22 Mar 2020 - 17 minute read

Co-authored by Phill Farrugia

After you get a feel for the language and do some Koans, the next step in your journey to writing Kotlin for iOS is understanding what that Kotlin is going to look like from the Swift in your iOS app. The way Kotlin reverse interop (Swift talking to Kotlin) works is via Objective-C. For some, discovering that they get an Obj-C header from their Kotlin library, instead of a Swift one, is disappointing. That’s an understandable reaction. In a all (or majority) Swift code base, you and your team may have spent a lot of time building out your project using all that Swift has to offer — even the stuff that’s not compatible with Obj-C.

But my Swift!

The first thing to understand here is that Kotlin/Native — the member of the Kotlin multiplatform family responsible for this part — predates the Swift language features (Swift ABI, and module ABI, stability) that would make Swift-only reverse interop for Kotlin possible. We know, and JetBrains knows, that Apple has (some) Swift-only system frameworks now, and Apple’s ecosystem is moving in that direction. If JetBrains wants developers to build iOS (and Android) apps in Android Studio this year, I think we can expect Swift reverse interop in the future 🙏.

For now though, what you get when you build a Kotlin library into an Obj-C framework is one with a header that is well-annotated for Swift. Phill and others on our team using our Kotlin-based framework for the first time didn’t realize — until they looked under the hood — that the classes they were interacting with were Obj-C. And for what it’s worth, this is the status quo with the majority of Apple’s system frameworks that you interact with in Swift right now. You get an Obj-C framework that is annotated to feel “Swifty”.

Kotlin Visibility

The next step to writing your own Kotlin library is understanding visibility. Like Swift, Kotlin has visibility modifiers for top-level declarations: public , internal , and private . By default, everything is public 😱. It’s therefore good to get into the habit of marking your classes as internal until you’re sure you want your API to be used by your downstream application. There’s no cost to keeping an API hidden. But, I assure you that your colleagues in other timezones (👋 Tel Aviv) will not be happy when they wake up, pull, and find breaking changes because you changed your mind about an API that you didn’t mark as internal 😇.

For reasons like that, JetBrains recommends in their Coding Conventions that library authors “always explicitly specify member visibility.” Be on the lookout in a future Kotlin release for “API mode”, which will allow you to run the compiler in a mode that generates warnings when visibility isn’t explicit 🙌.

Kotlin to Swift Obj-C

A good starting place to understand what you’re going to get when you export your library to an Obj-C framework is this one-pager on Kotlin and Obj-C/Swift interop. We’re starting from a good place: List<String> in Kotlin gets you NSArray<NSString> in Obj-C and [String] in Swift, for example. class in Kotlin is class in Swift. interface is protocol . If you don’t read the whole guide, scan over the table at the top to get a quick understanding of what you can expect to get when exporting your Kotlin.

To make the interop work, Kotlin/Native generates some base-layer (for lack of a better term) code in your framework to make this translation work well between Swift and Kotlin. Let’s take a look at KotlinMobileBootstrap’s framework output. Clone the repository, and run ./gradlew debugFatFramework . If all goes well, you should end up with a framework at build/fat-framework/debug/KotlinMobileBootstrap.framework (relative to the repository root). If you then crack open the framework’s header, you’ll see a healthy list of base classes. All of your types will inherit from these, and you may see more depending on what all you export in your framework (e.g. an added base class for Kotlin’s enum type). Here are some of the types in KotlinMobileBootstrap:

@interface KMBBase : NSObject

@interface KMBMutableSet<ObjectType> : NSMutableSet<ObjectType>

@interface KMBMutableDictionary<KeyType, ObjectType> : NSMutableDictionary<KeyType, ObjectType>

@interface KMBNumber : NSNumber

@interface KMBBoolean : KMBNumber

You won’t find these in your actual Kotlin code. They’re generated when creating the Obj-C framework. The overarching reason we need all of this is to ensure smooth interop between the Swift/Obj-C world and the Kotlin one. To pick an example, one of Kotlin/Native’s promises is Kotlin working in your application without the help of the JVM, yet Kotlin/Native has to have working automatic memory management. Among other things, KMBBase allows the memory management environments of Kotlin/Native and Swift to work together without help from me and you. I won’t get into how their automated memory management works in detail (could be a post in itself if I had the expertise), but it’s one of the concerns Alec Strong addresses in our talk from KotlinConf 2019.

You also might notice lots of __attribute__((swift_name("SwiftyNameHere"))) sprinkled throughout the header. If you haven’t worked with making Obj-C APIs feel “Swifty” before, this is the mechanism for making a Obj-C-sounding declarations look and feel “Swifty” when interacting with them in Swift. Obj-C will see the classes and methods as is, and Swift will see the string inside the swift_name part.

