
        }
    })
}

First, we use our loading indicator method to disable the form and show the loading indicator, so that the user gets feedback that we are in fact processing their request.

Next, we access the usernamePasswordProviderClient of the RealmApp we opened in the AppDelegate. Each authentication provider has a provider client that gives us access to the functionality of that specific provider. In this case, we want to register the user’s email with the registerEmail() method. We pass the username and password field values from our UI into this method as well as a completion handler that Realm calls when the action is completed.

The completion handler is not guaranteed to run on the main thread. In fact, it is likely to run on a background thread. Since we want to update the UI here, and iOS strictly forbids you from updating the UI on anything but the main thread, we must be sure we are in fact running our code on the main thread. That’s why, in the completion handler, the first thing we do is dispatch back to the main thread.

Now that we’re on the main thread, it’s equally important to turn the activity indicator back off before anything else, so that our app’s UI is never in a bad state.

Next, we handle errors. For now, let’s just print them to the console and present them on our error label in the UI.

We set up our Realm app to automatically verify email/password accounts, so the user doesn’t need to do anything before they can use their account. So, we can go ahead and sign in with the signIn() method we will write now:

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@objc func signIn() {
    print("Log in as user: \(username!)");
    setLoading(true);

    app.login(withCredential: AppCredentials(username: username!, password: password!)) { [weak self](user, error) in
        // Completion handlers are not necessarily called on the UI thread.
        // This call to DispatchQueue.main.sync ensures that any changes to the UI,
        // namely disabling the loading indicator and navigating to the next page,
        // are handled on the UI thread:
        DispatchQueue.main.sync {
            self!.setLoading(false);
            guard error == nil else {
                // Auth error: user already exists? Try logging in as that user.
                print("Login failed: \(error!)");
                self!.errorLabel.text = "Login failed: \(error!.localizedDescription)"
                return
            }

            print("Login succeeded!");

            // For the first phase of the tutorial, go directly to the Tasks page
            // for the hardcoded project ID "My Project".
            // This will use a common project and demonstrate sync.
            let partitionValue = "My Project"

            // Open a realm.
            let projectRealm = try! Realm(configuration: user.configuration(partitionValue: partitionValue))

            self!.navigationController!.pushViewController(TasksViewController(projectRealm: projectRealm), animated: true);
        }
    };
}

Again, the first thing we do is turn on the activity indicator to let the user know we are processing their request.

We use the app’s login() method, which takes credentials that correspond to the email/password authentication provider. As in the signUp() method, we pass the text values from our UI into the credentials.

Once again, in the completion handler we must dispatch back to the main thread. Once on the main thread, we turn off the activity indicator and handle any errors.

If login succeeded, we can go ahead and open the realm to be used on the next page. To do that, we decide on a partition value. The partition value determines which realm we are reading and writing data in.

You may have noticed that we hardcoded the partition value to the phrase “My Project”. This makes it so that all tasks in the Realm app – even those created on a second device by a different user – belong to the same project. In a future tutorial, we will allow the creation of different projects with different access permissions.

After deciding the partition value, we open the realm with that partition value and pass it to the next view controller. It’s a good idea to pass the realm rather than opening it in the next view controller itself, because if the realm fails to open for some reason, you can handle the error before loading the view.

Check the Logs Tab in the Realm UI

On that note, when working with Realm Sync, remember to check the Logs page in the Realm UI. That page usually contains additional information that can help you troubleshoot any issues you may encounter.

At this point, you might want to comment out the line that mentions TasksViewController, which we haven’t defined yet, and try out your new sign up and sign in functionality.

8

Define Your Realm Object Model

Now that we have implemented authentication functionality, let’s define a model that our app can use.

Create a new, empty Swift file called Models.swift by selecting File > New > File... in Xcode and using the “Swift File” template.

We need to define the models of our schema. If you followed the backend setup guide for this tutorial, you can view these models on the SDKs page in the Realm UI under the Swift tab.

