Invite facebook users from iOS application in facebook: invitation is not being sent

Question

I am trying to invite users in Facebook to try my iOS app (which is not in the store yet, didn't finish it yet).

I use facebook API to authenticate a user and then try to use the following code:

- (void)shareWithFriends:(id)sender
{
    UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc]
                          initWithTitle:@"Invite Friends"
                          message:@"If you enjoy using this app, would you mind taking a moment to invite a few friends that you think will also like it?"
                          delegate:self
                          cancelButtonTitle:@"No Thanks"
                          otherButtonTitles:@"Tell Friends!", nil];
    [alert show];
}

- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView
didDismissWithButtonIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex {
    if (buttonIndex == 0) {
        // User has clicked on the No Thanks button, do not ask again
        NSLog(@"Chitty user says he doesn't wanna share");
    } else if (buttonIndex == 1) {
        // User has clicked on the Tell Friends button
        [self performSelector:@selector(sendRequest) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.5];
    }
}

- (void)sendRequest {
    // Display the requests dialog

    NSMutableDictionary* params = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:nil];
    [FBWebDialogs presentRequestsDialogModallyWithSession:nil
                                                  message:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Try this app, brah!"]
                                                    title:nil
                                               parameters:params
                                                  handler:^(FBWebDialogResult result, NSURL *resultURL, NSError *error) {
                                                      if (error) {
                                                          // Case A: Error launching the dialog or sending request.
                                                          NSLog(@"Error sending request.");
                                                      } else {
                                                          if (result == FBWebDialogResultDialogNotCompleted) {
                                                              // Case B: User clicked the "x" icon
                                                              NSLog(@"User canceled request.");
                                                          } else {
                                                              NSLog(@"Request Sent.");
                                                          }
                                                      }}];


}

However, when I select users to who I want to send the invites to and then hit Send. Nothing happens. I do get "Request Sent." through NSLog but my friend is not receiving it.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

How do you know you the request has not reached to other users? You must know they will not get any notification , they can access to it by going to this link :

You must have a Facebook app in your app as a platform with a canvas page. Then the users will get notification.

Answer 2

It always depends on the platforms your app is on. For example: if you have an app that is only available on mobile, the invited friends will only see the request on their phones and not on facebook.com. If you also have a canvas app on facebook.com, it will also appear on facebook.com.

You can read more about it in the documentation about the "Receive Experience" [1] of Requests sent by apps.

[1] https://developers.facebook.com/docs/games/requests/v2.0#receive

Answer 3

I noticed that the notification message is only coming in Facebook App both Android/iOS, however web user can't see it, I hope it is not an implementation from Facebook? Also to make sure that your inviation(s) are successfully sent you have to parse the resultURL query.

NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"to":@""};

[FBWebDialogs presentRequestsDialogModallyWithSession:nil
                                                      message:SL_FB_INVITE_DESCRIPTION
                                                        title:SL_FB_INVITE_TITLE
                                                   parameters:parameters
                                                      handler:^(FBWebDialogResult result, NSURL *resultURL, NSError *error)
         {
             if(error)
             {
                 NSLog(@"Some errorr: %@", [error description]);
                 UIAlertView *alrt = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Invitiation Sending Failed" message:@"Unable to send inviation at this Moment, please make sure your are connected with internet" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
                 [alrt show];
                 [alrt release];
             }
             else
             {
                 if (![resultURL query])
                 {
                     return;
                 }

                 NSDictionary *params = [self parseURLParams:[resultURL query]];
                 NSMutableArray *recipientIDs = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init] autorelease];
                 for (NSString *paramKey in params)
                 {
                     if ([paramKey hasPrefix:@"to["])
                     {
                         [recipientIDs addObject:[params objectForKey:paramKey]];
                     }
                 }
                 if ([params objectForKey:@"request"])
                 {
                     NSLog(@"Request ID: %@", [params objectForKey:@"request"]);
                 }
                 if ([recipientIDs count] > 0)
                 {
                     //[self showMessage:@"Sent request successfully."];
                     //NSLog(@"Recipient ID(s): %@", recipientIDs);
                     UIAlertView *alrt = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Success!" message:@"Invitation(s) sent successfuly!" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
                     [alrt show];
                     [alrt release];
                 }

             }
         }
                                                  friendCache:nil];

- (NSDictionary *)parseURLParams:(NSString *)query
{
    NSArray *pairs = [query componentsSeparatedByString:@"&"];
    NSMutableDictionary *params = [[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init] autorelease];
    for (NSString *pair in pairs)
    {
        NSArray *kv = [pair componentsSeparatedByString:@"="];

        [params setObject:[[kv objectAtIndex:1] stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]
                   forKey:[[kv objectAtIndex:0] stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    }

    return params;
}

Answer 4

When are you populating params?

I know the FB API kindly sends a completed action if you send a blank facebook username as the recipient