iOS

This chapter deals with the iOS specific properties of the AusweisApp SDK. The AusweisApp core is encapsulated into an XCFramework which needs to be linked into your application.

Subsequent sections deal with the SDK interface itself and explain which steps are necessary in order to communicate with the AusweisApp SDK.

Important

Apple released the necessary NFC API with iOS 13.0! Be aware that it is not possible to support older versions.

Use XCFramework

The interface AusweisApp2.h of the SDK for iOS is provided as C-Header that you need to import/include into your application. It grants access to start and shutdown a separate background thread with the integrated AusweisApp core.

After you established a connection to the AusweisApp SDK your application can send Commands and receive Messages.

Clone

The XCFramework is provided in our github repository. It is recommended to use at least Xcode 12 and the dependency handling of at least Swift 5.3 (Swift Package Manager).

You can clone and add that repository with Xcode and import it into your project under the following menu.

File ‣ Swift Packages ‣ Add Package Dependency

Import

After you added the repository to your Xcode project you can import the module via import AusweisApp2 in Swift classes or @import AusweisApp2; in Objective-C classes and call the functions of the AusweisApp2.h header.

typedef void (* AusweisApp2Callback)(const char* pMsg);
bool ausweisapp2_init(AusweisApp2Callback pCallback, const char* pCmdline);
void ausweisapp2_shutdown(void);
bool ausweisapp2_is_running(void);
void ausweisapp2_send(const char* pCmd);

Changed in version 1.24.0: Added optional parameter pCmdline to function ausweisapp2_init.

First, you need to define a callback function that will be called by the AusweisApp to request or provide additional information. If your application initializes the SDK you must pass that callback to ausweisapp2_init. That function will return false if the callback is NULL or the SDK is already running. The Parameter pCmdline is optional and can be NULL. This allows your application to provide additional commandline arguments like --no-loghandler.

After you called that function the AusweisApp SDK will start up. If the initialization is finished the SDK calls your callback function once with NULL as parameter to indicate that it is ready to accept Commands. Do not call ausweisapp2_send until your callback received that message, otherwise that command will be ignored.

Once the SDK is ready to go you can send Commands by ausweisapp2_send. Your callback will receive the Messages.

If you call ausweisapp2_shutdown the AusweisApp SDK will be terminated. This function joins the thread of the AusweisApp and blocks until the AusweisApp is finished. You should not call this function in your callback as it is called by the AusweisApp thread. In that case ausweisapp2_shutdown cannot be a blocking call to avoid a deadlock. If you call this function while a workflow is running the workflow will be canceled automatically before the shutdown.

Important

Your callback will be called by the separate AusweisApp thread. Do not make long running or blocking calls! It is recommended to use an async dispatcher.

Also, you should not call ausweisapp2_send or ausweisapp2_shutdown within your callback function.

Info.plist

You need to enable the card identifier in your applications Info.plist like this, otherwise iOS will not recognize any identity cards. Also, it is necessary to provide a message why your application needs access to the NFC hardware.

<key>com.apple.developer.nfc.readersession.iso7816.select-identifiers</key>
<array>
  <string>E80704007F00070302</string>
</array>

<key>NFCReaderUsageDescription</key>
<string>AusweisApp needs NFC to access the ID card.</string>

See also

Entitlements

Your application needs to provide an entitlement file to request the format of reader sessions.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>com.apple.developer.nfc.readersession.formats</key>
    <array>
      <string>TAG</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</plist>

See also

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com_apple_developer_nfc_readersession_formats

Logging

The AusweisApp uses default logging of iOS and has its own log file. It is recommended to collect that log file if an error occurs in your application to receive better support.

The log file is in your application path:

NSTemporaryDirectory() + /AusweisApp.XXXXXX.log

The XXXXXX characters will be replaced by an automatically generated portion of the filename to avoid conflicts with previous instances.

A new log file will be created for each new instance of the AusweisApp and will be deleted after a correct shutdown. In case of old or multiple log files, it is highly probable that the previous instance crashed.

The AusweisApp deletes any log files that are older than 14 days.