Swift Package for Server-Side and Command-Line Access to CloudKit Web Services
- Introduction
- Features
- Installation
- Usage
- Roadmap
- License
Rather than the CloudKit framework this Swift package uses CloudKit Web Services.. Why?
- Building a Command Line Application
- Use on Linux (or any other non-Apple OS)
- Required for Server-Side Integration (via Vapor)
- Access via AWS Lambda
- Migrating Data from/to CloudKit
... and more
In my case, I was using this for the Vapor back-end for my Apple Watch app Heartwitch. Here's some example code showing how to setup and use MistKit with CloudKit container.
// Example for pulling a todo list from CloudKit
import MistKit
import MistKitNIOHTTP1Token
// setup your connection to CloudKit
let connection = MKDatabaseConnection(
container: "iCloud.com.brightdigit.MistDemo",
apiToken: "****",
environment: .development
)
// setup how to manager your user's web authentication token
let manager = MKTokenManager(storage: MKUserDefaultsStorage(), client: MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient())
// setup your database manager
let database = MKDatabase(
connection: connection,
tokenManager: manager
)
// create your request to CloudKit
let query = MKQuery(recordType: TodoListItem.self)
let request = FetchRecordQueryRequest(
database: .private,
query: FetchRecordQuery(query: query))
// handle the result
database.query(request) { result in
dump(result)
}
// wait for query here...
To wait for the CloudKit query to complete synchronously, you can use CFRunLoop:
...
// handle the result
database.query(request) { result in
dump(result)
// nessecary if you need run this synchronously
CFRunLoopStop(CFRunLoopGetMain())
}
// nessecary if you need run this synchronously
CFRunLoopRun()
Here's what's currently implemented with this library:
- Composing Web Service Requests
- Modifying Records (records/modify)
- Fetching Records Using a Query (records/query)
- Fetching Records by Record Name (records/lookup)
- Fetching Current User Identity (users/caller)
Swift Package Manager is Apple's decentralized dependency manager to integrate libraries to your Swift projects. It is now fully integrated with Xcode 11.
To integrate MistKit into your project using SPM, specify it in your Package.swift file:
let package = Package(
...
dependencies: [
.package(url: "https://github.com/brightdigit/MistKit", from: "0.2.0")
],
targets: [
.target(
name: "YourTarget",
dependencies: ["MistKit", ...]),
...
]
)
There are also products for SwiftNIO as well as Vapor if you are building server-side implmentation:
.target(
name: "YourTarget",
dependencies: ["MistKit",
.product(name: "MistKitNIO", package: "MistKit"), // if you are building a server-side application
.product(name: "MistKitVapor", package: "MistKit") // if you are building a Vapor application
...]
),
MistKit requires a connection be setup with the following properties:
container
name in the format ofiCloud.com.*.*
such asiCloud.com.brightdigit.MistDemo
apiToken
which can be created through the CloudKit Dashboardenvironment
which can be eitherdevelopment
orproduction
Here's an example of how to setup an MKDatabase
:
let connection = MKDatabaseConnection(
container: options.container,
apiToken: options.apiKey,
environment: options.environment)
// setup your database manager
let database = MKDatabase(
connection: connection,
tokenManager: manager
)
Before getting into make an actual request, you should probably know how to make authenticated request for private
or shared
databases.
In order to have access to private
or shared
databases, the Cloud Web Services API require a web authentication token. In order for the MistKit to obtain this, an http server is setup to listen to the callback from CloudKit.
Therefore when you setup your API token, make sure to setup a url for the Sign-In Callback:
Once that's setup, you can setup a MKTokenManager
.
MKTokenManager
requires a MKTokenStorage
for storing the token for later.
There are a few implementations you can use:
MKFileStorage
stores the token as a simple text fileMKUserDefaultsStorage
stores the token usingUserDefaults
MKVaporModelStorage
stores the token in a databaseModel
object viaFluent
MKVaporSessionStorage
stores the token the VaporSession
data
Optionally MistKit can setup a web server for you if needed to listen to web authentication via a MKTokenClient
:
There are a few implementations you can use:
MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient
sets up an http server using SwiftNIO
Here's an example of how you MKDatabase
:
let connection = MKDatabaseConnection(
container: options.container,
apiToken: options.apiKey,
environment: options.environment
)
// setup how to manager your user's web authentication token
let manager = MKTokenManager(
// store the token in UserDefaults
storage: MKUserDefaultsStorage(),
// setup an http server at localhost for port 7000
client: MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient(bindTo: .ipAddress(host: "127.0.0.1", port: 7000))
)
// setup your database manager
let database = MKDatabase(
connection: connection,
tokenManager: manager
)
If you are not building a server-side application, you can use MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient
, by adding MistKitNIO
to your package dependency:
let package = Package(
...
dependencies: [
.package(url: "https://github.com/brightdigit/MistKit", .branch("main")
],
targets: [
.target(
name: "YourTarget",
dependencies: ["MistKit", "MistKitNIOHTTP1Token", ...]),
...
