Vandelay

About

Vandelay is an importer/exporter for iOS (mind the pun). It is written in Swift 4 and comes with built-in support for exporting and importing strings and data to/from a bunch of data sources. It supports Codable types as well as basic string and data.

Installation

Cocoapods

To install Vandelay with CocoaPods add this to your Podfile, then run pod install:

pod "Vandelay"

You can add additional support for Dropbox and QR codes by adding more lines to the Podfile:

pod "VandelayDropbox"

pod "VandelayQr"

Carthage

To install Vandelay with Carthage, just add this to your Cartfile, then run carthage update --platform iOS:

pod "Vandelay"

This will download and build all Vandelay frameworks. The Vandelay framework contains core functionality and is required by all the other optional frameworks. VandelayDropbox adds additional Dropbox support. VandelayQr adds support for scanning QR codes. Add them if you want.

Exporting data

Vandelay lets you export strings, data and Encodable types, by using any of its built-in exporters. You can also extend it with custom ones.

Vandelay comes with the following built-in exporters:

• EmailExporter - exports strings & data as email attachments
• FileExporter - exports strings & data to local files
• MessageExporter - exports strings & data as message attachments
• PasteboardExporter - exports strings to the pasteboard

If you add VandelayDropbox, you get access to the following exporter:

• DropboxExporter - exports strings & data to Dropbox

You should probably use string exporters whenever possible. Use a data exporter when you only have Data or when a type can't be serialized.

Importing data

Vandelay lets you import strings, data and Decodable types, by using any of its built-in importers. You can also extend it with custom ones.

Vandelay comes with the following built-in importers:

• FileExporter - imports strings & data from local files
• PasteboardExporter - imports strings from the pasteboard
• UrlExporter - imports strings & data from custom urls

If you add VandelayDropbox, you get access to the following importer:

• DropboxImporter - imports strings & data from Dropbox

If you add VandelayQr, you get access to the following importer:

• QrCodeImporter [STRING|DATA] - imports by scanning a QR code

When importing, the same goes as when exporting: data is more powerful, but strings are more universal.

Dropbox Support

Vandelay comes with additional Dropbox support. This means that an app can use Vandelay to sync data to a user's personal Dropbox app folder.

To use these features in your app, you must create a Dropbox developer account as well as a Dropbox app for your app. This guide explains how:

• Install Guide
• Tutorial

Check out how the demo app gets Dropbox ready for use. Basically, your app must setup Dropbox integration when started then handle any return url that are triggered when Dropbox redirects the user back to the app. Also, your app must add a few keys to Info.plist.

In the demo app, you just have to add your Dropbox app ID to the local Accounts.plist file, then select the app target, select the info tab and insert the same app ID under URL Types.

QR Code support

Vandelay comes with additional QR code support. This means that an app can use Vandelay to import data by letting the user scan a QR code.

To use this feature, make sure to specify a NSCameraUsageDescription text in Info.plist. Otherwise, the app will crash. Also make sure that the app can access the scanned url. The demo does this by allowing any urls to be imported. In a real world app, allowing arbitary urls isn't probably a good idea :)

Example Project

Vandelay comes with an example project that lets you export and import todo lists (strings) and photos (data).

Before you can run the example app, you have to install Carthage and run carthage update --platform iOS. This will setup all dependencies and prepare the app. You can then open the project and run the app.

For QR codes, you can use the built-in QrCodeGenerator to generate a scannable QR code for any url you have exported data to. You will then be able to scan that code to import data into the app.

Versioning

Versions < 1.0.0 will have breaking changes between minor versions, so Vandelay 0.3.0 will probably not be compatible with Vandelay 0.2.0 etc.

Author

Daniel Saidi, [email protected]

License

Vandelay is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.