How to Build a Widget in Swift with WidgetKit

[@seanallen]

Use code PREVIEW to get 15% off the WidgetKit Course at seanallen.teachable.com

[@okjosh]

Hi Sean, I notice in your link you mention that updated courses for iOS 16 will be out soon. For someone who just started learning, would you suggest waiting until those updates are live before investing the time to take your course? Or are there just minor changes from iOS15 -> 16 that the courses will be pretty much the same?

[@gauthamvijayan]

Core concepts start at 12:20

[@Elvis-is-king-l3s]

Clear and consice explanation. Should definitely have watched this before coding my first line!

[@naeem3dful]

Thank you Sean Allen for this easy and clear and simple view for Widget

[@apbrandom]

Great tutorial! Thank you very much, especially for copying and pasting it🔥

[@seanallen]

Glad you liked it and happy to help :)

[@dre5671]

Oh man! This preview is enticing me to get the course! I'm trying to hold off until I finish a project, But wanted you to know that this preview was a great idea! Thanks for giving us this handy knowledge Sean! So glad you're back at it with the videos!

[@seanallen]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy this course. It was a lot of fun to make!

[@martinpihooja7536]

0:42:25 There are two possibilities to change the file name. First and fastest, slow double click the file name and change it. Second option, look at the right, Inspectors view -> Identity and Type -> Name. Great tutorial and nice explanations.

[@nykse]

I made a counter app where the user can track anything they want to quit, such as smoking. What I want is, when the user starts the tracking process, they can see the progress on the home screen with a home widget. I can calculate the date difference, and there is no problem with that. However, I want to calculate the date difference every hour and refresh the home widget every hour. How can I do that?

[@JakeMarsh]

Thanks!

[@seanallen]

I appreciate the support, Jake! Hope you enjoy 😀

[@FloWritesCode]

Great overview, Sean! I find your MonthConfig approach very interesting, personally I think I would have tried to solve that with an enum.

[@elemento_arts]

Great vid! although dates are tricky and probably overcomplicates things while learning Widgets. Simply Data, that's all we want for now 😅

[@nuriddinburkhonov5214]

Thank you, very educational!

[@garylow-sy7pc]

0:47:52 You went to September because -3 means to go back 3 months from December, as 0 represents December last year. Since 12 - 3 = 9, the calculation gave you a date in September last year

[@seanallen]

Good to know. Thanks for pointing that out!

[@robinandthedog]

haha I got you typing capitals, just type vstack and it will complete to VStack, great tutorial by the way, I've build many widgets already, but still struggle to get a perfect adaptive design, the widgets differ so much in size over iPhone/iPad models, even using geometry reader...

[@PavanKumar-i8v4x]

@seanallen . Please make one video about the interactive widget

[@ammarahmad9004]

Your reaction about how -3 works on code made me laugh, but it's still a good video about WidgetKit, thanks.

[@seanallen]

Glad you enjoyed it, Ammar!

[@mikeshafer]

I just tried to follow your example but right in the beginning with the gradient, it doesn't fill the entire widget but just a square. How do I get this to fill the whole widget in iOS 17.2? I just signed up for the course, perhaps it covers that part. I definitely want to learn how to get dynamic data from a JSON endpoint.

[@seanallen]

Hey Mike, yes, this is covered in the course. iOS 17 introduced something called "contentMargins" that is causing that. We address this in the iOS 17 update section of each widget. (It's a pretty simple fix).

[@tinypixel_]

Faced the same issue. In the MonthlyWidget section add `contentMarginsDisabled` at the end. That should fix it. .configurationDisplayName("My Widget") .description("This is an example widget.") .contentMarginsDisabled()

[@sebasy10]

If i have an api in my app folder.. how i can call the data? Is there any video to learn? Thank you, u are the best!

[@ЕгорБаранов-ы6ш]

Great tutorial, thanks a lot!

[@seanallen]

Glad you liked it, Erop!

[@AlanJoseph-q7n]

Amazing! I was having a hard time getting the initial colors you paste. the ones that were blocks in 'Color(*)'. Is there an easy way to get the desired colors other than the Xcode color library? Thanks again!!

[@_Astr_]

I have Xcode 12.5. Do I need Xcode 13+ for this course?

[@seanallen]

I believe Xcode 12.5 will be enough. Widgets were introduced in Xcode 12.

[@kalinbalabanov1013]

Really great stuff 🎉

[@seanallen]

Glad you enjoyed it, Kalin!

[@ArjunSingh-td5gw]

The best video !!

[@seanallen]

Thanks Arjun!

[@gn0987123]

How can i add custom button "action" on Widget ? 🧐

[@ilouran]

do you know how to prevent opening app from widget ? I just wanna use backgorund callback, pls tell me if you have any idea

[@ulludots]

I love the video but I met a problem where your code Text(entry.date.formatted(.dateTime.weekday())) does not exist. I am using Xcode 12.4 so please help me

[@jawwaadsabree5573]

Are you working on a video for dynamic Island and live activities?

[@seanallen]

Yes. That will release when they are officially launched in a later update to iOS 16 (likely in October). They are still in beta at the moment.

[@tomlangendijk]

Can you create a widget carrying data from an app or site that is not yours?

[@seanallen]

Yes. If that app/site has an API you can make a network call to fetch the data and show it in your widget.

[@arnoczkyzoltan6158]

Thank You!

[@paolooo15]

Do you have IOS courses for beginners ?

[@seanallen]

Yup, you can find it at seanallen.teachable.com. I have one called iOS Dev Launchpad and another called SwiftUI Fundamentals.

[@paolooo15]

@@seanallen awesome I’m looking to start my journey for iOS dev ! Appreciate it !

[@seanallen]

No problem. Happy to answer any questions you have about the courses!

[@muhammednadeem6339]

Hi Sean, can we make the Widget translucent. I saw this implementated for whatspp medium size widgets

[@seanallen]

I've never done it, but I know it's possible. It has to do with pulling a screenshot of their wallpaper and matching the pixel area to be the background of the widget giving the illusion of transparency. I'm pretty sure that's how it's done, but like I said I've never done it.

[@md.tipusultan9629]

Please help! How to add gif on a widget?

[@ShredzZ]

Hi, do you think iOS development is good path for full time freelancing? Lot of ppl saying best choice is web dev but I'm really enjoying swift. How is the job market?

[@seanallen]

There are way more web dev jobs in the world than iOS dev. But... there are still plenty of iOS dev jobs and if that's what you enjoy, that's what I'd do.

[@lumaa_dev]

I didn’t remember it was that easy

[@seanallen]

Keep in mind, that was the most basic example. They can get quite complex.

[@rizwansayyed5043]

Hey can please HELP MEE!!!!! I want to create a lock screen widget and i create it. But i just need one additional thing i want that when clicked on widget the widget should not open the app (Which it is opening). It should run certain that like making a call to the api. Can please any one help me how i can achieve this task i have searched all over the internet but didn't found any solution. PLEASE HELP MEE!!!!!

[@glebdolskiy]

first tutorial which I saw a long intro 0_o

[@siempay]

You know its an INTRO when its 50 min long, thnks

[@seanallen]

And this is only the small first section of a MUCH more in depth course 😀

[@brudamonas8208]

@@seanallen thanks for putting some of it for free

[@seanallen]

No problem 😀

[@alphonsosensleyii7630]

Thanks!

[@seanallen]

Thanks for the support, Alphonso! I appreciate it 😀

[@mroz]

Thanks!