Hi everyone,
I'm looking for the correct architectural guidance for my SwiftData implementation.
In my Swift project, I have dedicated async functions for adding, editing, and deleting each of my four models. I created these functions specifically to run certain logic whenever these operations occur. Since these functions are asynchronous, I call them from the UI (e.g., from a button press) by wrapping them in a Task.
I've gone through three different approaches and am now stuck.
Approach 1: @MainActor Functions
Initially, my functions were marked with @MainActor and worked on the main ModelContext. This worked perfectly until I added support for App Intents and Widgets, which caused the app to crash with data race errors.
Approach 2: Passing ModelContext as a Parameter
To solve the crashes, I decided to have each function receive a ModelContext as a parameter. My SwiftUI views passed the main context (which they get from @Environment(\.modelContext)), while the App Intents and Widgets created and passed in their own private context. However, this approach still caused the app to crash sometimes due to data race errors, especially during actions triggered from the main UI.
Approach 3: Creating a New Context in Each Function
I moved to a third approach where each function creates its own ModelContext to work on. This has successfully stopped all crashes. However, now the UI actions don't always react or update. For example, when an object is added, deleted, or edited, the change isn't reflected in the UI. I suspect this is because the main context (driving the UI) hasn't been updated yet, or because the async function hasn't finished its work.
My Question
I'm not sure what to do or what the correct logic should be. How should I structure my data operations to support the main UI, Widgets, and App Intents without causing crashes or UI update failures?
Here is the relevant code using my third (and current) approach. I've shortened the helper functions for brevity.
// MARK: - SwiftData Operations
extension DatabaseManager {
/// Creates a new assignment and saves it to the database.
public func createAssignment(
name: String, deadline: Date, notes: AttributedString,
forCourseID courseID: UUID, /*...other params...*/
) async throws -> AssignmentModel {
do {
let context = ModelContext(container)
guard let course = findCourse(byID: courseID, in: context) else {
throw DatabaseManagerError.itemNotFound
}
let newAssignment = AssignmentModel(
name: name, deadline: deadline, notes: notes, course: course, /*...other properties...*/
)
context.insert(newAssignment)
try context.save()
// Schedule notifications and add to calendar
_ = try? await scheduleReminder(for: newAssignment)
newAssignment.calendarEventIDs = await CalendarManager.shared.addEventToCalendar(for: newAssignment)
try context.save()
await MainActor.run {
WidgetCenter.shared.reloadTimelines(ofKind: "AppWidget")
}
return newAssignment
} catch {
throw DatabaseManagerError.saveFailed
}
}
/// Finds a specific course by its ID in a given context.
public func findCourse(byID id: UUID, in context: ModelContext) -> CourseModel? {
let predicate = #Predicate<CourseModel> { $0.id == id }
let fetchDescriptor = FetchDescriptor<CourseModel>(predicate: predicate)
return try? context.fetch(fetchDescriptor).first
}
}
// MARK: - Helper Functions (Implementations omitted for brevity)
/// Schedules a local user notification for an event.
func scheduleReminder(for assignment: AssignmentModel) async throws -> String {
// ... Full implementation to create and schedule a UNNotificationRequest
return UUID().uuidString
}
/// Creates a new event in the user's selected calendars.
extension CalendarManager {
func addEventToCalendar(for assignment: AssignmentModel) async -> [String] {
// ... Full implementation to create and save an EKEvent
return [UUID().uuidString]
}
}
Thank you for your help.