How to launch a parent iOS App from its App Extension

Question

Does any one know how to launch the parent app from the app extension's view controller?

I just want to launch the main app from its app extension.

Answer 1

In the WWDC session Creating Extensions for iOS and OS X, Part 1 around the 22 minute mark the say to use the openURL:completionHandler: method from the UIViewController's extensionContext to open a custom URL scheme

[self.extensionContext openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"your-app-custom-url-scheme://your-internal-url"]
             completionHandler:nil];

Answer 2

I asked a similar question here: Communicating with/opening Containing app from Share extension. Basically, you can do a couple things.

1. Use a UIWebView's loadRequest webView to load an NSURL request with your containing app's url. For example,

   NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"myurl"];
   NSURLRequest *request = [[NSURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:url];
   [self.webView loadRequest:request];
   

2. Use a UIDocumentInteractionController and a custom file extension type to provide a link to your containing app (and your containing app only)

3. Start a "fake" NSURL session to get the following functionality: In iOS, if your extension isn’t running when a background task completes, the system launches your containing app in the background and calls the application:handleEventsForBackgroundURLSession:completionHandler: app delegate method.

The first one is probably your best bet.

Answer 3

The documentation is pretty clear on saying that you can use extensionContext openURL within a Today extension. By implication, openURL can only be used in a Today exception and our experiences are proving this to be true--I also can't get it working from within a Share extension.

I would be interested to see if any of these work arounds are accepted by Apple's review process. I doubt it. If Apple wanted it to work, it would have been easy enough for them to allow it.

Apple allows any Today widget to use the openURL:completionHandler: method to open the widget’s own containing app.

If you employ this method to open other apps from your Today widget, your App Store submission might entail additional review to ensure compliance with the intent of Today widgets.

I'm certain this second paragraph was added after Launcher was accepted, rejected, and then later approved for sale.

Answer 4

Here is working solution (tested on iOS 9.2) at least for Keyboard Extension. This category adds special method for access to hidden sharedApplication object and then call openURL: on it. (Of course then you have to use openURL: method with your app scheme.)

extension UIInputViewController {

    func openURL(url: NSURL) -> Bool {
        do {
            let application = try self.sharedApplication()
            return application.performSelector("openURL:", withObject: url) != nil
        }
        catch {
            return false
        }
    }

    func sharedApplication() throws -> UIApplication {
        var responder: UIResponder? = self
        while responder != nil {
            if let application = responder as? UIApplication {
                return application
            }

            responder = responder?.nextResponder()
        }

        throw NSError(domain: "UIInputViewController+sharedApplication.swift", code: 1, userInfo: nil)
    }

}

Answer 5

Working solution in Swift 3.1 (tested in iOS10):

You need to create your own URL Scheme for your host app, then add this function to your ViewController and call it with openURL("myScheme://myIdentifier")

//  Function must be named exactly like this so a selector can be found by the compiler!
//  Anyway - it's another selector in another instance that would be "performed" instead.
func openURL(_ url: URL) -> Bool {
    var responder: UIResponder? = self
    while responder != nil {
        if let application = responder as? UIApplication {
            return application.perform(#selector(openURL(_:)), with: url) != nil
        }
        responder = responder?.next
    }
    return false
}