Installation

Before starting to develop your application with the Maps SDK, you'll need to configure your credentials and add the SDK as a dependency.

Configure credentials

Before installing the SDK, you will need to gather the appropriate credentials. The SDK requires two pieces of sensitive information from your Mapbox account. If you don't have a Mapbox account: sign up and navigate to your Account page. You'll need:

• A public access token: From your account's tokens page, you can either copy your default public token or click the Create a token button to create a new public token.
• A secret access token with the Downloads:Read scope.
  1. From your account's tokens page, click the Create a token button.
  2. From the token creation page, give your token a name and make sure the box next to the Downloads:Read scope is checked.
  3. Click the Create token button at the bottom of the page to create your token.
  4. The token you've created is a secret token, which means you will only have one opportunity to copy it somewhere secure.

You should not expose these access tokens in publicly-accessible source code where unauthorized users might find them. Instead, you should store them somewhere safe on your computer and make sure they're only added when your app is compiled. Once this configuration step has been completed, you will be able to reference your credentials in other parts of your app.

Configure your secret token

Your secret token enables you to download the SDK directly from Mapbox. 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. Depending on your environment, you may have this file already, so check first before creating a new one.

The .netrc file is a plain text file that is used in certain development environments to store credentials used to access remote servers. The login should always be mapbox. It should not be your personal username used to create the secret token. 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 YOUR_SECRET_MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN

Configure your public token

To configure your public access token, open your project's Info.plist file and add a MBXAccessToken key whose value is your public access token.

If you ever need to rotate your access token, you will need to update the token value in your Info.plist file accordingly.

Add the dependency

Mapbox provides the Maps SDK via Swift Package Manager, CocoaPods and direct download. You can choose whichever you prefer.

Add a map

import UIKit
import MapboxMaps
 
class ViewController: UIViewController {
 
internal var mapView: MapView!
 
override public func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
 
let myResourceOptions = ResourceOptions(accessToken: "your_public_access_token")
let myMapInitOptions = MapInitOptions(resourceOptions: myResourceOptions)
mapView = MapView(frame: view.bounds, mapInitOptions: myMapInitOptions)
mapView.autoresizingMask = [.flexibleWidth, .flexibleHeight]
 
self.view.addSubview(mapView)
}
}

Running into problems installing? Read more about common installation issues in our troubleshooting guide.