Run the sample app: iOS - Xcode (Swift or Objective-C)

Article
03/10/2023

This quickstart covers how to run the Azure Spatial Anchors sample app for iOS devices using Xcode (Swift or Objective-C). Azure Spatial Anchors is a cross-platform developer service that allows you to create mixed reality experiences using objects that persist their location across devices over time. When you're finished, you'll have an ARKit iOS app that can save and recall a spatial anchor.

You'll learn how to:

Create a Spatial Anchors account
Configure the Spatial Anchors account identifier and account key
Deploy and run on an iOS device

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

To complete this quickstart, make sure you have:

A developer enabled macOS machine with the latest version of Xcode and CocoaPods installed.
Git installed via HomeBrew:
1. Enter the following command as a single line in the terminal: /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)".
2. Run brew install git and brew install git-lfs.
3. Update your git config with git lfs install (for the current user) or git lfs install --system (for the entire system).
A developer enabled ARKit compatible iOS device.

Create a Spatial Anchors resource

Go to the Azure portal.

On the left pane, select Create a resource.

Use the search box to search for Spatial Anchors.

Select Spatial Anchors, and then select Create.

On the Spatial Anchors Account pane, do the following:

Enter a unique resource name by using regular alphanumeric characters.
Select the subscription that you want to attach the resource to.
Create a resource group by selecting Create new. Name it myResourceGroup, and then select OK.

A resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources, such as web apps, databases, and storage accounts, are deployed and managed. For example, you can choose to delete the entire resource group in one simple step later.
Select a location (region) in which to place the resource.
Select Create to begin creating the resource.

Screenshot of the Spatial Anchors pane for creating a resource.

After the resource is created, the Azure portal shows that your deployment is complete.

Screenshot showing that the resource deployment is complete.

Select Go to resource. You can now view the resource properties.

Copy the resource's Account ID value into a text editor for later use.

Screenshot of the resource properties pane.

Also copy the resource's Account Domain value into a text editor for later use.

Screenshot showing the resource's account domain value.

Under Settings, select Access Key. Copy the Primary key value, Account Key, into a text editor for later use.

Screenshot of the Keys pane for the account.

Start by preparing your environment for the Azure CLI:

Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

After you sign in, use the az account set command to select the subscription in which to set up the spatial anchors account:
```
az account set --subscription 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
```
Run the az group create command to create a resource group, or use an existing resource group:
```
az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus2
```
A resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources, such as web apps, databases, and storage accounts, are deployed and managed. For example, you can choose to delete the entire resource group in one simple step later.

You can view your current spatial anchors accounts for a resource group by using the az spatial-anchors-account list command:
```
az spatial-anchors-account list --resource-group myResourceGroup
```
You can also view the spatial anchors accounts for your subscription:
```
az spatial-anchors-account list
```

Run the az spatial-anchors-account create command to create your spatial anchors account:

az spatial-anchors-account create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart --location eastus2

View the resource properties by using the az spatial-anchors-account show command:
```
az spatial-anchors-account show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart
```
Copy the resource Account ID value and the resource Account Domain value into a text editor for later use.

Run the az spatial-anchors-account key show command to get your primary and secondary keys:

az spatial-anchors-account key show --resource-group myResourceGroup --name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart

Copy the key values into a text editor for later use.

If you need to regenerate keys, use the az spatial-anchors-account key renew command:

az spatial-anchors-account key renew --resource-group myResourceGroup --name example --key primary
az spatial-anchors-account key renew --resource-group myResourceGroup --name example --key secondary

You can delete an account by using the az spatial-anchors-account delete command:

az spatial-anchors-account delete --resource-group myResourceGroup --name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart

Start by preparing your environment for Azure PowerShell:

If you choose to use Azure PowerShell locally:
- Install the latest version of the Az PowerShell module.
- Connect to your Azure account using the Connect-AzAccount cmdlet.
If you choose to use Azure Cloud Shell:
- See Overview of Azure Cloud Shell for more information.

Important

While the Az.MixedReality PowerShell module is in preview, you must install it separately using the Install-Module cmdlet. After this PowerShell module becomes generally available, it will be part of future Az PowerShell module releases and available by default from within Azure Cloud Shell.

Install-Module -Name Az.MixedReality

After you sign in, use the Set-AzContext cmdlet to select the subscription in which to set up the spatial anchors account:
```
Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
```
Run the New-AzResourceGroup cmdlet to create a resource group, or use an existing resource group:
```
New-AzResourceGroup -Name myResourceGroup -Location eastus2
```
A resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources, such as web apps, databases, and storage accounts, are deployed and managed. For example, you can choose to delete the entire resource group in one simple step later.

