Resources

• Swift Sample App
• Objective-C Sample App
• tvOS Sample App
• AirshipKit Docs
• AirshipLocationKit Docs
• AirshipAppExtensions Docs
• Troubleshooting guide
• Github Repo (SDK & Sample Apps)
• SDK migration guides

An Important Note about Location

As of Spring 2019, Apple has begun rejecting applications that use, or appear to use, Core Location services without supplying usage descriptions in their Info.plist files. In Airship SDK 11.0, all references to CoreLocation were removed from the core library and placed in a separate location module. Developers with no need for location services can continue to use AirshipKit as before, but for those who have been using the UALocation class, see the Location sections for updated setup instructions.

Apple Setup

Before you can integrate Airship into your iOS apps, there are a handful of steps you must take on the Apple end of things, which requires membership in the iOS Developer Program.

We will be using the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) as the transport method for iOS push notifications. In the next section we will configure a development and production app for push services.

Production vs. Development Apps

When you create or edit an Airship project (and thus its application record on our server), you must select whether your app system is Test (development for sending test messages), or Live (production for sending messages to customers). Apple treats the two servers separately, so a device token for test/sandbox will not work on live/production. Because of this, we suggest making two projects in the Airship dashboard. That way you can continue to build and develop your application even after releasing it, without interrupting your users.

Apple provides two primary types of SSL certificates: The APNs Development iOS certificate and the Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production) certificate. The Sandbox & Production certificate can be used on both test/sandbox and live/production apps, while the APNs Development iOS certificate may only be used with test/sandbox iOS apps.

When building your app using a development provisioning profile, set your Airship project to Test, and upload an APNs Development iOS or Apple Push Services SSL certificate. To push to an app built with a distribution provisioning profile (either with a release build in Xcode, ad hoc distribution, or the iTunes App Store), use a project that is designated as Live, and upload an Apple Push Services SSL certificate.

 Note

To support Catalyst apps in Xcode 11+, it's necessary that your app be built with a provisioning profile that includes an Apple Developer certificate (for use in Xcode 11 or later) and the Mac capability listed under Enabled Capabilities:

Get Your Certificate

1. Log in to the Apple Developer Member Center, and navigate to Account » Certificates, IDs & Profiles, or use this direct link.

2. In the left side menu, click Identifiers to open the identifiers section.

   

    Note

   If you have not already registered an iOS App ID, click the + button, select App IDs radio button and then click the Continue button:

   

   Next, fill out the Register an App ID form making sure to check the Push Notifications checkbox, and click the Continue button. Then you can skip to step 4.

   

   

3. Click your app's name from the list of App IDs. In the list of Application Services you will see a Push Notifications section with a configure button:

   

   Click the Configure button to continue to the Apple Push Notification service SSL Certificates section. The button will be labeled Edit if it has been configured previously.
    Note

   If the Configure/Edit button is not available, you may not be the team agent or an admin. The person who originally created the developer account is your team agent, and they will have to carry out the remaining steps in this section.

4. Click the Create Certificate button to create a Production SSL Certificate. This will generate an Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production) certificate compatible with both the Production and Development environments.

You should now see the Create New Certificate section to generate an Apple Push Notification service SSL (Sandbox & Production) certificate:

1. Follow the instructions to create a certificate signing request in the Create New Certificate section, then click Continue after your certificate signing request is uploaded.
   
   You can now use the newly-created Certificate Signing request to generate the APNs Push SSL certificate. The next step requires the Download button to be active. You may need to reload the page if it is not yet active.

2. Click the Download button, and save the file for use in the final step, Exporting your .p12 file.

   

   
   

Renewing Your Certificate

If you are renewing either your Test or Live Push SSL Certificate, follow the steps outlined above as if you were uploading the certificate for the first time. There is no need to revoke the previous certificate in order to make this change. There may be two production certificates at the same time, to allow you to continue using the old certificate while uploading the new one.

Export as a .p12 File

You're almost there. The final step before heading back over to the Airship application is to save your signing certificate as a .p12 file.

