Writing an iOS 8 share extension without a storyboard

Question

Does anyone know of a good way to write an iOS 8 share extension without the MainInterface.storyboard that comes with the template?

When I delete the file or remove the NSExtensionMainStoryboard from Info.plist, the extension stops working (nothing happens when you tap on the button in the share pane). We tried replacing NSExtensionMainStoryboard with NSExtensionPrincipalClass which also didn't work.

Any ideas?

score 65 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 11 '17 at 10:33

65

Figured it out!

Turns out there's a weird module naming thing going on in Swift, so you can fix it by adding an @objc name to the class:

@objc(PrincipalClassName)

class PrincipalClassName: UIViewController {
...

and then set the NSExtensionPrincipalClass key to PrincipalClassName.

edited Jan 11 '17 at 10:33

pNre

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answered Jun 25 '14 at 18:55

Steve Gattuso

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Hey! Thanks, can you specify the source of where you found this? – Akshansh Thakur Jul 07 '16 at 17:19
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When using Swift, you need to specify 'NotificationContent.NotificationContentViewController` in your Info.plist's `NSExtensionPrincipalClass` key's value field. In here, `NotificationContent` is module name, and `NotificationContentViewController` is the only view controller class. – DawnSong Nov 08 '18 at 07:30

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 22 '19 at 03:07

23

Instead of the @objc hack, the proper way to do it in Swift is to include the module name in NSExtensionPrincipalClass, i.e.,

<key>NSExtensionPrincipalClass</key>
<string>$(PRODUCT_MODULE_NAME).ActionViewController</string>

(Documenting the error otherwise:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[__NSDictionaryM setObject:forKey:]: object cannot be nil (key: ...)'

Hopefully will help someone who run into this error in the future.)

answered Aug 22 '19 at 03:07

4ae1e1

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I agree this is a better solution than the @objc directive, and also more clear. Worked for me – Doug Boutwell Jan 08 '20 at 20:30
Glory to you! Been looking for the reason why my code was crashing and would not have figured that one out on my own – Muvimotv Jun 17 '20 at 23:30

score 14 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

14

Found the answers from these answers combined Answer 1 and Answer 2.

For Objective-C you will have to put the following in the info.plist of the App extension: NSExtensionPrincipalClass and make sure that it is under NSExtension Dict

So full answer should be like this , in my case ActionViewController is the App extension viewController

edited May 23 '17 at 10:29

Community

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answered Dec 18 '15 at 11:52

Mohamed Saleh

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 16 '15 at 20:32

5

Can't add a comment but it is no longer NSPrincipalClass rather it is NSExtensionPrincipalClass

answered Feb 16 '15 at 20:32

Tosin Afolabi

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Writing an iOS 8 share extension without a storyboard

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