How to connect mysql with swift?

Question

I had a web app and I want to make a iOS app, I don\'t want to use HTTP request, my website has its own database (which is a MySQL database). I googled a lot, but I can\'t f

Answer 1

You should implement a REST interface for your database (i.e. in node as suggested above). Or you could move you database to AZURE and use the Microsoft "out of the box" API for iOS. This will give you security also (if you need that) You could also implement a web service in the backend and use that from iOS.

Answer 2

I met the same issue some time ago. I developed the library OHMySQL. Take a look, it works on iOS and macOS. You write your app in Swift or Objective-C.

Answer 3

Connecting swift to mysql and php is very easy. First you need a REST API. You can create a rest api by using any framework available. You can also code your Web Service using PHP only. So here I will show the use of any php framework.

So first create a file to store your database constants.

<?php
/**
 * Created by PhpStorm.
 * User: Belal
 * Date: 12/08/16
 * Time: 7:58 PM
 */

define('DB_USERNAME', 'root');
define('DB_PASSWORD', '');
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
define('DB_NAME', 'iphone');

Then create another php file to create database connection.

<?php

class DbConnect
{
    private $conn;

    function __construct()
    {
    }

    /**
     * Establishing database connection
     * @return database connection handler
     */
    function connect()
    {
        require_once 'Config.php';

        // Connecting to mysql database
        $this->conn = new mysqli(DB_HOST, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);

        // Check for database connection error
        if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
            echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
        }

        // returing connection resource
        return $this->conn;
    }
}

Now you need one more file to handle your database operations.

<?php

class DbOperation
{
    private $conn;

    //Constructor
    function __construct()
    {
        require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/Config.php';
        require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/DbConnect.php';
        // opening db connection
        $db = new DbConnect();
        $this->conn = $db->connect();
    }

    //Function to create a new user
    public function createTeam($name, $memberCount)
    {
        $stmt = $this->conn->prepare("INSERT INTO team(name, member) values(?, ?)");
        $stmt->bind_param("si", $name, $memberCount);
        $result = $stmt->execute();
        $stmt->close();
        if ($result) {
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }

}

Lastly you need to create the php file that will handle your http request.

<?php

//creating response array
$response = array();

if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']=='POST'){

    //getting values
    $teamName = $_POST['name'];
    $memberCount = $_POST['member'];

    //including the db operation file
    require_once '../includes/DbOperation.php';

    $db = new DbOperation();

    //inserting values 
    if($db->createTeam($teamName,$memberCount)){
        $response['error']=false;
        $response['message']='Team added successfully';
    }else{

        $response['error']=true;
        $response['message']='Could not add team';
    }

}else{
    $response['error']=true;
    $response['message']='You are not authorized';
}
echo json_encode($response);

Now just create views on your iOS Application and on buttonclick send a request to your php file. The code is as follows.

//
//  ViewController.swift
//  SwiftPHPMySQL
//
//  Created by Belal Khan on 12/08/16.
//  Copyright © 2016 Belal Khan. All rights reserved.
//

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    //URL to our web service
    let URL_SAVE_TEAM = "http://192.168.1.103/MyWebService/api/createteam.php"


    //TextFields declarations
    @IBOutlet weak var textFieldName: UITextField!
    @IBOutlet weak var textFieldMember: UITextField!



    //Button action method
    @IBAction func buttonSave(sender: UIButton) {

        //created NSURL
        let requestURL = NSURL(string: URL_SAVE_TEAM)

        //creating NSMutableURLRequest
        let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: requestURL!)

        //setting the method to post
        request.HTTPMethod = "POST"

        //getting values from text fields
        let teamName=textFieldName.text
        let memberCount = textFieldMember.text

        //creating the post parameter by concatenating the keys and values from text field
        let postParameters = "name="+teamName!+"&member="+memberCount!;

        //adding the parameters to request body
        request.HTTPBody = postParameters.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)


        //creating a task to send the post request
        let task = NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithRequest(request){
            data, response, error in

            if error != nil{
                print("error is \(error)")
                return;
            }

            //parsing the response
            do {
                //converting resonse to NSDictionary
                let myJSON =  try NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!, options: .MutableContainers) as? NSDictionary

                //parsing the json
                if let parseJSON = myJSON {

                    //creating a string
                    var msg : String!

                    //getting the json response
                    msg = parseJSON["message"] as! String?

                    //printing the response
                    print(msg)

                }
            } catch {
                print(error)
            }

        }
        //executing the task
        task.resume()

    }


    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }


}

One more thing you need to do is add the following lines inside your Info.plist file, this is because by default you cannot send request to not secured urls so because we have http we have to do this last thing.

<!-- add from here -->
    <key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
    <dict>
        <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
        <true/>
        <key>NSExceptionDomains</key>
        <dict>
            <key>yourdomain.com</key>
            <dict>
                <key>NSIncludesSubdomains</key>
                <true/>
                <key>NSThirdPartyExceptionRequiresForwardSecrecy</key>
                <false/>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <!-- end of the code -->

Source: iOS MySQL Database Tutorial

Answer 4

Mobile apps generally connect to an API, not directly to a database. I know you said you didn't want to use HTTP request, but that's really the proper way to do it. Make a REST service using whatever programming language you like and do it right.

If you like JS, try out SailsJS on Node. It takes 5 minutes to make an API from a MySQL database. http://sailsjs.org