Share extension on iOS won't open my react-native app

Question

I have a React Native project and I am trying to build Share extension using Xcode and swift. I have tried using https://github.com/meedan/react-native-share-menu but it won't work for me. I have tried other lib as well but they are not maintained properly so I decided to build one of my own.

I only want to handle urls and text in my app.

I first create a Share extension and named it as Share

Following is my info.plist file for Share extension

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
    <string>$(DEVELOPMENT_LANGUAGE)</string>
    <key>CFBundleDisplayName</key>
    <string>Share</string>
    <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
    <string>$(EXECUTABLE_NAME)</string>
    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>$(PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER)</string>
    <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
    <string>6.0</string>
    <key>CFBundleName</key>
    <string>$(PRODUCT_NAME)</string>
    <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
    <string>$(PRODUCT_BUNDLE_PACKAGE_TYPE)</string>
    <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
    <string>1.0</string>
    <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
    <string>1</string>
    <key>NSExtension</key>
    <dict>
        <key>NSExtensionAttributes</key>
        <dict>
            <key>NSExtensionActivationRule</key>
            <dict>
                <key>NSExtensionActivationSupportsText</key>
                <true/>
        <key>NSExtensionActivationSupportsWebURLWithMaxCount</key>
        <integer>1</integer>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    <key>NSExtensionPrincipalClass</key>
    <string>Share.ShareViewController</string>
    <key>NSExtensionPointIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.apple.share-services</string>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Following is my code for ShareViewController

import UIKit
import Social
import CoreServices

class ShareViewController: UIViewController {

    private let typeText = String(kUTTypeText)
    private let typeURL = String(kUTTypeURL)
    private let appURL = "leaaoShare://"
    private let groupName = "group.leaaoShare"
    private let urlDefaultName = "incomingURL"

    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(animated)
        // 1
        guard let extensionItem = extensionContext?.inputItems.first as? NSExtensionItem,
            let itemProvider = extensionItem.attachments?.first else {
                self.extensionContext?.completeRequest(returningItems: nil, completionHandler: nil)
                return
        }

        if itemProvider.hasItemConformingToTypeIdentifier(typeText) {
            handleIncomingText(itemProvider: itemProvider)
        } else if itemProvider.hasItemConformingToTypeIdentifier(typeURL) {
            handleIncomingURL(itemProvider: itemProvider)
        } else {
            print("Error: No url or text found")
            self.extensionContext?.completeRequest(returningItems: nil, completionHandler: nil)
        }
    }

    private func handleIncomingText(itemProvider: NSItemProvider) {
      print("here22")
        itemProvider.loadItem(forTypeIdentifier: typeText, options: nil) { (item, error) in
            if let error = error { print("Text-Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") }


            if let text = item as? String {
                do {// 2.1
                    let detector = try NSDataDetector(types: NSTextCheckingResult.CheckingType.link.rawValue)
                    let matches = detector.matches(
                        in: text,
                        options: [],
                        range: NSRange(location: 0, length: text.utf16.count)
                    )
                    // 2.2
                    if let firstMatch = matches.first, let range = Range(firstMatch.range, in: text) {
                        self.saveURLString(String(text[range]))
                    }
                } catch let error {
                    print("Do-Try Error: \(error.localizedDescription)")
                }
            }

            self.openMainApp()
        }
    }

    private func handleIncomingURL(itemProvider: NSItemProvider) {
      print("here")
        itemProvider.loadItem(forTypeIdentifier: typeURL, options: nil) { (item, error) in
            if let error = error { print("URL-Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") }

            if let url = item as? NSURL, let urlString = url.absoluteString {
                self.saveURLString(urlString)
            }

            self.openMainApp()
        }
    }

    private func saveURLString(_ urlString: String) {
        UserDefaults(suiteName: self.groupName)?.set(urlString, forKey: self.urlDefaultName)
    }

    private func openMainApp() {
        self.extensionContext?.completeRequest(returningItems: nil, completionHandler: { _ in
            guard let url = URL(string: self.appURL) else { return }
            _ = self.openURL(url)
        })
    }

    // Courtesy: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44499222/13363449 👇🏾
    // Function must be named exactly like this so a selector can be found by the compiler!
    // Anyway - it's another selector in another instance that would be "performed" instead.
    @objc private func openURL(_ url: URL) -> Bool {
        var responder: UIResponder? = self
        while responder != nil {
            if let application = responder as? UIApplication {
                return application.perform(#selector(openURL(_:)), with: url) != nil
            }
            responder = responder?.next
        }
        return false
    }
}

Following is my AppDelegate code

func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, options: [UIApplication.OpenURLOptionsKey : Any] = [:]) -> Bool {
    if let scheme = url.scheme,
      scheme.caseInsensitiveCompare("leaaoShare") == .orderedSame,
      let page = url.host {
      
      var parameters: [String: String] = [:]
      URLComponents(url: url, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: false)?.queryItems?.forEach {
        parameters[$0.name] = $0.value
      }
      
      print("redirect(to: \(page), with: \(parameters))")
      
//      for parameter in parameters where parameter.key.caseInsensitiveCompare("url") == .orderedSame {
//        UserDefaults().set(parameter.value, forKey: "incomingURL")
//      }
    }
    
    return true
  }

I have also created App groups for my main and share extension project

When I try to share url from safari, I am able to see my app in the share sheet but when I click on my app nothing happens. It feels like my app crashes or something. I don't see anything in Xcode console as well. Also when I click my app from share sheet , I cannot see the post dialog which iOS shows when sharing urls. Same issue happens when sharing text

I created a small native iOS app with Swift and it is available at https://github.com/PritishSawant/iosDevShare. I am following this article https://medium.com/@damisipikuda/how-to-receive-a-shared-content-in-an-ios-application-4d5964229701 to create extension

Answer 1

I figured out the issue. I forgot to add following in my main app's info plist

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
            <string>Editor</string>
            <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
            <array>
                <string>leaaoShare</string>
            </array>
        </dict>
    </array>