Opening specific ViewController from Today Extension

Question

I have got two buttons on my today extension. One is dedicated to open MainViewController and the second one need to navigate to second ViewController.

So I made a appURL:

   let appURL = NSURL(string: "StarterApplication://")

and then on a first button I call:

       self.extensionContext?.open(appURL! as URL, completionHandler:nil)

Which opens app on MainViewController.

How can I open MainViewController and performSegue to my SecondViewController when tapping second button on Today Widget?

I made a second URL scheme for that specific ViewController. I saw in other simmilar topics that it can be done by calling:

func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, options: [UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey : Any] = [:]) -> Bool {
}

in AppDelegate but don't have any idea how to use it.

Answer 1

Use one URL scheme. You can add different paths or arguments for different task.

For example, I've an app that displays multiple items in a today extension. If you tap an item the app is opened.

- (void)_openItem:(SPItem *)item
{
    NSURL* url = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"myapp://localhost/open_item?itemID=%@", item.itemID]];
    if (url != nil)
    {
        [self.extensionContext openURL:url completionHandler:nil];
    }
}

As you've already mentioned in you question, you need to implement - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)app openURL:(NSURL *)url options:(NSDictionary<NSString *,id> *)options

In my case it more or less looks like this:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)app openURL:(NSURL *)url options:(NSDictionary<NSString *,id> *)options
{
    BOOL ret;
    if ([url.scheme isEqualToString:@"myapp"])
    {
        if ([url.path isEqual:@"open_item"])
        {
            @try
            {
                NSDictionary *query = [url.query queryDictionary];
                NSString* itemID = query[@"itemID"];
                [self _gotoItemWithID:itemID completionHandler:nil];
            }
            @catch (NSException *exception) {
            }
            ret = YES;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        ret = NO;
    }
    return ret;
}

As you can see, I first check, if the url scheme. If it's the one I expect, I check the path. By using different paths I'm able to implement different commands the today extension is able to execute . Each command may have different arguments. In case of the "open_item" command, I expect the parameter "itemID".

By returning YES, you tell iOS you were able to handle the URL your app was called with.

In my app [self _gotoItemWithID:itemID completionHandler:nil] does all the need tasks to display the item. In your case you would need a function to display the second view controller.

Edit:

I forgot to mention that queryDictionary is a method in an NSString extension. It takes a string ( self ) and tries to extract URL parameter and return them as dictionary.

- (NSDictionary*)queryDictionary
{
    NSCharacterSet* delimiterSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"&;"];
    NSMutableDictionary* pairs = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
    NSScanner* scanner = [[NSScanner alloc] initWithString:self];
    while (![scanner isAtEnd])
    {
        NSString* pairString;
        [scanner scanUpToCharactersFromSet:delimiterSet
                                intoString:&pairString] ;
        [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:delimiterSet intoString:NULL];
        NSArray* kvPair = [pairString componentsSeparatedByString:@"="];
        if ([kvPair count] == 2)
        {
            NSString* key = [[kvPair objectAtIndex:0] stringByRemovingPercentEncoding];
            NSString* value = [[kvPair objectAtIndex:1] stringByRemovingPercentEncoding];
            [pairs setObject:value forKey:key] ;
        }
    }
    return [NSDictionary dictionaryWithDictionary:pairs];
}

Answer 2

I found the solution. The answer is deep linking. Here is my method in appDelegate:

    func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, options: [UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey : Any] = [:]) -> Bool {


    let urlPath : String = url.path as String!
    let mainStoryboard: UIStoryboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)

    if(urlPath == "/Action"){

        let ActionView: ActionViewController = mainStoryboard.instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "ActionViewController") as! ActionViewController
        self.window?.rootViewController = ActionView
    } else if(urlPath == "/VoiceCommandView") {

        let VoiceCommandView: ViewController = mainStoryboard.instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "ViewController") as! ViewController
        self.window?.rootViewController = VoiceCommandView

    }
    self.window?.makeKeyAndVisible()

    return true

And in the TodayExtensionViewController I defined two URL schemes with same host but different URL paths. And made a simple:

        self.extensionContext?.open(startAppURL! as URL, completionHandler:nil)

for first button but changed the urlPath for the second button.