You can view your current spatial anchors accounts for a resource group by using the Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount cmdlet:
```
Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount -ResourceGroup myResourceGroup
```
You can also view the spatial anchors accounts for your subscription:
```
Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount
```

Run the New-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount cmdlet to create your spatial anchors account:

New-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount -ResourceGroup myResourceGroup -Name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart -Location eastus2

View the resource properties by using the Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount cmdlet:
```
Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount -ResourceGroup myResourceGroup -Name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart
```
Copy the property accountId value and the property accountDomain value into a text editor for later use.

Run the Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccountKey cmdlet to get your primary and secondary keys:

Get-AzSpatialAnchorsAccountKey -ResourceGroup myResourceGroup -Name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart

Copy the key values into a text editor for later use.

If you need to regenerate keys, use the New-AzSpatialAnchorsAccountKey cmdlet:

New-AzSpatialAnchorsAccountKey -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup -Name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart -Primary
New-AzSpatialAnchorsAccountKey -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup -Name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart -Secondary

You can delete an account by using the Remove-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount cmdlet:

Remove-AzSpatialAnchorsAccount -ResourceGroup myResourceGroup -Name MySpatialAnchorsQuickStart

Open the sample project

Use the Terminal to perform the following actions.

Clone the samples repository by running the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/Azure/azure-spatial-anchors-samples.git
cd ./azure-spatial-anchors-samples

Install the necessary pods using CocoaPods:

Swift
Objective-C

Navigate to iOS/Swift/.

cd ./iOS/Swift/

Navigate to iOS/Objective-C/.

cd ./iOS/Objective-C/

Run pod install --repo-update to install the CocoaPods for the project.

Note

Use the following command if you have macOS Monterey (12.2.1)

Run pod update to install the CocoaPods for the project.

Now open the .xcworkspace in Xcode.

Note

See the troubleshooting steps here if you're having CocoaPod issues after upgrading to macOS Catalina (10.15).

Swift
Objective-C

open ./SampleSwift.xcworkspace

open ./SampleObjC.xcworkspace

Configure account identifier and key

The next step is to configure the app to use your account identifier and account key. You copied them into a text editor when setting up the Spatial Anchors resource.

Swift
Objective-C

Open iOS/Swift/SampleSwift/ViewControllers/BaseViewController.swift.

Locate the spatialAnchorsAccountKey field and replace Set me with the account key.

Locate the spatialAnchorsAccountId field and replace Set me with the account identifier.

Locate the spatialAnchorsAccountDomain field and replace Set me with the account domain.

Deploy the app to your iOS device

Connect the iOS device to the Mac and set the active scheme to your iOS device.

Select the device

Select Build and then run the current scheme.

Deploy and run

Note

If you see a library not found for -lPods-SampleObjC error, you likely opened the .xcodeproj file instead of the .xcworkspace. Open the .xcworkspace and try again.

In Xcode, stop the app by pressing Stop.

Troubleshooting

CocoaPods issues on macOS Catalina (10.15)

If you recently updated to macOS Catalina (10.15) and had CocoaPods installed beforehand, CocoaPods may be in a broken state and fail to properly configure your pods and .xcworkspace project files. To resolve this issue, you'll need to reinstall CocoaPods by running the following commands:

brew update
brew install cocoapods --build-from-source
brew link --overwrite cocoapods

App crashes when deploying to iOS 10.3.1 from a personal provisioning profile/developer account

If you deploy your iOS app on iOS 10.3.1 from a personal provisioning profile/developer account, you might see this error: Library not loaded: @rpath/ADAL....

To resolve the issue:

Use a provisioning profile that isn't a Personal Team profile (paid developer account).
Deploy your app to an iOS device running iOS 13.3 or earlier, or to one running the iOS 13.4 beta or release version.
Read more about this issue on Stack Overflow.

Clean up resources

In the preceding steps, you created Azure resources in a resource group. If you don't expect to need these resources in the future, you can delete them by deleting the resource group.

From the Azure portal menu or Home page, select Resource groups. Then, on the Resource groups page, select myResourceGroup.

On the myResourceGroup page, make sure that the listed resources are the ones you want to delete.

Select Delete resource group, type myResourceGroup in the text box to confirm, and then select Delete.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you created a Spatial Anchors account. You then configured and deployed an app to save and recall spatial anchors. To learn more about how to improve the app so it can share spatial anchors with other devices, continue to the next tutorial.

Tutorial: Share Spatial Anchors across devices

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Run the sample app: iOS - Xcode (Swift or Objective-C)

Prerequisites

Create a Spatial Anchors resource

Open the sample project

Configure account identifier and key

Deploy the app to your iOS device

Troubleshooting

CocoaPods issues on macOS Catalina (10.15)

App crashes when deploying to iOS 10.3.1 from a personal provisioning profile/developer account

Clean up resources

Next steps

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