Mobile SDK Development Guide

Introduction to Mobile Development
Introduction to Salesforce Mobile SDK Development
What’s New in Mobile SDK 11.1
Getting Started With Mobile SDK 11.1 for iOS and Android
Updating Apps (5.0 and Later) Apps (5.0 and Later)
Native iOS Development
iOS Native Quick Start
iOS Basic Requirements
Creating an iOS Project with Forceios
Creating an iOS Swift Project Manually
Use with with
Using Carthage with Mobile SDK (Not Supported)
Developing a Native iOS App
About Login and Passcodes
Using Swift with Salesforce Mobile SDK
iOS Native Template Apps
Overview of Application Flow
SDK Manager Classes
AppDelegate Class
SceneDelegate Class
RootViewController Class
Native Swift Template
Using Salesforce REST APIs with Mobile SDK
Handling Authentication Errors
Supporting iPadOS in Mobile SDK Apps
Supporting Catalyst in Mobile SDK Apps
Using iOS App Extensions with
Profiling with Signposts
iOS Sample Applications
Native Android Development
HTML5 and Hybrid Development
Using Lightning Web Components in Hybrid Apps
React Native Development
Offline Management
Files and Networking
Push Notifications and
Authentication, Security, and Identity in Mobile Apps
Login Screen Customization
Identity Provider Apps
Using Key-Value Stores for Secure Data Storage
Dark Mode and Dark Theme Settings
Using Experience Cloud Sites With Mobile SDK Apps
Multi-User Support in Mobile SDK
Mobile SDK Tools for Developers
Logging and Analytics
Migrating from the Previous Release
Reference
iOS Current Deprecations
iOS APIs Removed in Mobile SDK 11.0
Android Current Deprecations
Android APIs Removed in Mobile SDK 11.0
Trademark Attributions
Removing UIWebView from iOS Hybrid Apps
PDF

Overview of Application Flow

Native iOS apps for Mobile SDK, whether Objective-C and Swift, follow similar designs. The main.swift source file (main.m in Objective-C) creates a UIApplicationMain object that is the root object for the rest of the application. The UIApplicationMain constructor instantiates the Mobile SDK SFApplication object and spawns an AppDelegate object that manages the application lifecycle.

AppDelegate uses a Mobile SDK service object, SalesforceSDKManager, to initialize SDK objects. After successful initialization, the Objective-C and Swift flows diverge slightly.

Swift Flow

The native iOS Swift template for Mobile SDK defines four main classes: AppDelegate, InitialViewController, SceneDelegate, and a root view controller. The AppDelegate object calls SalesforceSDKManager or one of its extensions to initialize the SDK. It then passes control to a SceneDelegate instance. When a new scene is about to enter the foreground, SceneDelegate loads InitialViewController—an empty UIViewController object that’s a container for the Salesforce login and authorization screens. SceneDelegate then calls AuthHelper to begin the authentication process if necessary. After authentication succeeds, SceneDelegate launches your app by passing control to its custom root view controller. For this template, the root view controller is the AccountsListView class.

Swift application flow diagram

Objective-C Flow

The Objective-C native iOS template defines three classes: AppDelegate, InitialViewController, and RootViewController. The AppDelegate object calls SFSDKAuthHelper to load InitialViewController for its first view—the login screen. After authentication succeeds, the AppDelegate object displays the view associated with RootViewController as the entry point to your app.

Objective-C application flow diagram

The workflow demonstrated by the template app is just an example. You can tailor your AppDelegate and supporting classes to enable extra features or refine the workflow. For example, you can postpone Salesforce authentication until it’s required. You can retrieve data through REST API calls and display it, launch other views, perform services, and so on. Mobile SDK templates also provide commented-out boilerplate code that you can reinstate to handle push notifications and initialize IDP app services.

Note