A .Net Library for generating Passbook packages for iOS Wallet (formerly Passbook)
dotnet-passbook is also available to download from NuGet.
Install-Package dotnet-passbook
Creating passes for Apple's Passbook is pretty simple, but requires the use of PKI for signing manifest files, which isn't so simple! During the course of building the PassVerse (no longer available), I created a library that performs all the steps in C#. I decided to open source this library to other .Net developers. It allows you to generate, sign and zip Passbook files for use with Apple's Wallet (Available in iOS, starting at version 6).
The solution requires .Net 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012 or higher.
Port to .NET Standard is in the works. There is a branch called port-to-dotnet-standard, which I'm working on.
Before you run the PassGenerator, you need to ensure you have all the necessary certificates installed. There are two required.
Firstly, you need to install the Apple WWDR (WorldWide Developer Relations) certificate. You can download that from here http://www.apple.com/certificateauthority/ . You must install it in the Local Machine's Intermediate Certificate store. I've hardcoded that location
Secondly, you need to installed your Passbook certificate, which you get from the Developer Portal. You must have a full iPhone developer account. There are instructions on my blog for generating a certificate if you're using a Windows Machine.
You can place this certificate in any of the stores, but it must be placed into the "personal" folder. When constructing the request for the pass, you specify the location and thumbprint for the certificate. If running this code in IIS for example, installing the certificate in the Local Machine area might make access easier. Alternatively, you could place the certificate into the AppPool's user's certification repository. When you install the certificate, be sure to note the certificate's Thumbprint.
To generate a pass, start by declaring a PassGenerator.
PassGenerator generator = new PassGenerator();
Next, create a PassGeneratorRequest. This is a raw request that gives you the full power to add all the fields necessary for the pass you wish to create. Each pass is broken down into several sections. Each section is rendered in a different way, based on the style of the pass you are trying to produce. For more information on this, please consult Apple's Passbook Programming Guide. The example below here will show how to create a very basic boarding pass.
Since each pass has a set of mandatory data, fill that in first.
PassGeneratorRequest request = new PassGeneratorRequest();
request.PassTypeIdentifier = "pass.tomsamcguinness.events";
request.TeamIdentifier = "RW121242";
request.SerialNumber = "121212";
request.Description = "My first pass";
request.OrganizationName = "Tomas McGuinness";
request.LogoText = "My Pass";
Colours can be specified in HTML format or in RGB format.
request.BackgroundColor = "#FFFFFF";
request.LabelColor = "#000000";
request.ForegroundColor = "#000000";
request.BackgroundColor = "rgb(255,255,255)";
request.LabelColor = "rgb(0,0,0)";
request.ForegroundColor = "rgb(0,0,0)";
To select the certificate there are two options. Firstly, you can use the Windows Certificate store to hold the certificates. You choose the location of your Passbook certificate by specifying the thumbprint of the certificates. The Apple WWDRC is also loaded in this way, so you don't need to specify anything.
request.CertThumbprint = "22C5FADDFBF935E26E2DDB8656010C7D4103E02E";
request.CertLocation = System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.StoreLocation.CurrentUser;
An alternative way to pass the certificates into the PassGenerator is to load them as byte[] and add them to the request.
request.Certificate = certData; // Loaded from a database or other mechanism for example.
request.CertificatePassword = "abc123"; // The password for the certificate's private key.
string appleCertPath = (HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/Certificates
AppleWWDRCA.cer");
request.AppleWWDRCACertificate = File.ReadAllBytes(appleCertPath);
Next, define the images you with to use. You must always include both standard and retina sized images. Images are supplied as byte[].
// override icon and icon retina
request.Images.Add(PassbookImage.Icon, System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(Server.MapPath("~/Icons/icon.png")));
request.Images.Add(PassbookImage.IconRetina, System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(Server.MapPath("~/Icons/[email protected]")));
You can now provide more pass specific information. The Style must be set and then all information is then added to fields to the required sections. For a baording pass, the fields are add to three sections; primary, secondary and auxiliary.
request.Style = PassStyle.BoardingPass;
request.AddPrimaryField(new StandardField("origin", "San Francisco", "SFO"));
request.AddPrimaryField(new StandardField("destination", "London", "LDN"));
request.AddSecondaryField(new StandardField("boarding-gate", "Gate", "A55"));
request.AddAuxiliaryField(new StandardField("seat", "Seat", "G5" ));
request.AddAuxiliaryField(new StandardField("passenger-name", "Passenger", "Thomas Anderson"));
request.TransitType = TransitType.PKTransitTypeAir;
You can add a BarCode.
request.AddBarCode(BarcodeType.PKBarcodeFormatPDF417, "01927847623423234234", "ISO-8859-1", "01927847623423234234");
Starting with iOS 9, multiple barcodes are now supported. This helper method supports this new feature. If you wanted to support iOS 8 and earlier, you can use the method SetBarcode().