]
)
When a request fails due to authentication failure, MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient
will start an http server to begin listening to web authentication token. By default, MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient
will simply print the url but you can override the onRequestURL
:
public class MKNIOHTTP1TokenClient: MKTokenClient {
public init(bindTo: BindTo, onRedirectURL : ((URL) -> Void)? = nil) {
self.bindTo = bindTo
self.onRedirectURL = onRedirectURL ?? {print($0)}
}
...
}
If you may already have a webAuthenticationToken
, you can use MKStaticTokenManager
. This is a read-only implementation of MKTokenManagerProtocol
which takes a read-only String?
for the webAuthenticationToken
.
Here's some sample code I use in my Vapor app Heartwitch for pulling the webAuthenticationToken
from my database and using that token when I create a MKDatabase
instance.
import MistKit
import MistKitVapor
extension Application {
...
var cloudKitConnection: MKDatabaseConnection {
MKDatabaseConnection(
container: configuration.cloudkitContainer,
apiToken: configuration.cloudkitAPIKey,
environment: environment.cloudKitEnvironment
)
}
func cloudKitDatabase(using client: Client, withWebAuthenticationToken webAuthenticationToken: String? = nil) -> MKDatabase<MKVaporClient> {
MKDatabase(
connection: cloudKitConnection,
client: MKVaporClient(client: client),
tokenManager: MKStaticTokenManager(token: webAuthenticationToken, client: nil)
)
}
}
struct DeviceController {
func fetch(_ request: Request) throws -> EventLoopFuture<MKServerResponse<[DeviceResponseItem]>> {
let user = try request.auth.require(User.self)
let userID = try user.requireID()
let token = user.$appleUsers.query(on: request.db).field(\.$webAuthenticationToken).first().map { $0?.webAuthenticationToken }
let cloudKitDatabase: EventLoopFuture<MKDatabase> = token.map {
request.application.cloudKitDatabase(using: request.client, withWebAuthenticationToken: $0)
}
let cloudKitRequest = FetchRecordQueryRequest(
database: .private,
query: FetchRecordQuery(query: query)
)
let newEntries = cloudKitDatabase.flatMap {
let cloudKitResult = cloudKitDatabase.query(cloudKitRequest, on: request.eventLoop)
}
return newEntries.mistKitResponse()
}
...
}
Besides static strings, you can store your tokens in the session or in your database.
In the mistdemod
demo Vapor application, there's an example of how to create an MKDatabase
based on the request using both MKVaporModelStorage
and MKVaporSessionStorage
:
extension MKDatabase where HttpClient == MKVaporClient {
init(request: Request) {
let storage: MKTokenStorage
if let user = request.auth.get(User.self) {
storage = MKVaporModelStorage(model: user)
} else {
storage = MKVaporSessionStorage(session: request.session)
}
let manager = MKTokenManager(storage: storage, client: nil)
let options = MistDemoDefaultConfiguration(apiKey: request.application.cloudKitAPIKey)
let connection = MKDatabaseConnection(container: options.container, apiToken: options.apiKey, environment: options.environment)
// use the webAuthenticationToken which is passed
if let token = options.token {
manager.webAuthenticationToken = token
}
self.init(connection: connection, factory: nil, client: MKVaporClient(client: request.client), tokenManager: manager)
}
}
In this case, for the User
model needs to implement MKModelStorable
.
final class User: Model, Content {
...
@Field(key: "cloudKitToken")
var cloudKitToken: String?
}
extension User: MKModelStorable {
static var tokenKey: KeyPath<User, Field<String?>> = \User.$cloudKitToken
}
The MKModelStorable
protocol ensures that the Model
contains the properties needed for storing the web authentication token.
While the command line tool needs a MKTokenClient
to listen for the callback from CloudKit, with a server-side application you can just add a API call. Here's an example which listens for the ckWebAuthToken
and saves it to the User
:
struct CloudKitController: RouteCollection {
func token(_ request: Request) -> EventLoopFuture<HTTPStatus> {
guard let token: String = request.query["ckWebAuthToken"] else {
return request.eventLoop.makeSucceededFuture(.notFound)
}
guard let user = request.auth.get(User.self) else {
request.cloudKitAPI.webAuthenticationToken = token
return request.eventLoop.makeSucceededFuture(.accepted)
}
user.cloudKitToken = token
return user.save(on: request.db).transform(to: .accepted)
}
func boot(routes: RoutesBuilder) throws {
routes.get(["token"], use: token)
}
}
If you have an app which already uses Apple's existing CloudKit API, you can also save the webAuthenticationToken to your database with a CKFetchWebAuthTokenOperation
.
