Keeping up with the theme of my last post, I’m here today sharing another single class solution to a common stack overflow question; How to  share info (in this case a screenshot) to social media platform on your phone.

For our recent release, Pew Zoom Boom, we wanted a way for people to share scores, beyond just Leaderboards, so we implemented sharing for social media networks. It’s pretty simple to set up and get working in your own project.

Set Up

First you’ll need to save the screenshot to a path that’s accessible from your app. Then call this Method here:

csharp
///  
/// Shares an image using the preferred method in Android or iOS.  
///  
public void ShareImage(string path, string extratxt = “”)  
{


}

The path is to the screenshot you’ve taken, and the ‘extratxt’ is for any text you’d like to add to your post.

Sharing Is Caring

Now we need to fill in the empty method above. The Method is split by #if blocks for Android and iOS.

Android

For Android you want to setup a few things first:

  • first set up the share intent,
  • add the ‘extratxt’
  • finally, create a Java File object and then get the uri of the tha Java File image.
csharp
// Set up the Share Intent  
var shareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ActionSend);  
// Add Text to go along with it  
shareIntent.PutExtra(Intent.ExtraText, extratxt);


// The link to the photo you want to share (i.e the path to the saved screenshot)  
Java.IO.File photoFile = new Java.IO.File(path);  
var uri = Android.Net.Uri.FromFile(photoFile);

Then finally add the uri stream to the shareIntent, Set the Type to Image. You also need to App ReadURI Permissions.

csharp
// Add the required info the the shareIntent  
shareIntent.PutExtra(Intent.ExtraStream, uri);  
shareIntent.SetType(“image/*”);  
shareIntent.AddFlags(ActivityFlags.GrantReadUriPermission);

And then finally launch the intent by calling the below code.

csharp
// Now Send the Share Intent  
Android.App.Application.Context.StartActivity(Intent.CreateChooser(shareIntent, “Choose one”));

Calling the last line will start the share intent allowing you to share across different social media platforms:

iOS

iOS requires even less lines of code, but needs a special line if it’s for a tablet opposed to a phone.

csharp
// Get the ViewController from MonoGame  
UIViewController ViewController = Engine.Game.Services.GetService(typeof(UIViewController)) as UIViewController;


// Create an Image Object with the Path to the Screenshot  
UIImage image = new UIImage(path);  
NSObject[] shareItems = { image };


// Create a View Controller For the Activity  
UIActivityViewController shareViewController = new UIActivityViewController(shareItems, null);  
shareViewController.ExcludedActivityTypes = new NSString[] { };


// Handle if it’s for an iPad  
if (UIDevice.CurrentDevice.UserInterfaceIdiom == UIUserInterfaceIdiom.Pad)  
{  
shareViewController.PopoverPresentationController.SourceView = ViewController.View;  
shareViewController.PopoverPresentationController.SourceRect = new CoreGraphics.CGRect((ViewController.View.Bounds.Width / 2), (ViewController.View.Bounds.Height / 4), 0, 0);  
}


// Finally present the Activity  
ViewController.PresentViewController(shareViewController, true, null);

And that’s all, from there you can share to any social networks you have installed. Through my own testing it’s worked with Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Sanpchat.

Putting It All Together

We can put both of these blocks of code together into a single method seperated with #if blocks:

csharp
///  
/// Shares an image using the preferred method in Android or iOS.  
///  
/// Path.  
public void ShareImage(string path, string extratxt = “”)  
{  
#if __ANDROID__  
try  
{  
// Set up the Share Intent  
var shareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ActionSend);  
// Add Text to go along with it  
shareIntent.PutExtra(Intent.ExtraText, extratxt);


// The link to the photo you want to share (i.e the path to the saved screenshot)  
Java.IO.File photoFile = new Java.IO.File(path);  
var uri = Android.Net.Uri.FromFile(photoFile);


// Add the required info the the shareIntent  
shareIntent.PutExtra(Intent.ExtraStream, uri);  
shareIntent.SetType(“image/*”);  
shareIntent.AddFlags(ActivityFlags.GrantReadUriPermission);


// Now Send the Share Intent  
Android.App.Application.Context.StartActivity(Intent.CreateChooser(shareIntent, “Choose one”));  
}  
catch  
{  
Console.WriteLine(“Error Sharing Results…”);  
}  
#elif __IOS__  
try  
{  
//UIViewController ViewController = Engine.Game.Services.GetService(typeof(UIViewController)) as UIViewController;


UIImage image = new UIImage(path);  
NSObject[] activityItems = { image };


UIActivityViewController activityViewController = new UIActivityViewController(activityItems, null);  
activityViewController.ExcludedActivityTypes = new NSString[] { };


if (UIDevice.CurrentDevice.UserInterfaceIdiom == UIUserInterfaceIdiom.Pad)  
{  
activityViewController.PopoverPresentationController.SourceView = ViewController.View;  
activityViewController.PopoverPresentationController.SourceRect = new CoreGraphics.CGRect((ViewController.View.Bounds.Width / 2), (ViewController.View.Bounds.Height / 4), 0, 0);  
}


ViewController.PresentViewController(activityViewController, true, null);  
}  
catch  
{  
Console.WriteLine(“Error Sharing Results…”);  
}  
#else  
Console.WriteLine(“Sharing Not Available On This Platform.”);  
#endif  
}

Pop it into your code and give it a try!

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