FERN

FERN (Field Expedition Routing and Navigation) is an application designed to solve the Traveling Salesman problem for field data scientists. The Application has two major components: The iPad iOS 16.1 application itself and a PostgreSQL database backend on a Linux server with Apache and PHP. The database and the PHP files can be viewed at https://github.com/exnehilo7/fielddata-lite.

Apple Map performance declines if there are more than 100 displayed annotations. Later versions of the application will hopefully use clustering to allow for more annotations. Until then, the number of items in a saved route or area and plot searches are limited.

This application was initially built for a school project. Additional functions currently in progress: Connectivity to an EOS Arrow Gold GPS device. Use of the camera and insertion of custom Exif data.

iOS App and XCode Settings

The Apple Developer account that was used to develop this app was part of a group that is only used for internal organization applications. As a result, this app is not currently available on the App Store. It can, however, be run in a simulator with Xcode on MacOS or on a device attached to a MacOS machine. If run on a device, you may need to be a part of an Apple Development Group, set the project’s Signing & Capabilities accordingly, and enable Developer Mode under the device’s Privacy and Security setting.

When using XCode 14.2’s simulator, be sure Allow Location Simulation is checked and a Default Location is selected under Product -> Scheme -> Edit Scheme -> Options tab.

If a physical device is used, in the Debug area you may see this message:

Publishing changes from within view updates is not allowed, this will cause undefined behavior.

It appears that this message is a bug: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/717478. Memory usage also remained level when tested with a device.

Setting up the Project in XCode

1. Clone the repo to a non-iCloud folder.
2. Open XCode and open the project in the folder that the repo was cloned to.
3. Select iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (6th generation) as the device.
4. If you are using your own backend, the URL of the server will first need to be added/updated in the project’s Info.plist file, under NSAppTransportSecurity -> NSExceptionDomains, and added/updated in the htmlRoot variable under the HTMLRootModel class in the Models.swift file.
5. Click the Play button.

New Project Setup

Only necessary when starting from scratch.

Set iOS App Security Settings

1. Xcode
	a. Click the Project name in the Project Navigator.
	b. Info tab.
	c. Mouse over an item and click +.
	d. Add "App Transport Security Settings" (Dictionary).
	e. Click its >.
	f. Click its +. 
	g. Add "Allow Arbitrary Loads" (Boolean (YES)).
2. While in the Info tab:
	a. Hover over App Transport Security Settings.
	b. Click +.
	c. Add "Exception Domains" (Dictionary).
	d. Click its >.
	e. Click its +.
	f. Type in the root address.
	g. Click its +.
	h. Add "Includes Subdomains" (Boolean (YES)).
	i. Click the root address' +.
	j. Add "Allow Insecure HTTP Loads" (Boolean (YES)).
3. Under "Application Scene Manifest"
	a. Click its >.
	b. Add "Scene Configuration" (Dictionary).
4. Clean the project 
	a. Menu Bar > Product > Clean Build Folder.

Set App Request Permissions

In the info file: 1. Add a key "Privacy - Location When In Usage Description". Include a String message to display to the user.