ShareLink iOS14 for SwiftUI

This package provides a SwiftUI view, ShareLinkButton, that enables sharing of various data types.

Why I developed the ShareLink package when Apple provides one out of the box?!

In my experience working on SwiftUI projects, I noticed a gap when it came to implementing share link functionalities across different iOS versions. While Apple introduced the ShareLink API in iOS 16, a significant portion of users and projects are still on older versions, like iOS 15 and even iOS 14. Given that many apps need to support these earlier versions for at least a couple more years. This necessity led me to develop a package that provides similar functionality as ShareLink but is compatible with earlier iOS versions.

SwiftUI example

Features

• Customizable Button Label: The label of the button is fully customizable with SwiftUI views.
• Support for Multiple Data Types: Supports sharing of text, images, URLs, and other Transportable types.
• Custom Activities: Ability to add custom activities to the share sheet.
• Activity Exclusion: Options to exclude specific activities from the share sheet.
• iOS 14+ Compatibility: Designed to be compatible with iOS 14 and above.

API

ShareLinkButton Struct

@available(iOS 14.0, *)
public struct ShareLinkButton<Label: View>: View {
    public init<T: Transportable>(
        item: T,
        icon: UIImage? = nil,
        title: String? = nil,
        printAction: Bool = true,
        applicationActivities: [UIActivity]? = nil,
        excludedActivityTypes: [UIActivity.ActivityType]? = nil,
        @ViewBuilder label: @escaping () -> Label
    )
    
    public init(
        itemSource: UIActivityItemSource,
        applicationActivities: [UIActivity]? = nil,
        excludedActivityTypes: [UIActivity.ActivityType]? = nil,
        @ViewBuilder label: @escaping () -> Label
    )
}

Supported Transportable Types

• String
• URL
• UIImage
• Data
• NSAttributedString
• CLLocation

Usage Examples

Basic Usage with String

ShareLinkButton(item: "Hello, world!", label: {
    Text("Share Text")
})

Advanced Usage with Custom Icon and Title

ShareLinkButton(item: URL(string: "https://example.com")!, icon: UIImage(systemName: "link"), title: "Check this out!", label: {
    HStack {
        Image(systemName: "square.and.arrow.up")
        Text("Share URL")
    }
})

Sharing CLLocation

let location = CLLocation(latitude: 37.7749, longitude: -122.4194) // Coordinates for San Francisco

ShareLinkButton(item: location, label: {
    Text("San Francisco location")  
})

Customization

The button appearance can be customized via the label closure, allowing integration with the design system of the host application. Additionally, developers can specify custom activities or exclude certain activity types to tailor the sharing experience to the app's needs.

The ShareLinkButton in SwiftUI allows developers to customize the sharing experience by providing their own UIActivityItemSource. This interface enables precise control over the data shared and its format, depending on the activity type selected by the user.

1. Define a Custom UIActivityItemSource: Begin by creating a class that conforms to the UIActivityItemSource protocol. This class will specify the data to be shared when the share sheet is activated.

import UIKit

class CustomItemSource: NSObject, UIActivityItemSource {
    let text: String
    let url: URL

    init(text: String, url: URL) {
        self.text = text
        self.url = url
    }

    func activityViewControllerPlaceholderItem(_ activityViewController: UIActivityViewController) -> Any {
        return text
    }

    func activityViewController(_ activityViewController: UIActivityViewController, itemForActivityType activityType: UIActivity.ActivityType?) -> Any? {
        return text
    }

    func activityViewController(_ activityViewController: UIActivityViewController, subjectForActivityType activityType: UIActivity.ActivityType?) -> String {
        return "Custom Subject"
    }

    func activityViewController(_ activityViewController: UIActivityViewController, dataTypeIdentifierForActivityType activityType: UIActivity.ActivityType?) -> String? {
        return "public.url"
    }

    func activityViewController(_ activityViewController: UIActivityViewController, thumbnailImageForActivityType activityType: UIActivity.ActivityType?, suggestedSize size: CGSize) -> UIImage? {
        return UIImage(systemName: "link.circle")
    }
}

2. Use the custom activity item source in ShareLinkButton

let source = CustomItemSource(
    text: "Check out this amazing website!",
    url: URL(string: "https://www.example.com")!
)

ShareLinkButton(item: source) {
    Label("Share", systemImage: "square.and.arrow.up")
}

License

This package is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more details.