Add Home Screen quick actions

At a glance

Project structure

HomeScreenQuickActions/
├── AppDelegate.swift
├── SceneDelegate.swift
├── ContactsViewController.swift
├── ContactDetailViewController.swift
├── Models/
│   ├── Contact.swift
│   └── ContactsData.swift
└── Base.lproj/Main.storyboard

Structure observations

• Quick-action production and consumption live together in SceneDelegate because both are scene-lifecycle operations.
• Table/detail controllers read and edit the same in-memory contact store.
• Contact owns action-safe value conversion in a focused extension.

Overall architecture

flowchart LR
    Scene["SceneDelegate"] --> Store["ContactsData.shared"]
    Store --> Contact["Contact values"]
    Scene --> Actions["UIApplication.shortcutItems"]
    Actions -. selected item .-> Scene
    Scene --> Navigation["UINavigationController"]
    Navigation --> Detail["ContactDetailViewController"]
    List["ContactsViewController"] --> Store
    Detail --> Store

Reference code

HomeScreenQuickActions/SceneDelegate.swift:93 — the scene converts current favorites into dynamic shortcut items before resigning active.

func sceneWillResignActive(_ scene: UIScene) {
    let application = UIApplication.shared
    application.shortcutItems = ContactsData.shared.favoriteContacts.map { contact in
        UIApplicationShortcutItem(type: ActionType.favoriteAction.rawValue,
                                  localizedTitle: contact.name,
                                  localizedSubtitle: contact.email,
                                  icon: UIApplicationShortcutIcon(systemImageName: "star.fill"),
                                  userInfo: contact.quickActionUserInfo)
    }
}

Interpretation

The app has two entry paths into the same feature: normal table navigation and a scene-delivered shortcut. SceneDelegate resolves shortcut payloads to model identity, then performs the navigation that only the scene/window layer can see.

Ownership and state

classDiagram
    SceneDelegate o-- UIWindow : framework supplies
    SceneDelegate o-- UIApplicationShortcutItem : retains until active
    ContactsData *-- Contact : stores values
    ContactDetailViewController o-- Contact : edits a value copy
    ContactsViewController --> ContactsData : reads shared store
    ContactDetailViewController --> ContactsData : writes shared store

Ownership evidence

HomeScreenQuickActions/Models/ContactsData.swift:10 — a mutable value-type singleton is the sample’s process-local source of contacts.

struct ContactsData {
    static var shared = ContactsData()

    var contacts = [
        Contact(name: "John Doe", email: "john@example.com", favorite: true),
        Contact(name: "Jane Doe", email: "jane@example.com", favorite: true)
    ]
}

Class and protocol design

There is no app-defined protocol abstraction. Protocol use is limited to UIKit lifecycle and input callbacks; the model collaboration is concrete.

Access control

Reference code

HomeScreenQuickActions/ContactDetailViewController.swift:10 — the controller, injected model value, and outlets all use the module default.

class ContactDetailViewController: UITableViewController {
    var contact: Contact?
    @IBOutlet var nameTextField: UITextField!
    @IBOutlet var emailTextField: UITextField!
    @IBOutlet var favoriteSwitch: UISwitch!
}

Logic ownership and placement

Design patterns

Naming conventions

• Lifecycle and screen roles use Delegate and ViewController suffixes.
• ActionType cases end in Action; the raw values match shortcut type identifiers.
• favoriteContacts is a derived noun, while updateContact and handleShortCutItem are commands.
• Model files sit under Models/; controller files match their primary type.

Architecture takeaways

• Route external launch intents at the scene boundary, where window navigation is available.
• Store a cold-launch shortcut until the scene becomes active; handle connected-scene shortcuts immediately.
• Put shortcut payload encoding beside the domain value and decode back to stable identity.
• Treat the sample’s globally mutable value store as a convenience, not a production access-control model.

Source map

• Official Apple documentation