Copy the following code into Models.swift:

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import Foundation
import RealmSwift

typealias ProjectId = String

class Project: Object {
    @objc dynamic var _id = ObjectId.generate()
    @objc dynamic var _partition = ""
    @objc dynamic var name = ""
    override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
        return "_id"
    }

    convenience init(partition: String, name: String) {
        self.init()
        self._partition = partition
        self.name = name
    }
}

class User: Object {
    @objc dynamic var _id: ObjectId = ObjectId.generate()
    @objc dynamic var _partition: String = ""
    @objc dynamic var image: String? = nil
    @objc dynamic var name: String = ""
    @objc dynamic var user_id: String = ""
    override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
        return "_id"
    }
}

enum TaskStatus: String {
  case Open
  case InProgress
  case Complete
}

class Task: Object {
    @objc dynamic var _id: ObjectId = ObjectId.generate()
    @objc dynamic var _partition: ProjectId = ""
    @objc dynamic var assignee: User?
    @objc dynamic var name = ""
    @objc dynamic var status = TaskStatus.Open.rawValue

    var statusEnum: TaskStatus {
        get {
            return TaskStatus(rawValue: status) ?? .Open
        }
        set {
            status = newValue.rawValue
        }
    }

    override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
        return "_id"
    }

    convenience init(partition: String, name: String) {
        self.init()
        self._partition = partition
        self.name = name
    }
}

This declares the class Task as a subclass of the Realm Object class with the properties we need. It also declares the other models we need to interact with the backend schema we defined. We will use those other models in a future tutorial.

Every object we sync needs a partition value. We configured our Realm app to use a string called _partition as the partition key. This is flexible, but it might be difficult for anyone reading our code to know what the Task’s partition value should be a specific project ID. To give future developers (and ourselves) a hint as we build on the app, we use an alias for String called ProjectId as the partition value type.

To represent the task status, we use an enum. To represent this in MongoDB Realm, we need to convert the enum to a string. So, we make the synced property (notice: @objc dynamic var) status of string type and add a non-synced property (notice it is not marked @objc dynamic var) called statusEnum of enum type. The statusEnum property controls the status variable.

9

Implement the Tasks List

Create a new Cocoa Touch class called based on UIViewController called TasksViewController. This screen will allow users to view, create, modify, and delete tasks as well as log out.

To begin, declare some member variables at the top of the new class:

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class TasksViewController: UIViewController {
    let partitionValue: String
    let realm: Realm
    let tasks: Results<Task>
    let tableView = UITableView()

Initialize these values with a new init() method declared next:

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required init(projectRealm: Realm) {
    // Ensure the realm was opened with sync.
    guard let syncConfiguration = projectRealm.configuration.syncConfiguration else {
        fatalError("Sync configuration not found! Realm not opened with sync?");
    }

    realm = projectRealm

    // Partition value must be of string type.
    partitionValue = syncConfiguration.partitionValue.stringValue!

    // Access all tasks in the realm, sorted by _id so that the ordering is defined.
    // Only tasks with the project ID as the partition key value will be in the realm.
    tasks = realm.objects(Task.self).sorted(byKeyPath: "_id")

    super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
}

// Implement this overload of init to satisfy the UIViewController subclass requirement.
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}

This code first checks that the passed-in realm was opened with sync. Since we know we only come to this screen from the WelcomeViewController after successful login and with a sync-enabled realm, this is really just to protect against future programmer errors.

We read the partition value from the realm. We’ll use that when creating Tasks. Then we query for the collection of all tasks within that realm. We sort the Tasks by their _id property so that they always appear in the same relative order.

This collection is live: as we add, remove, and update tasks – even from another device – this collection always contains the latest results of its associated query. We’ll get to reacting to these updates later. First, let’s continue setting up the TasksViewController.

