Contentful Personalization & Analytics

iOS Reference App

Reference app for native iOS bridge and preview-panel validation work. This app exercises two iOS shells against the mock server in lib/mocks/ and hosts the XCUITest suite.

What this demonstrates

Use this app when you need to validate native iOS bridge and preview-panel behavior against the shared mock API. The app includes two host shells:

• OptimizationAppSwiftUI - SwiftUI shell, with sources under swiftui/.
• OptimizationAppUIKit - UIKit shell, with sources under uikit/.

Both apps share shared/ for configuration, Contentful fetching, and analytics event storage. They run the same UI test source tree from uitests/ against their respective host apps so SDK behavior can be compared across UI frameworks.

CDA locale handling

The app defines one locale in shared config, passes it to the native SDK as top-level locale, and passes it directly to the shared raw CDA fetch helper. Entries passed to SDK resolution use the standard single-locale CDA entry shape. Do not use all-locale CDA responses or locale=*, because entry resolution expects direct single-locale fields such as fields.nt_experiences and fields.nt_variants. See Locale handling in the Optimization SDK Suite for the broader locale model and Entry personalization and variant resolution for the entry contract.

This mock app uses one Contentful locale. A production app can derive the application locale from its own navigation, i18n, or account-preference layer and pass that value to both SDK locale and CDA requests when they should stay aligned.

Prerequisites

• Xcode with an iOS Simulator available.
• pnpm workspace dependencies installed from the monorepo root.
• XcodeGen for changes that add, rename, or move iOS source files.
• The mock server running at http://localhost:8000.

Project generation

The Xcode project is generated by XcodeGen from project.yml. Regenerate the project after you add, rename, or move a source file:

brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
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Setup

From the monorepo root, start the mock API server before running UI tests:

pnpm serve:mocks
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Running locally

The bootstrap script runs preflight checks, then configures, builds, and launches the app on an iOS Simulator with the mock server running. When it finishes it leaves a simulator booted with the reference app and the mock server running in the foreground:

cd implementations/ios-sdk
./scripts/bootstrap.sh
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The preflight checks verify that you are on macOS with Xcode (full IDE, not just the Command Line Tools), an iOS Simulator runtime, Node.js, and pnpm. If a check fails, the script prints the exact remediation steps and stops before building anything. XcodeGen is installed automatically via Homebrew if it is missing.

Useful environment variables:

• APP_SHELL — swiftui (default) or uikit.
• IOS_SIM_NAME — simulator device name (default iPhone 16); falls back to the first available iPhone if the named device is absent.
• SKIP_BUILD — set to true to reuse the last build.

Unlike the Android app, no port forwarding is required: the iOS Simulator shares the host network, so the app reaches the mock server at localhost:8000 directly.

Maintainer edit loop

Use this app when you need a debuggable native iOS surface for changes in packages/ios/ContentfulOptimization or the shared JS bridge. The Xcode project references the SDK as a local Swift Package, so app builds compile the package from workspace source rather than from a published artifact.

The app schemes include a pre-action that builds @contentful/optimization-js-bridge before Swift Package resource resolution when bridge source is newer than the copied UMD resource. The pre-action writes its output to /tmp/optimization-ios-build-js-bridge.log; check that file if Xcode appears to use a stale bridge bundle or cannot find pnpm.

The normal loop is:

1. Edit Swift in packages/ios/ContentfulOptimization/Sources/... or bridge TypeScript in packages/universal/optimization-js-bridge/src/....
2. Build or run the OptimizationAppSwiftUI or OptimizationAppUIKit scheme. Xcode recompiles the local Swift Package and refreshes the bridge bundle when needed.
3. Validate with the targeted app flow or XCUITest scenario that exercises the changed behavior.

From the command line, build a shell from implementations/ios-sdk/:

xcodebuild build \
  -project OptimizationApp.xcodeproj \
  -scheme OptimizationAppSwiftUI \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'
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Maintainer validation

Run the smallest check that covers the changed surface:

Change area	Suggested validation
Bridge TypeScript only	pnpm --filter @contentful/optimization-js-bridge typecheck and pnpm --filter @contentful/optimization-js-bridge build
Swift package behavior	Targeted xcodebuild test for the affected app shell or XCUITest class
Preview-panel or cross-platform behavior	Targeted preview-panel XCUITest plus the matching shared scenario contract review
Documentation-only README changes	Prettier on touched Markdown and git diff --check

Common local pitfalls:

• Run xcodegen generate after changing project.yml or adding, moving, or renaming iOS sources.
• Build through a scheme, not a raw target, so the bridge pre-action runs before Swift Package resource resolution.
• If Xcode cannot find pnpm, launch Xcode from a shell where pnpm --version works or check the pre-action log for the exact PATH issue.
• After switching branches, force a bridge rebuild if the copied UMD resource has a newer timestamp than the checked-out bridge source.
• Substitute another available simulator if the local Xcode runtime does not include iPhone 16.

Running E2E tests

Run the full suite against both app shells from implementations/ios-sdk/:

xcodebuild test \
  -project OptimizationApp.xcodeproj \
  -scheme OptimizationAppSwiftUI \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

xcodebuild test \
  -project OptimizationApp.xcodeproj \
  -scheme OptimizationAppUIKit \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'
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Run a single test class against the SwiftUI shell:

xcodebuild test \
  -project OptimizationApp.xcodeproj \
  -scheme OptimizationAppSwiftUI \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
  -only-testing:OptimizationAppUITestsSwiftUI/PreviewPanelOverridesTests
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Adding new test files

Add the .swift file to uitests/Tests/ and run xcodegen generate. Both UI test bundles pick up the file from the generated project.

Preview panel tests

The preview-panel override suite mirrors the React Native Detox suite in implementations/react-native-sdk/e2e/preview-panel-overrides.test.js. Both reference the shared contract document at implementations/PREVIEW_PANEL_SCENARIOS.md. Keep scenario names and fixture IDs identical across platforms so cross-platform regressions are visible in CI diffs.

Related

• iOS SDK package status - Planned native iOS SDK status marker
• iOS SDK code map - Maintainer architecture map for the native iOS package
• Native bridge architecture - Shared bridge runtime and build notes
• Mocks package - Shared mock API server and fixtures
• Preview panel scenario contract - Cross-platform preview-panel scenario source of truth