Bring widgets to life

Key takeaways

Changes between entries can now be animated.

Widgets can now be interactive.

Animations

• Changes between entries default to an implicit spring animation and various implicit content transitions

• Animations can be customized with the same APIs you use to customize SwiftUI views; .animation, .transition and .contentTransition.

• The new #Preview macro can be used to quickly preview animations between entries.

#Preview(as: WidgetFamily.systemSmall) {
    CaffeineTrackerWidget()
} timeline: {
    CaffeineLogEntry.log1
    CaffeineLogEntry.log2
    CaffeineLogEntry.log3
    CaffeineLogEntry.log4
}

Interactivity

• Actions are exposed to your widget using AppIntents

• AppIntents are passed through new initializers on Button and Toggle. These are the two only controls that work with widgets so far.

extension Button {
    public init<I: AppIntent>(
        intent: I,
        @ViewBuilder label: () -> Label
    )
}

extension Toggle {
    public init<I: AppIntent>(
        isOn: Bool,
        intent: I,
        @ViewBuilder label: () -> Label
    )
}

• The return of an AppIntents perform() method will trigger a reload of the widgets UI, so make sure to make any changes to the state before that.

• Use the @Parameter property wrapper to pass properties to your AppIntent.

• You can choose the widget extension as the build target, then Xcode will install the widget for you.

• Use the .invalidatableContent modifier to indicate a view will update before the new value has arrived, to reduce the feeling of latency.