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The DropBox app lets you view a document in another app by selecting the Open In option.

We are building a document management app and need to be able to view the Word/Excel docs like Dropbox does, in another app.

Where in the SDK do I look so that I can pass a document to another app to open in that one?

Ian

Ian Vink
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1 Answers1

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You'll need to use the UIDocumentInteractionController class.

It's available in UIKit, so you don't need a particular framework for this.

You instantiate this class, using an URL to the file you want to pass to another application, which is able to handle the file type:

UIDocumentInteractionController * controller;

controller = [ UIDocumentInteractionController interactionControllerWithURL: someFileURL ];

Then, you can present it:

[ controller presentOpenInMenuFromRect: someRect inView: someView animated: YES ];

Note that, on iPad, you'll need to retain the controller, otherwise it will be deallocated, making your application crash.

This method returns a BOOL value. NO is returned if no application for the file type was found. In such a case, you may display an alert.

Macmade
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  • Thanks for sharing the tip about retaining the UIDocumentInteractionController. Was driving me nuts. Also worth noting, I could never get it to work in the simulator. Only on devices. – DenVog Feb 19 '13 at 20:07