1. Open the certificate you downloaded in the previous steps, which should open in the Keychain Access app. The certificate should be listed in My Certificates.

   

   
   
2. Click the certificate in the list, then from the File menu, select Export Items....

   

    Note

   Be sure to select My Certificates under the Category menu on the lower left-hand side. If My Certificates is not highlighted, you will not be able to export the certificate as a .p12 file.

3. Save the file in the Personal Information Exchange (.p12) format.

   

   You will be prompted to create a certificate password. Use this password in the next step: Configure the APNs Service.

Airship Steps

Configure your iOS project for push notifications in the Airship web portal.

Configure the APNs Service

These steps require the certificate and password you generated in the previous section.

1. Open your project from the Airship dashboard, and go to Settings » Channels » Mobile App Platforms.

2. Click Configure for iOS, enter the Certificate password, then Choose File and select the .p12 file exported in the completed Apple Steps.

3. Click Save.

Your push certificate is now uploaded and ready for use. In the next section we will configure the Airship iOS SDK.

SDK Installation

The Airship SDK can be installed using CocoaPods, Carthage, or manually. Pick the option that makes the most sense for your project.

CocoaPods

Before you begin, ensure that you have CocoaPods installed. If you are having troubles with CocoaPods, check out the troubleshooting guide.

Update the podfile

Specify the UrbanAirship-iOS-SDK pod, and optionally, the UrbanAirship-iOS-Location pod in your podfile. Make sure to add the flag use_frameworks!.

Example podfile:

use_frameworks!

# Airship SDK
target "<Your Target Name>" do
  pod 'UrbanAirship-iOS-SDK'
  # Optional: uncomment to install AirshipLocationKit
  # pod 'UrbanAirship-iOS-Location'
end

Explicitly specify the tvOS platform in your podfile when targeting tvOS. Cocoapods automatic platform selection can also be used if the platform must be left unspecified.

When targeting tvOS - specify the platform in your podfile:

Install the pods

After running pod install, an Xcode workspace (extension .xcworkspace) will be generated. Make sure to always open it instead of the project file (extension .xcodeproj) when building your projects.

Advanced Installation

• Carthage
• Manual

Notification Service Extension

Create a new iOS target in Xcode

In Xcode, click the File menu, select New » Target..., then click the Notification Service Extension template.

Typically extensions are named with a suffix on the main application's ID. In this example the bundle identifier would be com.urbanairship.sample.ExampleServiceExtension.

Check that your app's target Embed App Extensions contains your newly created extension.

Then in your project's Build Settings you must set the iOS Deployment Target to iOS 11+.

Install AirshipAppExtensions

CocoaPods

Specify the UrbanAirship-iOS-AppExtensions in your podfile and your newly created service extension as the target. Make sure to run pod install after modifying the podfile.

Example podfile:

target "SampleExtension" do
  pod 'UrbanAirship-iOS-AppExtensions'
end

Install using the following command:

Carthage

Before you begin, ensure you have Carthage installed.

Adding the SDK framework to your application

Follow Carthage's adding frameworks to an application instructions to add AirshipAppExtensions.framework to your application.

If you are also using the Airship SDK, follow the instructions in the iOS SDK Guide.

Specify the Airship iOS SDK in your cartfile:

Verify Enable Modules and Link Frameworks Automatically are enabled in the project's Build Settings.

Manual

Follow the same manual process to install AirshipAppExtensions.xcframework as you followed to install AirshipKit.xcframework, except add AirshipAppExtensions.xcframework to your service extension target.

Modify the Extension

Extension:

// Notification.swift

import AirshipAppExtensions

class NotificationService: UAMediaAttachmentExtension {

}

// NotificationService.h

@import AirshipAppExtensions;

@interface NotificationService : UAMediaAttachmentExtension

@end

// NotificationService.m

@import Foundation;
import "NotificationService.h"

@implementation NotificationService

@end

Delete all dummy source code for your new extension and inherit from UAMediaAttachmentExtension in NotificationService.

