I'm creating an App that can accepted PDFs from a shared context. I am using iOS, Swift, and UIKit with IOS 17.1+
The logic is:
- get the context
- see who is sending in (this is always unknown)
- see if I can open in place (in case I want to save later)
- send the URL off to open the (PDF) document and
- load it into PDFKit's pdfView.document
I have no trouble loading PDF docs with the file picker.
And everything works as expected for shares from apps like Messages, email, etc... (in which case URLContexts.first.options.openInPlace == False)
The problem is with opening (sharing) a PDF that is sent from the Files App. (openInPlace == True)
If the PDF is in the App's Document Folder, I need the Security scoped resource, to access the URL from the File's App so that I can copy the PDF's data to the PDFViewer.document. I get Security scoped resource access granted each time I get the File App's context URL.
But, when I call fileCoordinator.coordinate and try to access a file outside of the App's document folder using the newUrl, I get an error.
FYI - The newUrl (byAccessor) and context url (readingItemAt) paths are always same for the Files App URL share context.
I can, however, copy the file to a new location in my apps directory and then open it from there and load in the data. But I really do not want to do that.
. . . . .
Questions:
Am I missing something in my pList or are there other parameters specific to sharing a file from the Files App?
I'd appreciate if someone shed some light on this?
. . . . .
Here are the parts of my code related to this with some print statements...
. . . . .
SceneDelegate
func scene(_ scene: UIScene, openURLContexts URLContexts: Set<UIOpenURLContext>) {
// nothing to see here, move along
guard let urlContext = URLContexts.first else {
print("No URLContext found")
return
}
// let's get the URL (it will be a PDF)
let url = urlContext.url
let openInPlace = urlContext.options.openInPlace
let bundleID = urlContext.options.sourceApplication
print("Triggered with URL: \(url)")
print("Can Open In Place?: \(openInPlace)")
print("For Bundle ID: \(bundleID ?? "None")")
// get my Root ViewController from window
if let rootViewController = self.window?.rootViewController {
// currently using just the view
if let targetViewController = rootViewController as? ViewController {
targetViewController.prepareToLoadSharedPDFDocument(at: url)
}
// I might use a UINavigationController in the future
else if let navigationController = rootViewController as? UINavigationController,
let targetViewController = navigationController.viewControllers.first as? ViewController {
targetViewController.prepareToLoadSharedPDFDocument(at: url)
}
}
}
. . . .
ViewController function
I broke out the if statement for accessingScope just to make it easier for me the debug and play around with the code in accessingScope == True
func loadPDF(fromUrl url: URL) {
// If using the File Picker / don't use this
// If going through a Share.... we pass the URL and have three outcomes (1, 2a, 2b)
// 1. Security scoped resource access NOT needed if from a Share Like Messages or EMail
// 2. Security scoped resource access granted/needed from 'Files' App
// a. success if in the App's doc directory
// b. fail if NOT in the App's doc directory
// Set the securty scope variable
var accessingScope = false
// Log the URLs for debugging
print("URL String: \(url.absoluteString)")
print("URL Path: \(url.path())")
// Check if the URL requires security scoped resource access
if url.startAccessingSecurityScopedResource() {
accessingScope = true
print("Security scoped resource access granted.")
} else {
print("Security scoped resource access denied or not needed.")
}
// Stop accessing the scope once everything is compeleted
defer {
if accessingScope {
url.stopAccessingSecurityScopedResource()
print("Security scoped resource access stopped.")
}
}
// Make sure the file is still there (it should be in this case)
guard FileManager.default.fileExists(atPath: url.path) else {
print("File does not exist at URL: \(url)")
return
}
// Let's see if we can open it in place
if accessingScope {
let fileCoordinator = NSFileCoordinator()
var error: NSError?
fileCoordinator.coordinate(readingItemAt: url, options: [], error: &error) { (newUrl) in
DispatchQueue.main.async {
print(url.path())
print(newUrl.path())
if let document = PDFDocument(url: newUrl) {
self.pdfView.document = document
self.documentFileName = newUrl.deletingPathExtension().lastPathComponent
self.fileLoadLocation = newUrl.path()
self.updateGUI(pdfLoaded: true)
self.setPDFScale(to: self.VM.pdfPageScale, asNewPDF: true)
} else {
print("Could not load PDF directly from url: \(newUrl)")
}
}
}
if let error = error {
PRINT("File coordination error: \(error)")
}
} else {
DispatchQueue.main.async {
if let document = PDFDocument(url: url) {
self.pdfView.document = document
self.documentFileName = url.deletingPathExtension().lastPathComponent
self.fileLoadLocation = url.path()
self.updateGUI(pdfLoaded: true)
self.setPDFScale(to: self.VM.pdfPageScale, asNewPDF: true)
} else {
PRINT("Could not load PDF from url: \(url)")
}
}
}
}
. . . .
Other relevant pList settings I've added are:
- Supports opening documents in place - YES
- Document types - PDFs (com.adobe.pdf)
- UIDocumentBrowserRecentDocumentContentTypes - com.adobe.pdf
- Application supports iTunes file sharing - YES
And iCloud is one for Entitlements with
- iCloud Container Identifiers
- Ubiquity Container Identifiers
. . . .
Thank you in advance!.
- B