How to Let User Paste Data Into your App in SwiftUI

With iOS 16, SwiftUI has a new dedicated PasteButton that lets user paste any kind of objects.

It let us receive any object that conforms to the Transferable protocol. Some examples are: String, URL, Data and Image.

Implementation

To let the user paste an image, you can set the payloadType to Data.self and then convert the Data to a UIImage and then use this image to create an Image.

PasteButton(payloadType: Data.self) { data in
   guard let imageData = data.first else { return }
   self.image = Image(uiImage: UIImage(data: imageData) ?? UIImage())
}

Or, with a more straightforward implementation.

PasteButton(payloadType: Image.self) { images in
   guard let image = images.first else { return }
   self.image = image
}

If you need a more fine grained filter for the objects that the user is allowed to paste, you can use the init(supportedContentTypes:).

In this example we allow the user to paste only xml files.

PasteButton(supportedContentTypes: [.xml]) { providers in
   for provider in providers {
      let progress = provider.loadFileRepresentation(for: .xml) { url, openInPlace, error in
         if let url {
            try? String(contentsOf: url)
         }
      }
   }
}

Behaviour

The button dims itself if no object that matches the declared type is present in the user’s clipboard.

What are you thoughts about this? Tweet me @franceleonidev and share your opinion.