Getting started with the Driver SDK for iOS

Note: The LMFS capability provides two security models for use with the Driver SDK: untrusted and trusted. Both security models define ways the driver app may provide vehicle data updates to Fleet Engine. The untrusted security model provides an additional layer of data checking from the driver app. This means that, in the untrusted model, the driver app can send only vehicle location updates directly to Fleet Engine. All other vehicle data updates from an untrusted driver app must be send to the customer backend, which relays the date to Fleet Engine.

The trusted security model allows the driver app to send vehicle data updates directly to Fleet Engine, without the need for an intermediary service. This includes both creation and updates of vehicles, tasks, and stops.

Finally, the functionality for the untrusted model is generally available, while the functionality for the trusted driver model is in Preview. See Integrating the deliveries API in the Fleet Engine documentation for details.

The Driver SDK is a library that you integrate into your driver app. It is responsible for updating the Fleet Engine with the driver’s location, route, distance remaining, and ETA. It also integrates with the Navigation SDK, which provides turn-by-turn navigation instructions for the driver.

Minimum system requirements

The mobile device must be running iOS 13 or later.

Xcode version 14 or later.

Prerequisites

This guide assumes your app already implements the Navigation SDK and that the Fleet Engine backend is set up and available. However, the example code provides a sample of how to set up the Navigation SDK.

You must also enable the Maps SDK for iOS in your Google Cloud Project and Get an API Key.

Get access

If you are a Google Workspace customer, create a Workspace Group such as [e-mail] during onboarding and provide the name to Google. This is the recommended approach. Your Workspace Group will then be added to an allowlist that grants access to the correct CocoaPods repositories. Confirm that the user emails and service account emails that need access are included in this list.

If your organization cannot create Workspace Groups, send to Google a list of user and service account emails that need access to these artifacts.

Note: Workspace Groups are not the same as Google Groups (ending in @googlegroups.com). Only Workspace Groups are supported.

Local development

For local development, it is sufficient to log in with the Cloud SDK.

gcloud

gcloud auth login

The email used to log in must be a member of the Workspace Group.

Automation (build systems or continuous integration)

Set up your automation hosts according to best practices:

• If your process runs inside a Google Cloud environment, use automatic credential detection.

• Otherwise, store the service account key file in a secure location on the host's file-system and set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable appropriately.

The service account email associated with the credentials must be a member of the Workspace Goup.

Project Configuration

You can configure the Driver SDK using CocoaPods.

Use CocoaPods

To configure the Driver SDK using CocoaPods, you need the following items:

• The CocoaPods tool: To install this tool, open the Terminal and run the following command. shell sudo gem install cocoapods Refer to the CocoaPods Getting Started guide for more details.

1. Create a Podfile for the Driver SDK and use it to install the API and its dependencies: Create a file named Podfile in your project directory. This file defines your project's dependencies. Edit the Podfile and add your dependencies. Here is an example which includes the dependencies:

   source "https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git"
   
   target 'YOUR_APPLICATION_TARGET_NAME_HERE' do
     pod 'GoogleRidesharingDriver'
   end
   

   Note: Be sure that you periodically run pod outdated to detect when there's a newer version of the SDK. For more information, see Driver SDK for iOS Versions.
   Note: If your project has dependencies that require using frameworks, you must specify static linkage for the gRPC pod dependency. This can either be done at the target level via the use_frameworks configuration or by individually applying static linkage to the gRPC pod. Failing to do so can lead to a missing roots.pem gRPC error at runtime.

2. Save the Podfile. Open a terminal and go to the directory containing the Podfile:

   cd <path-to-project>
   

3. Run the pod install command. This will install the APIs specified in the Podfile, along with any dependencies they may have.

   pod install
   

4. Close Xcode, and then open (double-click) your project's .xcworkspace file to launch Xcode. From this time onwards, you must use the .xcworkspace file to open the project.

Alpha/Beta SDK versions

To configure the Alpha or Beta versions of the Driver SDK for iOS you need the following items:

• The CocoaPods tool: To install this tool, open the Terminal and run the following command.

  sudo gem install cocoapods
  

  Refer to the CocoaPods Getting Started guide for more details.

