syncreticudon / apptentive-ios

The iOS Apptentive Client. Is your app Apptentive?

Apptentive iOS SDK

This iOS library allows you to add a quick and easy in-app-feedback mechanism to your iOS applications. Feedback is sent to the Apptentive web service.

There have been many recent API changes for the 1.0 release. Please see docs/APIChanges.md.

For developers with apps created before June 28, 2013, please contact us to have your account upgraded to the new Message Center UI on our website.

Quickstart

There are no external dependencies for this SDK.

Sample Application

The sample application FeedbackDemo demonstrates how to integrate the SDK with your application.

The demo app includes integration of the message center, surveys, and the ratings flow. You use it by editing the defines.h file and entering in the Apple ID for your app and your Apptentive API token.

The rating flow can be activated by clicking on the Ratings button. It asks the user if they are happy with the app. If not, then a simplified feedback window is opened. If they are happy with the app, they are prompted to rate the app in the App Store:

Required Frameworks

In order to use ApptentiveConnect, your project must link against the following frameworks:

• CoreData
• CoreText
• CoreGraphics
• CoreTelephony
• Foundation
• QuartzCore
• StoreKit
• SystemConfiguration
• UIKit

Note: If your app uses Core Data and you listen for Core Data related notifications, you will want to filter them based upon your managed object context. Learn more from Apple's documentation.

Project Settings for Xcode 4

The instructions below are for source integration. For binary releases, see our Binary Distributions page.

There is a video demoing integration in Xcode 4 here:

http://vimeo.com/23710908

Drag the ApptentiveConnect.xcodeproj project to your project in Xcode 4 and add it as a subproject. You can do the same with a workspace.

In your target's Build Settings section, add the following to your Other Linker Flags settings:

-ObjC -all_load

In your target's Build Phases section, add the ApptentiveConnect and ApptentiveResources targets to your Target Dependencies.

Then, add libApptentiveConnect.a to Link Binary With Libraries

Build the ApptentiveResources target for iOS devices. Then, add the ApptentiveResources.bundle from the ApptentiveConnect products in the file navigator into your Copy Bundle Resources build phase. Building for iOS devices first works around a bug in Xcode 4.

Now, drag ATConnect.h from ApptentiveConnect.xcodeproj to your app's file list.

Now see "Using the Library", below, for instructions on using the library in your code.

Using the Library

ApptentiveConnect queues feedback and attempts to upload in the background. This is intended to provide as quick a mechanism for submitting feedback as possible.

In order for queued/interrupted feedback uploads to continue uploading, we recommending instantiating ATConnect and setting the API key at application startup, like:

#include "ATConnect.h"
// ...
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application /* ... */ {
    ATConnect *connection = [ATConnect sharedConnection];
    connection.apiKey = kApptentiveAPIKey;
    // ...
}

Where kApptentiveAPIKey is an NSString containing your API key. As soon as you set the API key on the shared connection object, any queued feedback will start to upload, pending network availability. You also should not have to set the API key again on the shared connection object.

Now, you can show the Apptentive feedback UI from a UIViewController with:

#include "ATConnect.h"
// ...
ATConnect *connection = [ATConnect sharedConnection];
[connection presentMessageCenterFromViewController:self];

Easy!

App Rating Flow

ApptentiveConnect now provides an app rating flow similar to other projects such as appirator. This uses the number of launches of your application, the amount of time users have been using it, and the number of significant events the user has completed (for example, levels passed) to determine when to display a ratings dialog.

To use it, add the ATAppRatingFlow.h header file to your project.

Then, at startup, instantiate a shared ATAppRatingFlow object with your iTunes app ID (see "Finding Your iTunes App ID" below):

#include "ATAppRatingFlow.h"
// ...
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application /* ... */ {
    ATAppRatingFlow *sharedFlow = [ATAppRatingFlow sharedRatingFlow];
    sharedFlow.appID = @"<your iTunes app ID>";
    // ...
}

The ratings flow won't show unless you call the following:

[[ATAppRatingFlow sharedRatingFlow] showRatingFlowFromViewControllerIfConditionsAreMet:viewController];

The viewController parameter is necessary in order to be able to show the feedback view controller if a user is unhappy with your app.

You'll want to add calls to -showRatingFlowFromViewControllerIfConditionsAreMet: wherever it makes sense in the context of your app.

If you're using significant events to determine when to show the ratings flow, you can increment the number of significant events by calling:

[sharedFlow logSignificantEvent];

You can modify the parameters which determine when the ratings dialog will be shown in your app settings on apptentive.com.

Metrics

Metrics provide insight into exactly where people begin and end interactions with your app and with feedback, ratings, and surveys. You can enable and disable metrics on your app settings page on apptentive.com.

Surveys

To use surveys, add the ATSurveys.h header to your project.

New surveys will be retrieved automatically. When a new survey becomes available, the ATSurveyNewSurveyAvailableNotification notification will be sent.

There are both tagged surveys and untagged surveys. Tags are useful for defining surveys that should be shown only in certain locations, whereas untagged surveys are more general.

To check if a survey with a given set of tags is available to be shown, call:

if ([ATSurveys hasSurveyAvailableWithTags:tags]) {
    [ATSurveys presentSurveyControllerWithTags:tags fromViewController:viewController];
}

where tags is an NSSet consisting of strings like aftervideo that you set as tags on your survey on the Apptentive website.

To show a survey without tags, use:

if ([ATSurveys hasSurveyAvailableWithNoTags]) {
    [ATSurveys presentSurveyControllerWithNoTagsFromViewController:viewController];
}

So, the full flow looks like:

#include "ATSurveys.h"
// ...
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application /* ... */ {
    // ...
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(surveyBecameAvailable:) name:ATSurveyNewSurveyAvailableNotification object:nil];
}

- (void)surveyBecameAvailable:(NSNotification *)notification {
	// Present survey here as appropriate.
}

Finding Your iTunes App ID In iTunesConnect, go to "Manage Your Applications" and click on your application. In the "App Information" section of the page, look for the "Apple ID". It will be a number. This is your iTunes application ID.

Contributing

We love contributions!

Any contributions to the master apptentive-ios project must sign the Individual Contributor License Agreement (CLA). It's a doc that makes our lawyers happy and ensures we can provide a solid open source project.

When you want to submit a change, send us a pull request. Before we merge, we'll check to make sure you're on the list of people who've signed our CLA.

Thanks!