How to write to a Realm object server on Ubuntu - realm

Question

I have worked through the Realm mobile platform tutorial (link). You create a Swift task app.
I was able to get the app and server working correctly on my local mac. I was able to add tasks to the tableview.
I then created an Ubuntu 16.04 droplet on DigitalOcean. I managed to get the server running and am able to view the Realm dashboard.
The problem is that when I run the app with the new server ip address (the ubuntu instance), I see the 'Add task' pop up but no tasks get added to the tableview on the app.
The following code adds tasks to the db:
try! items.realm?.write {
items.insert(Task(value: ["text": text]), at: items.filter("completed = false").count)
}
When I run the code on my local machine it inserts values but the insert line is never hit when I use the remote server.
Here is where I set the Realm config to the new url:
let configuration = Realm.Configuration(
syncConfiguration: (user, URL(string: "realm://128.199.119.xxx:9080/~/realmtasks")!)
)
Do you have to update the Realm configuration.yml file when you deploy it to a remote server? If yes, does anyone have a configuration.yml example or what needs to be done to get the file setup?
In the tutorial video it is mentioned that the info.plist needs to be updated. Will the below edition to the info.plist be the same for an app accessing a deployed server or an app on the app store?
<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
<key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
<true/>
</dict>
Here is the result of cat /var/log/realm-object-server.log:
2016-10-29T03:09:06.501Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Connection from 127.0.0.1:58822
2016-10-29T03:09:06.631Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Received: CLIENT(protocol_version=15, client_info_size=2, client_info='{}')
2016-10-29T03:09:06.788Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Session[1]: Session initiated (session_ident=1).
2016-10-29T03:09:06.789Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Session[1]: Received: BIND(server_path=/72c5a/realmtasks, signed_user_token='...xxm/7UjDkuEqQ==', need_file_ident_pair=0)
2016-10-29T03:09:06.789Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Session[1]: Received: IDENT(server_file_ident=21314, client_file_ident=1, client_file_ident_secret=1477, scan_server_version=2, scan_client_version=2, latest_server_version=2, latest_server_session_ident=1643)
2016-10-29T03:09:17.069Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Session[1]: Session terminated (session_ident=1).
2016-10-29T03:09:17.070Z - info: sync-server: Connection[5]: Connection closed by client: End of input
2016-10-29T03:09:26.769Z - info: sync-server: Connection[6]: Connection from 127.0.0.1:58866
2016-10-29T03:09:26.895Z - info: sync-server: Connection[6]: Received: CLIENT(protocol_version=15, client_info_size=2, client_info='{}')
2016-10-29T03:09:27.053Z - info: sync-server: Connection[6]: Session[1]: Session initiated (session_ident=1).
2016-10-29T03:09:27.053Z - info: sync-server: Connection[6]: Session[1]: Received: BIND(server_path=/a4fdec5a/realmtasks, signed_user_token='...K0k7mw==', need_file_ident_pair=0)
2016-10-29T03:09:27.053Z - info: sync-server: Connection[6]: Session[1]: Received: IDENT(server_file_ident=21094, client_file_ident=1, client_file_ident_secret=14907, scan_server_version=2, scan_client_version=2, latest_server_version=2, latest_server_session_ident=164553)
The object server is running and I can see the task and taskList tables but I cannot write records to the table.
When I check auth.log I get the following
Nov 1 10:53:22 digitalocean sshd[13684]: PAM 2 more authentication failures; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=221.229.172.111 user=root
Nov 1 10:53:49 digitalocean sshd[13701]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=221.229.172.111 user=root
Nov 1 10:53:50 digitalocean sshd[13701]: Failed password for root from 221.229.172.111 port 43992 ssh2
Nov 1 10:53:55 digitalocean sshd[13701]: message repeated 2 times: [ Failed password for root from 221.229.172.111 port 43992 ssh2]
Nov 1 10:53:55 digitalocean sshd[13701]: Received disconnect from 221.229.172.111 port 43992:11: [preauth]
Nov 1 10:53:55 digitalocean sshd[13701]: Disconnected from 221.229.172.111 port 43992 [preauth]
Nov 1 10:53:55 digitalocean sshd[13701]: PAM 2 more authentication failures; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=221.229.172.111 user=root

Answer 1

I think I found the probem.
In the tutorial's updateList() function:
func updateList() {
if self.items.realm == nil, let list = self.realm.objects(TaskList.self).first {
self.items = list.items
}
self.tableView.reloadData()
}
self.items will never get set because self.realm.objects(TaskList.self).first will return nil until there is a task added to the list. You need to add a task (in my case using the Mac version of the app) before the iOS version of the code will work.