OAuth.io iOS SDK Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to integrate OAuth.io in your iOS application easily.

OAuth.io allows you to retrieve access tokens from 100+ providers, and to perform API calls really easily. Check out our website to learn more about it.

Prerequisite

Before you start this tutorial, you need to make sure you have subscribed to OAuth.io (the Bootstrap plan is free). You need to setup an app in your account with the provider Facebook, configured with a client_id and a client_secret. Also add the email scope to be able to retrieve the user's email in addition to his basic information.

The tutorial is divided into 5 different steps. Each step is associated with a tag in the tutorial repository. Once you have passed the step-0, in which you need to configure the app with the public key of your OAuth.io app, you will be able to checkout each step at will, so you don't have to do everything if you don't have enough time ;) (though it's a pretty quick tutorial).

Step 0 - Getting the code and configuring the app (tagged step-0)
Step 1 - Setting up the OAuthIODelegate (tagged step-1)
Step 2 - Authenticating with the OAuthIOModal (tagged step-2)
Step 3 - Adding cache support (tagged step-3)
Step 4 - Performing a call to the API (tagged step-4)

To the code!

Step 0 - Getting the code and configuring the app

Cloning the repo

The first thing you need to do is to clone the tutorial repository by running the following command in your terminal:

$ git clone https://github.com/oauth-io/sdk-ios-tutorial.git
$ cd sdk-ios-tutorial
$ git checkout step-0 --force

Once you are in the folder, after having checked out the step-0 tag, open the sdk-ios-tutorial.xcworkspace (note that we are using the xcworkspace here and not the xcodeproj as we are using Cocoa Pods to install OAuth.io).

Updating dependencies

The installation of OAuth.io is already done for you here (checkout the SDK's repository README.md for more information about the installation), but you need to run the following command to install all the dependencies (it's just the SDK actually):

$ pod update

If you don't have the pod command, checkout Cocoa Pods to install it.

Configuration

From XCode, create a configuration file called config.plist:

Right click on the Supporting files folder and choose New file...
Choose iOS > Resource and select Property list
Click on Next, call the file config.plist and click on create

In that file, add a row under the Root. Call it app_key, and as value, put your OAuth.io app's public key (which you can get in your dashboard). Don't forget to save the file.

That's it for step 0.

Step 1 - Setting up the OAuthIODelegate

In this step, we'll set the main view controller, WSViewController as a OAuthIODelegate, which will allow it to control an OAuthIOModal, which shows a popup for the user to log in and accept your app's permissions.

Open the WSViewController.h file and import the OAuth.io SDK there:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
//Add this line here
#import <OAuthiOS/OAuthiOS.h>

@interface WSViewController : UIViewController
//...
@end

Then set this view controller as an OAuthIODelegate in the same file:

//...
@interface WSViewController : UIViewController<OAuthIODelegate>
//...
@end

Now, add the associated methods to the implementation file (WSViewController.m), right above the @end statement:

-(void) didReceiveOAuthIOResponse:(OAuthIORequest *)request
{
    // Here we'll handle the authentication response
}

-(void) didFailWithOAuthIOError:(NSError *)error
{
    // Here we'll handle the authenication errors
}

That's it for step 1.

If you want to get the code from step 1, just run the following command:

$ git checkout step-1 --force

Note that any change you made will be discarded and replaced by the code shown in this tutorial (except for your config.plist file, that is ignored and will remain there).

Step 2 - Authenticating with the OAuthIOModal

In this step, we'll setup the authentication, which is handled by a OAuthIOModal instance. First add the following properties at the top of the implementation file (WSViewController.m), in the @interface block:

@property OAuthIOModal *oauthio_modal;
@property OAuthIORequest *request_object;

The oauthio_modal is what will allow us to show a popup to let the user login and accept permissions. When the popup disappears, we are given an OAuthIORequest instance which we'll put in request_object.

First we have to initialize the oauthio_modal in the viewDidLoad method. Replace the comment placeholder:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    
    NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"config" ofType:@"plist"];
    _config = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
    _login_state_label.text = @"Not connected";
    
    //Replace this placeholder with the modal initialization code
}

with the following code:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    
    NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"config" ofType:@"plist"];
    _config = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
    _login_state_label.text = @"Not connected";
    
    _oauthio_modal = [[OAuthIOModal alloc] initWithKey:[_config objectForKey:@"app_key"] delegate:self];
}

Then find the method called authenticate. Replace the comment placeholder:

-(void) authenticate
{
    _state_label.text = @"Logging in via Facebook";
    [_state_view setHidden:NO];
    
    
    //Replace this placeholder with the authentication code
}

with the following code:

-(void) authenticate
{
    _state_label.text = @"Logging in via Facebook";
    [_state_view setHidden:NO];
    
    
    NSMutableDictionary *options = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
    //This prevents the webview from keeping cookies and store the session
    [options setObject:@"true" forKey:@"clear-popup-cache"];

    //This launches the popup in a webview above the current view
    [_oauthio_modal showWithProvider:@"facebook" options:options];
}

Then we need to edit the didReceiveOAuthIOResponse and didFailWithOAuthIOError methods to handle the OAuth.io response. Find the methods and fill them with the following code:

