Today in high tech world data security is a very important parameter if your application is storing user and business information. When it comes to the mobile application it is not guaranteed the user will use the secure network channel to communicate to the remote server and if the user is using unsecured wireless network there are changes that the hacker can easily get the sensitive data from the application.

As we all know apple insists on security and data privacy and it is best known for it. So we as developers should also give the same flavor to the user of our application and should always consider data security as one of the impotent pillars while writing the architecture of the application.

In Swift, there is a different easy way to achieve the data security either by using iOS keychain(with keychain wrapper), data protection(in capabilities ), third-party library, or built-in libraries.

iOS KeyChain

Keychain offers a secure alternative to store sensitive data other than UserDefault, plist or similar methods. One can easily save high sensitive data such as username, password,accessKey etc.

Storing small and simple bits of data such as API Key, UserId etc are simple and easy to store in UserDefault but it is no more secure. Hacker can easily read the values of the user-default from the device. Apple has provided keychain services API to deal with this security problem and help developers build apps that safely handle passwords and other sensitive information.

Keychain is quick and fast because data encryption automatically is taken care of before it is stored in the file system so there is no need to waste time building encryption algorithms. It can be configured to lock and when it is locked it is impossible to access and decrypt stored keychain items. In iOS, the keychain is locked when the device is locked and unlocked when the device is unlocked. Also even when it is unlocked, only apps that have created an item can access it, unless configured otherwise. You can also configure it to accessing keychains items across apps

Implement Keychain API directly for storing and retrieving data is the torturous job and it is time-consuming too.another option is to use wrapper class which is easy and fast there are many wrapper libraries are available on Github and cocoapods.com.

List of Good Wrapper class as follows.

       1.swiftKeychainWrapper By Jason Rendel for swift

https://github.com/jrendel/SwiftKeychainWrapper.

     2.Locksmith by Matthew Palmer for Swift

        https://github.com/matthewpalmer/Locksmith.

3.Samkeychain by sam soffes for objective c

https://github.com/soffes/samkeychain.

A wrapper class gives top-level function such as add, edit and delete keychain item which is common to every wrapper class and each wrapper has its own slightly unique syntax and configurable options but they more or less follow the same pattern. Here I’m going to use swiftKeychainWrapper by Jason to demonstrate functionality

You can either install the swiftKeychainWrapper by pod or drag-drop the git project file into your project.

Assume that you have installed the pod/drag-drop the project below is the usage.

Adding item to the keychain.

let saveSuccessful: Bool = KeychainWrapper.standard.set(“Some String”, forKey: “myKey”)

Retrieve a string value from keychain:

let retrievedString: String? = KeychainWrapper.standard.string(forKey: “myKey”)

Remove a string value from keychain:

let removeSuccessful: Bool = KeychainWrapper.standard.removeObject(forKey: “myKey”)

import UIKit

import SwiftKeychainWrapper

class ViewController: UIViewController {

   @IBOutlet weak var passwordtxt: UITextField!

   override func viewDidLoad() {

       super.viewDidLoad()

   }

   @IBAction func savePasswordBtnClicked(_ sender: Any) {

       //

      if let password = passwordtxt.text

       {

       let dataSaved:Bool = KeychainWrapper.standard.set(password , forKey: “userPassword”)

           print(“password saved sucessfull:\(dataSaved)”)

       }

   }

   @IBAction func retrievePasswordBtnClicked(_ sender: Any) {

       let retrievedPassword: String? = KeychainWrapper.standard.string(forKey: “userPassword”)

       print(“Saved Password \(retrievedPassword ?? “No Password saved”)”)

   }

}

OutPut.

password saved sucessfull:true

Saved Password p@$$word

Removing an item from keychain.

let keyRemoved: Bool = KeychainWrapper.standard.remove(key: “userPassword“)

Data Protection:

There is another simple and easy way to enable the security layer on your app is by using the data protection feature in your project. It uses built-in hardware to store files in an encrypted format on disk and to decrypt them on demand.if data protection is enabled, protected files are inaccessible even to the app that created them if the device is locked by passcode or touch id.

How to enable Data Protection: Data protection can be enabled by turning on the data protection in Capability Tab of the project setting.

Now, if any of the files are created on the local device it is protected. The file can be created by Data and FileManager class.

