Using the Sync Manager

The sync manager object handles simple sync up and sync down operations. For sync down, it sends authenticated requests to the server on your behalf, and stores response data locally in SmartStore. For sync up, it collects the records you specify from SmartStore and merges them with corresponding server records according to your instructions. Sync managers know how to handle authentication for Salesforce users and community users. Sync managers can store records in any user or global SmartStore instance—the default instance, or a named instance.

Sync manager classes provide factory methods that return customized sync manager instances. To use the sync manager, you create an instance that matches the requirements of your sync operation. For example, Mobile SDK provides a specialized sync manager class for layouts and another for metadata.

It is of utmost importance that you create the correct type of sync manager for every sync activity. If you don't, your customers can encounter runtime authentication failures.

Important

Once you've created an instance, you can use it to call typical sync manager functionality:

Sync down
Sync up
Resync
Stop
Restart

Sync managers can perform three types of actions on SmartStore soup entries and Salesforce records:

Create
Update
Delete

If you provide custom targets, sync managers can use them to synchronize data at arbitrary REST endpoints.

Sync Manager States

At runtime, sync manager objects progress through three states:

accepting_syncs—The sync manager can start sync operations.
stopping—The sync manager’s stop method has been called.
stopped—All sync operations have stopped.

The sync manager can start sync operations only when it’s in the accepting_syncs state. Calling the sync manager’s restart method resets a stopping or stopped state to accepting_syncs. If the restart method is called with restartStoppedSyncs set to true, the sync manager calls reSync on each stopped sync operation.

Sync Manager Instantiation (iOS)

Swift Class	Objective-C Class
`SyncManager`	`SFMobileSyncSyncManager`

In iOS, you use pairs of access and removal methods. You call the sharedInstance class methods on the SFMobileSyncSyncManager class to access a preconfigured shared instance for each scenario. When you're finished using the shared instance for a particular use case, remove it with the corresponding removeSharedInstance method.

For a specified user:

Swift

1SFMobileSyncSyncManager.sharedInstance(user: userAccount)
2SFMobileSyncSyncManager.removeSharedInstance(user: userAccount)

Objective-C

1+ (instancetype)sharedInstance:(SFUserAccount *)user;
2+ (void)removeSharedInstance:(SFUserAccount *)user;

For a specified user using the specified SmartStore database:

Swift

1SFMobileSyncSyncManager.sharedInstance(forUser: userAccount, storeName: "StoreName")
2SFMobileSyncSyncManager.removeSharedInstance(forUser: userAccount, storeName: "StoreName")

Objective-C

1+ (instancetype)sharedInstanceForUser:(SFUserAccount *)user 
2                            storeName:(NSString *)storeName;
3
4+ (void)removeSharedInstanceForUser:(SFUserAccount *)user 
5                          storeName:(NSString *)storeName;

For the current user and a specified SmartStore database:

Swift

1SFMobileSyncSyncManager.sharedInstance(for: store)
2SFMobileSyncSyncManager.removeSharedInstance(for: store)

Objective-C

1+ (instancetype)sharedInstanceForStore:(SFSmartStore *)store;
2+ (void)removeSharedInstanceForStore:(SFSmartStore *)store;

Sync Manager Instantiation (Android)

In Android, you use a different factory method for each of the following scenarios:

For the current user:

1public static synchronized SyncManager getInstance();

For a specified user:

1public static synchronized SyncManager 
2getInstance(UserAccount account);

For a specified user in a specified community:

1public static synchronized SyncManager 
2getInstance(UserAccount account, String communityId);

For a specified user in a specified community using the specified SmartStore database:

1public static synchronized SyncManager 
2getInstance(UserAccount account, String communityId, SmartStore smartStore);

Example

Here's a Swift example of initializing the sync manager with a shared store.

1store = SFSmartStore.sharedStore(withName: kDefaultSmartStoreName) as? SFSmartStore
2syncManager = SFMobileSyncSyncManager.sharedInstance(for:store!)

Mobile SDK Development Guide

Using the Sync Manager

Sync Manager States

Sync Manager Instantiation (iOS)

Sync Manager Instantiation (Android)

Example