10

Configure the Task List UI

Now set up the UI in the viewDidLoad method. Add a “log out” button on the top left, a title, a table view to display the tasks, and an “add” button on the top right that create tasks:

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override func viewDidLoad() {
    // Configure the view.
    super.viewDidLoad()

    navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Log Out", style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(logOutButtonDidClick))

    title = "My Project"
    tableView.dataSource = self
    tableView.delegate = self
    view.addSubview(tableView)
    tableView.frame = self.view.frame
    navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .add, target: self, action: #selector(addButtonDidClick))
}

11

Implement the Log Out Functionality

When we created the “log out” button, we wired it to a logOutButtonDidClick method that we hadn’t defined yet. Let’s define it now in the TasksViewController:

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@objc func logOutButtonDidClick() {
    let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Log Out", message: "", preferredStyle: .alert);
    alertController.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Yes, Log Out", style: .destructive, handler: {
        alert -> Void in
        print("Logging out...");
        app.logOut(completion: { (error) in
            DispatchQueue.main.sync {
                print("Logged out!");
                self.navigationController?.setViewControllers([WelcomeViewController()], animated: true)
            }
        })
    }))
    alertController.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Cancel", style: .cancel, handler: nil))
    self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}

This simply calls the logOut method on the app we created earlier. In the completion handler, we dispatch to the main thread so that we can navigate back to the welcome screen.

12

Implement the UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDataSource Protocols

In order to act as the table view delegate and data source for the table view, we need to subscribe to the UITableViewDelegate and UITableViewDataSource protocols. Add these to the TasksViewController class definition near the top of the file. When done, the opening line of your class definition should look like this:

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class TasksViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {

Now we can implement the numberOfRowsInSection method for that protocol:

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func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
    return tasks.count
}

…and the cellForRowAt method, which defines what information a given cell contains:

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func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
    // This defines how the Tasks in the list look.
    // We want the task name on the left and some indication of its status on the right.
    let task = tasks[indexPath.row]
    let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "Cell") ?? UITableViewCell(style: .default, reuseIdentifier: "Cell")
    cell.selectionStyle = .none
    cell.textLabel?.text = task.name
    switch (task.statusEnum) {
    case .Open:
        cell.accessoryView = nil
        cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCell.AccessoryType.none
    case .InProgress:
        let label = UILabel.init(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 100, height: 20))
        label.text = "In Progress"
        cell.accessoryView = label
    case .Complete:
        cell.accessoryView = nil
        cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCell.AccessoryType.checkmark
    }
    return cell
}

In this case, we define each task cell to have its task name on the left and a representation of its current status on the right:

• No icon for the “Open” status.
• A checkmark for the “Completed” status.
• The text “In Progress” for the “In Progress” status.

13

Allow the User to Add Tasks

When we created the “add” button, we wired it to an addButtonDidClick method that we hadn’t defined yet. Let’s define it now in the TasksViewController:

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@objc func addButtonDidClick() {
    let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Add Task", message: "", preferredStyle: .alert)

    // When the user clicks the add button, present them with a dialog to enter the task name.
    alertController.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Save", style: .default, handler: { alert -> Void in
        let textField = alertController.textFields![0] as UITextField

        // Create a new Task with the text that the user entered.
        let task = Task(partition: self.partitionValue, name: textField.text ?? "New Task")

        // Any writes to the Realm must occur in a write block.
        try! self.realm.write {
            // Add the Task to the Realm. That's it!
            self.realm.add(task)
        }
    }))
    alertController.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Cancel", style: .cancel, handler: nil))
    alertController.addTextField(configurationHandler: { (textField: UITextField!) -> Void in
        textField.placeholder = "New Task Name"
    })

    // Show the dialog.
    self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}

When the user clicks the “add” button, we present a dialog prompting the user for a new task name. After they enter the name and press “Save”, we construct a new task object with that name.

We must set the partition value of the new task to the partition value that we used to open the realm.

Then, we open a write transaction and add the new task to the realm.

14

Delete Tasks

Users can delete tasks with a swipe. To handle swipes, implement the following method in TasksViewController:

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func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, commit editingStyle: UITableViewCell.EditingStyle, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    guard editingStyle == .delete else { return }

    // User can swipe to delete items.
    let task = tasks[indexPath.row]

    // All modifications to a realm must happen in a write block.
    try! realm.write {
        // Delete the Task.
        realm.delete(task)
    }
}

15

Modify Tasks

When the user selects a task in the list, we want to present them with a list of actions. This is how they an set the status of a task. We can expand functionality by adding more actions later.

