iOS SDK

Instructions to integrate Chartbeat's iOS SDK to your native app.

Add the SDK to your app

The Chartbeat iOS SDK is a framework written in Swift and Objective-C providing Chartbeat tracking functionality to native iOS apps. Like any other framework added to your project, the Chartbeat SDK provides a programming interface usable from your app code.

Overview

The Chartbeat iOS SDK is a native Objective-C library that sends real-time engagement beacons ("pings") to Chartbeat so iOS apps can be measured in the same dashboards as the publisher's web content. The SDK exposes a single CBTracker singleton that you start once at app launch and feed view/engagement/conversion events throughout the app's lifetime.

• SDK name: Chartbeat

• Language: Objective-C (Swift-interoperable via import Chartbeat)

• Public interface header: CBTracker.h

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Requirements

Item	Minimum
iOS deployment target	13.0 (per podspec of the RN bridge that consumes it; project itself supports older iOS)
Xcode	Project is maintained against current Xcode releases (As of today, Xcode 26 version)

Swift support: import Chartbeat works from any Swift file once the framework is integrated.

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Installation

There are three supported installation paths.

1. CocoaPods (recommended)

We recommend adding the SDK to your iOS project using CocoaPods. To start using the Chartbeat iOS SDK in your XCode iOS project, follow these steps:

1. Add a line referencing the SDK to your project's Podfile: pod ‘Chartbeat’, '~> 1.5.0'

2. Replace the version specifier in this Podfile line with the version of the latest release from this listing

3. Run pod install from your Xcode project directory to install the SDK and its dependencies, creating a new Xcode workspace.

2. Swift Package Manager

Beginning with Chartbeat iOS SDK 1.5.0, the Chartbeat iOS SDK supports an installation via Swift Package Manager

1. Select "Add package" in the Package Dependencies menu of Project settings.

2. In the Search bar, search for the Chartbeat SDK Github URL:

   https://github.com/chartbeat-labs/chartbeat-ios-sdk

3. Select chartbeat-ios-sdk.

3. Manual

Outside of using CocoaPods and Swift Package Manager, you can also download the latest version of the iOS SDK from Github and copy it into your project.

Tip: Make sure that the framework is added with the option "Embed and sign" in the menu "General" of "Target Settings"

Using the SDK

Chartbeat tracks each app visit by calling corresponding functions as the user interacts with your app. Implement the following steps for integrating the Chartbeat Mobile SDK for iOS.

Initialize the tracker

At app startup, import the CBTracker.h file in your app’s delegate.

Objective-C:

#import <Chartbeat/CBTracker.h>

Swift:

import Chartbeat

Initialize the tracker by calling the method on the tracker singleton obtained via [CBTracker sharedTracker]. Call this method directly in the applicationDidBecomeActive method of your app delegate.

Tip: Remember to replace placeholder account ID and domain value (1234 and mysite.com) with your organization's account ID and site ID.

Objective-C:

[[CBTracker sharedTracker] setupTrackerWithAccountId:1234 domain:@"mysite.com"];

Swift:

CBTracker.shared().setupTracker(withAccountId: 1234, domain: "mysite.com")

Swift 2.x:

CBTracker.sharedTracker().setupTracker(withAccountId: 1234, domain: "mysite.com")

Swift 3.x:

CBTracker.shared().setupTracker(withAccountId: 1234, domain: "mysite.com")

Tip: When integrating with a Swift Framework, don't import <Chartbeat/CBTracker.h>in your framework header file. Doing so while importing Chartbeat in swift files will cause compile errors.

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Track screen views

Add the trackView call (see below) to any view you want Chartbeat to track.

Page Metadata

If you have views in your app that do not correspond to a page on your website, you can track user interactions on that screen by setting a viewId that does not conflict with other page paths from your site. Traffic for this view will then be tracked as a separate page in your dashboard. For example, you can track users in your app’s table of contents by setting the viewId to something like https://mysite.com/nativeapp/main-toc.

Pass section and author data for every view you track to ensure consistency between different views. Call setSections and setAuthors with an array of strings for each before calling trackView. Any sections and authors you set will stay set until you set a different set of values. If the user is navigating from a view with sections or authors to another view with no applicable sections or authors, you should set the sections or authors to an empty array.

Tip: Chartbeat uses the "|" character for a splitting process when organizing section and author values, so it is recommend to avoid this character when defining these variables.

Track each view

In each view controller's viewDidAppear::

1. Set metadata (setAuthors, setSections, etc.) — pass empty arrays when a view has no section/author metadata.

2. Call trackView:viewId:title:

Objective-C

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];
    [[CBTracker sharedTracker] setAuthors:@[@"Jane Doe", @"John Smith"]];
    [[CBTracker sharedTracker] setSections:@[@"tech", @"news"]];
    [[CBTracker sharedTracker] trackView:self.view
                                  viewId:@"/article/driverless-cars"
                                   title:@"Driverless cars will overpower humanity"];
}

Swift

override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    CBTracker.shared().setAuthors(["Jane Doe", "John Smith"])
    CBTracker.shared().setSections(["tech", "news"])
    CBTracker.shared().trackView(view,
                                 viewId: "/article/driverless-cars",
                                 title: "Driverless cars will overpower humanity")
}

SwiftUI:

.onAppear {
    if let rootView = UIApplication.shared.windows.first?.rootViewController?.view {
        CBTracker.shared().trackView(rootView, viewId: "https://blog.chartbeat.com/2025/01/01/product-release-announcement", title: "Product Release Announcement")
    }
}

Track user subscriber status

Beginning with Chartbeat iOS SDK 1.4.0, the Chartbeat Mobile SDK supports tracking subscriber data similar to our JavaScript subscriber engagement integration for standard websites. These functions are optional and can be skipped if your corresponding website does not utilize our JavaScript subscriber status integration linked above.

For proper tracking, it is important to call these functions before the first call to trackView():

Call setUserPaid() to specify a user as a paid subscriber.

Call setUserLoggedIn() to specify a user as a registered user.

Call setUserAnonymous() to specify a user as a guest.

No additional information needs to be passed to these methods or functions. If at any time the user’s subscription status changes, simply call one of the above functions to ensure proper tracking.

Stop the tracker

Call the stopTracker function if you want to pause tracking on certain views. Restart the tracker when the user navigates to a view you do want to track, by calling trackView again with the appropriate new arguments.

The tracker should automatically stop tracking when the app is backgrounded by a user. If tracking does not stop automatically, consider calling stopTracker before the app is backgrounded.

The same applies for when the app is foregrounded. The tracker should automatically resume, but if this does not happen, you can restart the tracker by calling trackView again with the appropriate new arguments.

[[CBTracker sharedTracker] stopTracker];

Tip: When you run the tracker in debug mode, you can see log statements in the console to confirm the activity of the tracker.

IP Truncation

When initializing the tracker, add the following usePong method to point traffic to our proxy layer that de-identifies IP addresses within the EU:

Swift 3.0:

CBTracker.shared().setupTracker(withAccountId: accountId, domain: domain)
CBTracker.shared().usePong = true

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Next steps

Review your integration for data accuracy using our integration QA steps for mobile apps, up next.