What is new in SwiftData? Can we write custom predictions?

What's New in SwiftData

SwiftData has introduced several new features and enhancements in iOS 17, making it easier to model and persist your app's data across all of Apple's platforms. Here are some of the key updates:

1. Schema Macro: A new schema macro helps avoid duplicate models.
2. Model Containers: New ways to set up and configure model containers.
3. Query Optimization: Improved performance with complex filters and a new macro.
4. Custom Data Stores: Support for custom data stores, allowing you to use alternative backends like SQLite, remote web services, or JSON files.
5. History API: Access to the history of changes in a datastore, useful for tracking local changes that need to be synced to a remote web service.
6. Index and Unique Constraints: New syntax additions like index and unique to make queries more efficient and ensure no duplicate entries.
7. Previewable Macro: Easier to work with queries while iterating on views in Xcode previews.

For a detailed overview, you can watch the session What’s new in SwiftData.

Custom Predictions

Regarding custom predictions, the context does not provide specific information about writing custom predictions within SwiftData. However, it does mention the introduction of SwiftAssist and predictive completions in Xcode, which are designed to enhance coding productivity by predicting the code you need. These features are part of the broader improvements in Xcode and Swift, but they are not directly related to SwiftData.

For more information on these tools, you can refer to the Platforms State of the Union session.

Relevant Sessions

1. What’s new in SwiftData
2. Platforms State of the Union
3. Create a custom data store with SwiftData