Data Types

parse data types on swift introduction when saving data on a back4app database, each entity is stored in a key value pair format the data type for the value field goes from the fundamental ones (such as string , int , double , float , and bool ) to more complex structures the main requirement for storing data on a back4app database is that the entity has to conform the parseswift protocol on its turn, this protocol provides a set of methods to store, update and delete any instance of an entity in this guide, you will learn how to create and setup an entity to save it on your back4app database in the project example the entity we are storing encloses information about a recipe this tutorial uses a basic app created in xcode 12 and ios 14 at any time, you can access the complete project via our github repositories ios example repository goal to understand how objects are parsed and stored on a back4app database prerequisites to complete this quickstart, you need xcode an app created at back4app follow the new parse app tutorial to learn how to create a parse app at back4app note follow the install parse sdk (swift) tutorial to create an xcode project connected to back4app understanding our recipes app the app functionality is based on a form where one can enter information about a recipe depending on the information, the data type may vary in our example the recipe has the following features field data type description name string name of the recipe servings int number of servings available bool determines whether the recipe is available or not category category a custom enumeration which classifies a recipe in three categories breakfast, lunch and dinner ingredients \[ingredients] the set of ingredients enclosed in a customingredient struct side options \[string] names of the additional options the recipe comes with nutritional information \[string\ string] a dictionary containing information about the recipe’s nutritional content release date date a date showing when the recipe was available additionally, there are more data types which are used to implement database functionality like relation between objects these data types are not covered in this tutorial quick reference of commands we are going to use given an object, say recipe, if you want to save it on a back4app database, you have to first make this object to conform the parseswift protocol (available via the parseswift sdk) 1 import foundation 2 import parseswift 3 4 struct recipe parseobject { 5 /// enumeration for the recipe category 6 enum category int, caseiterable, codable { 7 case breakfast = 0, lunch = 1, dinner = 2 8 9 var title string { 10 switch self { 11 case breakfast return "breakfast" 12 case lunch return "lunch" 13 case dinner return "dinner" 14 } 15 } 16 } 17 18 19 20 /// a string type property 21 var name string? 22 23 /// an integer type property 24 var servings int? 25 26 /// a double (or float ) type property 27 var price double? 28 29 /// a boolean type property 30 var isavailable bool? 31 32 /// an enumeration type property 33 var category category? 34 35 /// an array of structs 36 var ingredients \[ingredient] 37 38 /// an array of strings 39 var sideoptions \[string] 40 41 /// a dictionary property 42 var nutritionalinfo \[string string] 43 44 /// a date type property 45 var releasedate date? 46 } before storing instances of this object in a back4app database, all its properties must conform the codable and hashable protocols we make use of the following methods for managing these objects on the back4app database create //the procedure for reading and updating a recipe object is similar since they rely on the save() method how a recipe is instantiated determines if we are creating or updating the object on the back4app database when creating a new instance we use 1 var newrecipe recipe 2 3 // setup newrecipe's properties 4 newrecipe name = "my recipe's name" 5 newrecipe servings = 4 6 newrecipe price = 3 99 7 newrecipe isavailable = false 8 newrecipe category = breakfast 9 newrecipe sideoptions = \["juice"] 10 newrecipe releasedate = date() 11 12 13 // saves newrecipe on your back4app database synchronously and returns the new saved item it throws and error if something went wrong 14 let savedrecipe = try? savedrecipe save() 15 16 // saves savedrecipe on your back4app database asynchronously, and passes a result\<todolistitem, parseerror> object to the completion block to handle the save proccess 17 savedrecipe save { result in 18 // handle the result to check the save was successfull or not 19 } update //and to update an existing instance, we have to provide the objectid value which identifies the the object on the back4app database a satandard update can be implemented in the following way 1 let recipetoupdate = recipe(objectid "object id") 2 3 // update the properties you need 4 recipetoupdate name = "my updated recipe's name" 5 recipetoupdate servings = 5 6 recipetoupdate price = 5 99 7 recipetoupdate isavailable = true 8 recipetoupdate category = lunch 9 recipetoupdate sideoptions = \["juice", "coffee"] 10 recipetoupdate releasedate = date() addingtimeinterval(3600 24) 11 12 13 // save changes synchronousty 14 try? recipetoupdate save() 15 16 // or save changes asynchronously 17 recipetoupdate save { result in 18 // handle the result 19 } read //for reading objects stored on your back4app database, recipe now provides the query() static method which returns a query\<recipe> this query object can be constructed using one or more queryconstraint objects in the following way 1 let query = recipe query() // a query to fetch all recipe items on your back4app database 2 let query = recipe query("name" == "omelette") // a query to fetch all recipe items with name "omelette" on your back4app database 3 let query = recipe query(\["name" == "omelette", "price" = 9 99]) // a query to fetch all recipe items with name = "omelette" and price = 9 99 4 5 // fetches the items synchronously or throws an error if found 6 let fetchedrecipes = try? query find() 7 8 // fetches the items asynchronously and calls a completion block passing a result object containing the result of the operation 9 query find { result in 10 // handle the result 11 } delete //any deletion process is performed by calling the method delete() on the object to be deleted 1 var recipetodelete recipe 2 3 // delete recipetodelete synchronously 4 try? recipetodelete delete() 5 6 // delete recipetodelete asynchronously 7 recipetodelete delete { result in 8 // handle the result 9 } 1 create the recipe app template we start by creating a new xcode project this this tutorial the project should look like this at any time, you can access the complete project via our github repositories ios example repository go to xcode, and find the scenedelegate swift file in order to add a navigation bar on top of the app, we setup a uinavigationcontroller as the root view controller in the following way 1 class scenedelegate uiresponder, uiwindowscenedelegate { 2 3 var window uiwindow? 4 5 func scene( scene uiscene, willconnectto session uiscenesession, options connectionoptions uiscene connectionoptions) { 6 guard let scene = (scene as? uiwindowscene) else { return } 7 8 window = init(windowscene scene) 9 window? rootviewcontroller = uinavigationcontroller(rootviewcontroller recipescontroller()) 10 window? makekeyandvisible() 11 12 // additional logic 13 } 14 15 16 } the root view controller class (recipescontroller) for the navigation controller is a subclass of uiviewcontroller in which we will layout a form to create and update recipe objects on the back4app database 2 setup the recipe object objects you want to save on your back4app database have to conform the parseobject protocol on our recipes app this object is recipe therefore, you first need to create this object create a new file recipe swift and add the following 1 import foundation 2 import parseswift 3 4 struct recipe parseobject { 5 /// enumeration for the recipe category 6 enum category int, caseiterable, codable { 7 case breakfast = 0, lunch = 1, dinner = 2 8 9 var title string { 10 switch self { 11 case breakfast return "breakfast" 12 case lunch return "lunch" 13 case dinner return "dinner" 14 } 15 } 16 } 17 18 // required properties from parseobject protocol 19 var objectid string? 20 var createdat date? 21 var updatedat date? 22 var acl parseacl? 23 24 /// a string type property 25 var name string? 26 27 /// an integer type property 28 var servings int? 29 30 /// a double (or float ) type property 31 var price double? 32 33 /// a boolean type property 34 var isavailable bool? 35 36 /// an enumeration type property 37 var category category? 38 39 /// an array of structs 40 var ingredients \[ingredient] 41 42 /// an array of strings 43 var sideoptions \[string] 44 45 /// a dictionary property 46 var nutritionalinfo \[string string] 47 48 /// a date type property 49 var releasedate date? 50 51 /// maps the nutritionalinfo property into an array of tuples 52 func nutritionalinfoarray() > \[(name string, value string)] { 53 return nutritionalinfo map { ($0 key, $0 value) } 54 } 55 } where we already added all the necessary properties to recipe according to the recipes’s features table the ingredient data type is a struct holding the quantity and the description of the ingredient as mentioned before, this data type should conform the codable and hashable protocols to be part of recipe’s properties 1 import foundation 2 3 struct ingredient hashable, codable { 4 var quantity float 5 var description string 6 } additionally, the property category in recipe has an enumeration (category) as data type which also conforms the corresponding protocols 1 struct recipe parseobject { 2 /// enumeration for the recipe category 3 enum category int, caseiterable, codable { 4 case breakfast = 0, lunch = 1, dinner = 2 5 6 7 } 8 9 } 3 setting up recipescontroller in recipescontroller we should implement all the necessary configuration for the navigationbar and the form used to capture all the recipe properties this tutorial does not cover how to implement the layout for the form we then focus on the logic related with managing data types using parseswift sdk below we highlight the key points in recipescontroller which allow us to understand how we implement the connection between the user interface and the data coming from your back4app database 1 class recipescontroller uiviewcontroller { 2 enum previousnext int { case previous = 0, next = 1 } 3 4 5 6 var recipes \[recipe] = \[] // 1 an array of recipes fetched from your back4app database 7 8 // section header labels 9 private let recipelabel uilabel = titlelabel(title "recipe overview") 10 private let ingredientslabel uilabel = titlelabel(title "ingredients") 11 private let nutritionalinfolabel uilabel = titlelabel(title "nutritional information") 12 13 // 2 a custom view containing input fields to enter the recipe's information (except nutritional info and ingredients) 14 let recipeoverviewview recipeinfoview 15 16 // 3 a stack view containig the fields to enter the recipe's ingredients 17 let ingredientsstackview uistackview 18 19 // 4 a stack view containig the fields to enter the nutritional information 20 let nutritionalinfostackview uistackview 21 22 // 5 buttons to handle the crud logic for the recipe object currently displayed 23 private var savebutton uibutton = uibutton(title "save") 24 private var updatebutton uibutton = uibutton(title "update") 25 private var reloadbutton uibutton = uibutton(title "reload") 26 27 var currentrecipeindex int? // 6 an integer containing the index of the current recipe presenten from the recipes property 28 29 override func viewdidload() { 30 super viewdidload() 31 setupnavigationbar() 32 setupviews() 33 } 34 35 override func viewdidappear( animated bool) { 36 super viewdidappear(animated) 37 handlereloadrecipes() 38 } 39 40 private func setupnavigationbar() { 41 navigationcontroller? navigationbar bartintcolor = primary 42 navigationcontroller? navigationbar titletextattributes = \[ foregroundcolor uicolor white] 43 navigationcontroller? navigationbar istranslucent = false 44 navigationcontroller? navigationbar barstyle = black 45 navigationitem title = "parse data types" uppercased() 46 } 47 48 private func setupviews() { 49 // see the project example for more details 50 51 savebutton addtarget(self, action #selector(handlesaverecipe), for touchupinside) 52 updatebutton addtarget(self, action #selector(handleupdaterecipe), for touchupinside) 53 reloadbutton addtarget(self, action #selector(handlereloadrecipes), for touchupinside) 54 } 55 56 57 } 3 handling user input and parsing a recipe object in a separate file (called recipescontroller+parseswiftlogic swift), using an extension we now implement the methods handlesaverecipe(), handleupdaterecipe() and handleupdaterecipe() to handle the input data 1 import uikit 2 import parseswift 3 4 extension recipescontroller { 5 /// retrieves all the recipes stored on your back4app database 6 @objc func handlereloadrecipes() { 7 view\ endediting(true) 8 let query = recipe query() 9 query find { \[weak self] result in // retrieves all the recipes stored on your back4app database and refreshes the ui acordingly 10 guard let self = self else { return } 11 switch result { 12 case success(let recipes) 13 self recipes = recipes 14 self currentrecipeindex = recipes isempty ? nil 0 15 self setuprecipenavigation() 16 17 dispatchqueue main async { self presentcurrentrecipe() } 18 case failure(let error) 19 dispatchqueue main async { self showalert(title "error", message error message) } 20 } 21 } 22 } 23 24 /// called when the user wants to update the information of the currently displayed recipe 25 @objc func handleupdaterecipe() { 26 view\ endediting(true) 27 guard let recipe = preparerecipemetadata(), recipe objectid != nil else { // prepares the recipe object for updating 28 return showalert(title "error", message "recipe not found ") 29 } 30 31 recipe save { \[weak self] result in 32 switch result { 33 case success(let newrecipe) 34 self? recipes append(newrecipe) 35 self? showalert(title "success", message "recipe saved on your back4app database! (objectid \\(newrecipe id)") 36 case failure(let error) 37 self? showalert(title "error", message "failedto save recipe \\(error message)") 38 } 39 } 40 } 41 42 /// saves the currently displayed recipe on your back4app database 43 @objc func handlesaverecipe() { 44 view\ endediting(true) 45 guard var recipe = preparerecipemetadata() else { // prepares the recipe object for storing 46 return showalert(title "error", message "failed to retrieve all the recipe fields ") 47 } 48 49 recipe objectid = nil // when saving a recipe object, we ensure it will be a new instance of it 50 recipe save { \[weak self] result in 51 switch result { 52 case success(let newrecipe) 53 if let index = self? currentrecipeindex { self? recipes\[index] = newrecipe } 54 self? showalert(title "success", message "recipe saved on your back4app database! (objectid \\(newrecipe id))") 55 case failure(let error) 56 self? showalert(title "error", message "failed to save recipe \\(error message)") 57 } 58 } 59 } 60 61 /// when called it refreshes the ui according to the content of recipes and currentrecipeindex properties 62 private func presentcurrentrecipe() { 63 64 } 65 66 /// adds the 'next recipe' and 'previous recipe' button on the navigation bar these are used to iterate over all the recipes retreived from your back4app database 67 private func setuprecipenavigation() { 68 69 } 70 71 /// reads the information the user entered via the form and returns it as a recipe object 72 private func preparerecipemetadata() > recipe? { 73 let ingredientscount = ingredientsstackview\ arrangedsubviews count 74 let nutritionalinfocount = nutritionalinfostackview\ arrangedsubviews count 75 76 let ingredients \[ingredient] = (0 \<ingredientscount) compactmap { row in 77 guard let textfields = ingredientsstackview\ arrangedsubviews\[row] as? doubletextfield, 78 let quantitystring = textfields primarytext, 79 let quantity = float(quantitystring), 80 let description = textfields secondarytext 81 else { 82 return nil 83 } 84 return ingredient(quantity quantity, description description) 85 } 86 87 var nutritionalinfo \[string string] = \[ ] 88 89 (0 \<nutritionalinfocount) foreach { row in 90 guard let textfields = nutritionalinfostackview\ arrangedsubviews\[row] as? doubletextfield, 91 let content = textfields primarytext, !content isempty, 92 let value = textfields secondarytext, !value isempty 93 else { 94 return 95 } 96 nutritionalinfo\[content] = value 97 } 98 99 let recipeinfo = recipeoverviewview\ parseinputtorecipe() // reads all the remaining fields from the form (name, category, price, serving, etc) and returns them as a tuple 100 101 // we collect all the information the user entered and create an instance of recipe 102 // the recipeinfo objectid will be nil if the currently displayed information does not correspond to a recipe already saved on your back4app database 103 let newrecipe recipe = recipe( 104 objectid recipeinfo objectid, 105 name recipeinfo name, 106 servings recipeinfo servings, 107 price recipeinfo price, 108 isavailable recipeinfo isavailable, 109 category recipeinfo category, 110 ingredients ingredients, 111 sideoptions recipeinfo sideoptions, 112 nutritionalinfo nutritionalinfo, 113 releasedate recipeinfo releasedate 114 ) 115 116 return newrecipe 117 } 118 119 /// called when the user presses the 'previous recipe' or 'next recipe' button 120 @objc private func handleswitchrecipe(button uibarbuttonitem) { 121 122 } 123 } 4 run the app! before pressing the run button on xcode, do not forget to configure your back4app application in the appdelegate class! the first time you run the project you should see something like this in the simulator (with all the fields empty) now you can start entering a recipe to then save it on your back4app database once you have saved one recipe, go to your back4app dashboard https //parse dashboard back4app com/apps and go to your application, in the database section you will find the class recipe where all recipes created by the ios app in particular, it is worth noting how non fundamental data types like ingredient, recipe category or dictionaries are stored if you navigate through the data saved under the recipe class, you will find that the nutritionalinformation dictionary is stored as a json object the \[ingredients] array is stored as an array of json objects the enumeration recipe category, since it is has an integer data type as rawvalue, it is transformed to a number value type the releasedate property, a date type value in swift , is also stored as a date type value to conclude, when retrieving data from your back4app database, you do not need to decode all these fields manually, parseswift sdk does decode them automatically that means, when creating a query (query\<recipe> in case) to retrieve data, the query find() method will parse all the data types and json objects to return a recipe array, there is no additional parsing procedure to implement