To link the pass to an existing app, you can add the app's Apple ID to the AssociatedStoreIdentifiers array.
request.AssociatedStoreIdentifiers.Add(551768478);
Finally, generate the pass by passing the request into the instance of the Generator. This will create the signed manifest and package all the the image files into zip.
byte[] generatedPass = generator.Generate(request);
If you are using ASP.NET MVC for example, you can return this byte[] as a Passbook package
return new FileContentResult(generatedPass, "application/vnd.apple.pkpass");
If the passes you create don't seem to open on iOS or in the simulator, the payload is probably invalid. To aid troubleshooting, I've created this simple tool - https://pkpassvalidator.azurewebsites.net - just run your pkpass file through this and it might give some idea what's wrong. The tool is new (Jul'18) and doesn't check absolutely everything. I'll try and add more validation to the generator itself.
If you're running the signing code within an IIS application, you might run into some issues accessing the private key of your certificates. To resolve this open MMC => Add Certificates (Local computer) snap-in => Certificates (Local Computer) => Personal => Certificates => Right click the certificate of interest => All tasks => Manage private key => Add IIS AppPool\AppPoolName and grant it Full control. Replace "AppPoolName" with the name of the application pool that your app is running under. (sometimes IIS_IUSRS)
To be able to update your pass, you must provide it with a callback. When generating your request, you must provide it with an AuthenticationToken and a WebServiceUrl.
request.AuthenticationToken = "vxwxd7J8AlNNFPS8k0a0FfUFtq0ewzFdc";
request.WebServiceUrl = "http://192.168.1.59:82/api";
There are several methods that the Pass will invoke when it's installed and updated. To see a reference implementation of this, look at the PassRegistrationController class in the Passbook.Sample.Web project.
The method that is of most interest in the beginning is the Post method as this actually captures the PushToken for the passes. The UpdateController has a very simple mechanism for sending an update. At present, the device ID is hard-coded, but this should provide a working reference.
Included as part of the solution, the Passbook.Sample.Web project allows you to create some sample passes. You can run this and access the pages from your iPhone to see how the passes are installed and to see the registration and update mechanism in operation.
The project also includes some dummy requests, so illustrate how you can create wrappers around the basic PassGenerationRequest. The above BoardPass can be generated using the BoardingPassGeneratorRequest. Instead of adding the fields explicitly, this encapsulates this logic, so you can call
request.Origin = "San Francisco";
request.OriginCode = "SFO";
request.Destination = "London";
request.DestinationCode = "LDN";
request.Seat = "7A";
request.BoardingGate = "F12";
request.PassengerName = "John Appleseed";
request.TransitType = TransitType.PKTransitTypeAir;
/Home/Index will open a simple HTML page where you can choose the card type.
/Pass/EventTicket will generate an event based Pass (not fully functional).
/Pass/BoardingPass will generate simple boarding card.
These passes are functional and can be saved in iOS Passbook.
This library covers almost all of the fields in Passbook. At present the NFC fields are omitted, but I have a new branch that contains this key. I'm working with some users of the library on testing this feature since a special NFC certificate is required from Apple. Unfortunately, Apple won't supply a certificate, even for testing.
I've had several people ask whether this library will support .Net Core. I've created a new branch called port-to-dotnet-standard, which cotains a new version of the library, built on .Net Standard 2.0. I've had to remove all the template support, since this uses System.Configuration, which doesn't really exist in .Net Standard. I haven't decided on an approach that will work for both .Net Framework and .Net Core configuration models. I will most likely release this as v2 of the library to Nuget at some point.
All pull requests are welcomed! If you come across an issue you cannot fix, please raise an issue or drop me an email at [email protected] or follow me on twitter @tomasmcguinness
If you use dotnet-passbook, please consider donating https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fMKJ2NnQ3 - it will enable me to keep the project updated with improvements and changes. Thanks!
Dotnet-passbook is distributed under the MIT license: http://tomasmcguinness.mit-license.org/