A look at what Passbook is, what passes are, how they are made, and what goes into them.

1. Your Pass to
Passbook
Presented by: Jeremy Curcio
Twitter: @Jeremy1026
Web: www.jcurcio.com
Email: jcurcio@1026development.com

2. What Is Passbook?
❖ Introduced in iOS 6
❖ Allows users to digitally manage items that
are traditionally physical in nature.
❖ Event Tickets
❖ Coupons
❖ Store Loyalty Cards
❖ Boarding Passes

3. Who Is Using Passbook?
❖ Amtrak ❖ LivingSocial
❖ Delta Airlines ❖ Starbucks
❖ Fandango ❖ Many others

4. Pass Styles
❖ Eachpass style
serves its own
purpose and has
unique
characteristics.
❖ Each pass has a
unique layout and
design
❖ Makes finding specific
types of passes easier

5. Coupon
❖ Coupons
❖ Vouchers
❖ Special discount
offers

6. Event Ticket
❖ Used to gain entry to
events
❖ Concerts
❖ Movie Tickets
❖ Sporting Events

7. Store Card
❖ Loyalty cards
❖ Discount cards
❖ Point cards
❖ Gift cards

8. Boarding Pass
❖ Transit tickets
❖ Air travel
❖ Trains
❖ Ferries
❖ Buses

9. Generic
❖ Anything else that
doesn’t quite fit into
one of the above
categories, perhaps a
gym membership card

10. Pass Composition

11. What Goes Into a Pass?
❖A pass is very similar to the application
bundle
❖ JSON File
❖ pass.json
❖ Contains all settings for the Pass
❖ Icons
❖ Images
❖ Localizations
❖ Signature

12. Delivering A Pass
❖ Passes can be distributed via:
❖ Email
❖ On the web through Safari
❖ Requires OS X 10.8.2+ or iOS 6+
❖ Using the MIME Type:
application/vnd.apple.pkpass
❖ In an App
❖ Via PassKit

13. Creating A Pass
❖ Decidewhat will be the primary purpose of
the pass
❖ Create the JSON
❖ Create applicable images
❖ Sign the pass

14. Deciding The
Primary Purpose
Primary Purpose
❖ Plane ticket?
❖ Boarding Pass
❖ 10% Your Lunch Order?
❖ Coupon
❖ Tickets to see “Monsters University”
❖ Event Ticket

16. Create The JSON

17. Pass.json
❖ "formatVersion" : 1
❖ 1 for now, since passes have only one format currently
❖ This may change in the future if Apple adds or removes
features to future passes
❖ "passTypeIdentifier" :
"pass.com.jcurcio.monsters"
❖ Set in iOS Provisioning portal
❖ We will look at this later

18. Pass.json (Cont.)
❖ "serialNumber" : "mon_001"
❖ Unique to the pass, can be anything so long as it is a
string
❖ "teamIdentifier" : "225CZYLDG5"
❖ Unique for each developer
❖ Assigned by Apple
❖ Same as your identifier for apps
❖ "relevantDate" : "2013-06-21T13:00-20:00"
❖ Used to put the pass on the home screen at a relevant
time
❖ W3C Date Format

19. Pass.json (Cont.)
❖
"MON_001", "format" : "PKBarcodeFormatPDF417", "messageEncoding"
❖ Tell Apple what you want the barcode to be; Apple makes you
a barcode
❖ Formats Supported
❖ PDF147
❖ Aztec
❖ QR

20. Pass.JSON (Cont.)
❖ "organizationName" : "Movie Theater 26"
❖ Name of the company/location the ticket is for
❖ "description" : "Admit One"
❖ What the ticket is for
❖ "foregroundColor" : "rgb(255, 255, 255)"
❖ Color of main text on the pass
❖ "logoText" : "Movie Theater 26"
❖ Text directly to the right of the logo at the top of the pass

21. Pass.json (Cont.)
❖ "eventTicket" :
❖ Name of array specific to the type of pass
❖ "primaryFields" :
❖ Dictionary containing key, label, value for the primary
fields on the pass.
❖ Things like the location the movie is playing or the title of
the movie would go here
❖ Key has to be unique

22. Pass.json (Cont.)
❖ "secondaryFields" :
❖ Same as primaryFields
❖ "backFields" :
❖ Appears on the back of the card
❖ Optional

23. Signing The Pass
❖ What we need to sign our pass
❖ Pass Type Identifier
❖ Registered on the developer portal
❖ Signing Certificate
❖ Created in the developer portal
❖ Stored in Keychain

24. Pass Type Identifier
❖ developer.apple.com/ios/manage/passtypeids/

29. Signing The Pass
❖ Passes can be signed via multiple methods
including:
❖ Desktop (Terminal)
❖ Web (Ruby, PHP, etc.)
❖ PassKit

30. Signing The Pass
❖ https://developer.apple.com/passbook/
❖ Example Passes and Sample Code
❖ signpass.xcodeproj

31. Using Signpass

32. Using Signpass

33. We have a Pass!

34. More Interesting Things
❖ Passes can have relevancies
❖ Relevancy allows the pass to appear on the home
screen at a specific time or when the device is in a
specific location
❖ Passes can be updated
❖ By push notifications
❖ By in-app updates (PassKit)

35. Wrapping Up
❖ Design tips
❖ Bright colors
❖ Use relevant pass styles
❖ Solid logos look best
❖ Logos are not automatically engraved
❖ Don’t overload on information
❖ Keep It Simple

36. Any Questions?
But seriously, any questions?
I hope not!

37. Additional Resources
❖ http://developer.apple.com/passbook
❖ WWDC 2o12 Session Video 301:
Introducing Passbook
Part 1
❖ WWDC 2o12 Session Video 309:
Introducing Passbook
Part 2

38. Thank You!
Your Pass to
Passbook
Presented by: Jeremy Curcio
Twitter: @Jeremy1026
Web: www.jcurcio.com
Email: jcurcio@1026development.com