I have been using the following code to call the UIActivityViewController for sharing stickers via the various social media apps:
if let image = sticker.getUIImage(), let imgData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image) {
let activityVC = UIActivityViewController(activityItems: [imgData], applicationActivities: nil)
activityVC.popoverPresentationController?.sourceView = gesture.view
self.present(activityVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
} else {
ErrorHandler.handleError(STICKER_IMAGE_NOT_FOUND, sticker)
}
This code has been working fine until the most recent update to FB messenger (version 98.0). Now it shows an error "Couldn't load content". FB messenger appears to prefer a URL like this:
if let item = sticker.getImageURL() {
let activityVC = UIActivityViewController(activityItems: [item], applicationActivities: nil)
activityVC.popoverPresentationController?.sourceView = gesture.view
self.present(activityVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
} else {
ErrorHandler.handleError(STICKER_IMAGE_NOT_FOUND, sticker)
}
This works fine with FB Messenger but iMessage displays the transparent PNG with a black background. I was looking at UIActivityViewControllerCompletionWithItemsHandler but the discussion states it runs after the activity, too late for what I need to do. I also tried creating a custom UIActivity returning UIActivityType.message for activityType but it was added on to the bottom of the controller rather than taking over the default.
Is there a way to intercept the selection of the item in UIActivityViewController so I can use the MFMessageComposeViewController and add the UIImagePNGRepresentation to the message and allow all the others to use the URL?
Is there a particular argument type that I can pass to UIActivityViewController that will correctly display transparent PNG with all the social apps?
TIA Mike
Circling back to close this up. I eventually switched from using the UIActivityViewController universally to a system that customizes what is done for each type of service. I use BDGShare by Bob de Graaf. I build a list of the services that the app supports, show a button for each and then a switch to jump to each type of share. Just in case someone's working on this, here's what I came up with:
The types of sharing the app wants to support:
public enum ShareServiceType:Int {
case iMessage=0, facebook, twitter, instagram, whatsApp, facebookMessenger, email, more
}
A class to store information about the type of sharing service
public class ShareTargetVO: NSObject
{
var icon:String!
var label:String!
var type:ShareServiceType
init( serviceType:ShareServiceType, icon:String, label:String )
{
self.type = serviceType
self.icon = icon
self.label = label
}
}
A function in my social networking helper to populate the list of available services:
static func getShareTargetList(for sticker : ReeSticker) -> [ShareTargetVO] {
var services:Array<ShareTargetVO> = []
// Check to see which capabilities are present and add buttons
if (BDGShare.shared().isAvailable(forServiceType: SLServiceTypeFacebook)) {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.facebook, icon: "Icon-Share-Facebook", label: "Facebook"))
}
// Checking for facebook service type because there's no availability check with FBSDK for messenger (could be rolled into the lib)
if (BDGShare.shared().isAvailable(forServiceType: SLServiceTypeFacebook) && !sticker.type.doesContain("video")) {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.facebookMessenger, icon: "Icon-Share-Messenger", label: "Messenger"))
}
if (BDGShare.shared().isAvailable(forServiceType: SLServiceTypeTwitter)) {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.twitter, icon: "Icon-Share-Twitter", label: "Twitter"))
}
if (BDGShare.shared().canSendSMS()) {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.iMessage, icon: "Icon-Share-Messages", label: "Messages"))
}
if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(URL(string: "whatsapp://")! as URL) && !sticker.type.contains("video") {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.whatsApp, icon: "Icon-Share-Whatsapp", label: "What's App?"))
