UIActivityViewController - Only attach a URL for certain activities

Question

I've been trying to use the new UIActivityViewController to replace all of my UIActionSheets for sharing, however I've run into an issue.

I have 5 activities, Message, Email, Copy, Twitter, and Facebook. I've already figured out how to have those show different text, through this in a custom UIActivityProvider subclass:

- (id) activityViewController:(UIActivityViewController *)activityViewController
      itemForActivityType:(NSString *)activityType
{
    if ( [activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypePostToTwitter] )
        return twitter;
    if ( [activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypePostToFacebook] )
        return facebook;
    if ( [activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeMessage] )
        return urlScheme;
    if ( [activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeMail] )
        return urlScheme;
    if ( [activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeCopyToPasteboard])
        return urlScheme;
    return nil;
}

And this in my view controller:

    ActivityProvider *aProvider = [[ActivityProvider alloc] init];
    aProvider.facebook = facebook;
    aProvider.twitter = twitter;
    aProvider.urlScheme = URL;

    NSArray *Items = @[aProvider, sharedURL];

    UIActivityViewController *activityVC = [[UIActivityViewController alloc]initWithActivityItems:Items applicationActivities:Nil];
    activityVC.excludedActivityTypes = @[UIActivityTypePrint, UIActivityTypeAssignToContact,UIActivityTypeSaveToCameraRoll, UIActivityTypePostToWeibo];


    [self presentViewController:activityVC animated:TRUE completion:nil];

However, I only want to show the URL (sharedURL) in the Facebook and Twitter share sheets, not the message, email or copy. Any way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

You can choose what to send to each type of activity. I created a custom activity provider and call it like this:

     NSMutableArray *activityItems = [NSMutableArray array];

     CustomActivityItemProvider *activityItemProvider =
     [[CustomActivityItemProvider alloc] initWithText:text
                                                     urlText:urlString];

     [activityItems addObject:activityItemProvider];


     //you can have your own custom activities too:
     NSArray *applicationActivities = @[[CustomActivity new],
                                              [OtherCustomActivity new]];
     UIActivityViewController *vc = [[UIActivityViewController alloc]initWithActivityItems:activityItems
                                                                     applicationActivities:applicationActivities];

The custom provider is a subclass of UIActivityItemProvider

@interface CustomActivityItemProvider : UIActivityItemProvider

- (id)initWithText:(NSString *)text urlText:(NSString *)url;

@end

The guts of my custom provider class look something like this:

- (id)initWithText:(NSString *)text urlText:(NSString *)url{

    if ((self = [super initWithPlaceholderItem:text])) {       
        self.text = text ?: @"";
        self.url = url ?: @"";
    }   
    return self;
}

- (id)item {   
    NSString *activityType = self.activityType;
    if ([self.placeholderItem isKindOfClass:[NSString class]]) {            
        if ([self.activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypePostToFacebook] ||
            [self.activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeMail]) {

            return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@\n%@", self.text, self.url];

        } else if ([activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypePostToTwitter]) {

            return [self findBestStringOfLength:kTwitterMessageLength hashTags:YES];

        } else if ([activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeMessage]) {

            return [self findBestStringOfLength:kSMSMessageLength hashTags:YES];

        } else {
            return self.text;
        }
    }

    return self.placeholderItem;
}

Answer 2

You should be able to do this implementing your own UIActivityItemProvider, and returning nil for any activity type where you don't want to use that data.