Third party library:

RNCryptor and CryptoSwift are the two popular libraries available in ios for encryption data. It is easily available on GitHub.AES is an encryption technique commonly used. Best thing to use this library is it gets you up and running very quickly without having to worry about the underlying details the code is also open source so it is easy to analyze and audit it . We can also make changes as per any custom requirements into it. feature available in RNCryptor is AES-256 encryption, CBC mode, Password stretching with PBKDF2, Random IV, Encrypt then hash HMAC

Try This

OutPut

Swift has covered a long journey from the date it was announced in WWDC till the last stable release in Oct 2018.during this phase there were many changes related to feature wise and also syntax-wise. Through version 3.0 the syntax of the swift went through significant evolution, with the core team making source stability a focus in later versions. In the first quarter of 2018 swift surpassed Objective -C in measured popularity.

Check the latest update in Swift 4

Swift 4.0 released in 2017, introduced several changes to some built-in classes and structures.also apple send out a notice to developers letting them know that starting in April of 2018, all new apps submitted to the App Store must be built using iOS 11 SDK which can be only done by Xcode 9 and later.

Migrating older codebase are  mandatory for support to iOS 11 SDK.I’m assuming that you have swift codebase in 2.xx and i will guide you the tips and tricks to migrate the whole code base to the latest swift.let’s start with the upgrading to new swift 4.

Note : If your code base is in swift 2.x and you wanted to upgrade to latest swift then it is better to first migrate it to swift 3 by using Xcode 8.xx and then go for swift 4.xx to avoid complications

How to reach 2.x to 3.x?

First download Xcode 8.x.Xcode 8 comes with a Swift Migrator tool that helps you migrate your project to swift 3.x and also update it new SDKs.When you open your project with Xcode 8.x for the first time you will be prompt with the inbuild migration assistant to do a migration process. In case if you miss the prompt the assistant can also be invoked manually from the Xcode menu Edit | Convert |To Current Swift Syntax Now just choose the version and the target to migrate.

Now click next it will bring up the Generate Preview sheet and the assistant will initiate a migration to get source changes. when this is done, now you will be presented with all the changes that will be applied once you click ‘Save’.

Once the conversion is done Xcode show’s the original code and the converted code , the original source is on the right and the changes done by the tool are on the left.Y ou can still make the changes to the left side if you feel like. Now save the changes Xcode will save that changes to the original file. After doing this just clean the project and build it. All the error are not fixed by the migrator tool some error is to be done by the manual process, now we are good to go phase 2.

3.x to 4.x  

Once you have done with the migration to swift 3.x now open the same project in the latest Xcode. Here again, we have to open the migration tool and follow the same process as we have to do in process one of migrating the code.

Required Changes After Migration Tool.

There are some changes which are to be done manually after the migration tool has done with the changes. Here are a few of the most common changes that we had to make.

Closure parameter labels – Swift 3 removed support for argument labels in function types this requires to removing parameter labels from closures. Here we simply remove the argument labels in the closures.  

Optional protocol functions

Signatures for UIKit protocol delegate methods have changed for many classes UITableViewController and UICollectionViewController.

For Example:

Func tableView(tableView:UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath:NSIndexPath) has changed to : func tableView(_ tableView:UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath).

Private Changed to File Private

Private declarations are now changes to file-private which is the new keyword that behaves exactly as private for restricting access to the current file. The new file-private allows access only within the current declaration, restricting access even further than before.

Multiple unwrapping conditions

To add Multiple conditions in conditional unwrapping we can trim down the ‘let’ keyword but now it is required.

//This will not work with swift 3.0

If let x = getSetX(),y = getSetY() {

…..

….

}   

//Swift 3.0

If let x = getSetX(),let y = getSetY() {

…..

….

}

Conditions no longer contain where

Before we can use where clause with the conditions making our if let statement more readable but swift 3.0 where is removed.  

// Not work with swift 3.0

If let x = getSetX(), where x== true {

…..

….

}

//Work with swift 3.0

If let x = getSetX(), x== true {

…..

….

}

Vast Renaming

There are vast changes in the class, methods name but you do not have to worry about it will be done automatically by the migration tool, here are the some of the common ones that you’ll likely to run into.

The NS prefix has been removed from the vast majority of APIs and many singleton-like patterns are no longer methods but properties. Also, sharedManager or sharedApplication is now just shared.

NSNotificationCenter,defaultCenter() is now NotificationCenter.default with additional renaming such as postNotificationName -> post

Names for notifications are no longer strings but enums of the type Notification.Name

NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource is now Bundle.main.path

.respondsToSelector() is now .responds(to:#selector())

componentsSeparatedByString(“.”) is now components(separatedBy:”.”)

NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults() is now userDefaults.standard with additional renaming such as objectForKey() -> object(forKey:)

NSProcessInfo.processInfo is now ProcessInfo.processInfo

enumerate() on arrays and dictionaries is now enumerated()

NSFileManager.defaultManager() is now FileManager.default

NSDate is now just Date

NSDateFormatter is now just DateFormatter

NSUTF8StringEncoding is now much more reasonably named with String.Encoding.utf8

Dispatch_queue_create and similar have been drastically simplified to names such as DispatchQueue.

These are just some of the big items you’ll run into when looking at your Migration tools Diff.

Swift 4.2.1 is finally released !.New Xcode 10.1 comes with the latest swift 4.2.1 and with the bundle of the feature with it. Swift latest release will really provide the great features which will definitely save the developer’s time and complexity in coding. Swift 4.2.1 release majorly targets for code optimization and run time performance.

Boolean Toggling

Now it is easy to toggle the boolean value just by calling the function.toggle() function can be used to change the boolean state of the variable from true to false and vice versa.

Try this:

var userPromoCode = false

userPromoCode.toggle()

Here after the execution of the code the value of userPromoCode will be True.toggle() function help in means of readability and easiness if your write complex data structure.

Random Method

For randomizing the number we use C API method arc4random_uniform(10) till now,  which is included in foundation library.Now swift has its own function to do this random() function can be used to generate a range of the random number on whatever numeric type you like. Randomization is not limit to numeric type collection can also be use it .shuffle() and shuffled() are two  methods can be used for collections to shuffle the content of the collection safely.

Try this:

let  random_Num     = Int.random(in:0 ..< 10)

let  random_Float    = Float.random(in:0..< 10)

For Collections.

var diceRoll = [1,2,3,4,5,6]

diceRoll.shuffle()

print(“Dice Rolled \(diceRoll)”)

let itemShuffled = diceRoll.shuffled()      //Returns shuffled array

print(“Dice Rolled \()”)

Sequence Methods

Any one with Java back ground will love this new sequence method in swift .Sequence Methods are used for find the element,Index of match element and direct index of the elements.

last(where:) , lastIndex(where:) , lastIndex(of:) are the methods introduced in swift out which two requires a closure as an argument and last requires the elements to be searched.

Try this.

1.let numberArr = [30,50,60,10,5,12,46,67]

print(“Last Highest Number \(numberArr.last(where:{$0 > 50}))”)

// Prints 67

$0 is the first value compare with the other elements

print(“Last Highest Number \(numberArr.lastIndex(where:{$0 > 50}))”)

// Prints 7

print(“Last Highest Number \(numberArr.astIndex(of:60))”)

// Prints 2

Sequence method not yet done we have allSatisfy(_:) that validate every element and return true  if all match a given condition.

let numArr = [30,50,60,10,4,12,46,68]

let isEvenArr = numArr.allSatisfy({$0 % 2 == 0 })

// isEvenArr hold True value.

removeAll(where:) method remove all items in collection which matches the condition.

Try this

Let empName = [“sam”,”Rocky”,”Smith”,”logan”]

empName.removeAll{$0.hasSuffix(“ky”)}

print(empName)

//Prints sam,logan,smith

Dynamic Member Lookup

Dynamic member lookup allows swift to call a subscript method when accessing properties. It is the easiest way of accessing property just by using dot operator . Once  you register your class/struct with @dynamicMemberLookup  keyword the compiler doesn’t complain with what so ever name you call the subscript method and at the same time it is type safe.

Let try this in playground.

@dynamicMemberLookup

struct Person

{

   subscript(dynamicMember name:String) -> Int

   {

       return name.count

   }

}

let personObj = Person()

personObj.pqwrs

//Prints

5

So it’s No matter what’s the name of the property it call the subscript method name

// 1

@dynamicMemberLookup

class Employee {

 let name: String

 let age: Int

 private let empPersonal: [String: String]

 init(name: String, age: Int, details: [String: String]) {

   self.name = name

   self.age = age

   self.details = details

 }

 // 2

 subscript(dynamicMember key: String) -> String {

   switch key {

     case “info”:

       return “\(name) is \(age) years old.”

     default:

       return details[key] ?? “”

   }

 }

}

// Creating Object of the Class

let details = [“department”: “IT”, “location”: “Mumbai”]

let me = Employee(name: “Logan”, age: 32, details: details)

me.info   // “Logan is 32 years old.”

me.department  // “IT”

In the market of gizmos and mobile devices, Apple after beating Nokia and Android has become the most leading mobile device company over the globe. Users found it surprising but the quality and performances it offers are unbeatable. After a decade Apple iOS after beating Nokia has become the largest mobile selling company in the market of Asia.

