Setup

After you create the Catalyst project and the iOS project, you must follow these steps to set up and integrate the iOS SDK package with your app.

Step 1: Register your iOS app with Catalyst

You can begin by creating a package for the iOS app in Catalyst to register it, and downloading its unique configuration file.

1. Click the Settings icon from your Catalyst console in your project.

2. Navigate to Developer Tools under Project Settings in the settings menu, then click on the iOS tile.

Alternatively, you can click the Add Package button below.

3. Enter a package name that will identify it uniquely. Provide the URL to redirect the end-user to after they login to the app, as the Redirect URL.

The values that you enter here will be auto-filled in the configuration file.

Ensure that iOS is selected as the OS type.

4. Click Create to create the mobile SDK package.

5. The console will then display a window from where you can download the configuration file. Click Download to download the file.

The file will be downloaded with all the required configurations. The properties in this file are explained in the next step.

Step 2: Import the Configuration File in Your iOS Project

Catalyst provides two work environments to develop and build your applications in: a Development sandbox and a live Production environment. You can learn more about them from the Environments help page.

When you create a package in the console, only the development environment’s configuration file will be available for download initially, irrespective of the environment you are working in currently. You can choose to download the configuration file from the console for any environment any time, once the package has been created.

The configuration files of each environment would be named as:

• Development: AppConfigurationDevelopment.plist
• Production: AppConfigurationProduction.plist

Based on the environment that you are working in, you must download and add the appropriate file to Targets -> Runner in your iOS project. To obtain a production environment configuration file, you must deploy your project to production first and then download the file from the Developer Tools settings section.

The configuration file must be added to Targets -> Runner of your iOS project.

Refer to the official iOS documentation for detailed help on iOS project structure.

Properties of the AppConfigurationDevelopment.plist/ AppConfigurationProduction.plist File

The app configuration file defines the properties mentioned in the table below. All these values except the request headers are automatically populated, based on your project’s details or the default standards.

Step 3: Add Catalyst iOS SDK in Your App

The next step is to include the SDK package in your app. You can install the Catalyst SDK libraries using CocoaPods.

To add the Catalyst iOS SDK as a dependency to your new or existing project:

1. Insert the code snippet given below in your project’s Podfile, under your app’s target:

    

        
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         pod 'ZCatalyst', :git => 'https://github.com/zoho/Catalyst-iOS-SDK.git'
    

2. Execute the pod install command from your system’s terminal.

This will install the pod and the Catalyst iOS SDK will be added to your iOS app.

Step 4: Configure App Login Redirection

When a user logs in to your app successfully, they will be redirected to your app’s home screen. This user login and redirection is handled by the Catalyst SDK.

To ensure that this redirection is handled properly, include the key given below with the same configurations in the info.plist file of your iOS project:

Step 5: Initialize the SDK

You must initialize the Catalyst SDK to enable the functioning of the methods and features defined in the SDK package.

Therefore, before you configure your app to consume the SDK methods, you must initialize the SDK in the following way:

    

        
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         public func initSDK( window : UIWindow, environment : ZCatalystEnvironment, appConfiguration : ZCatalystAppConfiguration ) throws
    

Parameters:

• window: The window object that dispatches events to your views
• environment: The environment of your app, either .development or .production.
• appConfiguration: An object containing all the configuration details for the functioning of the SDK.

The environment here indicates if the app is operating in the Development or the Production environment. Similar to including the appropriate plist configuration file based on the environment in your app’s project, you must initialize the SDK for the appropriate environment.

If the SDK is successfully initialized, the app will invoke the component methods and function as intended.

Step 6: Configure Redirection to Application Screen

If the login page configured in your iOS app is from a different domain, you can configure the redirection to your application screen. On successful login, this will redirect you to the application layer.

The code for the UIApplicationinstance is given below:

    

        
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         ZCatalystApp.shared.handleLoginRedirection( _ url : URL, sourceApplication : String?, annotation : Any )  AppDelegate.swift
    

Parameters:

• url: The URL resource that must be opened after a successful login
• sourceApplication: The bundle ID of the app that is requesting to open the URL
• annotation: Additional data that the app wants to send along with the URL

The code for the UIScene instance is given below:

    

        
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         func scene(_ scene: UIScene, openURLContexts URLContexts: Set<UIOpenURLContext>) {
    if let context = URLContexts.first
    {
        ZCatalystApp.shared.handleLoginRedirection(context.url, sourceApplication: context.options.sourceApplication, annotation: context.options.annotation as Any)
    }
}

    

The setup is complete and you can now build your iOS app with Catalyst iOS SDK.