• Your development account on the Google access list. The pod repository of the Alpha and Beta versions of the SDK are not public source. To access those versions, contact the Google Customer Engineer. The engineer adds your development account to the access list and then sets a cookie for authentication.

After your project is on the access list, you can access the pod.

1. Create a Podfile for the Driver SDK for iOS and use it to install the API and its dependencies: Create a file named Podfile in your project directory. This file defines your project's dependencies. Edit the Podfile and add your dependencies. Here is an example which includes the dependencies:

   source "https://cpdc-eap.googlesource.com/ridesharing-driver-sdk.git"
   source "https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git"
   
   target 'YOUR_APPLICATION_TARGET_NAME_HERE' do
     pod 'GoogleRidesharingDriver'
   end
   

2. Save the Podfile. Open a terminal and go to the directory containing the Podfile:

   cd <path-to-project>
   

3. Run the pod install command. This will install the APIs specified in the Podfile, along with any dependencies they may have.

   pod install
   

4. Close Xcode, and then open (double-click) your project's .xcworkspace file to launch Xcode. From this time onwards, you must use the .xcworkspace file to open the project.

Implement authorization and authentication

When your Driver app generates and sends updates to the Fleet Engine backend, the requests must include valid access tokens. To authorize and authenticate these requests, the Driver SDK calls your object conforming to the GMTDAuthorization protocol. The object is responsible for providing the required access token.

As the app developer, you choose how tokens are generated. Your implementation should provide the ability to do the following:

• Fetch an access token, possibly in JSON format, from an HTTPS server.
• Parse and cache the token.
• Refresh the token when it expires.

For details of the tokens expected by the Fleet Engine server, see Creating a JSON Web Token (JWT) for authorization.

The provider ID is the same as Google Cloud Project ID. See Fleet Engine Deliveries API User Guide for more information.

The following example implements an access token provider:

#import "SampleAccessTokenProvider.h"
#import <GoogleRidesharingDriver/GoogleRidesharingDriver.h>

// SampleAccessTokenProvider.h
@interface SampleAccessTokenProvider : NSObject<GMTDAuthorization>
@end

static NSString *const PROVIDER_URL = @"INSERT_YOUR_TOKEN_PROVIDER_URL";

// SampleAccessTokenProvider.m
@implementation SampleAccessTokenProvider{
  // The cached vehicle token.
  NSString *_cachedVehicleToken;
  // Keep track of the vehicle ID the cached token is for.
  NSString *_lastKnownVehicleID;
  // Keep track of when tokens expire for caching.
  NSTimeInterval _tokenExpiration;
}

- (void)fetchTokenWithContext:(nullable GMTDAuthorizationContext *)authorizationContext
                   completion:(nonnull GMTDAuthTokenFetchCompletionHandler)completion {
  if (!completion) {
    NSAssert(NO, @"%s encountered an unexpected nil completion.", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__);
    return;
  }

  // Get the vehicle ID from the authorizationContext. This is set by the Driver SDK.
  NSString *vehicleID = authorizationContext.vehicleID;
  if (!vehicleID) {
    NSAssert(NO, @"Vehicle ID is missing from authorizationContext.");
    return;
  }

// Clear cached vehicle token if vehicle ID has changed.
  if (![_lastKnownVehicleID isEqual:vehicleID]) {
    _tokenExpiration = 0.0;
    _cachedVehicleToken = nil;
  }
  _lastKnownVehicleID = vehicleID;

  // Clear cached vehicle token if it has expired.
  if ([[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970] > _tokenExpiration) {
    _cachedVehicleToken = nil;
  }