Apple started its launch through iPod and after seeing its way of success it later offered the market its mobile devices, tablets such as iPad and with the recent time to save your valuable time it manufactured multi-featured smartwatches. Apple with its iOS 10 features has significantly taken over large shares of consumers in the market.

Apple is a product of pride and class where quality and performance are its major driving instruments. With every new iPhone update of the operating system, it surprises its users with a more better version of features. Apple with its uncompromising and rigid rules delivers great quality and security to its end users. Unlike other systems, Apple makes sure that its users get smooth working mobile applications with no chance of getting hanged or slow down in between.

With a new iPhone update, Apple due to its high usage took a fresh take by introducing a new iPhone Operating System 12. With this new iPhone update, Apple is promising another great reliability and faster performance than before.

Top 12 iOS features

• Responsive and Delightful Performance

Apple introduced iOS 12 to make your iPhones and iPads much faster and better. It was made to speed up your devices by making it more faster than before. With new iOS 12 feature, Apple can run its applications by 50% faster system keyboard, 40% faster app launch and 70% faster camera opening. Fixing all the debugs of your system it helps your device run smoothly even when it is under heavy load. While enhancing your performance iOS 12 allows you to perform multiple tasks on your device without slowing your processing system. Improving all the previous issues iOS 12 app makes significant improvements delivering optimal performance to its users.

• Make Moments With Memojis

With iOS 12 Apple iOS developer introduced a new comic feature called Memoji. With this new personalization, users can select any iPhone emoji and use it just like a face mask. To add your sense of personality and fun in your convo you can decorate your mask with different eye colors and hairstyles. The user can even add varieties of accessories to decorate your memojis. With its latest update, it brought Animoji characters like goat, koala, tiger, and tyrannosaurus who will detect your face and mimic when you will stick out your tongue.

• Augmented Reality

iPhone latest version includes the world’s trending technology Augmented Reality in iOS 12. With this feature, you can create and share pieces of AR with real-world locations which can later be viewed by another person in the same place. Introducing another new functionality in ARKit2 you can recognize objects and play exciting multiplayer games. Using AR you can also make your content rich using USDZ file format. This will help you in tracking face and measure your app.

• Refined and Orderly Notifications

Apple with its new iPhone update solved messy notification setting which earlier versions could not. With the new iOS app development you can manage your notification setting to the way you want them to pop. With new iOS 12, all the related notifications or notifications from the same app will be grouped together and form a stack so that the user doesn’t get confused. iPhones latest version helps you manage notification in real time from the lock screen and Siri with its intelligent suggestions is ready on how you interact with them. Apple iOS 12 brings you handy ways to manage your notifications fast in a 3D view.

• FaceTime

New iOS update of iOS 12 brought us a new extraordinary thing. Our new iPhone update supports you to connect 32 people on audio and video call at once. It is showcased in a tiled interface where the person who is speaking automatically their tile will become larger. It will help you keep track of your conversation. To add more fun in your convo you can use Memojis and Animojis on your face. With an active participation, you can even use it for the official calls as it allows you to connect 32 people in one call.

• Screen Time

Apple with its new iOS update brings you this amazing feature by which you can track and calculate how much time you’ve spent on each app and what work you did. Mentioning, the work you did was productive or just killed the time. It is way too beneficial for students to divide their time and more than that for our parents. It allows parents to keep track and check how much time their children are spending on mobile phones and what they are browsing. iOS developer added another quality feature to this app where you can set a limit and just like an alarm a reminder pop will be displayed on your screen mentioning your time limit to use the phone is over.

• Personalized Siri Responses

New iOS 12 update made Siri better and smarter. Previously it was only used to take users commands and answer their questions accordingly, but with iOS 12 Siri can perform many more important things. For say, if you follow a fix patter in your weekdays to start your work and daily routine, with the help of Siri shortcuts you can custom and make a single command involving all the other apps. All you need to do is download the Siri shortcut app from App store then scratch by clicking on create a shortcut and then scroll to select the task action you like to add. Open your gallery to select the shortcuts and customize your own Siri command.

• Siri Suggestions

Siri just like a human reminder will timely help you remind what things you are forgetting to do. It will help you get a reminder about your meetings schedules, to wish your friend on the birthday or any work you fixed at a particular time to do. iOS 12 added 40 different languages in Siri for users exploring different parts of the world.