There are two ways to fetch records:
- using an
MKAnyQuery
to fetchMKAnyRecord
items - using a custom type which implements
MKQueryRecord
To fetch as MKAnyRecord
, simply create MKAnyQuery
with the matching recordType
(i.e. schema name).
// create your request to CloudKit
let query = MKAnyQuery(recordType: "TodoListItem")
let request = FetchRecordQueryRequest(
database: .private,
query: FetchRecordQuery(query: query)
)
// handle the result
database.perform(request: request) { result in
do {
try print(result.get().records.information)
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
completed(nil)
}
This will give you MKAnyRecord
items which contain a fields
property with your values:
public struct MKAnyRecord: Codable {
public let recordType: String
public let recordName: UUID?
public let recordChangeTag: String?
public let fields: [String: MKValue]
...
The MKValue
type is an enum which contains the type and value of the field.
In order to use a custom type for requests, you need to implement MKQueryRecord
. Here's an example of a todo item which contains a title property:
public class TodoListItem: MKQueryRecord {
// required property and methods for MKQueryRecord
public static var recordType: String = "TodoItem"
public static var desiredKeys: [String]? = ["title"]
public let recordName: UUID?
public let recordChangeTag: String?
public required init(record: MKAnyRecord) throws {
recordName = record.recordName
recordChangeTag = record.recordChangeTag
title = try record.string(fromKey: "title")
}
public var fields: [String: MKValue] {
return ["title": .string(title)]
}
// custom fields and methods to `TodoListItem`
public var title: String
public init(title: String) {
self.title = title
recordName = nil
recordChangeTag = nil
}
}
Now you can create an MKQuery
using your custom type.
// create your request to CloudKit
let query = MKQuery(recordType: TodoListItem.self)
let request = FetchRecordQueryRequest(
database: .private,
query: FetchRecordQuery(query: query)
)
// handle the result
database.query(request) { result in
do {
try print(result.get().information)
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
completed(nil)
}
Rather than using MKDatabase.perform(request:)
, use MKDatabase.query(_ query:)
and MKDatabase
will decode the value to your custom type.
Coming Soon
let recordNames : [UUID] = [...]
let query = LookupRecordQuery(TodoListItem.self, recordNames: recordNames)
let request = LookupRecordQueryRequest(database: .private, query: query)
database.lookup(request) { result in
try? print(result.get().count)
}
Coming Soon
let request = GetCurrentUserIdentityRequest()
database.perform(request: request) { (result) in
try? print(result.get().userRecordName)
}
Coming Soon
let item = TodoListItem(title: title)
let operation = ModifyOperation(operationType: .create, record: item)
let query = ModifyRecordQuery(operations: [operation])
let request = ModifyRecordQueryRequest(database: .private, query: query)
database.perform(operations: request) { result in
do {
try print(result.get().updated.information)
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
completed(nil)
}
In order to delete and update records, you are required to already have the object fetched from CloudKit. Therefore you'll need to run a LookupRecordQueryRequest
or FetchRecordQueryRequest
to get access to the record. Once you have access to the records, simply create a delete operation with your record:
let query = LookupRecordQuery(TodoListItem.self, recordNames: recordNames)
let request = LookupRecordQueryRequest(database: .private, query: query)
database.lookup(request) { result in
let items: [TodoListItem]
do {
items = try result.get()
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
let operations = items.map { (item) in
ModifyOperation(operationType: .delete, record: item)
}
let query = ModifyRecordQuery(operations: operations)
let request = ModifyRecordQueryRequest(database: .private, query: query)
database.perform(operations: request) { result in
do {
try print("Deleted \(result.get().deleted.count) items.")
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
completed(nil)
}
}
Similarly with updating records, you are required to already have the object fetched from CloudKit. Again, run a LookupRecordQueryRequest
or FetchRecordQueryRequest
to get access to the record. Once you have access to the records, simply create a update operation with your record:
let query = LookupRecordQuery(TodoListItem.self, recordNames: [recordName])
let request = LookupRecordQueryRequest(database: .private, query: query)
database.lookup(request) { result in
let items: [TodoListItem]
do {
items = try result.get()
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
let operations = items.map { (item) -> ModifyOperation<TodoListItem> in
item.title = self.newTitle
return ModifyOperation(operationType: .update, record: item)
}
let query = ModifyRecordQuery(operations: operations)
let request = ModifyRecordQueryRequest(database: .private, query: query)
database.perform(operations: request) { result in
do {
try print("Updated \(result.get().updated.count) items.")
