Package

Thenextweb Passgenerator

A Laravel package to create Apple Wallet (old Passbook) compatible tickets.

Package

thenextweb/passgenerator

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Passgenerator

Passgenerator is a Laravel7+ package that allows you to easily create passes compatible with Apple Wallet (former Passbook).

👉 Table of Contents 👈

👮 Requirements

Only things needed are Laravel 7+ and to have the PHP Zip extension installed and enabled.

💾 Installation

The best and easiest way to install the package is using the Composer package manager. To do so, run this command in your project root:

composer require thenextweb/passgenerator

Then, add the Thenextweb\PassGeneratorServiceProvider provider to the providers array in config/app.php:

'providers' => [
// ...
Thenextweb\PassGeneratorServiceProvider::class,
],

That's it!

🍎 Apple docs

From now on, some stuff is much better explained on the Apple docs, so when in doubt just check (if you haven't done so) the following documents:

📝 Configuration

To start using the package some Apple files are needed, as well as some action in order to convert them to more friendly formats:

  1. Go to the Apple Developer page ➵ Identifiers ➵ Pass Type IDs.

  2. Next, you need to create a pass type ID. This is similar to the bundle ID for apps. It will uniquely identify a specific kind of pass. It should be of the form of a reverse-domain name style string (i.e., pass.com.example.appname).

  3. After creating the pass type ID, click on Edit and follow the instructions to create a new Certificate.

  4. Once the process is finished, the pass certificate can be downloaded. That's not it though, the certificate is downloaded as .cer file, which need to be converted to .p12 in order to work. If you are using a Mac you can import it into Keychain Access and export it from there. Make sure to remember the password you have given to the exported file since you'll have to use it later. You can also use other tools to convert the certificate but be sure it includes the private key on the exported PKCS12 file.

  5. If you have made iOS development, you probably have already the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Intermediate Certificate in your Mac’s keychain. If not, it can be downloaded from the Apple Website (on .cer format). This one needs to be exported as .pem, you can also do so from Keychain Access (or whatever tool you use to manage certificates on your OS).

Once all this tedious process has been done, everything is almost ready to start using the package. The easiest now is to add to the following keys to your .env file:

  • CERTIFICATE_PATH ➪ The path to the .p12 pass certificate.
  • CERTIFICATE_PASS ➪ The password set to unlock the certificate when it was exported.
  • WWDR_CERTIFICATE ➪ The path to the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Intermediate Certificate on .pem format.

In case there is a reason the config file must be modified (conflicting env keys, dynamic certificates required...), it can be published with the following command:

// file will be at config/passgenerator.php
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Thenextweb\PassGeneratorServiceProvider"

🚀 Usage

To create a pass for the first time, you have to first create the pass definition, either as a JSON file or as an array. It is really recommended to have already read the Apple docs as well as the PassKit Package Format Reference.

 
use Thenextweb\PassGenerator;
 
//...
 
$pass_identifier = 'somekindofid'; // This, if set, it would allow for retrieval later on of the created Pass
 
$pass = new PassGenerator($pass_identifier);
 
$pass_definition = [
"description" => "description",
"formatVersion" => 1,
"organizationName" => "organization",
"passTypeIdentifier"=> "pass.com.example.appname",
"serialNumber" => "123456",
"teamIdentifier" => "teamid",
"foregroundColor" => "rgb(99, 99, 99)",
"backgroundColor" => "rgb(212, 212, 212)",
"barcode" => [
"message" => "encodedmessageonQR",
"format" => "PKBarcodeFormatQR",
"altText" => "altextfortheQR",
"messageEncoding"=> "utf-8",
],
"boardingPass" => [
"headerFields" => [
[
"key" => "destinationDate",
"label" => "Trip to: BCN-SANTS",
"value" => "15/09/2015"
]
],
"primaryFields" => [
[
"key" => "boardingTime",
"label" => "MURCIA",
"value" => "13:54",
"changeMessage" => "Boarding time has changed to %@"
],
[
"key" => "destination",
"label" => "BCN-SANTS",
"value" => "21:09"
]
 
