wordpress-mobile/app-secrets-management-ios

Files related to iOS application secrets management.

App Secrets Management for iOS

This repo contains files related to the way application secrets are managed in our iOS apps.

Application secrets are stored in an JSON document outside of an app's source control so they are not accidentially commited. The included files read the secrets from the JSON document and compose application code defining the secrets from templates.

Usage

Follow these steps to configure application secret management in an iOS app. It is assumed your project is organized with a top level workspace folder containing a project folder for the app. If your app has a different structure you'll need to modify file paths accordingly.

Create a credentials file for your app in the secrets repo

If the app uses our secrets reppository,

1. Navigate to ~/.mobile-secrets/iOS/
2. Create a new folder for your app and add a JSON file with your apps secrets.
3. Commit the changes and push them to trunk.

Copy files and folders

1. Copy the Scripts/build-phases folder from this repo into the root of your app’s workspace folder.
2. Copy the Credentials folder from this repo into the root of your app’s project folder.
3. Navigate to Credentials/Templates in Finder. Copy the Templates folder, and paste a new copy in your app's project folder. Rename Templates to DerivedSources. Rename DerivedSources/ApiCredentials-Template.swift to DerivedSources/ApiCredentials.swift and rename DerivedSources/InfoPlist-Template.h to DerivedSources/InfoPlist.h

Edit files for your project needs

1. Open your Project in Xcode.
2. Select File > Add Files and add the Credentials folder to your project.
3. Edit the following files to have placeholders for the secrets your app needs:

ApiCredentials.tpl
InfoPlist.tpl 
Templates/ApiCredentials-Template.swift
Templates/InfoPlist-Template.h

4. If you included a reference to the Credentials/Templates folder remove the reference (but do not delete) from your project. Leaving it will cause build errors later.

This next part might be a little tricky. We need to create a reference to a DerivedSources folder that's located in the build folder as opposed to the project folder.

5. Select File > Add Files and add the DerivedSources folder to your project. Make sure this is added as a Group and not a Folder Reference.
6. Select the DerivedSources folder. Right click and choose Show File Inspector.
7. In the Identity and Type panel, change the Location dropdown to be Relative to Build Products
8. Tap the folder icon below the drop down.
9. Navigate to /Users/you/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/your-app/Build/Products.
10. Create a new folder and name it DerivedSources.
11. Select the folder.

Your project reference to DerivedSources should now point to the folder in the build directory. You can safely open Finder and remove the DerivedSources folder from your project folder.

Configure project build settings and build phases

1. Open your project’s build settings.
2. Add a user defined setting named SECRETS_PATH whose value is the path to your secrets file. Example: $HOME/.mobile-secrets/iOS/your-app/your-secrets.json
3. Add a new Cross-platform Aggregate target named GenerateCredentials
4. Add a new Run Script build phase to the GenerateCredentials target.
5. Under Shell add $SRCROOT/../Scripts/build-phases/generate-credentials.sh
6. Under Input Files add the following:

$(SRCROOT)/Credentials/replace_secrets.rb

7. Under Output Files add the following:

$(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/../DerivedSources/ApiCredentials.swift
$(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/../DerivedSources/InfoPlist.h

8. Open your application target’s build phases.
9. Select Target Dependencies and add the GenerateCredentials target.

Test

1. Build and Run. Confirm your app works as expected.

Bonus: Inspect your application's build directory. Find the DerivedSources folder and confirm it contains your credential files.