}
if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(URL(string: "instagram://app")! as URL) && !sticker.type.contains("video") {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.instagram, icon: "Icon-Share-Instagram", label: "Instagram"))
}
if (BDGShare.shared().canSendEmail()) {
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.email, icon: "Icon-Share-Mail", label: "Email"))
}
services.append(ShareTargetVO(serviceType: ShareServiceType.more, icon: "Icon-Share-More", label: "More"))
return services
}
A function in my view controller to populate a UICollectionView of buttons for sharing limited to those services that are returned from the list function:
func layoutShareButtons() {
let f = self.view.frame
let btnWidth = f.width * 0.82
let bannerWidth = btnWidth + 10
mask = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: f.width, height: f.height))
mask.backgroundColor = .black
mask.alpha = 0.3
self.view.addSubview(mask)
buttonList = SocialHelper.getShareTargetList(for: self.sticker)
let buttonGridLayout = UICollectionViewFlowLayout()
buttonGridLayout.sectionInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 5, left: 5, bottom: 5, right: 5)
buttonGridLayout.itemSize = CGSize(width: 60, height: 60)
buttonGridLayout.scrollDirection = .horizontal
buttonListView = UICollectionView(frame: CGRect(x: (f.width - bannerWidth) / 2,
y: self.preview.frame.origin.y + self.preview.frame.height + 10,
width: bannerWidth,
height: 80),
collectionViewLayout: buttonGridLayout)
buttonListView.register(ShareButtonCell.self, forCellWithReuseIdentifier: "shareButtonCell")
buttonListView.dataSource = self
buttonListView.delegate = self
self.view.addSubview(buttonListView)
// cancel button for sharing view
// Button (added last to ensure it's on top of the z-order)
cancelButton = SimpleButton(frame: CGRect(x: (f.width - bannerWidth) / 2, y: self.buttonListView.frame.origin.y + self.buttonListView.frame.height + 10, width: bannerWidth, height: 52))
cancelButton.backgroundColor = UIColor(netHex:0x202020)
cancelButton.layoutComponent(0, label: "Cancel")
cancelButton.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.cancelButtonPressed(_:))))
self.view.addSubview(self.cancelButton)
}
UICollectionView didSelect handler (for better SoC depending on your app remove the "share" function to a separate class just for the share implementation, in this app the screen we're working with is specifically for share):
func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, didSelectItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
self.share(shareTarget: buttonList[indexPath.row])
}
Finally, a function call the correct share type:
func share(shareTarget: ShareTargetVO) {
// Params to submit to service
self.shareUrl = self.sticker.getStickerURL()
let textStr = "" // BDGShare supports a message passed in as well but we just send the sticker
// we need the NSData either way (sticker / video)
var ok = true
// try? is fine here because result is tested below
let urlData : Data? = try? Data(contentsOf: self.shareUrl as URL)
ok = (urlData != nil)
var img: UIImage? = nil
// if it's an image type then get it
if ok {
if (self.shareUrl.pathExtension.contains("png")) || (self.shareUrl.pathExtension.contains("jpg")) {
img = UIImage(data: urlData! as Data)
ok = (img != nil)
}
}
if !ok {
let alertCtrl = UIAlertController(title: "Error sending", message: "There was an error gathering the information for sending this sticker.", preferredStyle: .alert)
alertCtrl.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "OK", style: UIAlertActionStyle.default, handler: nil))
self.present(alertCtrl, animated: true, completion: nil)
return
}
switch shareTarget.type
{
case .iMessage:
BDGShare.shared().shareSMS(textStr, recipient: nil, image: img, data:urlData! as Data, imageName: "sendSticker.png", completion: {(SharingResult) -> Void in
// Handle share result...
self.handleShareResult(shareTarget.type, shareResult: SharingResult)
})
break
case .facebook:
BDGShare.shared().shareFacebook("", urlStr: "", image: img, completion: {(SharingResult) -> Void in
// Handle share result...
self.handleShareResult(shareTarget.type, shareResult: SharingResult)
})
break
case .twitter:
... more code for handling each type of share
}
}
So there are all the pieces I used to implement using BDGShare to get around the UIActivityViewController. BTW - the "More" option at the end of the list calls that UIActivityViewController so it's still available to the user if they so choose.
HTH, Mike