ANE-Share

A simple native extension for sharing text and bitmap content on Android and iOS.

Getting started

Download the ANE from the releases page and add it to your app's descriptor:

<extensions>
    <extensionID>com.digitalstrawberry.ane.share</extensionID>
</extensions>

If you are targeting Android, add the AndroidX Core extension from Distriqt as well:

<extensions>
    <extensionID>androidx.core</extensionID>
</extensions>

Credits to Distriqt for providing this and other extensions.

Furthermore, modify manifestAdditions element so that it contains the following provider element:

<android>
    <manifestAdditions>
        <![CDATA[
        <manifest android:installLocation="auto">

            <application>

                <provider
                    android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"
                    android:authorities="{APP_PACKAGE_NAME}.fileprovider"
                    android:grantUriPermissions="true"
                    android:exported="false">
                    <meta-data
                        android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
                        android:resource="@xml/digitalstrawberry_share_paths" />
                </provider>

            </application>

        </manifest>
        ]]>
    </manifestAdditions>
</android>

Make sure to replace the {APP_PACKAGE_NAME} token with your application id (value of the id element in your AIR app descriptor). Remember the id is prefixed with air. by default.

Add the following key-value pairs to your InfoAdditions to avoid crashes on iOS 10+ when saving an image to photos library or assigning it to a contact:

<iPhone>
    <InfoAdditions><![CDATA[

        <key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
        <string>Access to photo library is required to save images.</string>

        <key>NSContactsUsageDescription</key>
        <string>Access to contacts is required to assign images.</string>

        <key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
        <string>Access to photo library is required to save images.</string>

    ]]></InfoAdditions>
</iPhone>

API Overview

To share some data, create a Vector of SharedData objects and pass it in to the share method:

[Embed(source="/../assets/image.png")]
private static var SHARED_IMAGE:Class;

...

var bitmap:Bitmap = new SHARED_IMAGE();

var sharedLink:SharedData = new SharedData("https://github.com");
var sharedImage:SharedData = new SharedData(bitmap.bitmapData);

var sharedItems:Vector.<SharedData> = new <SharedData>[sharedLink, sharedImage];

Share.instance.share(sharedItems);

On iPads, the sharing UI is presented in a popover. You can customize the popover position, size and the direction of the arrow by providing ShareOptions object. In the example below, the popover will display in default size (rectangle width and height is set to 0) with the arrow pointing up towards the center of the screen:

var shareOptions:ShareOptions = new ShareOptions();
shareOptions.position = new Rectangle(stage.stageWidth * 0.5, stage.stageHeight * 0.5);
shareOptions.arrowDirection = ShareOptions.ARROW_UP;

...

Share.instance.share(sharedItems, shareOptions);

Note it is completely up to the selected application whether it accepts the data you want to share or not. For example, the Facebook application on iOS may ignore your image if you share it together with a link.

The extension allows you to prioritize some content over the other when sharing to Facebook. You can set the shareWithFacebook property to false to ensure the selected data will not be shared with Facebook on iOS. In the example below, we make sure the image is not discarded when sharing to Facebook on iOS:

var sharedLink:SharedData = new SharedData("https://github.com");
sharedLink.shareWithFacebook = false; // Ignore link when sharing to Facebook on iOS
var sharedImage:SharedData = new SharedData(bitmap.bitmapData);

var sharedItems:Vector.<SharedData> = new <SharedData>[sharedLink, sharedImage];

Share.instance.share(sharedItems);

When sharing URLs to local files you should set the isLocalFileUrl property to true. This tells the system to treat the value as a local file URL and not a generic String. This way the file can be added as an attachment when sharing via email and more appropriate sharing options can be shown to the user:

var sharedVideo:SharedData = new SharedData("/path/to/local/file.mp4");
sharedVideo.isLocalFileUrl = true;

...

You can add event listeners to be notified when sharing is finished. Note that Android applications do not necessarily respond correctly, therefore it is very common to receive the CANCEL event even when sharing is completed successfully on Android:

Share.instance.addEventListener(ShareEvent.COMPLETE, onSharingFinished);
Share.instance.addEventListener(ShareEvent.CANCEL, onSharingFinished);
Share.instance.addEventListener(ShareEvent.ERROR, onSharingFinished);

private function onSharingFinished(event:ShareEvent):void
{
    ...
}

Changelog

October 20, 2020 (v1.1.0)

• Added support for AndroidX
• Added Android-x64 target

January 14, 2020 (v1.0.8)

• Added support for Android 64bit

March 25, 2019 (v1.0.7)

• Added support for custom MIME type (Android only)

March 18, 2019 (v1.0.6)

• Updated file sharing for Android API 24+

March 23, 2018 (v1.0.5)

• Added support for sharing local file URLs

January 2, 2018 (v1.0.4)

• Updated sharing dialog (Android)

November 28, 2017 (v1.0.3)

• Updated error handling

October 16, 2017 (v1.0.2)

• Added support for iOS 7

August 9, 2017 (v1.0.0)

• Public release