Create your application

Goal

Setup a skeleton project so that Amplify categories can be added to it

Project Setup

1. Create a new project

Open Xcode. From the menu bar, select "File -> New -> Project..."

In this example, you will create a new iOS App.

Select iOS tab, choose Application type as App and then click on Next.

Fill in the following for your project:

• Product Name: MyAmplifyApp
• Interface: SwiftUI
• Language: Swift
• Tap Next

After tapping Next, select where you would like to save your project, then tap Create. In this example, you will choose: ~/Developer

You should now have an empty iOS project without Amplify.

2. Install Amplify Libraries

To start adding the Amplify Libraries to your iOS project, open your project in Xcode and select File > Add Packages...

Enter the Amplify Library for Swift GitHub repo URL (https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-swift) into the search bar and hit Enter. Wait for the result to load.

You'll see the Amplify Library for Swift repository rules for which version of Amplify you want Swift Package Manager to install. Choose the dependency rule Up to Next Major Version, as it will use the latest compatible version of the dependency that can be detected from the main branch, then click Add Package.

Lastly, choose which of the libraries you want added to your project. Always select the Amplify library. The "Plugin" to install depends on which categories you are using:

• API: AWSAPIPlugin

• Analytics: AWSPinpointAnalyticsPlugin

• Auth: AWSCognitoAuthPlugin

• DataStore: AWSDataStorePlugin

• Geo (Developer Preview): AWSLocationGeoPlugin

• Storage: AWSS3StoragePlugin

  Note: AWSPredictionsPlugin is not currently supported through Swift Package Manager due to different minimum iOS version requirements. Support for this will eventually be added.

Select all that are appropriate, then click Add Package.

You can always go back and modify which SPM packages are included in your project by opening the Package Dependencies tab for your project: Click on the Project file in the Xcode navigator, then click on your project's icon, then select the Package Dependencies tab.

1import Amplify
2import AWSAPIPlugin
3import AWSDataStorePlugin

3. Provision the backend with Amplify CLI

To start provisioning resources in the backend, change directories to your project directory and run amplify init:

1cd ~/Developer/MyAmplifyApp/
2amplify init

Enter the following when prompted:

1? Enter a name for the project
2    MyAmplifyApp
3? Enter a name for the environment
4    dev
5? Choose your default editor:
6    Visual Studio Code
7? Choose the type of app that you're building
8    ios
9? Do you want to use an AWS profile?
10    Yes
11? Please choose the profile you want to use
12    default

Upon successfully running amplify init, you should see two new created files in your project directory: amplifyconfiguration.json and awsconfiguration.json. These two files are automatically added to your project so that they are bundled with your application. This is required so that Amplify libraries know how to reach your provisioned backend resources.

Now you can build (Cmd+b) and run (Cmd+r) your application.

4. Initialize Amplify in the application

Open AppDelegate.swift or MyAmplifyApp.swift and add import Amplify at the top of the file:

1import Amplify

Update the following function to verify that Amplify can be compiled into your project:

1func application(
2    _ application: UIApplication,
3    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?
4) -> Bool {
5    do {
6        try Amplify.configure()
7    } catch {
8        print("An error occurred setting up Amplify: \(error)")
9    }
10    return true
11}

Note: If your app conforms to the App protocol, you can use your own AppDelegate class. Implement an AppDelegate and point Swift UI's UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor property wrapper to it, as below.

1class AppDelegate: NSObject, UIApplicationDelegate {
2    func application(
3        _ application: UIApplication,
4        didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil
5    ) -> Bool {
6        do {
7            try Amplify.configure()
8        } catch {
9            print("An error occurred setting up Amplify: \(error)")
10        }
11        return true
12    }
13}
14@main
15struct MyAmplifyApp: App {
16    @UIApplicationDelegateAdaptor(AppDelegate.self) var appDelegate
17
18    var body: some Scene {
19        WindowGroup {
20            ContentView()
21        }
22    }
23}

Build your project (Cmd+b), then you have successfully added the Amplify library to your project and you should be able to run the application.

Optionally, if you'd like to see additional log messages of what amplify is doing during configuration, you can turn on verbose logging before calling Amplify.configure():

1do {
2    Amplify.Logging.logLevel = .verbose
3    // Configure Amplify as usual...
4    try Amplify.configure()
5    // ...

Re-running the application with verbose logging on, you will see the following messages:

1[Amplify] Configuring
2[Amplify] Configuration: nil

Next steps

Congratulations! You've created a skeleton app and are ready to start adding Amplify categories to your application. The following are some categories that you can start to build into your application:

• Analytics - for logging metrics and understanding your users
• API (GraphQL) - for adding a GraphQL endpoint to your app
• API (REST) - for adding a REST endpoint to your app
• Authentication - for managing your users
• DataStore - for making it easier to program for a distributed data store for offline and online scenarios
• Geo - to use location data and map UI components.
• Storage - store complex objects like pictures and videos to the cloud.