Your App in Spotlight: Harnessing the Power of the Search APIs

Transcript

1. Your App in SpotLight: Harnessing the Power of the Search APIs Tobi Adebisi - @olorun_tobi
2. iOS Search APIs • NSUserActivity • CoreSpotlight • Web Markup
3. NSUserActivity • NSUserActivity objects help save app state so it can be restored later • NSUserActivity API is used for Handoff • In iOS 9 and later, NSUserActivity objects can be indexed, and displayed in search results on Spotlight.
4. NSUserActivity • On its own, NSUserActivity can be used as a Search API for viewed app content • For a more robust Search experience, NSUserActivity is used in combination with Core Spotlight API to index app content (including ones the user hasn’t viewed yet) • NSUserActivity is not intended for indexing arbitrary data within your app
5. NSUserActivity Eligibility Variables • isEligibleForSearch (on-device index) • isEligibleForPublicIndexing • isEligibleForHandoff • expirationDate
6. Public Indexing • isEligibleForPublicIndexing • Not for private or sensitive information • First added to private, on-device index • If there’s a lot of user engagement with the public activities in search results, then this will lead to higher rankings in search results, and expanded indexing by Apple (cloud index) • Once the user activity is in the cloud index, it is searchable by anyone who has installed your application, regardless of whether they have opened that particular content or not
7. NSUserActivity Demo FoodBuds App
10. struct FoodBud { let objectId: String let name: String let email: String let phone: String let recipes: [Recipe] let specialties: [String] }
11. extension FoodBud { public static let domainIdentifier = "com.kodeplus.foodbuds.foodbud" public var userActivityInfo: [NSObject: AnyObject] { return ["id": objectId] } public var userActivity: NSUserActivity { let activity = NSUserActivity(activityType: FoodBud.domainIdentifier) activity.title = name activity.userInfo = userActivityInfo activity.keywords = Set(specialties) return activity } }
12. override func viewDidLoad() { let activity = foodBud.userActivity activity.eligibleForSearch = true userActivity = activity } // MARK: NSUserActivity override func updateUserActivityState(activity: NSUserActivity) { activity.addUserInfoEntriesFromDictionary(foodBud.userActivityInfo) }
14. So far, so good • Added all viewed items (foodBuds) to on- device index • What happens when we click on our search results? • Opens the main view of the app. That’s not what we want -_-
15. Handoff Tidbits • becomeCurrent() • resignCurrent() • A non-current activity is not eligible for handoff (continuation on another device)
16. //AppDelegate func application(application: UIApplication, continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: ([AnyObject]?) -> Void) -> Bool { guard let tabBarController = window?.rootViewController as? UITabBarController else { return false } let tabNumber = userActivity.activityType == FoodBud.domainIdentifier ? 0 : 1 guard let navigationController = tabBarController.viewControllers?[tabNumber] as? UINavigationController else { return false } navigationController.topViewController?.restoreUserActivityState(userActivity) return true }
17. //FoodBudsViewController // MARK: NSUserActivity override func restoreUserActivityState(activity: NSUserActivity) { guard let selectedActivityId = activity.userInfo?["id"] as? String else { return } selectedFoodBud = foodBuds.filter { $0.objectId == selectedActivityId }.first performSegueWithIdentifier("foodBudDetail", sender: nil) }
18. Demo GIF
19. Core Spotlight • CSSearchableItemAttributeSet • Allow us to add more information to search results • CSSearchableItem • Defines an object than can be indexed and available for on-device searches