Now that we have some of those basics covered, it’s time to write some Kotlin. Phill is going to walk through how some of the basic Kotlin constructs come out on the other end and appear to Swift.

From here on out, you can try out the below samples from this sample project.

Classes

One of the most common features of the Kotlin language you’ll work with is a class, which for the most part works exactly as you would expect it to in Swift and Obj-C. Define a class (or a data class ) Sample in Kotlin and a corresponding class will be defined in Obj-C.

// Kotlin class Sample

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "Sample" ))) @interface KotlinIos2Sample : KotlinIos2Base - ( instancetype ) init __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init()" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )); + ( instancetype ) new __attribute__ (( availability ( swift , unavailable , message = "use object initializers instead" ))); @end ;

Notice that generated Obj-C classes inherit from the KotlinIos2Base super class, which itself inherits from NSObject . Generated classes are prefixed with a prefix that is derived from the framework name, in this case “KotlinIos2”. Attributes are used to ensure this prefix is omitted from Swift, and that methods and initializers look and behave natively to Swift language conventions.

Inheritance

// Kotlin open class Sample

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "Sample" ))) @interface KotlinIos2Sample : KotlinIos2Base - ( instancetype ) init __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init()" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )); + ( instancetype ) new __attribute__ (( availability ( swift , unavailable , message = "use object initializers instead" ))); @end ;

Since classes in Kotlin are final by default, their native counterpart is annotated to restrict subclassing with the __attribute__((objc_subclassing_restricted)) attribute. By specifying open on your Kotlin class, the generated Obj-C class will also support subclassing.

Protocol Conformance

Conforming your class to an interface in Kotlin defines the interface as a protocol and adds conformance in the public header of the generated Obj-C class.

// Kotlin interface SampleInterface class SampleClass : SampleInterface

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "SampleInterface" ))) @protocol KotlinIos2SampleInterface @required @end ; __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "SampleClass" ))) @interface KotlinIos2SampleClass : KotlinBase < KotlinIos2SampleInterface > - ( instancetype ) init __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init()" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )); + ( instancetype ) new __attribute__ (( availability ( swift , unavailable , message = "use object initializers instead" ))); @end ;

Constructors and Properties

Using a primary constructor in Kotlin to define a set of parameters directly after the class name will generate a designated initializer in Obj-C. It will also generate @property members on the public interface of the class, marked with readonly if defined as a val , or not if the property is a var .

// Kotlin class MyClass ( val str1 : String , var str2 : String )

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "MyClass" ))) @interface KotlinIos2MyClass : KotlinBase - ( instancetype ) initWithStr1 :( NSString * ) str1 str2 :( NSString * ) str2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init(str1:str2:)" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )); @property ( readonly ) NSString * str1 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "str1" ))); @property NSString * str2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "str2" ))); @end ;

Initializers and functions will concatenate parameter names into an Obj-C-friendly camel case method name, such as initWithStr1:str2: and provide a more concise Swift-friendly function name annotation.

Value Types

Coming from the world of Swift, you’re probably used to defining structs but you’ll quickly notice that the Kotlin language doesn’t have value types. Instead, the next best thing is a data class , which is simply a class that allows the compiler to derive some out-of-the-box members such as equals() , hashCode() , toString() and copy() from the properties defined on the object.

// Kotlin data class MyDataClass ( val str1 : String , var str2 : String )

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "MyDataClass" ))) @interface KotlinIos2MyDataClass : KotlinBase - ( instancetype ) initWithStr1 :( NSString * ) str1 str2 :( NSString * ) str2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init(str1:str2:)" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )); - ( NSString * ) component1 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "component1()" ))); - ( NSString * ) component2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "component2()" ))); - ( KotlinIos2MyDataClass * ) doCopyStr1 :( NSString * ) str1 str2 :( NSString * ) str2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "doCopy(str1:str2:)" ))); - ( BOOL ) isEqual :( id _Nullable ) other __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "isEqual(_:)" ))); - ( NSUInteger ) hash __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "hash()" ))); - ( NSString * ) description __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "description()" ))); @property ( readonly ) NSString * str1 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "str1" ))); @property NSString * str2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "str2" ))); @end ;

If you inspect the Obj-C output of a Kotlin data class, you’ll see that the compiler has mapped these derived methods into their Obj-C equivalents on NSObject such as isEqual , hash and description .

Enums

Enums are actually a special type of class in Kotlin, but they work in much the same way as they do in Swift. When you define an enum in Kotlin and peek at the Obj-C generated header, you may not see what you thought you’d see.

