How does SwiftData work with background operations? CoreData had background context that could be used to avoid UI hang for heavy operations.
Is there an equivalent in SwiftData, and if so, do I have to merge changes or does it save directly to persistent store?
SwiftData
RSS for tagSwiftData is an all-new framework for managing data within your apps. Models are described using regular Swift code, without the need for custom editors.
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As far as I can tell, there’s no equivalent to Core Data’s NSFetchedResultsController in SwiftData. It would be very helpful to have a way to respond to sets of changes in a ModelContext outside of a SwiftUI view. For instance, this is very helpful when using a Model-View-ViewModel architecture.
The @Query property wrapper is great for use in a SwiftUI view, but sometimes it’s helpful to process data outside of the view itself. The fetch() method on ModelContext is helpful for one-time operations, but as far as I can't tell it doesn't address receiving changes on an ongoing basis.
Am I missing some equivalent for this use case?
Also filed as feedback FB12288916
The 'unique' attribute is a really nice feature, BUT. In some of my apps, the unique identifier for an object is a combination of multiple attributes. (Example: a book title is not unique, but a combination of book title and author list is.)
How do I model this with SwiftData? I cannot use @Attribute(.unique) on either the title OR the author list, but I want SwiftData to provide the same "insert or update" logic.
Is this possible?
When I update a variable inside my model that is marked @Transient, my view does not update with this change. Is this normal? If I update a non-transient variable inside the model at the same time that I update the transient one, then both changes are propagated to my view.
Here is an example of the model:
@Model public class WaterData {
public var target: Double = 3000
@Transient public var samples: [HKQuantitySample] = []
}
Updating samples only does not propagate to my view.
I am using SwiftData for my model. Until Xcode 15 beta 4 I did not have issues. Since beta 5 I am receiving the following red warning multiple times:
'NSKeyedUnarchiveFromData' should not be used to for un-archiving and will be removed in a future release
This seems to be a CoreData warning. However, I am not using CoreData directly. I have no way to change the config of CoreData as used by SwiftData.
My model just uses UUID, Int, String, Double, some of them as optionals or Arrays. I only use one attribute (.unique).
I have created an actor for the ModelContainer, in order to perform a data load when starting the app in the background. For this I have conformed to the ModelActor protocol and created the necessary elements, even preparing for test data.
Then I create a function of type async throws to perform the database loading processes and everything works fine, in that the data is loaded and when loaded it is displayed reactively.
actor Container: ModelActor {
nonisolated let modelContainer: ModelContainer
nonisolated let modelExecutor: ModelExecutor
static let modelContainer: ModelContainer = {
do {
return try ModelContainer(for: Empleados.self)
} catch {
fatalError()
}
}()
let context: ModelContext
init(container: ModelContainer = Container.modelContainer) {
self.modelContainer = container
let context = ModelContext(modelContainer)
self.modelExecutor = DefaultSerialModelExecutor(modelContext: context)
self.context = context
Task {
do {
try await loadData()
} catch {
print("Error en la carga \(error)")
}
}
}
}
The problem is that, in spite of doing the load inside a Task and that there is no problem, when starting the app it stops responding the UI while loading to the user interactions. Which gives me to understand that actually the task that should be in a background thread is running somehow over the MainActor.
As I have my own API that will provide the information to my app and refresh it at each startup or even send them in Batch when the internet connection is lost and comes back, I don't want the user to be continuously noticing that the app stops because it is performing a heavy process that is not really running in the background.
Tested and compiled on Xcode 15 beta 7.
I made a Feedback for this: FB13038621.
Thanks
Julio César
Hi all, I'm working on a really basic counter app as a way to explore SwiftData and have come across some behavior that I don't understand. I have a very simple App Intent that increments a user-specified counter in my app. The intent doesn't throw any errors and correctly updates the CoreData store but, when I switch back to my app from the Shortcuts app (where I'm testing the app intent), the view hasn't updated. Closing and re-opening the app shows the incremented counter value but I'd like to know if it's possible to have my app's UI update when the CoreData store is updated from outside the app without relaunching the whole app.
For some brief context, here's my view and the App Intent:
struct ContentView: View {
@Environment(\.modelContext) private var modelContext
@Query private var counters: [Counter]
// ...
var body: some View {
NavigationStack {
List {
ForEach(counters) { counter in
CounterRowItem(counter: counter)
}
.onDelete(perform: deleteItems)
}
// ...
