We use an LMS calles Canvas by instructure. Our students access the LMS via the iOS app, however we would like to be able to call out from this app to another app (e-book reader).
We just want to be able to select a link which will redirect us to the app.
We have a coder in our staff, and we would really appreciate any advise on how to achieve the above.
You can communicate with URL Schemes between apps Apple Inter-App Communication
And here is Tutorial explaining URL Schemes implementation.
If you have access to the e-book reader app's codebase, this is simple to achieve by specifying a URL Scheme this app may respond to (or, alternatively, if you happen to know what URL Schemes this app supports). Then it will be as simple as calling out a URL of a corresponding format from within the iOS app your students use.
Alternatively, if your app provides access to the documents of some sort, you could look into UIDocumentInteractionController that can add "Open in..." functionality to your app, allowing app users to open a document in an arbitrary app that supports this file format.
Related
I'm in the process of updating my iOS app, and one feature that I'd love to add would be the ability to create links (to send via email, or for social media) that would allow users who have downloaded the app to be taken to a certain section of the app, and users who haven't to be taken to the app store page for my app. I also want it to take desktop users to the itunes page for my app.
Now, I've been looking into url schemes as I think this is the way forward, and have managed to create a custom url scheme that will indeed take users to different parts of my app. However, I'm struggling to find a way to check if the app has been installed, and what device the user is on etc.
Would I need to use a server to redirect them to the correct place?
Thanks!
I found out the best way to do it is with universal links, introduced in iOS 9.
https://blog.branch.io/how-to-setup-universal-links-to-deep-link-on-apple-ios-9/
How do you import or display an application inside another application?
It is like, it will be a part of the app where you can use it's functionalities. Maybe in full screen or not in full screen. My thoughts are these are web based and is being opened in a UIWebView to use the functionalities.
Extensions? It's more like "piggybacking".
Here's an example:
https://hub.united.com/en-us/news/web/pages/uber-on-the-united-app.aspx
I'll post an answer regrouping my answer and also #Popeye one that seems valid too.
There may be a few ways to do it, each ones of them may act differently.
The other app offers a public SDK/API/WebServices
As an example, I'll take FaceBook API, that allow you to login giving you a UIViewController (that you can customise), and allowing you to ask for some data through their WebServices (like who are the friends, etc.). You're still inside your app.
The other app offers you a private SDK/API/WebServices
Same as the other one, but it more like a parternship. You're still inside your app.
URL Schemes
The other app gives you a few way to interact with it. They check if the app is installed, and launch it with some parameters, or if not, they may redirect it to the app in the Store, their website, etc. More info about URL Schemes from Apple Doc. You have to check their documentaion to know how to interact with it.
I want to share a link from my app using other applications installed on my iPhone such as Gmail, Facebook, DropBox, WhatsApp etc. In android there is a straight way to do so, just fire an intent and it automatically shows the installed apps through which we can share whatever we want. Is there any such way in iPhone ?
Thanks!
On iOS , app is more separated from each other. The only way to pass data from one app to other is using the URL mechanism. As one example, an app register url scheme "open-me://",you invoked openURL with "open-me://my-link" then that app will launched. That app will define the detail of the URL so it could understand the content.Continue with the example we are using, the text you passed could be either "open-me://A?data=my-link" or "open-me://A?message=my-link". So there are no general solution for all apps.Typically third party app will provide a SDK to make these things easy.
If you don't mind using a kind of large third party library, ShareKit is a good choice. It supports quite some apps.
If you want to know more about this topic,for example sharing files between app. You could start from reading the class reference of UIDocumentInteractionController.This UI component will show a list of app installed on your device which support the URL scheme.
I am trying a simple web app which downloads files from internet and saves on iPad. Theses files are of .pdf,.xls,.doc, etc format. Now, I want to assign a default application to open a specific file type. (Say Adode reader for pdf file, Some image viewer app for image files etc). I dont want my app/os to decide which app the file should open in. Instead, if assigned app doesnt exists then it should give me a message that no such app found. Is it possible to do?
With a web app you cannot do such things.
If you go native, you can use Custom URL Schemes (see http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/AdvancedAppTricks/AdvancedAppTricks.html)
But with Custom URL Schemes, you only are able to pass a view parameters. If you want more, UIPasteboard is recommended.
Apps are sandboxed. You cannot access other apps, nor their data!!!
But on native apps you can pass over data with pasteboard, call a custom url handler, pass a few parameters to cause the other apps to process your data.
Often App developers, like camera+ offer a documentation for the usage of their custom url schemes (Camera+ URL Schemes API)
It is possible to launch another app (such as youtube, AppStore,Map, etc) from my iOS app & give it keyword for searching?
For example, I would like provide to user ability search cartoon video from my app & show the results in Youtube app.
Please share your though/
Thanks,
Huy
The only way to communicate with other apps is through URLs. Have a look at communicating with other apps. To answer your question, just create a URL that contains the search terms.
Since tagged app-store in your question, I'm sure you find this useful: How to link to apps on the app store.
A tip is to use itms:// instead of http://, then it'll open in the app
store directl