IBM Mobile Foundation Support for iOS 14

Vittal R Pai, Srihari Kulkarni October 22, 2020

MobileFirst_Platform Mobile_Foundation Announcement iOS 14

We are pleased to announce IBM Mobile Foundation v8.0 providing Day 0 suport for Apple’s latest iOS operation system version iOS 14. You can update your phones to iOS 14 using the Over-the-air updates provided by Apple. Going alongside iOS 14, for developers, is XCode 12. As a developer, you can download XCode 12 from here.

iOS 14 arrived with a slew of new features. The prominent ones that invited a lot of interest from the developer community are App Clips, Widgets, App Library, and Privacy. You can read more about all the new features in iOS 14 here.

iOS 14
Picture Source: Apple.com

​

We have validated all the features and functionalities of Mobile Foundation version 8.0 on iOS 14 GA with the following SDK versions using Xcode IDE v12. ​

  • IBMMobileFirstPlatformFoundation 8.0.2020082709
  • IBMMobileFirstPlatformFoundationJSONStore 8.0.2020021915
  • IBMMobileFirstPlatformFoundationPush 8.0.2019082914
  • IBMMobileFirstPlatformFoundationLiveupdate 8.0.202005041257
  • cordova-plugin-mfp@8.0.2020091105
  • cordova-plugin-mfp-jsonstore@8.0.2020072706
  • cordova-plugin-mfp-analytics@8.0.2020081211
  • cordova-plugin-mfp-push@8.0.2020072705
  • cordova-plugin-mfp-liveupdate@8.0.202003051505

All features and capabilities of Mobile Foundation have been successfully validated on iOS 14.

Refer this blog on how to use App Clips with your Mobile Foundation apps on iOS 14.

Notes

Local Network Privacy Restrictions with iOS 14

Due to iOS 14 Local Network Privacy Restrictions, you might hit the following error in your dev/test environment while connecting to Mobile Foundation server that is running on a local network. Device Log Error

You must choose OK to allow the app to access the local network. Device Log Error

To overcome Local Network Privacy restriction

  1. Following settings are required on the device (Settings->Privacy->Local Network). Device Setting

  2. Customize the usage description in the Info.plist file by using the key NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription, if your app intends to use the local network on the device. Plist Setting

Disclaimer: Some of the action items that are mentioned in the list above are not under IBM’s control. Therefore, we expect developers and IT managers to ensure that their infrastructure is up to date according to Apple’s requirements.
Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.
Last modified on October 22, 2020