} catch {
completed(error)
return
}
completed(nil)
}
}
If you are building a server-side application and already using SwiftNIO, you might want to take advantage of some helpers which will work already existing patterns and APIs available. Primarily EventLoops from SwiftNIO and the respective HTTP clients from SwiftNIO and Vapor.
If you are building a server-side application in SwiftNIO (or Vapor), you are likely using EventLoops and EventLoopFuture for asyncronous programming. EventLoopFutures are essentially the Future/Promise implementation of SwiftNIO. Luckily there are helper methods in MistKit which provide EventLoopFutures similar to the way they implmented in SwiftNIO. These implementations augment the already existing callback:
public extension MKDatabase {
func query<RecordType>(
_ query: FetchRecordQueryRequest<MKQuery<RecordType>>,
on eventLoop: EventLoop
) -> EventLoopFuture<[RecordType]>
func perform<RecordType>(
operations: ModifyRecordQueryRequest<RecordType>,
on eventLoop: EventLoop
) -> EventLoopFuture<ModifiedRecordQueryResult<RecordType>>
func lookup<RecordType>(
_ lookup: LookupRecordQueryRequest<RecordType>,
on eventLoop: EventLoop
) -> EventLoopFuture<[RecordType]>
func perform<RequestType: MKRequest, ResponseType>(
request: RequestType,
on eventLoop: EventLoop
) -> EventLoopFuture<ResponseType> -> EventLoopFuture<ResponseType>
where RequestType.Response == ResponseType
}
Also if you are using the results as Content
for a Vapor HTTP response, MistKit provides a MKServerResponse
enum type which distinguishes between an authentication failure (with the redirect URL) and an actual success.
public enum MKServerResponse<Success>: Codable where Success: Codable {
public init(attemptRecoveryFrom error: Error) throws
case failure(URL)
case success(Success)
}
Besides EventLoopFuture, you can also use a different HTTP client for calling CloudKit Web Services.
By default, MistKit uses URLSession
for making HTTP calls to the CloudKit Web Service via the MKURLSessionClient
:
public struct MKURLSessionClient: MKHttpClient {
public init(session: URLSession) {
self.session = session
}
public func request(withURL url: URL, data: Data?) -> MKURLRequest
}
However if you are using SwiftNIO or Vapor, it makes more sense the use their HTTP clients for making those calls:
- For SwiftNIO, there's
MKAsyncClient
which uses anHTTPClient
provided by theAsyncHTTPClient
library - For Vapor, there's
MKVaporClient
which uses anClient
provided by theVapor
library
In the mistdemod example, you can see how to use a Vapor Request
to create an MKDatabase
with the client
property of the Request
:
extension MKDatabase where HttpClient == MKVaporClient {
init(request: Request) {
let manager: MKTokenManager
let connection : MKDatabaseConnection
self.init(
connection: connection,
factory: nil,
client: MKVaporClient(client: request.client),
tokenManager: manager
)
}
}
There are two examples on how to do basic CRUD methods in CloudKit via MistKit:
- As a command line tool using Swift Argument Parser checkout the
mistdemoc
Swift package executable here - And a server-side Vapor application
mistdemod
here
- Composing Web Service Requests
- Modifying Records (records/modify)
- Fetching Records Using a Query (records/query)
- Fetching Records by Record Name (records/lookup)
- Fetching Current User Identity (users/caller)
- Vapor Token Client
- Vapor Token Storage
- Vapor URL Client
- Swift NIO URL Client
- Date Field Types
- Location Field Types
- List Field Types
- System Field Integration
- Name Component Types
- Discovering User Identities (POST users/discover)
- Discovering All User Identities (GET users/discover)
- Support
postMessage
for Authentication Requests
- Uploading Assets (assets/upload)
- Referencing Existing Assets (assets/rereference)
- Fetching Records Using a Query (records/query) w/ basic filtering
- Fetching Contacts (users/lookup/contacts)
- Fetching Users by Email (users/lookup/email)
- Fetching Users by Record Name (users/lookup/id)
- Reference Field Types
- Error Codes
- Handle Data Size Limits
- Fetching Record Changes (records/changes)
- Fetching Record Information (records/resolve)
- Accepting Share Records (records/accept)
- Fetching Zones (zones/list)
- Fetching Zones by Identifier (zones/lookup)
- Modifying Zones (zones/modify)
- Fetching Database Changes (changes/database)
- Fetching Record Zone Changes (changes/zone)
- Fetching Zone Changes (zones/changes)
- Fetching Subscriptions (subscriptions/list)
- Fetching Subscriptions by Identifier (subscriptions/lookup)
- Modifying Subscriptions (subscriptions/modify)
- Creating APNs Tokens (tokens/create)
- Registering Tokens (tokens/register)
- Fetching Current User (users/current) deprecated
This code is distributed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.