iOS

Overview

This directory contains all the code necessary to build the FDA MyStudies iOS application for study participants. Customization of the Default.xcconfig and Branding.plist files will enable your iOS application to interact with the other components of your FDA MyStudies deployment. Further customization of app branding can be accomplished by replacing the default application images with your own. All configuration related to the creation and operation of studies is done using the Study builder without need for code changes or redeployment of the mobile application.

Requirements

The FDA MyStudies iOS application requires Xcode 13 or newer, and can be run on iOS versions 13 and above.

Platform integration

The FDA MyStudies mobile application fetches all study, schedule, activity, eligibility, consent and notification information from the Study datastore and posts pseudonymized participant response data to the Response datastore. Consent forms and any other identifiable data is posted to the Participant datastore. Email and password authentication is handled by the MyStudies Auth server using OAuth 2.0.

Configuration instructions

1. Open the iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies.xcworkspace in Xcode
2. Map your project’s build configuration to iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Default.xcconfig (instructions)
3. Update the following in the Default.xcconfig file:
   • Update STUDY_DATASTORE_URL with your Study datastore URL
   • Update RESPONSE_DATASTORE_URL with your Response datastore URL
   • Update USER_DATASTORE_URL with your User datastore URL
   • Update ENROLLMENT_DATASTORE_URL with your Enrollment datastore URL
   • Update CONSENT_DATASTORE_URL with your Consent datastore URL
   • Update AUTH_URL with your Auth server URL
   • Update HYDRA_BASE_URL with your Hydra server URL
   • Update HYDRA_CLIENT_ID with the client_id you configured during Hydra deployment (the mobile applications share a client_id with each other, the Auth server and the Participant manager)
   • Update API_KEY with the bundle_id and app_token that you configured study-datastore/src/main/resources/authorizationResource.properties during Study datastore deployment with format <value of ios.bundleid>:<value of ios.apptoken>
   • Update APP_ID variable with the AppId that will be configured by the study administrator in the Study builder user interface
   • Set the boolean IsStandaloneStudyApp value to “gateway” or “standalone” in iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Branding/Generic/Branding.plist
   • Update StandaloneStudyId key in iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Branding/Generic/Branding.plist with the StudyId configured by the study administrator in the Study builder user interface (not required for Gateway applications)
4. If you haven't already created the Firebase project then, add Firebase to your Xcode project and make sure that Google Analytics is enabled in your Firebase project:
   • If you're creating a new Firebase project, enable Google Analytics during the project creation workflow.
   • If you're using an existing Firebase project that doesn't have Google Analytics enabled, go to the Integrations tab of your settings > Project settings to enable it.
   • When you enable Google Analytics in your project, your Firebase apps are linked to Google Analytics data streams.
   • Add a Firebase configuration file into the root of your Xcode project for using firebase services.
5. Enable push notifications by creating push notification certificates in encrypted .p12 format (for more information, visit Establishing a Certificate-Based Connection to APNs)
6. Enable push notification by token based connection with an authentication token signing key, specified as a text file (with a .p8 file extension).
7. Enable FCM based push notification by uploading your APNs authentication key to Firebase.
8. Optional. Customize images and text
   • Replace icons and images in iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Assets/Assets.xcassets
   • Update user-facing text in the iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Branding/Generic/Branding.plist file, fields to consider include:
     • ProductTitleName - Application name that is shown to the user
     • WebsiteButtonTitle - Text of the link that is shown on the overview screen
     • NavigationTitleName - The navigation bar title that is shown to users
   • Update introductory information presented to users in the iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Utils/Resources/Plists/UI/GatewayOverview.plist file
   • Additional resource documents can be made available to users by adding PDF files to iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Assets/OtherAssets/ and creating a corresponding entry in iOS/MyStudies/MyStudies/Models/Resource/Resources.plist

Building and deploying

Instructions for building and deploying iOS applications can be found here.

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