],
"secondaryFields" => [
[
"key" => "passenger",
"label" => "Passenger",
"value" => "J.DOE"
],
[
"key" => "bookingref",
"label" => "Booking Reference",
"value" => "4ZK6FG"
]
],
"auxiliaryFields" => [
[
"key" => "train",
"label" => "Train TALGO",
"value" => "00264"
],
[
"key" => "car",
"label" => "Car",
"value" => "009"
],
[
"key" => "seat",
"label" => "Seat",
"value" => "04A"
],
[
"key" => "classfront",
"label" => "Class",
"value" => "Tourist"
]
],
"backFields" => [
[
"key" => "ticketNumber",
"label" => "Ticket Number",
"value" => "7612800569875"
], [
"key" => "passenger-name",
"label" => "Passenger",
"value" => "John Doe"
], [
"key" => "classback",
"label" => "Class",
"value" => "Tourist"
]
],
"locations" => [
[
"latitude" => 37.97479,
"longitude" => -1.131522,
"relevantText" => "Departure station"
]
],
"transitType" => "PKTransitTypeTrain"
],
];
 
$pass->setPassDefinition($pass_definition);
 
// Definitions can also be set from a JSON string
// $pass->setPassDefinition(file_get_contents('/path/to/pass.json));
 
// Add assets to the PKPass package
$pass->addAsset(base_path('resources/assets/wallet/background.png'));
$pass->addAsset(base_path('resources/assets/wallet/thumbnail.png'));
$pass->addAsset(base_path('resources/assets/wallet/icon.png'));
$pass->addAsset(base_path('resources/assets/wallet/logo.png'));
 
$pkpass = $pass->create();

Now, a valid ticket is already in place. Apple recommends a MIME type to serve it to its devices so something like the following should do:

return new Response($pkpass, 200, [
'Content-Transfer-Encoding' => 'binary',
'Content-Description' => 'File Transfer',
'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="pass.pkpass"',
'Content-length' => strlen($pkpass),
'Content-Type' => PassGenerator::getPassMimeType(),
'Pragma' => 'no-cache',
]);

Later on, if your users need to download the pass again, you don't need to create it again (wasting all those CPU cycles on crypto stuff), you can just do something like:

// If the pass for that ID does not exist, you can then proceed to generate it as done above.
$pkpass = PassGenerator::getPass($pass_identifier);
if (!$pkpass) {
$pkpass = $this->createWalletPass();
}
// ...

It is also possible to retrieve the actual path to a pass on your filesystem. By default, Passgenerator will copy your default filesystem config (usually rooted on storage_path('app') but you can always do getPassFilePath($pass_identifier) and retrieve the real path (in case it exists).

Definitions

It is also possible to programatically create/modify a pass using the definitions objects. Eg.-

$coupon = Thenextweb\Definitions\Coupon();
$coupon->setDescription('Coupon description');
$coupon->setSerialNumber('123456');
 
$coupon->setUserInfo([
'email' => 'user@domain.com',
]);
$coupon->setExpirationDate(Carbon::now()->addMonths(6));
 
$location = new Location();
$location->setLatitude(40.4378698);
$location->setLongitude(-3.819619);
$coupon->addLocation($location);
 
$coupon->setMaxDistance(50);
$coupon->setRelevantDate(Carbon::now()->addDays(10));
 
$coupon->addAuxiliaryField(new Field('key', 'value'));
 
$coupon->addBackField(new Number('price', 13, [
'currencyCode' => 'EUR',
'numberStyle' => Number::STYLE_DECIMAL
]));
 
$coupon->addPrimaryField(new Date('created_at', Carbon::now(), [
'dateStyle' => Date::STYLE_FULL,
]));
 
$barcode = new Barcode('7898466321', Barcode::FORMAT_CODE128);
$coupon->addBarcode($barcode);
 
$passgenerator->setPassDefinition($coupon);

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