UIActivityViewController not showing body text in gmail

Question

I'm using uiactivityviewcontroller for showing sharing option. Everything working except when user selects the Gmail sharing option. If user chooses email then it shows the content properly. But if i choose gmail then nothing is displayed in the body text.

Here is the code:

 NSString *str = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",@"Check the application"];
 NSArray* dataToShare = @[str];  // ...or whatever pieces of data you want to share.

UIActivityViewController* activityViewController = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:dataToShare applicationActivities:nil];
[activityViewController setValue:@"Check it out" forKey:@"subject"];

if(SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(@"8.0")) {
    activityViewController.popoverPresentationController.sourceView = self.view;
    activityViewController.popoverPresentationController.sourceRect = CGRectMake(0,self.view.frame.size.height, self.view.frame.size.width, 400);

}

[self presentViewController:activityViewController animated:YES completion:nil];

[activityViewController setCompletionHandler:^(NSString *activityType, BOOL completed) {
    if(completed){

    }
}];
}

- (NSString *)activityViewController:(UIActivityViewController *)activityViewController subjectForActivityType:(NSString *)activityType{
    return @"Check it out";
}

Answer 1

You can use the URL scheme Gmail to create a subclass of UIActivity:

The code below was extracted this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12766330/3726577

//ActivityViewCustomActivity.h
@interface ActivityViewCustomActivity : UIActivity

@end

//ActivityViewCustomActivity.m
@implementation ActivityViewCustomActivity

- (NSString *)activityType {
    return @"googlegmail";
}

- (NSString *)activityTitle {
    return @"Gmail";
}

- (UIImage *)activityImage {
    // Note: These images need to have a transparent background and I recommend these sizes:
    // iPadShare@2x should be 126 px, iPadShare should be 53 px, iPhoneShare@2x should be 100
    // px, and iPhoneShare should be 50 px. I found these sizes to work for what I was making.

    if (UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad)
    {
        return [UIImage imageNamed:@"iPadShare.png"];
    }
    else
    {
        return [UIImage imageNamed:@"iPhoneShare.png"];
    }
}

- (BOOL)canPerformWithActivityItems:(NSArray *)activityItems {
    NSLog(@"%s", __FUNCTION__);
    return YES;
}

- (void)prepareWithActivityItems:(NSArray *)activityItems {
    NSLog(@"%s",__FUNCTION__);
}

- (UIViewController *)activityViewController {
    NSLog(@"%s",__FUNCTION__);
    return nil;
}

- (void)performActivity {
    NSString *email = @"googlegmail:///co?subject=Check it out&body=Check the application";
    email = [email stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:email]];

    [self activityDidFinish:YES];
}

---

@implementation ViewController2

- (void)viewDidLoad{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    NSString *textItem = @"Check the application";

    ActivityViewCustomActivity * ca = [ActivityViewCustomActivity new];

    UIActivityViewController *activityVC =
    [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:@[textItem] applicationActivities:[NSArray arrayWithObject:ca]];

    activityVC.excludedActivityTypes = @[UIActivityTypePostToWeibo, UIActivityTypeAssignToContact, UIActivityTypePrint, UIActivityTypeCopyToPasteboard, UIActivityTypeSaveToCameraRoll];
    [activityVC setValue:@"Check it out" forKey:@"subject"];

    activityVC.completionHandler = ^(NSString *activityType, BOOL completed)
    {
        NSLog(@" activityType: %@", activityType);
        NSLog(@" completed: %i", completed);
    };

    [self presentViewController:activityVC animated:YES completion:nil];
}

See more: http://www.macstories.net/links/gmail-for-ios-url-scheme/

Answer 2

Looks like there is a bug in Gmail Share extension. Please check if your URL has &, passing & character makes message subject and body empty. You can use & instead.

PS: I didn't check for other special characters.

Answer 3

It's a bit tricky in Swift 3 and iOS 9+.

First, you need to add googlegmail to LSApplicationQueriesSchemes in Info.plist

Second, here's how my UIActivity subclass looks like:

It's a bit tricky in Swift 3 and iOS 9+.

First, you need to add googlegmail to LSApplicationQueriesSchemes in Info.plist

Second, here's how my UIActivity subclass looks like:

final class GmailNewEmailShareActivity: UIActivity {

    private let urlScheme = "googlegmail:"
    private var activityItems: [Any]? = nil

    override class var activityCategory: UIActivityCategory {
        return .share
    }

    override var activityType: UIActivityType? {
        return UIActivityType(rawValue: "googlemail")
    }

    override var activityTitle: String? {
        return "Gmail"
    }

    override var activityViewController: UIViewController? {
        return nil
    }

    override func canPerform(withActivityItems activityItems: [Any]) -> Bool {
        guard let url = URL(string: urlScheme) else {
            return false
        }
        return UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url)
    }

    override func prepare(withActivityItems activityItems: [Any]) {
        // At this point I store incoming activity items to use them later in `perform()`
        self.activityItems = activityItems
    }

    override var activityImage: UIImage? {
        // 60x60, 120x120 and 180x180
        return nil
    }

    override func perform() {
        guard let body = activityItems?.first as? String, let encodedBody = body.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed) else {
            activityDidFinish(false)
            return
        }
        let urlString = "\(urlScheme)///co?body=\(encodedBody)"
        guard let url = URL(string: urlString) else {
            activityDidFinish(false)
            return
        }
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
        activityDidFinish(true)
    }

}