Swift tip: Well-defined Bundles

When working on Apple’s ecosystem we often need to interact with bundled resources. Storyboards (😫), XIB/NIBs, UIImages, LocalizedStrings, JSON files (used for testing fixtures for example), and so on.

Nowadays apps tend to be quite modular which means working with maaany bundles. Let’s see how we can mimic Apple’s Bundle.main static property by creating Swift.Bundle extensions for each module, which helps in achieving a standardized, reusable, and comprehensible API.

// Let's say we have a Profile module in our app...
//
// Bundle+Profile.swift 

private class ProfileBundleReference {}

extension Bundle {
    static let profile = Bundle(for: ProfileBundleReference.self)
}

On the call site, it gets straightforward and easy to reason about.

// Localized string
let localizedString = LocalizedString("my_localized_string", bundle: .profile, comment: "")

// Image asset
let profileImage = UIImage(named: "icn_profile", bundle: .profile, compatibleWith: nil)

Don’t forget that the same applies to test targets or test frameworks.

let jsonFixture = JSONLoader.load(fileNamed: "success", bundle: .profileTests)

References:

• Apple Developer: class Foundation.Bundle