Using Environment Variables in Swift Apps

When to Use Environment Variables

Most Swift apps do not need environment variables. A common reason to use environment variables is for apps that call a website’s REST APIs. To gain access to someone’s account on the website, your Swift app uses a client ID and client secret from the website. Storing the client ID and client secret in environment variables is safer than storing them as strings in your code.

Suppose you are developing a git client app. Your app wants to push commits to GitHub. To push commits to GitHub you must create an OAuth app for your app in GitHub. The GitHub OAuth app contains a client ID and a client secret that your Swift app uses to authenticate the user so your Swift app can access the person’s GitHub account. GitHub recommends using environment variables to store the client ID and client secret.

Add the Environment Variables from Xcode’s Scheme Editor

The first step to using environment variables is to add them to your Xcode project. Use Xcode’s scheme editor to add environment variables to your app. Use the jump bar next to the Run and Stop buttons in the project window toolbar to open the scheme editor.

Select the Run step on the left side of the scheme editor. Click the Arguments button at the top of the scheme editor to access the environment variables. Use the Add (+) button to add the environment variables.

Accessing Environment Variables in Your Swift Code

After adding environment variables, you can access them in your code. Use the ProcessInfo class to access environment variables. The class has a processInfo property that contains a dictionary of values. The name of the environment variable is a key in the dictionary. Use that key to get the environment variable’s value. The following code demonstrates how to access a variable containing a GitHub OAuth app’s client ID:

if let clientID = ProcessInfo.processInfo.
  environment["GITHUB_CLIENT_ID"] {
    
}