I am developing a web application to run in standalone/full screen mode on an iPhone and I am using mailto to open the default iPhone e-mail client to be able to send an e-mail from the web application. This works, but the problem I am facing is that after the e-mail is sent, there is no way to automatically get back to the web application that caused the e-mail client to be opened in the first place. The user has to manually click the web application icon on the home screen to go back to the web application, which is not what I want to happen. Is there a way to automatically return to the web application once the e-mail has either be sent or cancelled?
If not, it appears to me that this destroys the usefulness of even using mailto in a mobile web application. What would be the point if you cannot even get back to your web application (where you left off) after sending the e-mail?
I am using iOS 7.0.3 btw.
Is there a way to automatically return to the web application once
the e-mail has either be sent or cancelled?
No, unless you develop yourself the mail app (like GMail app does with Chrome, for example)
Related
I'm a Java/Web developer and I don't know anything about iPhone applications.
I did search on the Internet and the following steps are what I think people suggested but I want to confirm.
I would like to know if the following steps will allow me to send a content body to SMS messages when a user clicks on a link on a web page.
Build an iPhone app that takes content body and receiver phone number.
Make the visitors to my webpage download the iPhone app in #1 (using javascript to check if s/he already has it and a custom url scheme to open the iPhone version of "PlayStore")
The visitor installs the app.
Call the iPhone app in #1 using a custom URL scheme, from a link on a web page. This link contains the phone number of the receiver and a content body
The iPhone app in #1 then opens the native SMS app in iPhone, this time with a body.
Is this
1. possible ?
2. the right way to do ?
EDIT :
To make things clearer, what I need are...
It shouldn't be the web server that sends the SMS. The client who gave us the job does not want to pay for that. The client wants each visitor send their own SMS and pay for it.
I made a mistake. The phone number of the receiver should be empty. Only the content body is pre populated. So if I clicked on the "send SMS to my friends" link(on a webpage), it opens the native SMS application.(at least, this is how it works on android devices currently). And then the visitor would type in or select the phone number of the receiver from the contacts on his device.
No, you cannot open the SMS app with a message body. The only way to send it is by using MFMessageComposeViewController (iOS 5.0+) as shown in this page. If you need to support earlier versions, you are out of luck.
I'm not sure that Javascript can "check" that the device can run a url scheme either (I'm almost certain it can't check what apps are installed), but I'm not an expert at that kind of stuff.
As far as you are launching your application with some data using Custom URL Schemes this might help you calling your app with some parameters
http://www.idev101.com/code/Objective-C/custom_url_schemes.html
For step #5 its not possible
Short Answers:
No.
No. The "right" version would be to send the SMS from your webserver, using something like NowSMS.
I'm creating an iPhone app that uses the native iOS mail app. Is it possible that when the user clicks either cancel or send in the mail app, it can then redirect back to the app itself without having to reopen it?
Is it then also possible that when the user goes to access the mail portion of the app, it can display the mail app within my app in a webview type manner? Thanks.
No, you cannot change the functionality of another publisher's app, especially Apple's. But it sounds like you can accomplish what your want to do by using MFMailComposeViewController. It allows you to send an email from within your app, i.e. without leaving it to go to the native mail client.
If what you are doing is just sending emails you can display a MFMailComposeViewController to allow user to send emails without leaving the app.
i would like to display ads from my server in a uiwebview placed inside my application for which i will be sending some data from the phone to my server but what i have heard sending user data to your server in application will lead to the application being rejected?? is it true?? is there any other way to implement own custom ads from my server into the application??
That's not true, as long as your server aren't belong to some company in the mobile OS business.
I have an iPhone WebApp that is installed to the home page. When a phone call comes in or an email is sent it brings up either the phone screen or the email screen. After the user finishes the phone call or email, is it possible to automatically bring up the same web application that was previously open?
No. Also native apps can't do this consistently (only for incoming, but not for outgoing calls the app will be launched again; e-mail can be sent from within the app).
Kevin, yes it can be done with some effort. What you want is HTML5 local storage and perhaps HTML5 application caching as well.
What you do is not unlike what a pre-multitasking iPhone native app would do: you store the application state in the local storage and use it on launch to restore state. I don't believe you have hooks on termination so you'll have to store the state at every state transition, as it happens.
Is it possible to implement IPhone's push notification service for a
Webapp that has an icon on the "desktop"? If so how?
That depends on exactly what you mean by Webapp that has an icon on the "desktop"?
No, if you're referring to a webapp where you have saved a link with Add to Home screen as per this Apple instruction.
Yes, if your webapp is a thin CocoaTouch shell using webkit.
i have an alternative solution for this:
1) create a gmail account and get gpush app on your iphone (setup the gmail in the app).
2) instate of sending direct notification to iphone, you can send an email from your webapp to the gmail account.
3) within 5 sec. you will receive the push notification.
hope this help.
You can always delegate the messaging to 3rd party notification apps.
One great example is Boxcar (http://boxcar.io/).
You can have your web app send notifications via their API and have them delivered to the app. Lastly, you can the use deeplinks in your message to open your webapp to point the user to the content item you wanted to bring their attention to.
No, it's not possible. It's only for cocoa touch (AppStore) apps. If you want more info, take a look on the documentation.
another alternative: use an sms service like http://www.smstrade.de/ to send an sms to the user's phone. That's the way I do it.
Another provider for sending sms as notification is https://bulktrade.de
There works world wide
You can use HTML5 to introduce your own push messages. From wikipedia
"For the client side, WebSocket was to be implemented in Firefox 4,
Google Chrome 4, Opera 11, and Safari 5, as well as the mobile version
of Safari in iOS 4.2.1 Also the BlackBerry Browser in OS7 supports
WebSockets."
To do this, you need your own provider server to push the messages to the clients. If you want to use APN (Apple Push Notification), you must have a native application which must be downloaded through the App Store.
From iOS 6.0 I noticed that a WebApp icon placed on homescreen automaticly refreshes after each webkit open of webapp. Of course if you change this icon on the webserver. So theoretically you can display any informative content in this icon(numbers, status etc) BUT it will not refreshes instantly - only after opening and closing a webkit webapp.