  // If appropriate, use the cached token.
  if (_cachedVehicleToken) {
    completion(_cachedVehicleToken, nil);
    return;
  }
  // Otherwise, try to fetch a new token from your server.
  NSURL *requestURL = [NSURL URLWithString:PROVIDER_URL];
  NSMutableURLRequest *request = 
                          [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:requestURL];
  request.HTTPMethod = @"GET";
  // Replace the following key values with the appropriate keys based on your
  // server's expected response.
  NSString *vehicleTokenKey = @"VEHICLE_TOKEN_KEY";
  NSString *tokenExpirationKey = @"TOKEN_EXPIRATION";
  __weak typeof(self) weakSelf = self;
  void (^handler)(NSData *_Nullable data, NSURLResponse *_Nullable response,
                  NSError *_Nullable error) =
      ^(NSData *_Nullable data, NSURLResponse *_Nullable response, NSError *_Nullable error) {
        typeof(self) strongSelf = weakSelf;
        if (error) {
          completion(nil, error);
          return;
        }

        NSError *JSONError;
        NSMutableDictionary *JSONResponse =
            [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:kNilOptions error:&JSONError];

        if (JSONError) {
          completion(nil, JSONError);
          return;
        } else {
          // Sample code only. No validation logic.
          id expirationData = JSONResponse[tokenExpirationKey];
          if ([expirationData isKindOfClass:[NSNumber class]]) {
            NSTimeInterval expirationTime = ((NSNumber *)expirationData).doubleValue;
            strongSelf->_tokenExpiration = [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970] + expirationTime;
          }
          strongSelf->_cachedVehicleToken = JSONResponse[vehicleTokenKey];
          completion(JSONResponse[vehicleTokenKey], nil);
        }
    };
NSURLSessionConfiguration *config = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
NSURLSession *mainQueueURLSession =  
       [NSURLSession  sessionWithConfiguration:config delegate:nil
delegateQueue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue]];
NSURLSessionDataTask *task = [mainQueueURLSession dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:handler];
[task resume];
}

@end

Create a DeliveryDriverAPI instance

To get a GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter instance, you first need to create a GMTDDeliveryDriverAPI instance using the providerID, vehicleID, driverContext and accessTokenProvider. The providerID is the same as Google Cloud Project ID. And you can access the GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter instance from the driver API directly.

Note: As an intended optimization, GMSRoadSnappedLocationProvider may not send location updates continuously if the device has not moved since the last location update. This may happen if a driver is waiting idle in the car. Thus, if there are situations where GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter is set as a listener after startUpdatingLocation on GMSRoadSnappedLocationProvider has been called, it is recommended to stop and start GMSRoadSnappedLocationProvider to ensure a new location update is sent. If the driver is, for example, waiting idle in the car.

The following example creates a GMTDDeliveryDriverAPI instance:

#import “SampleViewController.h”
#import “SampleAccessTokenProvider.h”
#import <GoogleRidesharingDriver/GoogleRidesharingDriver.h>

static NSString *const PROVIDER_ID = @"INSERT_YOUR_PROVIDER_ID";

@implementation SampleViewController {
 GMSMapView *_mapView;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
  NSString *vehicleID = @"INSERT_CREATED_VEHICLE_ID";
  SampleAccessTokenProvider *accessTokenProvider = 
                                [[SampleAccessTokenProvider alloc] init];
  GMTDDriverContext *driverContext = 
     [[GMTDDriverContext alloc] initWithAccessTokenProvider:accessTokenProvider
                                                 providerID:PROVIDER_ID 
                                              vehicleID:vehicleID 
      navigator:_mapView.navigator];

  GMTDDeliveryDriverAPI *deliveryDriverAPI = [[GMTDDeliveryDriverAPI alloc] initWithDriverContext:driverContext];
}

Optionally listen to VehicleReporter events

GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter periodically updates the vehicle when locationTrackingEnabled is YES. To respond to these periodic updates, any object can subscribe to GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter events by conforming to theGMTDVehicleReporterListener protocol.

You can handle the following events:

• vehicleReporter:didSucceedVehicleUpdate

  Informs the Driver app that the backend services successfully received the vehicle location and state update.

• vehicleReporter:didFailVehicleUpdate:withError

  Informs the listener that a vehicle update failed. As long as location tracking is enabled, GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter continues to send the latest data to Fleet Engine backend.