20. CSSearchableAttributeSet • Title • contentDescription • thumbnailData / thumbnailURL • supportsPhoneCall etc..
21. public var attributeSet: CSSearchableItemAttributeSet { let attributeSet = CSSearchableItemAttributeSet(itemContentType: kUTTypeContact as String) attributeSet.title = name attributeSet.contentDescription = "\(specialties.joinWithSeparator(", ")) \n \(phone)" let image = UIImage(named: "chef") let imageData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image!) attributeSet.thumbnailData = imageData attributeSet.supportsPhoneCall = true attributeSet.phoneNumbers = [phone] attributeSet.emailAddresses = [email] attributeSet.keywords = specialties return attributeSet }
22. public var userActivity: NSUserActivity { let activity = NSUserActivity(activityType: FoodBud.domainIdentifier) activity.title = name activity.userInfo = userActivityInfo activity.keywords = Set(specialties) activity.contentAttributeSet = attributeSet return activity }
24. CSSearchableItem • Allows us to add items (viewed or not) to on- device index • attributeSet (our friend from previous slide) • domainIdentifier • expirationDate • uniqueIdentifier
25. func addRecipesToSearchableIndex() { for recipe in recipes { let attributeSet = CSSearchableItemAttributeSet(itemContentType: kUTTypeItem as String) attributeSet.title = recipe.name attributeSet.contentDescription = recipe.ingredients.joinWithSeparator(", ") attributeSet.keywords = recipe.name.componentsSeparatedByString(" ") + recipe.ingredients let searchableRecipe = CSSearchableItem(uniqueIdentifier: recipe.name, domainIdentifier: Recipe.domainIdentifier, attributeSet: attributeSet) searchableRecipes.append(searchableRecipe) } CSSearchableIndex.defaultSearchableIndex().indexSearchableItems(searchableRecipes, completionHandler: nil) }
26. Demo GIF
27. CSSearchableItem • Selecting search results from CoreSpotlight API is implemented using the same methods as those of NSUserActivity • Whenever a CSSearchableItem is selected, a NSUserActivity is created • We’ll revisit our application(_:continueUserActivity:restorationHa ndler:) method in App Delegate
28. //AppDelegate func application(application: UIApplication, continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: ([AnyObject]?) -> Void) -> Bool { guard let tabBarController = window?.rootViewController as? UITabBarController else { return false } //if userActivity.activityType == CSSearchableItemActionType let tabNumber = userActivity.activityType == FoodBud.domainIdentifier ? 0 : 1 guard let navigationController = tabBarController.viewControllers?[tabNumber] as? UINavigationController else { return false } tabBarController.selectedIndex = tabNumber navigationController.topViewController?.restoreUserActivityState(userActivity) return true }
29. //RecipesViewController override func restoreUserActivityState(activity: NSUserActivity) { fetchRecipes() guard let selectedActivityName = activity.userInfo?[CSSearchableItemActivityIdentifier] as? String else { return } selectedRecipe = recipes.filter { $0.name == selectedActivityName }.first performSegueWithIdentifier("recipeDetail", sender: nil) }
30. CSSearchableIndex: Deletion • deleteAllSearchableItemsWithCompletionHand ler(_:) • deleteSearchableItemsWithDomainIdentifiers(_: completionHandler:) • deleteSearchableItemsWithIdentifiers(_:comple tionHandler:)
31. func removeRecipesFromSearchableIndex() { CSSearchableIndex.defaultSearchableIndex().deleteAllSearchableItemsWithCompletionHandler { error in if error == nil { //Recipes deleted successfully } } }
32. Web Markup • Allow Apple to discover and index app’s website • App’s website should contain markup for deep links • Prepare app to handle deep links
33. //Preparing your app for deep linking func application(application: UIApplication, openURL url: NSURL, sourceApplication: String?, annotation: AnyObject) -> Bool { if let components = NSURLComponents(URL: url, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: true), let path = components.path, let query = components.query { if path == "/Recipes" { //Pass the specific recipe from the URL to the view controller return recipeDetailViewController.loadRecipe(query) } } return false }
34. Best Practices • Include various keywords. Apple recommends 3 - 5 keywords per item, including synonyms, abbreviations, and category items. • Provide detailed search results using CSSearchableItemAttributeSet • Take user directly to searched content, quickly • Keep search results updated
35. What to Index • Any item viewed, created or curated by user • Navigation parts and features • New messages, content, or items arriving on device
36. Thank You! :)
37. References Search APIs Documentation
 http://developer.apple.com/ios/search WWDC 2015: Introducing Search APIs
 https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/709/ WWDC 2015: Seamless Linking into Your App
 https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/509/ Ray Wenderlich: Introduction to App Search
 https://www.raywenderlich.com/116608/ios-9-app-search-tutorial-introduction-to-app-search