In Xcode 15, we got improvements on widgets, which also change A LOT how we handle them in code, we need to take care now of:

Live action, animations, Time Lines & App Intents

If you download the Widgets example from Apple, you’ll see that it won’t compile in Xcode 15 Beta 2 after create the Widget Target. This will create a boiler plate code, that sadly doesn’t compile with the previews.

The first change we need to do is to add  a container background:

.containerBackground(for: .widget)

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/view/containerbackground(_:for:)

You can use this extension that someone put on Apple Forums:

extension View {
    func widgetBackground(_ color: Color) -> some View {
        if #available(iOSApplicationExtension 17.0, macOSApplicationExtension 14.0, *) {
            return  containerBackground(color, for: .widget)
        } else {
            return background(color)
        }
    }
}

Use it like:

AvatarView(entry.character)
            .widgetBackground(.white)

The second change is about how previews work now:

struct EmojiRangerWidget_Previews: PreviewProvider {

   static var previews: some View {
      AvatarView(.panda)
        .widgetBackground(.white)
        .previewContext(WidgetPreviewContext(family: .systemSmall))
   }
}

See that we’re using the .widgetBackground

But now, with the Preview macro, there’s another way to use them, basically we need to use the Entries:

#Preview(as: .systemSmall) {
    EmojiRangerWidget()
} timeline: {
    SimpleEntry(date: .now,
                character: .panda)
}

But, this will yell an error and won’t let you run the app:

-[INIntent _initWithIdentifier:backingStore:schema:error:] Missing backing store for Intent: {xxx-xxx-xxx some ID} (N/A - N/A)

To fix this, we need to add In our Entry  the configuration intent and our detail character detail model

struct SimpleEntry: TimelineEntry {
    let date: Date
    let configuration: ConfigurationAppIntent
    let character: CharacterDetail
}

The result will now compile in our preview. Check the result:

#Preview(as: .systemSmall) {
    EmojiRangerWidget()
} timeline: {
    SimpleEntry(date: .now,
                configuration: ConfigurationAppIntent(),
                character: .panda)
}

And that’s it. I still see the error mentioned above, but at least is working

In new betas, from the number 5, this is fixed, but I wanted to leave the solution here, because it was a challenge!!!!

Check the WWDC23 videos for more information

Video: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10028/?time=233

This allows it to show up in all the new supported locations on the Mac and iPad.