Narasimha-sc
2a7eb7eed2
Correctness. The one-time link picker's profile list was keyed on the active user as well as the count. That defeats the "don't change order after a user was selected" behaviour its own comment protects - changeActiveUser_ sets currentUser first and only then reloads chats, so the list visibly re-sorted and stayed re-sorted for the whole of getUserChatData - and it was redundant: the count alone covers a profile being created from the picker. iOS, compose picker: the old-core fallback relied on the user switch tearing this view down, which only happens when the switch succeeded. If it threw, the form was left open over a profile that already existed, and the only way out was to swipe it away. It is now dismissed unconditionally. iOS: alerts raised right after a sheet is dismissed are presented on a controller that is going away and are dropped. The 0.5s wait was applied only to the old-core path, while the ordinary reassignment failures - the ones that actually happen - went unguarded. alertAfterDismissal now covers all of them, in one place. iOS: dropped the chatId write that Kotlin removed for the same reason two commits ago. It is a no-op on the happy path, but not if something legitimately closed the chat meanwhile - SimpleX lock re-auth clears it, and this would reopen the chat behind the lock screen. iOS: the create-profile row is now gated on profileChangeProhibited, as every other row on both platforms already was. Surface. apiCreateActiveUser takes keepActiveUser as a defaulted argument, exactly as it already takes pastTimestamp, instead of a public wrapper plus a private helper. Two symbols fewer on each platform, and every existing call site passes its arguments by name, so none of them changes. Reverted the activeOrder sort flip in the compose picker: it changes the order of an existing screen for every user, is not needed for this feature, and with active_order 0 would push a newly created profile to the bottom. It deserves its own commit if wanted. Also: apps/ios/spec/api.md tracks the command enum and had gone stale; the plan records the two limits of the flag the review surfaced - it is ignored when there is no active user, and active_order 0 ties rather than sorts last on migrated databases.
SimpleX Chat iOS app
This file provides guidance when working with code in this repository.
iOS App Overview
The iOS app is a SwiftUI application that interfaces with the Haskell core library via FFI. It shares the SimpleXChat framework with two extensions: Notification Service Extension (NSE) for push notifications and Share Extension (SE) for sharing content from other apps.
Build & Development
Open SimpleX.xcodeproj in Xcode. The project has five targets:
- SimpleX (iOS) - Main app (Bundle ID:
chat.simplex.app) - SimpleXChat - Framework containing FFI bridge and shared types
- SimpleX NSE - Notification Service Extension
- SimpleX SE - Share Extension
- Tests iOS - UI tests
Build and run via Xcode (Product > Build/Run). Tests run via Product > Test or:
xcodebuild test -scheme "SimpleX (iOS)" -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 15'
Deployment target: iOS 15.0+, Swift 5.0.
Architecture
Haskell Core Integration
The app calls the Haskell core library through C FFI defined in SimpleXChat/SimpleX.h:
chat_migrate_init_key()- Initialize/migrate databasechat_send_cmd_retry()- Send command to chat controllerchat_recv_msg_wait()- Receive messages from controller
Swift wrappers in SimpleXChat/API.swift:
chatMigrateInit()- Initialize chat controllersendSimpleXCmd<R>()- Send typed commands and parse responsesrecvSimpleXMsg<R>()- Receive typed messages
Haskell runtime initialization (SimpleXChat/hs_init.c) uses different memory configurations:
- Main app: 64MB heap
- NSE: 512KB heap (minimal footprint for background processing)
- SE: 1MB heap
Pre-compiled Haskell libraries are in Libraries/{ios,mac,sim}/.
State Management
- ChatModel (
Shared/Model/ChatModel.swift) - Main singletonObservableObjectfor app-wide state (chat list, active chat, users) - ItemsModel - Manages chat items within a selected chat (similar to Kotlin's ChatsContext)
- AppTheme - Theme management and customization
App Structure
Entry point: Shared/SimpleXApp.swift
Key directories in Shared/:
Model/- Data models and API layer (ChatModel.swift,SimpleXAPI.swift)Views/- SwiftUI views organized by feature:ChatList/- Chat list and user pickerChat/- Message display and compositionCall/- VoIP call UIUserSettings/- App settingsLocalAuth/- Passcode and biometric authenticationDatabase/- Database initialization and migration
Shared Data Between Targets
All three targets share data via App Group (group.chat.simplex.app):
SimpleXChat/AppGroup.swift- GroupDefaults wrapper for typed shared preferences- Keychain for sensitive data:
kcDatabasePassword,kcAppPassword,kcSelfDestructPassword
Key Types
Types are defined in SimpleXChat/:
ChatTypes.swift- User, Chat, Message, Group typesAPITypes.swift- API request/response types
Commands follow ChatCmdProtocol (has cmdString property), sent as JSON through FFI.
Localization
31 languages supported. Localization files in SimpleX Localizations/.
Workflow:
Product > Export Localizations- Export XLIFF filesProduct > Import Localizations- Import updated translations
SimpleX Assets
The app includes optional assets behind the SIMPLEX_ASSETS Swift compilation flag. Without setup, the app builds normally without them.
Setup
Create Local.xcconfig (gitignored) in the apps/ios/ directory:
SIMPLEX_ASSETS_DIR = /path/to/assets
SWIFT_ACTIVE_COMPILATION_CONDITIONS = $(inherited) SIMPLEX_ASSETS
The copy script (scripts/ios/copy-assets.sh) runs as a build phase on each build but exits immediately if SIMPLEX_ASSETS is not set.
Updating assets
When source images change, regenerate resized images (requires ImageMagick):
cd path/to/assets && ./resize.sh
Background Capabilities
Configured in Info.plist:
- Background modes: audio, fetch, remote-notification, voip
- URL scheme:
simplex://for deep linking - BGTaskScheduler:
chat.simplex.app.receive