Sharing Image and Text to Facebook Messenger with Uiactivityviewcontroller Failing

Facebook Messenger not showing up with UIActivityViewController

According to: Can't share text to fb messenger using UIActivityViewController

In order to make Facebook Messenger appear you need to insert NSURL into UIActivityViewController activityItems

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.google.com"];
NSArray *activityItems = @[url];
UIActivityViewController *activityVC = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:activityItems applicationActivities:nil];

Issues with transparent PNG in UIActivityViewController for FB Messenger and iMessage

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

UIActivityViewController for Facebook not Showing Default Text

It would seem Facebook no longer wants developers to pre-fill posts with text. From https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/ios#ios-integration:

Use of the iOS share sheet is subject to Facebook Platform Policy, including section 2.3 which states that apps may not pre-fill. In the context of the share sheet, this means apps may not pre-fill the share sheet's initialText field with content that wasn't entered by people earlier in their use of the app.

Seems they would prefer devs to use the SDK:

While you can use the iOS native view controller API (share sheet) directly, there are several reasons to use the native iOS Share dialog provided by the Facebook SDK. Using the native Share dialog provides a quick way to test that people have signed into Facebook on their iOS 6+ devices. This API also uses the same style block as other parts of the Facebook SDK.

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