Emmanuel Rohee

Historically we've had two projects for iOS:

• MatrixSDK: a low level library to interact with a Matrix homeserver
• Console: an example Matrix client based on MatrixSDK

The primary intention of Console was to demonstrate how to use MatrixSDK to write a Matrix client app. However, this split isn't helpful for developers who want higher level modules that provides UIViewControllers ready to use in an existing app, with no need to manage low level communications with the Matrix homeserver.

It is where the MatrixKit project started. MatrixKit sits between MatrixSDK and your existing iOS app.

It provides customisable UIViewControllers a developer can integrate in their app.  If you want to add to your app a screen to chat in a room, you just need to use the MXKRoomViewController.

We made MatrixKit so that the components it provides are easy to integrate but also easy to customise. We do not have yet full samples of customisation as we've been focused on the library core, but here are a few examples:

You probably recognise the theme of the first one, as it's what we use in the Console app today. The second one is the iOS7-style look and feel from JSQMessagesViewController. With few lines of code we connected it to MatrixKit data models. Yes, data models provided by MatrixKit are reusable too.

MatrixKit is also highly extensible. If you want to create new table cells to render messages, new views, new view controllers, etc, you will find a place to hook them into the MatrixKit code.

MatrixKit repository is here: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-kit and it is available via CocoaPods (the MatrixKit pod).

In parallel of MatrixKit, we did some spring-cleaning - the official Matrix.org iOS offerings are now split into three github repos. One for each deliverable:

• https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-sdk
• https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-kit
• https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-console

Other releases:

Today, we released MatrixSDK 0.4.0 (changes). Update your pods :)

Console 0.4.0 (changes) is in the Apple submission process. This will be the first version of the app using MatrixKit. Aesthetically, there is no change since the previous version. The app is more stable due to all the data abstractions and management improvements provided by MatrixKit.

If you're an iOS developer, please have a go with MatrixKit and let us know on #ios:matrix.org how you get on!

A new release of the iOS SDK and the iOS Matrix Console app is available on GitHub: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-sdk.

If you use CocoaPods to manage your application dependencies, note that the Matrix SDK pod has been updated too.

The changes since the last release are:

SDK

Improvements:

• MXFileStore stores data on a separated thread to avoid blocking the UI thread.
• MXRestClient: Callback blocks in all MXRestClient methods are now optional.
• MXEvent: Cleaned up exposed properties and added a description for each of them.

Features:

• Added API for registering for push notifications.
• Added generic API methods to make any kind of registration or login flow.
• Added Identity server API: lookup3pid, requestEmailValidation, validateEmail and bind3PID.
• Management of event redaction: there is a new method in the SDK to redact an event and the SDK updates its data on redaction event.

Bug fixes:

• SYIOS-5 - Expose registration API
• SYIOS-44 - Credentials persist across logout
• SYIOS-54 - Matrix Console app slightly freezes when receiving a message
• SYIOS-59 - Infinite loop in case of back pagination on new created room
• MXRoom: Fixed [MXRoom sendTextMessage]

Matrix Console

Improvements:

• When long pressing on a message, the app shows the JSON string of the Matrix event.
• On this screen, the user can redact the event - if he has enough power level.
• Use home server media repository facilities to use lower image size for thumbnails and avatars
• Settings screen: show build version with the app version.
• Settings screen: added an option to hide information related to redacted event.
• Settings screen: added an option to enable reading of local phonebook. The country is required to internationalise phone numbers.

Features:

• Push notifications.
• Added a contacts screen that displays Matrix users the user had interactions with and contacts from the device phonebook.
• Contacts from the device phonebook who have an email linked to a Matrix user id are automatically recognised.

Bug fixes:

• SYIOS-53 - multilines text input that expands as you type mutiplines would be nice
• SYIOS-45 - Need to check the thumbnail params requested by iOS
• SYIOS-55 - High resolution avatars create memory pressure
• SYIOS-57 - Back pagination does not work well for self chat
• SYIOS-56 - add cache size handling in settings
• SYIOS-60 - In a self chat, Console takes ages to paginate back even if messages are in cache
• SYIOS-61 - Chat room : cannot scroll to bottom when keyboard is opened whereas the growing textview contains multi-lines text.
• SYIOS-63 - calculate room names for 3+ members if no room name/alias
• SYIOS-44 - Credentials persist across logout
• SYIOS-64 - Chat room : unexpected blank lines are added into history when user types in growing textview
• SYIOS-65 - IOS8 : in case of search in recents, keyboard is not dismisssed when user selects a room.
• SYIOS-16 Add option in Console to join room thanks to its alias