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Inspired by (but unrelated to) Periscope's permission control, PermissionScope is a Swift framework for intelligently requesting permissions from users. It contains not only a simple UI to request permissions but also a unified permissions API that can tell you the status of any given system permission or easily request them.
Some examples of multiple permissions requests, a single permission and the denied alert.
PermissionScope gives you space to explain your reasons for requesting permissions and allows users to tackle the system dialogs at their own pace. It presents a straightforward permissions design and is flexible enough to fit in to most UIKit-based apps.
Best of all, PermissionScope detects when your app's permissions have been denied by a user and gives them an easy prompt to go into the system settings page to modify these permissions.
Supported permissions:
PermissionScope requires iOS 8+, compatible with both Swift 3 and Objective-C based projects.
For Swift 2.x support, please use the swift2 branch or the 1.0.2 release version. This branch was up-to-date on 9/6/16 but is not being maintained. All future efforts will go towards Swift 3 development.
Installation for Carthage is simple enough:
github "nickoneill/PermissionScope" ~> 1.0
As for Cocoapods, use this to get the latest release:
use_frameworks!
pod 'PermissionScope'And import PermissionScope in the files you'd like to use it.
The simplest implementation displays a list of permissions and is removed when all of them have satisfactory access.
class ViewController: UIViewController {
let pscope = PermissionScope()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Set up permissions
pscope.addPermission(ContactsPermission(),
message: "We use this to steal\r\nyour friends")
pscope.addPermission(NotificationsPermission(notificationCategories: nil),
message: "We use this to send you\r\nspam and love notes")
pscope.addPermission(LocationWhileInUsePermission(),
message: "We use this to track\r\nwhere you live")
// Show dialog with callbacks
pscope.show({ finished, results in
print("got results \(results)")
}, cancelled: { (results) -> Void in
print("thing was cancelled")
})
}
}The permissions view will automatically show if there are permissions to approve and will take no action if permissions are already granted. It will automatically hide when all permissions have been approved.
If you're attempting to block access to a screen in your app without permissions (like, say, the broadcast screen in Periscope), you should watch for the cancel closure and take an appropriate action for your app.
You can easily change the colors, label and buttons fonts with PermissionScope by modifying any of these properties:
| Field | Type | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| headerLabel | UILabel | Header UILabel with the message "Hey, listen!" by default. |
| bodyLabel | UILabel | Header UILabel with the message "We need a couple things\r\nbefore you get started." by default. |
| closeButtonTextColor | UIColor | Color for the close button's text color. |
| permissionButtonTextColor | UIColor | Color for the permission buttons' text color. |
| permissionButtonBorderColor | UIColor | Color for the permission buttons' border color. |
| buttonFont | UIFont | Font used for all the UIButtons |
| labelFont | UIFont | Font used for all the UILabels |
| closeButton | UIButton | Close button. By default in the top right corner. |
| closeOffset | CGSize | Offset used to position the Close button. |
| authorizedButtonColor | UIColor | Color used for permission buttons with authorized status |
| unauthorizedButtonColor | UIColor? | Color used for permission buttons with unauthorized status. By default, inverse of authorizedButtonColor. |
| permissionButtonΒorderWidth | CGFloat | Border width for the permission buttons. |
| permissionButtonCornerRadius | CGFloat | Corner radius for the permission buttons. |
| permissionLabelColor | UIColor | Color for the permission labels' text color. |
| contentView | UIView | Dialog's content view |
In addition, the default behavior for tapping the background behind the dialog is to cancel the dialog (which calls the cancel closure you can provide on show). You can change this behavior with backgroundTapCancels during init.
If you'd like more control over the button text for a particular permission, you can use a .strings file for your intended language and override them that way. Please get in touch if you'd like to contribute a localization file for another language!
PermissionScope also has an abstracted API for getting the state for a given permission and requesting permissions if you need to do so outside of the normal dialog UI. Think of it as a unified iOS permissions API that can provide some features that even Apple does not (such as detecting denied notification permissions).
switch PermissionScope().statusContacts() {
case .Unknown:
// ask
PermissionScope().requestContacts()
case .Unauthorized, .Disabled:
// bummer
return
case .Authorized:
// thanks!
return
}request* methods directlyNormally PermissionScope is used to walk users through necessary permissions before they're allowed to do something in your app. Sometimes you may wish to instead call into the various request* permissions-seeking methods of PermissionScope directly, from your own UI.
To call these methods directly, you must first set the viewControllerForAlerts method to your current UIViewController, in case PermissionScope needs to present some alerts to the user for denied or disabled permissions:
let pscope = PermissionScope()
pscope.viewControllerForAlerts = selfYou will probably also want to set the onAuthChange, onCancel, and onDisabledOrDenied closures, which are called at the appropriate times when the request* methods are finished, otherwise you won't know when the work has been completed.
pscope.onAuthChange = { (finished, results) in
println("Request was finished with results \(results)")
if results[0].status == .Authorized {
println("They've authorized the use of notifications")
UIApplication.sharedApplication().registerForRemoteNotifications()
}
}
pscope.onCancel = { results in
println("Request was cancelled with results \(results)")
}
pscope.onDisabledOrDenied = { results in
println("Request was denied or disabled with results \(results)")
}And then you might call it when the user toggles a switch:
@IBAction func notificationsChanged(sender: UISwitch) {
if sender.on {
// turn on notifications
if PermissionScope().statusNotifications() == .Authorized {
UIApplication.sharedApplication().registerForRemoteNotifications()
} else {
pscope.requestNotifications()
}
} else {
// turn off notifications
}If you're also using PermissionScope in the traditional manner, don't forget to set viewControllerForAlerts back to it's default, the instance of PermissionScope. The easiest way to do this is to set it explicitly before you call a request* method, and then reset it in your closures.
pscope.viewControllerForAlerts = pscope as UIViewControllerUsers will get the prompt to enable notifications when using PermissionScope but it's up to you to watch for results in your app delegate's didRegisterUserNotificationSettings and then register for remote notifications independently. This won't alert the user again. You're still responsible for handling the shipment of user notification settings off to your push server.
You must set these Info.plist keys for location to work
Trickiest part of implementing location permissions? You must implement the proper key in your Info.plist file with a short description of how your app uses location info (shown in the system permissions dialog). Without this, trying to get location permissions will just silently fail. Software!
Use NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription or NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription where appropriate for your app usage. You can specify which of these location permissions you wish to request with .LocationAlways or .LocationInUse while configuring PermissionScope.
The NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription key in the Info.plist specifying a short description of why your app needs to act as a bluetooth peripheral in the background is optional.
However, enabling background-modes in the capabilities section and checking the acts as a bluetooth LE accessory checkbox is required.
Solution: TBD
Solution: None. Works as intended by the OS.
Solution: Run your app without the debugger.
Solution: Use the --no-use-binaries flag (e.g: carthage update --no-use-binaries).
PermissionScope uses the MIT license. Please file an issue if you have any questions or if you'd like to share how you're using this tool.