// Kotlin enum class MyEnum { CASE1 , CASE2 }

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "MyEnum" ))) @interface KotlinIos2MyEnum : KotlinIos2KotlinEnum + ( instancetype ) alloc __attribute__ (( unavailable )); + ( instancetype ) allocWithZone :( struct _NSZone * ) zone __attribute__ (( unavailable )); - ( instancetype ) initWithName :( NSString * ) name ordinal :( int32_t ) ordinal __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init(name:ordinal:)" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )) __attribute__ (( unavailable )); @property ( class , readonly ) KotlinIos2MyEnum * case1 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "case1" ))); @property ( class , readonly ) KotlinIos2MyEnum * case2 __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "case2" ))); - ( int32_t ) compareToOther :( KotlinIos2MyEnum * ) other __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "compareTo(other:)" ))); @end ;

Since enums are just classes in Kotlin, the compiler generates an Obj-C class with each enum case defined as a readonly class property on the type. This generated class inherits from a KotlinIos2KotlinEnum superclass, which is another generated class that utilizes Obj-C lightweight generics to provide base-layer enum functionality including case comparison, equality and initialization.

Method Calls

Functions defined in Kotlin along with their named arguments, default arguments, and return types map to Obj-C and Swift almost seamlessly. As an API consumer, interacting with these methods feels exactly the same as if they were originally defined in Swift. Attributes maintain a Swift-y method signature, parameter types are mapped to native types and even Lambda’s defined in Kotlin are generated as closures with the same parameters and return types.

Since Obj-C doesn’t support default arguments, these are unfortunately not mapped through to Swift. If you’re familiar with static and class methods in Swift, Kotlin’s companion objects provide similar functionality. Companion objects defined in Kotlin will actually generate separate Obj-C classes but use the swift_name annotation to maintain a consistent API interface, so while the generated Obj-C looks different you can interact with the method in the same way you would a static method.

// Kotlin enum class LogLevel { ERROR , WARNING , INFO , DEBUG } class Logger { companion object default { fun log ( level : LogLevel = LogLevel . ERROR , message : String , completion : ( Boolean ) -> Unit ) { } } }

// Obj-C __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "LogLevel" ))) @interface KotlinIos2LogLevel : KotlinIos2KotlinEnum + ( instancetype ) alloc __attribute__ (( unavailable )); + ( instancetype ) allocWithZone :( struct _NSZone * ) zone __attribute__ (( unavailable )); - ( instancetype ) initWithName :( NSString * ) name ordinal :( int32_t ) ordinal __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init(name:ordinal:)" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )) __attribute__ (( unavailable )); @property ( class , readonly ) KotlinIos2LogLevel * error __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "error" ))); @property ( class , readonly ) KotlinIos2LogLevel * warning __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "warning" ))); @property ( class , readonly ) KotlinIos2LogLevel * info __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "info" ))); @property ( class , readonly ) KotlinIos2LogLevel * debug __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "debug" ))); - ( int32_t ) compareToOther :( KotlinIos2LogLevel * ) other __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "compareTo(other:)" ))); @end ; __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "Logger" ))) @interface KotlinIos2Logger : KotlinIos2Base - ( instancetype ) init __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init()" ))) __attribute__ (( objc_designated_initializer )); + ( instancetype ) new __attribute__ (( availability ( swift , unavailable , message = "use object initializers instead" ))); @end ; __attribute__ (( objc_subclassing_restricted )) __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "Logger.default" ))) @interface KotlinIos2LoggerDefault : KotlinIos2Base + ( instancetype ) alloc __attribute__ (( unavailable )); + ( instancetype ) allocWithZone :( struct _NSZone * ) zone __attribute__ (( unavailable )); + ( instancetype ) default_ __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "init()" ))); - ( void ) logLevel :( KotlinIos2LogLevel * ) level message :( NSString * ) message completion :( void ( ^ )( KotlinIos2Boolean * )) completion __attribute__ (( swift_name ( "log(level:message:completion:)" ))); @end ;

// Swift Logger . default . log ( . error , "An error ocurred" ) { // Closure }

Integrating Kotlin on iOS

Kotlin’s Kotlin/Native backend does a good job of setting you up with the basics you need to integrate Kotlin on iOS. There are some rough edges, and I’ll dig into some of those in a future post. For now, I wanted to focus on the basics of what you can expect from Kotlin/Native, so that you can get started. And with that, my next and final post in this “getting started” series will focus on the build and integrating your Kotlin-based library, which I think is one of the more intimidating parts of making Kotlin a part of your team’s workflow.