iOS SDK Connection Possible?

[AugmentBLU]

Hi there,

is it possible to connect to laravel-websockets from iOS, using the official iOS SDK? I have someone attempting to build out an iOS app to connect to the service but they're not having any luck. I don't have any debug info as yet but wondered if anyone has managed it?

If anyone has managed it, is it possible to share a simple code snippet to help us on the way?

Thanks!

[rennokki]

As long as this package works as a Pusher protocol-backed server, it should work: https://pusher.com/docs/channels/getting_started/ios

[AugmentBLU]

I'm using the latest 2.x version and works great on the web side of things but the iOS dev cannot connect for some reason. He setup a test account with Pusher and can connect to their service fine but not laravel-websockets.

We will be working on debugging the issue next week, I just wanted to see if anyone has managed to actually connect an iOS app to laravel-websockets successfully before we started so I had a heads up on what to look out for. I'm not an iOS dev and don't have a Mac to even attempt a basic test myself so thought I would reach out here.

I know there's a few threads about iOS but none really give a definitive answer if it works or a working example. It's a make or break issue for the app so I'm feeling the pressure to get it working.

[AugmentBLU]

@rennokki Are we allowed to post a bounty to get help with certain tasks such as this one? Like I said, this is really important that I get working and I'm willing to pay someone to get a working example.

I sat with the iOS dev yesterday for a couple hours and we couldn't get this working. Connection is always refused or doesn't get established. There's no sign that it's even attempting to connect to the server at all when running the websockets server in debug mode.

[AugmentBLU]

For now, I'll need to move my development to use the official Pusher service since we cannot get iOS to connect - which is unfortunate!

If anyone manages to get a working example of iOS connecting, please let me know. The offer of a bounty is still there if we can manage to get a confirmed working example.

[rennokki]

@AugmentBLU You are allowed to post bounties. I cannot provide a good answer to this since I have whatsoever no experience with iOS, but I can provide support on the package side if it needs changes or protocol updates related to any dependencies. I'll keep this issue open and tag it properly so that any1 who might see this and can help, can participate.

[AugmentBLU]

@rennokki Thanks for the offer.

Funny thing is, the iOS dev can connect to the official Pusher service using their Swift SDK without any issues but simply cannot connect to this package, even though it appears to be working perfectly fine for the web app and even a simple local HTML test connection.

There's no real debug info from Xcode as to why there is no connection and on the server side, using the --debug flag, it doesn't even appear as if there's any attempt to connect at all. We tried a simple test channel, with no auth required and just nothing. It's incredibly frustrating as we have things working for the web app so well but iOS just won't play ball, I suspect it's something simple but without any real debug info from the iOS side, it's hard to see what the issue is.

I did think about just going with the paid Pusher service but we have some payloads that are around 20kb, and Pusher have a limit of 10kb on payloads, unless you're an enterprise user with a dedicated cluster - which will probably cost a fortune.

I'm convinced we're just missing something with the connection side, whether it's Apple's overly sensitive security policies or a CORS issue, maybe a setting but so far nothing. That's why I'm willing to pay someone, who has managed to get this working to help us at least get a connection established.

[tomirons]

@AugmentBLU I haven't tested this but I found this little snippet while looking into using Pusher in a Flutter app.

In your Info.plist add the following:

<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
    <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
    <key>NSExceptionDomains</key>
    <dict>
        <key>example.com <- REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR DOMAIN</key>
        <dict>
            <key>NSExceptionAllowsInsecureHTTPLoads</key>
            <true/>
            <key>NSIncludesSubdomains</key>
            <true/>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</dict>