Implement the didSelectRowAt method as follows:

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func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
    // User selected a task in the table. We will present a list of actions that the user can perform on this task.
    let task = tasks[indexPath.row]

    // Create the AlertController and add its actions.
    let actionSheet: UIAlertController = UIAlertController(title: task.name, message: "Select an action", preferredStyle: .actionSheet)

    actionSheet.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Cancel", style: .cancel) { _ in
            print("Cancel")
        })

    // If the task is not in the Open state, we can set it to open. Otherwise, that action will not be available.
    // We do this for the other two states -- InProgress and Complete.
    if (task.statusEnum != .Open) {
        actionSheet.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Open", style: .default) { _ in
                // Any modifications to managed objects must occur in a write block.
                // When we modify the Task's state, that change is automatically reflected in the realm.
                try! self.realm.write {
                    task.statusEnum = .Open
                }
            })
    }

    if (task.statusEnum != .InProgress) {
        actionSheet.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Start Progress", style: .default) { _ in
                try! self.realm.write {
                    task.statusEnum = .InProgress
                }
            })
    }

    if (task.statusEnum != .Complete) {
        actionSheet.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Complete", style: .default) { _ in
                try! self.realm.write {
                    task.statusEnum = .Complete
                }
            })
    }

    // Show the actions list.
    self.present(actionSheet, animated: true, completion: nil)
}

We dynamically assemble the list of actions depending on the current status. Ultimately, each action just modifies the task object directly.

The important thing to note is that every modification – whether adding, deleting, or modifying – is always in a realm.write transaction block. Realm does not allow any writes outside of a transaction.

16

React to Changes

So far, we have implemented functionality to create, read, update, and delete tasks in the app. To react to these changes and automatically update the UI to reflect new state, let’s use Realm’s notification system.

Add a new property to the TasksViewController class:

copy

var notificationToken: NotificationToken?

In the init() method implemented earlier, add the following code:

copy

// Observe the tasks for changes.
notificationToken = tasks.observe { [weak self] (changes) in
    guard let tableView = self?.tableView else { return }
    switch changes {
    case .initial:
        // Results are now populated and can be accessed without blocking the UI
        tableView.reloadData()
    case .update(_, let deletions, let insertions, let modifications):
        // Query results have changed, so apply them to the UITableView.
        tableView.beginUpdates()
        // It's important to be sure to always update a table in this order:
        // deletions, insertions, then updates. Otherwise, you could be unintentionally
        // updating at the wrong index!
        tableView.deleteRows(at: deletions.map({ IndexPath(row: $0, section: 0) }),
            with: .automatic)
        tableView.insertRows(at: insertions.map({ IndexPath(row: $0, section: 0) }),
            with: .automatic)
        tableView.reloadRows(at: modifications.map({ IndexPath(row: $0, section: 0) }),
            with: .automatic)
        tableView.endUpdates()
    case .error(let error):
        // An error occurred while opening the Realm file on the background worker thread
        fatalError("\(error)")
    }
}

This observes the tasks in the realm for changes. Upon change, we update the table view accordingly.

Observation continues as long as the notification token is valid. That’s why we stored a strong reference to the result of tasks.observe in a property. When finished observing – for example, because the user navigated to another screen – you should deallocate this notification handler. The deinit method is a convenient place to call the invalidate method on the token. Add the following code to the TasksViewController class:

copy

deinit {
    // Always invalidate any notification tokens when you are done with them.
    notificationToken?.invalidate()
}

17

Test Your App

Congratulations, you have completed the first phase of the tutorial! You should now be able to:

• Compile and run your app.
• Register a new user with email/password authentication.
• Sign in as an existing user.
• View, create, update, and delete tasks.
• Sign out.

Grab a second device, run a second simulator, or edit data in Realm UI and see your app dynamically react to changes.

How did it go? Please leave feedback using the feedback widget on the bottom right of the page.

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