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Using a Live Update Provider

A Portal's live update source isn't limited to Ionic Appflow. A Live Update Provider lets a Portal instead sync its web assets from any external update service, by wiring up an implementation of that service's ProviderManager protocol.

note

This is for teams who want to sync Portal web assets from their own update infrastructure instead of Appflow. If you're using Appflow, see Adding Live Updates instead.

Install​

Add the live-update-provider-sdk package, which defines the ProviderManager/ProviderSyncResult contracts a provider implements:

.package(url: "https://github.com/ionic-team/live-update-provider-sdk", from: "1.0.0")

Your update service's own SDK will depend on this package and supply a concrete ProviderManager implementation — consult that SDK's documentation for how to construct one.

Configure​

Set a Portal's liveUpdateSource to .provider(manager:), passing your provider's ProviderManager instance:

import UIKit
import IonicPortals
import LiveUpdateProvider

@main
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
  func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions
  launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
    // Override point for customization after application launch.
    return true
  }
}

extension Portal {
  static let featuredProducts = Portal(
    name: "featured_products",
    liveUpdateSource: .provider(manager: MyUpdateProviderManager())
  )
}
caution

Unlike .ionic sources, .provider sources are not synced automatically when a Portal is created. Your app must explicitly trigger a sync, as shown below.

If a Portal's live update source is already set to .provider, calling the Objective-C setLiveUpdateConfiguration(appId:channel:syncImmediately:) bridge on it is a no-op (it logs a warning) — an Appflow configuration can't override an existing provider source.

Syncing​

Individual Portal Sync​

Call syncProvider() on a Portal to trigger a sync manually:

let portal = Portal.featuredProducts
let result = try await portal.syncProvider()

syncProvider() returns an optional any ProviderSyncResult — the shape of this value is defined by your provider's SDK, since providers can attach their own sync metadata. If the Portal isn't configured with a .provider source, syncProvider() throws LiveUpdateNotConfigured.

Multiple Portal Sync​

Just like the existing sync API for Appflow-backed Portals, provider-backed Portals can be synced in parallel using the static syncProvider method on Portal, or the equivalent extension on Array:

let portals: [Portal] = [/* ... */]
for await result in Portal.syncProvider(portals) {
    // do something with result
}
let portals: [Portal] = [/* ... */]
for await result in portals.syncProvider() {
    // do something with result
}

Both return a ParallelLiveUpdateProviderSyncGroup, syncing every Portal in parallel and yielding each result as it completes.

Reloading After a Sync​

Portal.latestAppDirectory resolves the latest synced asset directory regardless of whether the Portal is configured with an .ionic or .provider source, so you can reload a Portal's view the same way once a sync completes:

ViewController.swift
override func viewDidLoad() {
  Task {
    do {
      _ = try await portal.syncProvider()
      self.portalView.reload()
    } catch {
      // handle error
      print("Sync failed with error: \(error)")
    }
  }

  super.viewDidLoad()
}

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