Installation
This page uses v1.4.2 of the Mapbox Navigation SDK. A newer version of the SDK is available. Learn about the latest version, v2.18.1, in the Navigation SDK documentation.
Before starting to develop your application with the Navigation SDK, you'll need to configure your credentials and add the SDK as a dependency.
Configure credentials
To download and install the iOS SDK, follow the steps below. Start by logging into your Mapbox account, then create and configure a secret access token, and lastly add your public access token to your Info.plist
.
Step 1: Log in/Sign up for a Mapbox account
If you haven't done so already, sign up for a Mapbox account and log into it.
You can sign up or sign in by clicking the buttons in the top right corner of your browser.
This account will allow you to create tokens and will create a default public token for you upon creation.
Step 2: Create a secret token
A secret token can enable access to various products/services at Mapbox, including the ability to download an SDK. To allow download access to an SDK, follow these steps:
- From your account's tokens page, click the Create a token button.
- From the token creation page, give your token a name and make sure the box next to the
Downloads:Read
scope is checked. - Click the Create token button at the bottom of the page to create your token.
- The token you've created is a secret token, which means you will only have one opportunity to copy it somewhere secure.
Store secret tokens in secure a location, outside of your project folder to make sure unauthorized users cannot find it.
Step 3: Configure your secret token
To use your secret token, you will need to store it in a .netrc
file in your home directory (not your project folder). This approach helps avoid accidentally exposing your secret token by keeping it out of your application's source code.
To create a .netrc file follow these steps:
Step 3-1: Check if you have already created a .netrc
file on your computer.
- Go to your home directory.
- Type
file .netrc
into your terminal and see if anything returns. - If you have a
.netrc
file already, skip step 3-2.
Step 3-2: Create the .netrc file.
- Open up your terminal in your home directory.
- Type
touch .netrc
.
Step 3-3: Open the .netrc
file.
- Type
open .netrc
from the same terminal window from Step 3-2
Step 3-4: Add login instructions to the .netrc
To set up the credentials required to download the SDK, add the following entry to your .netrc
file:
machine api.mapbox.com
login mapbox
password <INSERT SECRET ACCESS TOKEN>
Step 3-5: Set .netrc
file permissions
- Go to your home directory:
/Users/[CurrentUser]
.- If you do not see the
.netrc
file, pressCommand
+Shift
+.
(the period key).
- If you do not see the
- Right click on the
.netrc
. - Click
Get Info
. - Scroll down to
Sharing & Permissions
. - Under your current username, make sure to set
Privilege
toRead & Write
.
Step 4: Configure your public token
To configure your public access token, follow these steps:
- Open your project's
Info.plist
file - Hover over a key and click the plus button
- Type
MBXAccessToken
into the key field - Click the value field and paste in your public access token.
When you need to rotate your access token, you will need to update the token value in your Info.plist
file.
Users expect the SDK to continue to track the user’s location and deliver audible instructions even while a different application is visible or the device is locked. To do this, go to the Signing & Capabilities tab. Under the Background Modes section, enable “Audio, AirPlay, and Picture in Picture” and “Location updates”. (Or, add the audio
and location
values to the UIBackgroundModes
array in the Info
tab.)
Add the dependency
MapboxCoreNavigation
is a dependency of MapboxNavigation
. If you install
MapboxNavigation
you will also have access to all MapboxCoreNavigation
's
classes and methods. If you do not plan to use the drop-in UI, you can replace
MapboxNavigation
with MapboxCoreNavigation
in the Podfile code snippet
below.
Mapbox provides the Navigation SDK via CocoaPods and Carthage. You can choose whichever you prefer.
To add the Mapbox Navigation SDK dependency with CocoaPods, you will need to configure your build to download the Navigation SDK from Mapbox directly. This requires a valid username and an access token with the Downloads: Read
scope. In a previous step, you added these items to your .netrc
file.
- Create a Podfile with the following specification:
use_frameworks!
target 'TargetNameForYourApp' do
pod 'MapboxNavigation', '~> 1.4'
end
- Run
pod repo update && pod install
and open the resulting Xcode workspace.
Request a route
Request your first route and simulate a navigation experience using our drop-in UI.
Insert the following code snippets into your ViewController
.
Run the application and you will see a simulated navigation experience along a route.
Learn how to keep access tokens private in mobile apps.
Testing and development
Simulate a route
Use MapboxNavigationService(simulating:.always)
to simulate progress along a route. This simulation mode is different from the simulation features built into both the Simulator and Xcode. The simulation mode built into the Navigation SDK never deviates from the current route, but it does behave more realistically by accounting for the expected travel speed and course at any given time. While navigating, you can double-tap the left or right side of the “Simulating” banner to adjust the playback speed.
let navigationService = MapboxNavigationService(route: route, routeOptions: routeOptions, simulating: .always)
let navigationOptions = NavigationOptions(navigationService: navigationService)
let viewController = NavigationViewController(for: route, routeOptions: routeOptions, navigationOptions: navigationOptions)