Bootstrapping under Spotify iOS SDK -- basic questions - ios

Firstly, nice job to the Spotify iOS SDK team -- it's come a long way and it's not easy to make an async world for the sync-minded masses! :)
We have a basic query usage question that's probably answered elsewhere, but it'd be helpful to have a dev be clear on the issue (plus, there may be some new query paradigms in the new iOS SDK that could be used). Basically, our app embeds the Spotify iOS SDK, offering the ability for the user to choose high-level audio sources: "Stations" and the entries under "Your Music" ("Playlists", "Songs", "Albums", and "Artists").
So, it'd be infinitely helpful if a dev could outline which queries would be made from the iOS SDK level (and which subsequent queries would be made for the items above). If it turns out that doing initial/root-level queries is best done via the web API, could a dev please outline the official/approved method for forming a URL query?
Also, is there's a whitepaper or formal Spotify doc that formalizes Spotify URIs?
Thanks!
Drew
SoundSpectrum

In the iOS SDK, everything you need is in the SPTRequest object.
playlistsForUserInSession:callback: gives you playlists.
savedTracksForUserInSession:callback: gives you the user's saved songs.
To get the user's "Albums" and "Artists" lists, you derive this yourself from the list of saved songs - there's no API to fetch them separately.
Radio stations aren't available in our SDKs.

Related

Firebase & iOS 14 > Will dynamic links tracking and campaigns continue to work?

As most of you are probably aware of, iOS 14 will basically put an end to app acquisition tracking as we know it.
Here are two great articles that explore the issue in length:
The App Attribution Industry Is Dead
How To Prepare Your Mobile App and Attribution Stack for Apple’s iOS 14 Privacy and IDFA Changes
Putting aside the critical changes most people will have to make to their business models, my question has to do with Firebase's dynamic links in particular.
Since they basically rely on copying a link in the pasteboard, I already know they might now trigger a warning banner — although the Firebase team has apparently been proactive with this matter.
What I don't know at this point is whether they will continue to work or not when users disallow ad tracking.
My team and I have tried building one of our React Native apps with XCode 12 beta on a simulator running iOS 14, but haven't been able to retrieve any value from the dynamic links — whereas it currently works with iOS 13. There might be other factors at play though, so it's difficult to draw our own conclusions at this point.
My questions, provided that the users have opted out of tracking:
Will we still be able to read the dynamic link url in-app?
Will Google Analytics still receive the UTM parameters and get campaigns' results?
If the answer is no to any of these questions, what are the workarounds or third-party solutions you've found?
Your insights will be greatly appreciated!
According to Google's blog post: https://firebase.google.com/docs/ios/supporting-ios-14
If IDFA is not accessible:
No impact for link-opening functionality
When used with Google Analytics, attribution for link conversion events is unavailable.

What are the default Apple URL schemes for the default apple apps?

I am trying to track down these URLs because I would like to integrate them with the Shortcuts (previously workflow) app. My end game is to make queries that will perform certain functions that I can call from a google home device. In simpler terms, I want to make google home more "Apple friendly."
I have not found anything that is too current out there on the URL schemes. I saw that sending a SMS message was triggered with sms://<PhoneNumber> , but I am not sure how up to date that information is.
I plan on adding features to search Apple Music (by triggering a workflow). I am also planning on adding text message features.
I am also looking into making an app for google home, but I still am in the learning stage with that. Any advice on making google home more Apple friendly would be greatly appreciated.
This is a constantly changing list given the number of features being added or third-party apps. Here's a list that does a good job of staying up-to-date: https://ios.gadgethacks.com/news/always-updated-list-ios-app-url-scheme-names-0184033/