The following example handles these events:

SampleViewController.h
@interface SampleViewController : UIViewController<GMTDVehicleReporterListener>
@end

SampleViewController.m
#import “SampleViewController.h”
#import “SampleAccessTokenProvider.h”
#import <GoogleRidesharingDriver/GoogleRidesharingDriver.h>

static NSString *const PROVIDER_ID = @"INSERT_YOUR_PROVIDER_ID";

@implementation SampleViewController {
 GMSMapView *_mapView;
}


- (void)viewDidLoad {
  // ASSUMES YOU IMPLEMENTED HAVE THE SAMPLE CODE UP TO THIS STEP.
  [ridesharingDriverAPI.vehicleReporter addListener:self];
}

- (void)vehicleReporter:(GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter *)vehicleReporter didSucceedVehicleUpdate:(GMTDVehicleUpdate *)vehicleUpdate {
  // Handle update succeeded.
}

- (void)vehicleReporter:(GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter *)vehicleReporter didFailVehicleUpdate:(GMTDVehicleUpdate *)vehicleUpdate withError:(NSError *)error {
  // Handle update failed.
}

@end

Enable location tracking

To enable location tracking, your app can set locationTrackingEnabled to YES on GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter. Then GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter will = automatically send location updates. When the GMSNavigator is in navigation mode (when a destination is set through setDestinations) and locationTrackingEnabled is set to YES, GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter will automatically send route and ETA updates as well.

The route set during those updates will be the same route the driver is navigating to during the navigation session. Thus, for shipment tracking to work properly, the waypoint set through -setDestinations:callback: should match the destination set in the Fleet Engine backend.

The following example enables location tracking:

SampleViewController.m
#import “SampleViewController.h”
#import “SampleAccessTokenProvider.h”
#import <GoogleRidesharingDriver/GoogleRidesharingDriver.h>

static NSString *const PROVIDER_ID = @"INSERT_YOUR_PROVIDER_ID";

@implementation SampleViewController {
 GMSMapView *_mapView; 
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
  // ASSUMES YOU IMPLEMENTED HAVE THE SAMPLE CODE UP TO THIS STEP.
  deliveryDriverAPI.vehicleReporter.locationTrackingEnabled = YES;
}

@end

By default, the reporting interval is 10 seconds, but the reporting interval can be changed with locationUpdateInterval. The minimum supported update interval is 5 seconds. The maximum supported update interval is 60 seconds. More frequent updates may result in slower requests and errors.

Disable location updates

Your app can disable location updates for a vehicle. For example, when a driver's shift ends, your app can set locationTrackingEnabled to NO.

  _vehicleReporter.locationTrackingEnabled = NO

Handle update_mask errors

When GMTDDeliveryVehicleReporter sends a vehicle update, an update_mask error can occur when the mask is empty, and it typically occurs for the first update after startup. The following example shows how to handle this error:

Swift

import GoogleRidesharingDriver

class VehicleReporterListener: NSObject, GMTDVehicleReporterListener {
  func vehicleReporter(
    _ vehicleReporter: GMTDVehicleReporter,
    didFail vehicleUpdate: GMTDVehicleUpdate,
    withError error: Error
  ) {
    let fullError = error as NSError
    if let innerError = fullError.userInfo[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] as? NSError {
      let innerFullError = innerError as NSError
      if innerFullError.localizedDescription.contains("update_mask cannot be empty") {
        emptyMaskUpdates += 1
        return
      }
    }
    failedUpdates += 1
  }

  override init() {
    emptyMaskUpdates = 0
    failedUpdates = 0
  }
}

Objective-C

#import "VehicleReporterListener.h"
#import <GoogleRidesharingDriver/GoogleRidesharingDriver.h>

@implementation VehicleReporterListener {
  NSInteger emptyMaskUpdates = 0;
  NSInteger failedUpdates = 0;
}

- (void)vehicleReporter:(GMTDVehicleReporter *)vehicleReporter
  didFailVehicleUpdate:(GMTDVehicleUpdate *)vehicleUpdate
             withError:(NSError *)error {
  for (NSError *underlyingError in error.underlyingErrors) {
    if ([underlyingError.localizedDescription containsString:@"update_mask cannot be empty"]) {
      emptyMaskUpdates += 1;
      return;
    }
  }
  failedUpdates += 1
}

@end