I have been struggling to find out how to share media on social networks in a customized way. I know that iOS natively supports sharing to Facebook, Twitter and in messages/email, but I would actually like to use third party social networks as well, examples being Instagram and Snapchat. I know that it is possible to use third party networks (with custom UIActivitiys) in share sheets (which I am explicitly trying to avoid), the only real question is, if it is advisable and/or feasible to create custom sharing options without share sheets? I would need both photo and video upload capabilities.
There are two scenarios I take into consideration:
1.) Go with standard share sheets
UIActivityController/ UIDocumentInteractionController :
Pros:
More dynamic application support.
Works out of the box.
Cons:
No custom design
2.) Go with custom design
Pros:
Better user experience
Cons:
Tedious (or even impossible/unavailable) implementation
I know this question is not too code specific, but I don't think code would help get across my point or even aid towards finding a solution.
Related
I wanted to know the technology decision behind the iOS Google app.
As we can see, in the app's Google Now feature it renders many different card templates for different scenarios, and those templates seems to be very flexible based on server inputs.
I was wondering if this is implemented all based on HTML5? or they just have many templates built in and render them locally? I'd vote for the HTML5 route but not sure if this still involved some native code to make it more responsive?
Thanks!
As we (well, most of the community) are not Google employees we can't tell you what they really did, but I'd say that it is possible to do this dynamically in the app.
We did develop something similar that responds to definitions sent by the server and transforms them to custom designed forms following basic rules.
Google reuses the design of those cards for different plattforms, the easiest solution should be showing some WebView and using HTML5.
I agree with Kevin, as this answer is entirely based on personal opinion, too.
The way I would go is to create a card class which will load some JSON data and format it with HTML and CSS. Looking at each card it would be hell to format things that way natively. I mean, attributed strings is not the way to go. Too much logic for deciding which card get a bigger text or a picture.
Additionally, the top header is most likely "localized" as well, so you get the location and load a localized image. But that is Google by nature.
Create mobile application, which gives the user ability to look for certain places (payment terminals) nearby and to add new ones. Of course user will have ability to edit places, change some of their meta-info fields, add photos, etc.
I can understand, how to implement such things at the mobile device side(i mean interface and model), but can't imagine, what i have to do at the "google-side" to store locations and get them to device.
I'm looking through developers.google.com for appropriate service, but google have so much different "Maps" services and their variety makes me disappointed, which one can give me necessary instruments.
I'm sorry, if my question is too stupid but i can't realize how to implement such functionality.
If anybody ever made such applications, please help me to find, at least, the service, which can help me to implement such functionality. Sample code at github will be the great!
You're looking to build a "back-end" or a database to store the locations that you are interested in. This means that you will save them on a server, that you will access through requests over the internet from your iPhone.
For a really simple back-end to set up, check out Parse that is very simple to implement.
I want to make an iOS Scocial Network, almost like Facebook. But I only do it to test my Objective C programming skills so it wont be massive like Facebook (though it will have all features that Facebook has).
What I want to ask is:
Can I only use my Objective C knowledge to build my front-end app and use Parse Services (Parse.com) to build my back-end? Or I need some tools, knowledge etc...?
Again, I do not make a very very big iOS Social Network app like Facebook but I do a smaller one that has all features Facebook has.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Yes, you can use Objective-C to create the app and use Parse.com to host your data. You can use the Parse SDK to allow the app to easily access the backend data. It will work well (depending on how well you design the Parse data storage) and you won't need to write any (or much) backend code.
parse.com/tutorials actually has a couple tutorials that would be very helpful in creating your social app. It may even be exactly what you are wanting.
Parse is the way to go. You might want to check out Helios and Stackmob as well. They do the same thing as parse. However, I like Parse much better because of it's documentation.
Happy learning.
I am looking for a replace to UIImagePickerController that allows custom extensibility for local pictures, public API's like Facebook/Flickr/Tumblr/Picasa/SmugMug, and custom proprietary picture collections (local or abroad).
Solutions I have found so far, and problems with them:
http://picture.io/photopickerplus
This is almost perfect, except I am forced to use the 3rd party service from getchute.com - what happens if this site goes dark, permanently? And all permissions dialogs list "Chute" as the application name. My app uses the Facebook SDK elsewhere, so I would like to use my existing APP id/key. When I add it via the chute app control panel, I get the Facebook API error "Invalid redirect_uri:Given URL is not allowed by the Application configuration". Which I can fix with the Facebook API, however if A. I knew what the URL was (I don't), and B. I really was OK with having a middle man with the API requests (I'm not).
It is also very ARC hostile which is a PITA to get running.
https://github.com/arturgrigor/AGImagePickerController
Very nice replacement for UIImagePickerController, that includes multi select. No built modularity to support Facebook or other API's.
https://github.com/jeena/JPImagePickerController
Simple replacement for just UIImagePickerController - doesn't seem to have navigable views. No apparent modularity.
https://github.com/facebook/three20/
Looks complicated. For obvious reasons won't play well with non-Facebook services.
https://github.com/mrdavenz/CaptureSessionManager has example code of to create your own photo picker with AVCamera. You could use this as a starting point. See the blog at http://www.musicalgeometry.com/?p=1297
I have searched on net for social networking integration in iOS projects (For example: Facebook, Twitter, etc)
I found there are also SDKs available for particulars and some OpenSource projects/frameworks are also available for the same which combines all into one like (ShareKit).
What is the difference in those two? Which one is better to use? Is there any problem to upload an app on AppStore which is using ShareKit framework/code?
Thanks in advance.
Mrunal
If you are using ARC in your project ShareKit is a big waste of time.
Twitter can be added very easily using the Twitter framework and TWTweetComposeViewController. Not sure about any others.
#mrunal check Socialize out: http://www.GetSocialize.com and see what you think. Full feautre list at http://go.GetSocialize.com/features
DROdio
If you are only looking to use Twitter and Facebook, then it is simple enough to just use their API and implement it in your code.
If you are new to development or want to use more (Delicious, Tumblr, Read It Later, Bit.ly, Mail), then I would highly recommend using ShareKit. It allows for sharing of text, URLs and even images. It takes less than an hour to setup even when using ARC and comes with a sample app to play around with. It is also easy to update when more features are added or the API of one the sites changes.