How to work with Firebase App Indexing for IOS Apps

i am in the process of making my app with firebase i am pretty much done with that except Firebase App Indexing. I am very exited with this feature because it could help me to increase my app get more traffic from the web but the problem is i really can't able to see how to implement this. According to Firebase Docs i just need to register my app with this pice of code
[[FIRAppIndexing sharedInstance] registerApp:your Apple ID from iTunes Connect];
I have done that but what should i do after that?
1.My app is firebase app that means i don't have any website to host my content except firebase realtime database. Does my content is available for crawlers? if not how can i make available to them?
2.If i can able to show my content in the google search results i don't wanna show all the content and i wanna show just some of my content for example i have a social app for sharing General Knowledge questions, i wanna show just the question like "What is the highest mountain" in the search results and if the user want to see the answer it should take them to my app how can i do that?
3.As per docs i came to know that i need to create univiersal links for my app content to direct users from google search but how shold i do that ? Lets say should i crate universal links when the user create question?? if so how can i do that ??
Thank you very much for the help.
This is not currently possible on iOS using Firebase App Indexing. The situation is slightly different on Android, but that is not applicable to your question.
On iOS, Firebase App Indexing is simply highlighting pages on your website in Google search results that have corresponding content inside your app. This is achieved by piggybacking on Apple's Universal Links standard, and there is no proactive 'crawling' going on inside your app. This means unless you have a corresponding web page for your app with 1:1 content parity, you can't really benefit from Firebase App Indexing on iOS as it comes out-of-the-box.
The best workaround is to generate little 'placeholder pages' for every piece of content in your app, which the sole purpose of opening your app (if it is installed) or redirecting to the App Store (if it is not installed). Ideally you'll need some sort of deferred deep linking system so that users still see the correct content after downloading. Fun fact: this is essentially how HotelTonight operates their entire business model. Unfortunately Firebase's implementation is not mature enough to support this full flow, and Google hasn't quite figured out how to rank app-only content properly yet in search results so you will probably need to pro-actively submit your placeholder pages to them.
Shameless plug: at Branch, we provide all of the above as a free service. You can read more about it here and take a look at the set up docs here.

How to fetch Facebook user's full friend list in Facebook iOS SDK

I had a question concerning the Facebook iOS SDK that has been troubling me ever since i started my iOS project so I thought I could post it here to see if any of you had wisdom to share on this matter.
For my Facebook connected app to function properly I need to have access to the Facebook user's complete friend list along with their names, ids and profile pictures. After some intensive research I was surprised to learn that in version 2.0 of the Graph API Facebook has made it so that you can only retrieve a friend list of your friends who are currently using the app and have approved the app. This kind of data doesn't really work for my app as the main point is that you are met by your friend list as opposed to an empty list with only a few people who have approved the app.
My question is if there is any possible way for me to have access to the user's full friend list and display it in a table view with their profile picture without every single one of them having to approve the app. I don't mind if it is a complicated solution. The reason I ask this is because i have seen several apps that can fetch full friends lists such as:
http://www.connect.com
and
http://www.birthdayboardapp.com
and they must have found a way to do it as the way Connect displays the user's friend list is exactly the way I would like to do it i.e. in an iOS contacts app style way.
I would be grateful for any guidance or solutions,
Thanks Again!
P.S. Here are some questions I have previously looked at but do not suggest possible workarounds
Facebook Graph Api v2.0+ - /me/friends returns empty, or only friends who also use my app
Get ALL User Friends Using Facebook Graph API - Android
There are no workarounds, if it works in some other App then it just means that they are still using a Facebook App created before end of April 2014. They will stop getting the full friendlist after April 2015, when v1.0 Apps will get upgraded.
There are ways to get the whole friendlist like invitable_friends and taggable_friends, but those endpoints are supposed to get used for very specific tasks (for inviting in games and for tagging).

iOS Facebook API/SDK Wrapper?

I've been looking for a good iOS Facebook API/SDK Wrapper, can't find any.
I need to be able to (with a few lines of code, not the insanely needed by Facebook's API):
Login user
Logout user
Get user's likes
Invite Friend to app
Maybe post to user's wall (this has been causing problems to other apps so not sure will actually implement)
Get user's friends
Get user's basic info (e-mail, name, etc.)
Is there any wrapper simplifying the absurd vanilla API?
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/apis/
This should help and it is Facebook's official api.
Here's the documentation: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/ios/
You might be able to use portions of ShareKit for this (be sure to abide by their license): https://github.com/ShareKit/ShareKit/tree/master/Classes/ShareKit/Sharers/Services/Facebook
This doesn't do everything you asked, but it's a (clean) starting point at least: https://github.com/mobitar/Zuckerkit
This does a bit more, but hasn't been updated in a year: https://github.com/sinnerschrader-mobile/S2M-Facebook-iOS
I found this lib: https://github.com/lucascorrea/SCFacebook
It seems to use a not that outdated version of the iOS SDK (3.18 vs. current 3.21), is available on cocoapods and seems to cover many of your required API features.
I haven't used the lib my self, but i am considering it next time i have to develop an iOS App which needs to connect to facebook.

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