}
}
struct IncrementCounterIntent: AppIntent {
static var title: LocalizedStringResource = "Increment Counter"
@Parameter(title: "Name", optionsProvider: CounterOptionsProvider()) var name: String
func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult & ReturnsValue<Int> {
let provider = try CounterProvider()
guard let counter = try provider.fetchCounters().first(where: { $0.name == name }) else {
print("Couldn't find counter with name '\(name)'")
return .result(value: 0)
}
counter.count += 1
try provider.context.save()
return .result(value: counter.count)
}
private final class CounterOptionsProvider: DynamicOptionsProvider {
func results() async throws -> [String] {
try CounterProvider().fetchCounters().map { $0.name }
}
}
}
Problem
The following code doesn't work:
let predicate = #Predicate<Car> { car in
car.size == size //This doesn't work
}
Console Error
Query encountered an error: SwiftData.SwiftDataError(_error: SwiftData.SwiftDataError._Error.unsupportedPredicate)
Root cause
Size is an enum, #Predicate works with other type such as String however doesn't work with enum
Enum value is saved however is not filtered by #Predicate
Environment
Xcode: 15.0 (15A240d) - App Store
macOS: 14.0 (23A339) - Release Candidate
Steps to reproduce
Run the app on iOS 17 or macOS Sonoma
Press the Add button
Notice that the list remains empty
Expected behaviour
List should show the newly created small car
Actual behaviour
List remains empty inspite of successfully creating the small car.
Feedback
FB13194334
Code
Size
enum Size: String, Codable {
case small
case medium
case large
}
Car
import SwiftData
@Model
class Car {
let id: UUID
let name: String
let size: Size
init(
id: UUID,
name: String,
size: Size
) {
self.id = id
self.name = name
self.size = size
}
}
ContentView
struct ContentView: View {
var body: some View {
NavigationStack {
CarList(size: .small)
}
}
CarList
import SwiftUI
import SwiftData
struct CarList: View {
let size: Size
@Environment(\.modelContext)
private var modelContext
@Query
private var cars: [Car]
init(size: Size) {
self.size = size
let predicate = #Predicate<Car> { car in
car.size == size //This doesn't work
}
_cars = Query(filter: predicate, sort: \.name)
}
var body: some View {
List(cars) { car in
VStack(alignment: .leading) {
Text(car.name)
Text("\(car.size.rawValue)")
Text(car.id.uuidString)
.font(.footnote)
}
}
.toolbar {
Button("Add") {
createCar()
}
}
}
private func createCar() {
let name = "aaa"
let car = Car(
id: UUID(),
name: name,
size: size
)
modelContext.insert(car)
}
}
is anyone facing the error, "The current model reference and the next model reference cannot be equal", when using SwiftData with migration and iCloud/CloudKit integration?
Hi,
I am creating an app that can include videos or images in it's data. While
@Attribute(.externalStorage)
helps with images, with AVAssets I actually would like access to the URL behind that data. (as it would be stupid to load and then save the data again just to have a URL)
One key component is to keep all of this clean enough so that I can use (private) CloudKit syncing with the resulting model.
All the best
Christoph
Hi all,
has anybody found the trick how to get SwiftData working with SpotLight Search?
Setting the attribute "spotlight" in the Model definition seems to do nothing at all, as pointed out by Paul Hudson in his new book as well
(https://www.hackingwithswift.com/quick-start/swiftdata/how-to-index-swiftdata-objects-in-spotlight)
Thanks a lot!
My app is using SwiftData, but I deployed it to the app store with no VersionedSchema applied without thinking about migrating the model. Now I need to migrate the data and I need help from someone who has experience moving from non-versioned to versioned.
Assuming I currently have a version1, version2 schema, it works fine for the initial install situation, but when I migrate to version1, version2 in an app that is listed on the app store, I run into problems.
I don't have any logs to show for it. Thread 1: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=2, address=0x16a6578f0) If anyone has had the same experience as above, please respond, thanks!
Let me know what kind of logs you need and I'll add them as a comment.
My app has been in the App Store a few months. In that time I've added a few updates to my SwiftData schema using a MigrationPlan, and things were seemingly going ok. But then I decided to add CloudKit syncing. I needed to modify my models to be compatible. So, I added another migration stage for it, changed the properties as needed (making things optional or adding default values, etc.). In my tests, everything seemed to work smoothly updating from the previous version to the new version with CloudKit. So I released it to my users. But, that's when I started to see the crashes and error reports come in. I think I've narrowed it down to when users update from older versions of the app. I was finally able to reproduce this on my end, and Core Data is throwing an error when loading the ModelContainer saying "CloudKit integration requires that all attributes be optional, or have a default value set." Even though I did this in the latest schema. It’s like it’s trying to load CloudKit before performing the schema migration, and since it can’t, it just fails and won’t load anything. I’m kinda at a loss how to recover from this for these users other than tell them to delete their app and restart, but obviously they’ll lose their data that way. The only other idea I have is to setup some older builds on TestFlight and direct them to update to those first, then update to the newest production version and hope that solves it. Any other ideas? And what can I do to prevent this for future users who maybe reinstall the app from an older version too? There's nothing special about my code for loading the ModelContainer. Just a basic:
let container = try ModelContainer(
for: Foo.self, Bar.self,
migrationPlan: SchemaMigration.self,
configurations: ModelConfiguration(cloudKitDatabase: .automatic)
)
According to my experiments SwiftData does not work with model attributes of primitive type UInt64. More precisely, it crashes in the getter of a UInt64 attribute invoked on an object fetched from the data store.