Update the Target's Capabilities

Use Xcode to enable push notifications in the target's Capabilities pane:

Enable background notifications that were introduced in iOS 7 by including the UIBackgroundModes key with the remote-notification value in your app's Info.plist file. When viewing the plist in Xcode, UIBackgroundModes is displayed as Required background modes and remote-notification is displayed as App downloads content in response to push notifications.

You can also enable Background Modes and Remote notifications under the target's Capabilities section:

Create Airship Config Options

Create a plist AirshipConfig.plist and include it in your application's target. The default config will be loaded from the AirshipConfig.plist file if its included in the application target.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>developmentAppKey</key>
  <string>Your Development App Key</string>
  <key>developmentAppSecret</key>
  <string>Your Development App Secret</string>
  <key>productionAppKey</key>
  <string>Your Production App Key</string>
  <key>productionAppSecret</key>
  <string>Your Production App Secret</string>
</dict>
</plist>

TakeOff

The Airship SDK requires only a single entry point in the app delegate, known as takeOff. Inside your application delegate's application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method, initialize a shared UAirship instance by calling UAirship takeOff . This will bootstrap the SDK and look for settings specified in the AirshipConfig.plist config file.

import AirshipKit

...

func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
    ...

    UAirship.takeOff(config)

    return true
}

@import AirshipKit;

...

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    ...

    [UAirship takeOff];

    return YES;
}

Send Your First Push Notification

At this point in the guide, if you followed all the steps above you should be ready to send a test push notification to verify everything is set up properly.

Before sending a push, you must enable user notifications. The SDK does not enable user notifications by default in order to avoid prompting the user for permissions before your app is ready to do so. But for a testing purposes, you can enable user notifications in the app delegate immediately after takeOff. You may also want to set default foreground presentation options to display the notification in the foreground. For more information on customizing push notifications or receiving callbacks, see Push Notifications.

UAirship.push().userPushNotificationsEnabled = true
UAirship.push().defaultPresentationOptions = [.alert, .badge, .sound]

[UAirship push].userPushNotificationsEnabled = YES;
[UAirship push].defaultPresentationOptions = (UNNotificationPresentationOptionAlert |
                                              UNNotificationPresentationOptionBadge |
                                              UNNotificationPresentationOptionSound);

See Send Your First Message or our API reference for details on sending the first notification.

Deep Linking

Deep linking is a technique that allows an app to be opened to a specific UI or resource, in response to some external event. By implementing a deep linking strategy, your app becomes more responsive and capable of navigation to arbitrary content in response to push notifications, much in the same way that URLs can link you to specific pages on the Web.

With the Actions Framework, the Airship SDK now supports opening deep links from push notifications, and through Rich HTML content interactions. Because there is no one standard means of performing deep linking, this support only provides a consistent interface for triggering deep links. As an application developer, you still need to pick a deep linking strategy and perform some manual integration to be able to take advantage of this feature.

There are two common strategies for deep linking in iOS. For most applications, implementing the UADeepLinkDelegate will be the preferred strategy. This allows complete control over URL processing and sidesteps the need to register a unique URL scheme with the operating system. The alternative strategy is to register a unique URL scheme with the operating system and handle URL processing in the App Delegate's openURL: callback.

Implementing the Deep Link Delegate

Deep linking is most easily accomplished by implementing the deep link delegate's receivedDeepLink:completionHandler: callback. This allow your app to process the URL provided in a UADeepLinkAction and use it to navigate to the desired view within your app.

- (void)receivedDeepLink:(NSURL *_Nonnull)url completionHandler:(void (^_Nonnull)(void))completionHandler {
    NSArray *pathComponents = url.pathComponents;

    if ([pathComponents containsObject:ViewStoryboardID]) {
        // Navigate to desired view
    }

    // Call completion handler
    completionHandler();
}

func receivedDeepLink(_ url: URL, completionHandler: @escaping () -> ()) {
    let pathComponents = url.pathComponents

    if pathComponents.contains(ViewStoryboardID) {
      // Navigate to desired view
    }

    // Call completion handler
    completionHandler()
}