Xcode swift link to facebook page

Question

I have an app with a button that is suppose to open a Facebook page. It checks to see if the user has Facebook installed and should open the page in the app. If it is not installed, then it simply opens the page with Safari. It is not working however. I suspect it has something to do with the wrong address for it, if the user has Facebook installed:

var fbUrl = NSURL(string: "fb://facebook.com/FacebookPageName")!
var fbUrlWeb = NSURL(string: "https://www.facebook.com/FacebookPageName")!

if (UIApplication.sharedApplication().canOpenURL(fbUrl)) {
  // Facebook App installed
  UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(fbUrl)
} else {
  // No Facebook App installed
  UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(fbUrlWeb)
}

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 22 '19 at 03:25

26

The problem is with the format of your Facebook url so notice the format. I use this extension to open urls. You provide it with an array of urls in the order you want them to try to be opened and it tries the first one first and if it fails it goes to the second one and so on:

extension UIApplication {
    class func tryURL(urls: [String]) {
        let application = UIApplication.sharedApplication()
        for url in urls {
            if application.canOpenURL(NSURL(string: url)!) {
                application.openURL(NSURL(string: url)!)
                return
            }
        }
    }
}

And for use:

UIApplication.tryURL([
            "fb://profile/116374146706", // App
            "http://www.facebook.com/116374146706" // Website if app fails
            ])

[Update] for Swift 4:

extension UIApplication {
    class func tryURL(urls: [String]) {
        let application = UIApplication.shared
        for url in urls {
            if application.canOpenURL(URL(string: url)!) {
                application.openURL(URL(string: url)!)
                return
            }
        }
    }
}

And then:

UIApplication.tryURL(urls: [
                "fb://profile/116374146706", // App
                "http://www.facebook.com/116374146706" // Website if app fails
                ])

[Update] for iOS 10 / Swift 5

extension UIApplication {
    class func tryURL(urls: [String]) {
        let application = UIApplication.shared
        for url in urls {
            if application.canOpenURL(URL(string: url)!) {
                if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
                    application.open(URL(string: url)!, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
                }
                else {
                    application.openURL(URL(string: url)!)
                }
                return
            }
        }
    }
}

edited Aug 22 '19 at 03:25

Ladd.c

973
11
11

answered Mar 31 '15 at 19:23

Ian

12,538
5
43
62

I'm totally new to this. How do I add an extension? I cut and pasted what you wrote and it caused an internal crash in Xcode. – ChallengerGuy Mar 31 '15 at 20:01
1

Just make a new swift file import Foundation and UIKit and then paste the extension. Extensions are placed outside the scope of any class. – Ian Mar 31 '15 at 20:02
Great thank you! I just need to figure out how to get my Facebook page ID. – ChallengerGuy Mar 31 '15 at 22:42
Used an online tool and got the ID. Thank you again for your help. – ChallengerGuy Mar 31 '15 at 22:44
Is there a way to generate Facebook page ID programmatically without any online tool ? – Jayaraj Jun 20 '17 at 12:53
FYI, code may need updating? `'openURL' was deprecated in iOS 10.0: Please use openURL:options:completionHandler: instead` – Nick Jan 21 '18 at 23:10
4

Remember to add this to your plist: `LSApplicationQueriesSchemes fb ` otherwise you'll get the error "this app is not allowed to query for scheme fb" when trying to open a "fb://" url.. – Wiingaard Mar 13 '18 at 12:08
@Wiingaard How to open a Page? The above code is for Profile – Vaibhav Jhaveri Mar 16 '18 at 06:04
@VaibhavJhaveri Same.. Using `profile` also opens pages, I believe.. – Wiingaard Mar 17 '18 at 23:50

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 14 '17 at 20:59

Swift 3

extension UIApplication {
    class func tryURL(urls: [String]) {
            let application = UIApplication.shared
            for url in urls {
                if application.canOpenURL(URL(string: url)!) {
                    //application.openURL(URL(string: url)!)
                    application.open(URL(string: url)!, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
                    return
                }
            }
        }
}

And for use:

UIApplication.tryURL(urls: [
            "fb://profile/116374146706", // App
            "http://www.facebook.com/116374146706" // Website if app fails
            ])

Xcode swift link to facebook page

2 Answers2

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