With Core Data persistent UInt64 attributes are not a problem. Does anyone know whether SwiftData will ever support UInt64?
I have an Apple app that uses SwiftData and icloud to sync the App's data across users' devices. Everything is working well. However, I am facing the following issue:
SwiftData does not support public sharing of the object graph with other users via iCloud. How can I overcome this limitation without stopping using SwiftData?
Thanks in advance!
Hello, I’m upgrading my app from Core Data to SwiftData. Due to my old setup the Core Data store has an explicitly name like „Something.sqlite“, because it was defined via NSPersistentContainer(name: "Something") before switching to SwiftData.
Now my goal is to migrate the Core Data stack to SwiftData, while moving it to an App Group (for Widget support) as well as enable iCloud sync via CloudKit.
Working Migration without App Group & CloudKit
I’ve managed to get my migration running without migrating it to an App Group and CloudKit support like so:
@main
struct MyAppName: App {
let container: ModelContainer
init() {
// Legacy placement of the Core Data file.
let dataUrl = URL.applicationSupportDirectory.appending(path: "Something.sqlite")
do {
// Create SwiftData container with migration and custom URL pointing to legacy Core Data file
container = try ModelContainer(
for: Foo.self, Bar.self,
migrationPlan: MigrationPlan.self,
configurations: ModelConfiguration(url: dataUrl))
} catch {
fatalError("Failed to initialize model container.")
}
}
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
}
.modelContainer(container)
}
}
How To Migrate to App Group & CloudKit?
I’ve already tried to use the ModelConfiguration with a name, but it seems to only look for a .store file and thus doesn’t copy over the Core Data contents.
let fullSchema = Schema([Foo.self, Bar.self])
let configuration = ModelConfiguration("Something", schema: fullSchema)
Can someone help me how to do this migration or point me into the right direction? I can’t find anything relating this kind of migration …
I was hoping for an update of SwiftData which adopted the use of shared and public CloudKit containers, in the same way it does for the private CloudKit container.
So firstly, a big request to any Apple devs reading, for this to be a thing!
Secondly, what would be a sensible way of adding a shared container in CloudKit to an existing app that is already using SwiftData?
Would it be possible to use the new DataStore method to manage CloudKit syncing with a public or shared container?
I'm currently using Xcode 16 Beta (16A5171c) and I'm getting a crash whenever I attempt to fetch using my ModelContext in my SwiftUI video using the environment I'm getting a crash specifically on iOS 18 simulators.
I've opened up a feedback FB13831520 but it's worth noting that I can run the code I'll explain in detail below on iOS 17+ simulator and devices just fine.
I'm getting the following crash:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: 'The specified URI is not a valid Core Data URI: x-coredata:///MyApp/XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX'
It's almost as if on iOS18 SwiftData is unable to find the file on the simulator to perform CRUD operations.
All I'm doing in my project is simply fetching data using the modelContext.
func contains(_ model: MyModel, in context: ModelContext) -> Bool {
let objId = palette.persistentModelID
let fetchDesc = FetchDescriptor<MyModel>(predicate: #Predicate { $0.persistentModelID == objId })
let itemCount = try? context.fetchCount(fetchDesc)
return itemCount != 0
}
I've just tried to update a project that uses SwiftData to Swift 6 using Xcode 16 beta 1, and it's not working due to missing Sendable conformance on a couple of types (MigrationStage and Schema.Version):
struct LocationsMigrationPlan: SchemaMigrationPlan {
static let schemas: [VersionedSchema.Type] = [LocationsVersionedSchema.self]
static let stages: [MigrationStage] = []
}
struct LocationsVersionedSchema: VersionedSchema {
static let models: [any PersistentModel.Type] = [
Location.self
]
static let versionIdentifier = Schema.Version(1, 0, 0)
}
This code results in the following errors:
error: static property 'stages' is not concurrency-safe because non-'Sendable' type '[MigrationStage]' may have shared mutable state
static let stages: [MigrationStage] = []
^
error: static property 'versionIdentifier' is not concurrency-safe because non-'Sendable' type 'Schema.Version' may have shared mutable state
static let versionIdentifier = Schema.Version(1, 0, 0)
^
Am I missing something, or is this a bug in the current seed? I've filed this as FB13862584.
When trying to run my document-based iPad app using iPadOS 18 beta and Xcode 16 beta, I get an error like the following after opening a document:
Thread 1: Fatal error: Failed to identify a store that can hold instances of SwiftData._KKMDBackingData<MyProject.MyModel> from [:]
In order to help track down what is going wrong, I downloaded the sample app from WWDC23 session "Build an app with SwiftData" found here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/building-a-document-based-app-using-swiftdata
When I try to run the end-state of that sample code, I get a similar error when running the app on my iPad and creating a new deck:
Thread 1: Fatal error: Failed to identify a store that can hold instances of SwiftData._KKMDBackingData<SwiftDataFlashCardSample.Card> from [:]
Given that the sample project is generating the same error as my own project, is this a problem with SwiftData and document-based apps in general? Or is there a change of approach that I should try?