TheMet

A small SwiftUI iOS app that searches the Metropolitan Museum of Art public collection and shows the results both in the app and in a home-screen widget. The app and the widget share data through an App Group.

Learning project exploring SwiftUI navigation, async/await networking, WidgetKit, App Groups, and deep linking.

Features

• Search the Met collection by keyword (image-only results).
• Object list with two paths depending on rights:
  • Public domain objects open an in-app detail screen with the artwork image.
  • Non–public domain objects open the Met website in an in-app Safari view.
• Home-screen widget (medium and large) that shows objects fetched by the app.
• Deep linking: tapping a widget entry opens the app straight to that object.
• Shared storage between app and widget via an App Group.

How it works

The interesting part of this project is the app ↔ widget data flow:

1. The app fetches objects from the Met API and keeps them in an ObservableObject store (TheMetStore).
2. After a successful fetch, the store writes the objects to objects.json inside the shared App Group container, then calls WidgetCenter.shared.reloadTimelines.
3. The widget's TimelineProvider reads the same objects.json from the shared container and builds a timeline (one entry per object, one hour apart).
4. Each widget entry sets a widgetURL like themet://<objectID>. Tapping it launches the app, which handles the URL in onOpenURL and navigates to the matching object (in-app detail for public-domain items, Safari for the rest).

The Met API  ──fetch──▶  TheMetStore  ──write──▶  objects.json (App Group)
                              │                          │
                          UI (List)                  read │
                                                          ▼
                                                   Widget timeline
                                                          │
                                          tap (themet://id) │
                                                          ▼
                                              app onOpenURL → navigate

Tech stack

• Swift 5 / SwiftUI
• async/await + URLSession for networking
• NavigationStack with value-based navigationDestination(for:)
• WidgetKit (StaticConfiguration, TimelineProvider)
• App Groups for shared storage (FileManager.containerURL(forSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier:))
• SFSafariViewController wrapped via UIViewControllerRepresentable
• AsyncImage for remote image loading
• Custom URL scheme (themet://) for deep linking

Project structure

TheMet/
├─ TheMet/                      # Main app target
│  ├─ TheMetApp.swift           # App entry point
│  ├─ Models/
│  │  ├─ Object.swift           # Met object model + ObjectIDs + sample data
│  │  └─ TheMetStore.swift      # ObservableObject store + App Group write
│  ├─ Service/
│  │  └─ TheMetService.swift    # Met API calls (search + object by id)
│  ├─ Views/
│  │  ├─ ContentView.swift      # Search, list, navigation, deep link handling
│  │  ├─ ObjectView.swift       # Public-domain object detail
│  │  ├─ SafariView.swift       # In-app web view for non-public objects
│  │  ├─ WebIndicatorView.swift
│  │  ├─ DetailIndicatorView.swift
│  │  └─ PlaceholderView.swift
│  ├─ Extensions/               # Color + URLComponents helpers
│  └─ TheMet.entitlements       # App Group entitlement
└─ TheMetWidget/                # Widget extension target
   ├─ TheMetWidget.swift        # Provider, timeline, widget view
   └─ TheMetWidgetBundle.swift

The Met API

Uses the Met Collection API (no API key required):

• GET /public/collection/v1/search?hasImages=true&q=<query> — returns matching object IDs.
• GET /public/collection/v1/objects/<objectID> — returns a single object.

The app fetches up to maxIndex objects per search (set to 5 in ContentView).

Requirements

• Xcode that supports the iOS 26.2 deployment target set in the project.
• An Apple Developer account / team for signing (needed because the app uses an App Group).

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/M0bileDev/TheMet.git
cd TheMet
open TheMet.xcodeproj

Then, before running:

1. Select your signing team for both the TheMet and TheMetWidgetExtension targets.
2. The project ships with the placeholder App Group group.org.example.TheMet.objects. Either:
   • keep it as-is (it still works for local builds once you can register it under your team), or
   • replace it with your own App Group ID in both targets' entitlements and in FileManager.getSharedContainerURL() in TheMetStore.swift. The app and the widget must use the same App Group ID, or data sharing will fail.
3. Build and run on a device or simulator. Search for something, then add The Met widget to your home screen.

Notes / known limitations

• Network and decoding errors are currently logged with print and the call returns nil rather than surfacing an error in the UI.
• Image display in the detail view depends on the object being public domain and having a valid primaryImageSmall.
• The number of fetched objects is capped (maxIndex = 5), so the widget timeline is short by design.

Credits

• Based on the "TheMet" project from Kodeco's SwiftUI Apprentice book (networking, search, and the Widgets / App Groups chapters). Built as a learning exercise following that material.
• Artwork data and images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access program via the Met Collection API.
• Built by M0bileDev.