I would like to write an app that would let a user locate an app or folder.
For example a user would like to find: Widget
The app would return:
The Widget app is located on screen 4 < in the Thingamagigs folder >
or
The Widget folder is located on screen 4
What commands would I need?
This is not possible in iOS 5, there is no public API that would give you access to this information.
I don't think that functionality is available in the iOS SDK, App's are pretty much sandboxed and unable to do very much at all with information about other apps.
(Also, why not just use the search feature of iOS?)
Related
My goal is to allow my app user write and read files created by my app. For example, write and then allow the user to email a .CSV file of data, or a .GPX file of location data. And on the other end, import a file back into my application.
I have successfully deployed an Android version of my app (Plant List GPS) which uses Flutter plugin path_provider 1.6.10. On Android, I successfully use external directories, but this external directories solution is not available/allowed for iOS. I find on iOS I can create subfolders and write to the getApplicationDocumentsDirectory, but when I try to find/read that file from a file picker solution, it cannot be seen. I understand this is proper behavior to protect sensitive app files in this folder location.
I also understand that iOS has the concept of an app Sandbox and appreciate its objectives. I'm not trying to defeat it, but find a way to access/use it in my Flutter app. I have played around in writing test data files to various places on the iOS file system using the iPhone 11 simulator on my MacBook, but can not get any file to appear in the phone "Find on my phone" dialog.
Any help in solution approach or technique is appreciated.
I think you need to add both the keys into info.plist, and then files from your app directory will be visible on Files app!
LSSupportsOpeningDocumentsInPlace
UIFileSharingEnabled
I wrote a React Native application that downloads a file and saves it to the document directory.
The application gives me a path like this:
/Users/laurent/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/SOMEID/data/Containers/Data/Application/SOMEID/Documents
and using macOS Finder I can see that the file has indeed been created.
My problem is how to view this file from the iOS emulator? If I click on the Files app for instance, I can't see that file. Basically is this file available to the user from somewhere and, if so, where? Or maybe I need to save it to a different directory?
Your iOS app is sandboxed by default, meaning that no other app can access its resources. The simulator is very different since it runs on your mac and stores your files there so you can easily access them.
That said, it is very simple to expose your Documents folder by adding the appropriate keys to your app's info.plist:
Add the UISupportsDocumentBrowser key to grants access to all the documents in the app’s Documents directory and have them appear in the Files app (iOS 11 and above). When this is enabled, other apps can also have access to your documents when using UIDocumentBrowserViewController.
Add the UIFileSharingEnabled key to expose the app’s Documents directory to the desktop iTunes app. When combined with the LSSupportsOpeningDocumentsInPlace key, it will also enable Files app support and document browser as mentioned above.
By default any files your application downloads are only available from within that app, they will not show up in the file system of the device.
As far as I know there is no react-native library which allows you to access the iOS file system, so you will need to make use of native iOS code to solve your problem. Besides pointing you to the official documentation, there is not much more I can do to help.
I am currently working on an app with the file sharing feature.
We have a view to ask the user to plug his device to iTunes to add files if there is no files in the app.
I would like to remove this view when the iOS app is launched on the device and when the user add at least one file with iTunes to the app.
Is there a way to do that with the default FileManager ? Like a delegate or something to detect events from the document directory of the app ?
I have looked on the web and found some pods but only for macOS.
I have also tried something with a Timer which will get the files from the document directory of the app each 0.25 seconds, but I don't think this is the best way to do what I want.
Thanks for your help.
EDIT:
Thanks to the MartinR's comment below, the following link helps me to do what I wanted
Notification if user modifies contents of documents directory via iTunes File sharing
How can I find out programmatically all the files present in iOS device and list them out to user? Also I need to download the file in my local application database?
How this can be achieved with Objective-C.
You cannot access all files in an iOS device outside the sandbox of the app. But there are other ways you can achieve this. What you can do is:
Access all the files in Gallery using UIImagePickerController.
Access all the user files in network- Dropbox/Google drive/iCloud. They all have separate public APIs that can be downloaded and used to download/upload files in network.
In this way, you can access most of the user files and use the same in your application.
Simple answer : you can't (on a non-jailbroken device).
Each app is launched is in own sandbox and can't interact with the others apps, expect using API provided by Apple for app-communication (ex: extension)
You should look at that Apple guide about App Sandboxing, which is valid for OSX and iOS apps.
The main difference between these two OS, as quoted directly from the doc :
iOS Note: Because it is not for user documents, an OS X container
differs from an iOS container—which, in iOS, is the one and only
location for user documents. In addition, an iOS container contains
the app itself. This is not so in OS X.
You cannot access all the files outside the app sandbox. But, if they are available at some shared location(network), you can use third party libraries to access them. For eg.
1. For iCloud- iOS provides inbuilt framework of UIDocument
2. For dropbox- DropBoxAPI is available
3. For Google drive- there is a separate library to access files in the drive.
Hope this helps :)
I have an app that downloads files that need to be edited and submitted back to the server through the app. These files could be anything, but are most likely to be .docs. I want to be able to open and edit these files in another app on the device, such as a .doc editor.
I've been able to get this functionality to work in similar Android and Chrome apps, but I'm very new to iOS so I'm not sure what my options are.
Is there a way to give permission for another app to edit a file that is in my app's sandbox? If not, is there a way to get the file back for submittal (like finding it through a file explorer launched through my app - similar to an 'Open..." file explorer dialog used in Windows/Mac OS/Chrome)? Am I going to have to create a way for the editor app to share the edited file back to my app?
Thanks in advance for your help!
To manage the file and the paths take a look at the documentation for NSFileManager:
https://developer.apple.com/LIBRARY/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSFileManager_Class/Reference/Reference.html
I usually write using NSFileHandle for reading and writing:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSFileHandle_Class/Reference/Reference.html
Hope this helps.
iOS8 will provide methods to allow apps to co-operate with "extensions".
See "Creating Extensions for iOS and OS X, Part 1 & 2` in the WWDC14 videos.
Also see the Apple "App Extension Programming Guide".
I ended up sending the file to a 3rd party app for editing and then sending the file back from the 3rd app to my app.