Xcode: "uniqueIdentifier deprecated"

Question

I have frequently been told to ignore this compiler warning as it won't be an issue until the next major version of iOS is released. Well... it would be nice if my iPhone app didn't just suddenly stop working one day!

Weird thing is I didn't have this issue using cocos2d for OpenGL 2.0, it was only the OpenGL 1.1 version which had it.

Does this mean an alternative was provided in the newer version?

Answer 1

I would suggest changing over from uniqueIdentifier to this open source library (2 simple categories really). It utilizes the device’s MAC Address along with the App Bundle Identifier to generate a unique ID in your applications that can be used as a UDID replacement.

Keep in mind that unlike the UDID this number will be different for every app.

You simply need to import the included NSString and UIDevice categories and call:

#import "UIDevice+IdentifierAddition.h"
#import "NSString+MD5Addition.h"
NSString *iosFiveUDID = [[UIDevice currentDevice] uniqueDeviceIdentifier]

In order to grab the generated device identifier.

You can find it on Github here:

https://github.com/gekitz/UIDevice-with-UniqueIdentifier-for-iOS-5

---

Heres the code (just the .m files - check the github project for the headers):

UIDevice+IdentifierAddition.m

#import "UIDevice+IdentifierAddition.h"
#import "NSString+MD5Addition.h"

#include <sys/socket.h> // Per msqr
#include <sys/sysctl.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <net/if_dl.h>

@interface UIDevice(Private)

- (NSString *) macaddress;

@end

@implementation UIDevice (IdentifierAddition)

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Private Methods

// Return the local MAC addy
// Courtesy of FreeBSD hackers email list
// Accidentally munged during previous update. Fixed thanks to erica sadun & mlamb.
- (NSString *) macaddress{
    
    int                 mib[6];
    size_t              len;
    char                *buf;
    unsigned char       *ptr;
    struct if_msghdr    *ifm;
    struct sockaddr_dl  *sdl;
    
    mib[0] = CTL_NET;
    mib[1] = AF_ROUTE;
    mib[2] = 0;
    mib[3] = AF_LINK;
    mib[4] = NET_RT_IFLIST;
    
    if ((mib[5] = if_nametoindex("en0")) == 0) {
        printf("Error: if_nametoindex error\n");
        return NULL;
    }
    
    if (sysctl(mib, 6, NULL, &len, NULL, 0) < 0) {
        printf("Error: sysctl, take 1\n");
        return NULL;
    }
    
    if ((buf = malloc(len)) == NULL) {
        printf("Could not allocate memory. error!\n");
        return NULL;
    }
    
    if (sysctl(mib, 6, buf, &len, NULL, 0) < 0) {
        printf("Error: sysctl, take 2");
        return NULL;
    }
    
    ifm = (struct if_msghdr *)buf;
    sdl = (struct sockaddr_dl *)(ifm + 1);
    ptr = (unsigned char *)LLADDR(sdl);
    NSString *outstring = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X", 
                           *ptr, *(ptr+1), *(ptr+2), *(ptr+3), *(ptr+4), *(ptr+5)];
    free(buf);
    
    return outstring;
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Public Methods

- (NSString *) uniqueDeviceIdentifier{
    NSString *macaddress = [[UIDevice currentDevice] macaddress];
    NSString *bundleIdentifier = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundleIdentifier];  
    NSString *stringToHash = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@",macaddress,bundleIdentifier];
    NSString *uniqueIdentifier = [stringToHash stringFromMD5];  
    return uniqueIdentifier;
}

- (NSString *) uniqueGlobalDeviceIdentifier{
    NSString *macaddress = [[UIDevice currentDevice] macaddress];
    NSString *uniqueIdentifier = [macaddress stringFromMD5];    
    return uniqueIdentifier;
}

@end

NSString+MD5Addition.m:

#import "NSString+MD5Addition.h"
#import <CommonCrypto/CommonDigest.h>

@implementation NSString(MD5Addition)

- (NSString *) stringFromMD5{
    
    if(self == nil || [self length] == 0)
        return nil;
    
    const char *value = [self UTF8String];
    
    unsigned char outputBuffer[CC_MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH];
    CC_MD5(value, strlen(value), outputBuffer);
    
    NSMutableString *outputString = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithCapacity:CC_MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH * 2];
    for(NSInteger count = 0; count < CC_MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH; count++){
        [outputString appendFormat:@"%02x",outputBuffer[count]];
    }
    return [outputString autorelease];
}

@end

Answer 2

The "Special Considerations" section in the documentation tells you what the recommended way of obtaining a unique identifier is now:

Do not use the uniqueIdentifier property. To create a unique identifier specific to your app, you can call the CFUUIDCreate function to create a UUID, and write it to the defaults database using the NSUserDefaults class.