• iBooks to Apple Books

If you are a reader and reading is your favorite thing to do then this feature of iOS 12 is made only for you. This new iPhone update of iOS 12 not only enhances your knowledge but also allows its users to read, discover and listen all your favorite books and audio books. It comes with a “Reading Now” tab to let you offer an enormous number of books to read without carrying their weight physically. It is greatly helpful during your traveling trips. With this smart iOS 12 feature, you can summarise your class lectures and prepare yourself for exams.

• Do Not Disturb

Do not Disturb app in iOS 12 simply means you don’t want to be disturbed. With this iPhone update, you can stop anyone from calling you without switching off your phone. You can use this app for various purposes like if you are in a meeting or in an event and does not want to be bothered. Manier times people even use it at night so that their sleep don’t break by unnecessary calls and messages. With this new app you can get rid of all the unwanted calls you don’t need by allowing only specific important calls as long as you want.

Conclusion

With an update of iOS 11, a lot of vagueness and bugs got created making our phone processing slow. Apple’s new iOS update resolved all such bad occurring, bringing their best devices back in the market. With the improved search in Apple’s photo app to new camera effects, Apple brought many more advanced features. With more personalization, enhanced security, improved quality, and better connection iPhone app developers again hiked up its worth in the market. 

For iOS Course Query: CLICK HERE

The debate of the OS’s supremacy between Google and Apple takes on a new level this fall. Both iOS 11 and Android O are up for formal launches this year, and it is really difficult to judge which one is better of the two. It is all about catching the fancy of the mobile users, saving efforts and giving ‘cooler’ power to the mobile.

It really depends on the features that are being compared really. Android app developers in Mumbai and iOS app development can leverage these features into their solutions for smarter apps to support their clients.

Here’s a quick round-up of the new snazzy features of each OS:

iOS 11

Always a winner and being the preferred OS amongst Apple loyalists, the new iOS 11 is all set to take the experience of mobile first to a new plane altogether. The focus is to do away with the cluttered feel that too many features by simplifying the usage piggybacking on ease of usability and smart functionality. A sneak-peak into what’s coming:

• Apple Pay is set to be a runaway hit with the new convenience to pay your friends directly via iMessage.
• Multiple speakers to play audio from the phone for an enhanced effect.
• Enrapturing AR on iPhone.
• Apple Maps will now show you even the inside of buildings.
• DND feature to send message to your callers whilst you drive.
• Compression to save memory space for photos and live photos, which will be a boon to improved camera quality.
• Machine learning in Photos app to create memories categorised according to location, date, and even the photo’s content.

Android O

Proponents of Google would welcome the well-thought of changes in the new OS, where small improvements can make a huge impact. No glorifying or revolutionary changes, yet incremental roll-outs which speak about their planned and slow selective approach. The focus is on higher usability and ease, with must-haves taking precedence over like-to feature, which can be engaged in Android programming as well. A round-up reveals:

• Set different notification channels for groups apps in various categories with varying levels.
• Snoozing notifications for specific time-period.
• Auto-fill which allows populating passwords across different apps to save time.
• Improved battery life.
• Picture-in-picture, that allows you to reduce a video or Google Maps navigation screen into a running thumbnail.
• Better organization with a new section called “Connected Devices” which comprises of both Bluetooth and casting.

So, which is better? Let’s compare!

• Messaging

Here iOS is the leader with the cool Apple Pay, whereas Google requires you to download a separate app for paying, the messaging being just what it is basically intended to do.

• Voice Assistant

Siri is now set to be more intelligent and human. It will have a male voice, and intelligently predict what you want next. Google’s Android Assistant, Google Search and Google Voice are new avatars that can identify objects on-the-go via Google Lens and type queries about the same. Definitely Android wins hands-down here.

• AR/VR

Google’s AR guru called Tango and VR master called Google Daydream are way ahead of Apple. A company which is engaged in Android app development in India can use these features of the OS to build better capabilities and smarter apps which take the experience of AR/VR to newer levels. But with Apple’s new to-be-launched AR Toolkit, things may just reverse.

What’s the verdict?

There is no clear winner, and both Google and Apple may have a few surprise jack-pot features up their sleeves. These could well be kept secret till the launch of iPhone 8 and Google Pixel 2. Also, being the 10^th iPhone anniversary year, there could be some more buzz awaited from the Apple camp.

A look at Google’s existing capabilities shows that multiple-speaker support is already there. Android O is being touted as a much faster boot-up and runtime OS than earlier versions. Yet, Google poses itself for a wowing quotient that targets the tech-savvy users, whilst Apple targets empowering the average user. It will actually again depend on the loyalty vs. versatility that has been the driving factor for both the brands and the new chapter will be interesting to watch as the OS story unfolds itself this fall.