-(void) didReceiveOAuthIOResponse:(OAuthIORequest *)request
{
    //This sets up visual responses
    _login_state_label.text = @"Logged in";
    [_state_view setHidden:YES];
    [_login_switch setOn:YES animated:YES];
    
    //This sets request_object with the request object returned by the SDK
    _request_object = request;
}

-(void) didFailWithOAuthIOError:(NSError *)error
{
    //This sets up visual responses
    [_state_view setHidden:YES];
    [_login_switch setOn:NO animated:YES];
    _name_label.text = @"N/A";
    _email_label.text = @"N/A";
    _login_state_label.text = @"Not connected";
    
    //This logs the error
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error.description);
}

Once you've done that, you should be able to run the application, tap on the switch in the top right hand corder. This will show a popup in which you'll be able to authenticate to Facebook, and accept your app's permissions.

Find the logout method, and replace the placeholder:

-(void) logout
{
    _name_label.text = @"N/A";
    _email_label.text = @"N/A";
    _login_state_label.text = @"Not connected";
    
    //Replace this placeholder with the logout code
}

with the following code, which will remove the request_object from the instance:

-(void) logout
{
    _name_label.text = @"N/A";
    _email_label.text = @"N/A";
    _login_state_label.text = @"Not connected";
    
    //This removes the _request_object reference, and thus logs out your user
    _request_object = nil;
}

That's it for step 2.

If you want to get the code from step 2, just run the following command:

$ git checkout step-2 --force

Note that any change you made will be discarded and replaced by the code shown in this tutorial (except for your config.plist file, that is ignored and will remain there).

Step 3 - Adding the cache management

To prevent your user to see the popup everytime he launches the app, you can use the cache feature of the SDK. This will save the credentials returned by the provider (e.g. access tokens, the expiration date, etc.) to a file on the user's phone, which can be reloaded at startup.

We'll add a button that lets you clear the cache so that you can test the feature easily.

First go back to the authenticate method, and add the following line before you make the call to showWithProvider:

[options setObject:@"true" forKey:@"cache"];

This will activate the cache for the modal. Then, when you run the application, if you try to login, logout and login again, you'll see that on the second login, you are not shown the popup, but are logged in anyway.

You can now replace the following placeholder in the viewDidAppear method:

-(void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    //Replace this placeholder with code to log the user right away 
    //if his session is cached
}

with the following code, so that your user can be logged in from the cache when he launches the app:

-(void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    //This tests if a cache file has been saved for the provider 'facebook'
    if ([_oauthio_modal cacheAvailableForProvider:@"facebook"])
    {
        [self authenticate];
    }
}

Now if you run the application again, you'll see that you are logged in right away.

To clear the cache, find the clearCache method and replace the placeholder:

-(void) clearCache
{
    //Replace this placeholder with code to clear the cache
}

and replace it with the following code:

-(void) clearCache
{
    [_oauthio_modal clearCache];
}

That's it for step 3.

If you want to get the code from step 3, just run the following command:

$ git checkout step-3 --force

Note that any change you made will be discarded and replaced by the code shown in this tutorial (except for your config.plist file, that is ignored and will remain there).

Step 4 - Performing a call to the API

Now we'd like to really use the API and retrieve the user's name and email to display them on the screen.

To do that, we're going to use the request_object that we set up thanks to what's returned to the didReceiveOAuthIOResponse.

To use the request_object, find the makeAPICall method in WSViewController.m, and replace the placeholder:

-(void) makeAPICall
{
    _name_label.text = @"N/A";
    _email_label.text = @"N/A";
    _state_label.text = @"Fetching your info";
    [_state_view setHidden:NO];
    
    
    //Replace this placeholder with the request code
}

with the following code:

-(void) makeAPICall
{
    _name_label.text = @"N/A";
    _email_label.text = @"N/A";
    _state_label.text = @"Fetching your info";
    [_state_view setHidden:NO];
    
    
    [_request_object me:nil success:^(NSDictionary *output, NSString *body, NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse) {
        _name_label.text = [output objectForKey:@"name"];
        _email_label.text = [output objectForKey:@"email"];
        [_state_view setHidden:YES];
    }];
}

This uses the me method to retrieve a NSDictionary instance containing unified fields describing the user. The values name and email are then respectively put into the name_label and email_label labels, which shows them on the screen.

There are of course more methods than the me, to perform usual HTTP requests to the API, like the get method or the post method. You can refer to the SDK Github repository to get more information about these methods.

That's it for step 4.

If you want to get the code from step 3, just run the following command:

$ git checkout step-4 --force

Note that any change you made will be discarded and replaced by the code shown in this tutorial (except for your config.plist file, that is ignored and will remain there).

The tutorial is now finished :). Thanks for reading. We hope that it helped you understand how the OAuth.io iOS SDK works.

If you want to learn more about OAuth.io, visit us on https://oauth.io.

oauth-io/sdk-ios-tutorial

OAuth.io iOS SDK Tutorial

Prerequisite

Table of contents

To the code!

Step 0 - Getting the code and configuring the app

Step 1 - Setting up the OAuthIODelegate

Step 2 - Authenticating with the OAuthIOModal

Step 3 - Adding the cache management

Step 4 - Performing a call to the API