Use hummingbird on iOS

[cflorion]

Hi,

In our company we use Criollo (https://github.com/thecatalinstan/Criollo) in our iOS app, it acts as a server.
I just replaced it with Hummingbird and it seems to be working well, thanks a lot ! :)

1. Is this use (iOS) something you thought of ? Is it a good idea to use it in a production app or is it a hack in your opinion ?
2. Here is my implementation:

let address = HBBindAddress.hostname(localAddress, port: Int(port))
let configuration = HBApplication.Configuration(address: address)
let app = HBApplication(configuration: configuration)
app.start()
DispatchQueue.global(qos: .utility).async {
    app.wait()
}

If I don't put the app.wait()in another queue, the app freezes indefinitely (this is logical). Do you have any recommendation or using a global utility queue seems fine ?

Thanks!

[adam-fowler]

As it stands I wouldn't recommend you use Hummingbird on iOS. The current server backend uses POSIX sockets which you are discouraged from using on iOS. Your networking solutions for iOS should really be using Apple's Network.framework. Luckily the swift-nio team have built server components using this. See swift-nio-transport-services. To get this working it would mean building a slightly different server backend. The code isn't that dissimilar so implementing it wouldn't be too hard.

I was going to look at allowing for different server backends to be fitted in with Hummingbird. I was unhappy with the Lambda implementation I have at the moment and wanted to generalize the backend integration. I guess this gives me another reason.

[adam-fowler]

The fact it isn't returning from start is a little concerning.

Also is there a reason you are stopping the server when it goes into the background? Is it possible to just leave it running? Does that even work?

[cflorion]

Sorry my message was very unclear ! The method returns, what I meant is that I would need a return value, like ´Bool', or ´Error?´ for example to know if starting the server was a success or not.
For example if you call start(), then later you start() again without stopping before. You get an error in the logs saying it failed starting because the port was already in use. So as an implementer, I don't know if calling start() the second time worked or not.

[cflorion]

About when going to background, iOS gives you a maximum of 30 seconds (iOS13) to perform your tasks and then it kills your processes, so the connection will be killed even if you don't close it yourself. So I prefer to close it cleanly my self. And when the app comes back in foreground I start the server again.

[adam-fowler]

Not sure why I wasn't throwing errors from HBApplication.start. Here is a PR that fixes that #73
Yes going into background will close all connections.

[adam-fowler]

@cflorion All the changes are in release v0.11.0. Also I have been messing about with the iOS integration writing a small sample, that turns your phone into an image server (using your photo library as source). I'm pretty sure you don't need to stop and start the server when going into background and back. Just leave it running and everything seems to work fine.

[adam-fowler]

v0.11.0 now adds proper support for iOS

[cflorion]

That's great news ! I'm thinking about putting it to pour Beta users in production right now.The API of Hummingbird is really clean and I want to use it 🤩
I wanted your opinion on this, is Hummingbird's API quite stable or is it a bit too early to use it now ?

[adam-fowler]

The API is fairly stable. You will note it is still a v0.x.x so I cannot guarantee full stability, but I don't foresee any major changes. The core api won't change with the exception I will be adding async/await routes when that comes online.

Here is the iOS image server example I mentioned earlier. hummingbird-project/hummingbird-examples#9

[cflorion]

Great, that enough for me! I'll put it to our beta testers and tell you how this goes ;)
Thanks a lot!

[cflorion]

Hi @adam-fowler
I am struggling with setting up tlsOptions to have a HTTPS connection. Would you have a sample code or unit test that demonstrates how to use this please ?
Thanks a lot

[cflorion]

I tried to do something with the information I found here https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/113312. But I discarded what I did because I did not understand what I was doing.

Yes, our current version that uses Criollo had HTTPS. With Criollo we just have to pass a certificate to the server and it becomes secure. https://github.com/thecatalinstan/Criollo#https

I'll read about SecIdentity, I don't know about it, this is interesting.
Thanks

[adam-fowler]

I have code in other repo's that generate a NWProtocolTLS.Options. I'll see if I can add another interface to TSTLSOptions which uses this.

[adam-fowler]

Ok I have a branch on HummingbirdCore ts-tls-options which has added an addition function for creating a TSTLSOptions. You can now create one with either

let tlsOptions = TSTLSOptions.options(serverIdentity: .p12(filename: p12Path, password: "p12Password"))

or

let tlsOptions = TSTLSOptions.options(serverIdentity: .secIdentity(MySecIdentity))

Can you test and verify this works for you.

[adam-fowler]

Just realised you'll need latest from the main branch of Hummingbird as well

[cflorion]

That is really clean thanks !
I just implemented it and it works very well

I had to fork the different dependencies (compression, webSocket) to make them point to the main branch of Hummingbird. Also I had to add platforms: [.iOS(.v12), .tvOS(.v12)], to their package.swift in order for them to compile.

Theses forks are a bit messy, I did that just to test it works. When you release a new version, I will do a cleaner implementation without forks and send a version with Hummingbird to our Beta users.

[adam-fowler]

I’ll get a release out and add the platforms to the Package.swift files

…

On 7 May 2021, at 09:25, Florion ***@***.***> wrote: That is really clean thanks ! I just implemented it and it works very well I had to fork the different dependencies (compression, webSocket) to make them point to the main branch of Hummingbird. Also I had to add platforms: [.iOS(.v12), .tvOS(.v12)], to their package.swift in order for them to compile. Theses forks are a bit messy, I did that just to test it works. When you release a new version, I will do a cleaner implementation without forks and send a version with Hummingbird to our Beta users. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#65 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACHSVJ5J7LNPHQ4NPNXDX43TMOPXRANCNFSM42LHKQ4Q>.

[adam-fowler]

Hummingbird v0.11.1 and HummingbirdCore v0.9.2 are out with the required changes.
I've also updated the other repo's to include the iOS and tvOS platform requirements

[cflorion]

Wow thanks !