dart - How do I share an image on iOS and Android using Flutter?

Question

I would like to share an image using the standard share dialogs in iOS and Android. The code below is mostly from https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/share which I'm using as a starting point (only Dart and Objective-C below). It currently shares only text.

Instead of Image below which I'm not sure is the best approach, how would I convert the image to a byte stream in Dart and handle in iOS and Android.

Dart

static const _kShareChannel = const MethodChannel('example.test.com/share');
Future<Null> shareImage(Image image) {
  assert(image != null);
  return _kShareChannel.invokeMethod('shareImage', image);
}

Objective-C

static NSString *const PLATFORM_CHANNEL = @"example.test.com/share";

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    [GeneratedPluginRegistrant registerWithRegistry:self];

    FlutterViewController* controller = (FlutterViewController*)self.window.rootViewController;

    FlutterMethodChannel *shareChannel = [FlutterMethodChannel methodChannelWithName:PLATFORM_CHANNEL
                            binaryMessenger:controller];

    [shareChannel setMethodCallHandler:^(FlutterMethodCall *call, FlutterResult result) {
        if ([@"shareImage" isEqualToString:call.method]) {
            [self share:call.arguments withController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
            result(nil);
        } else {
            result([FlutterError errorWithCode:@"UNKNOWN_METHOD"
                                       message:@"Unknown share method called"
                                       details:nil]);
        }
    }];
    return [super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
}

- (void)share:(id)sharedItems withController:(UIViewController *)controller {
    UIActivityViewController *activityViewController = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:@[ sharedItems ]
                                  applicationActivities:nil];
    [controller presentViewController:activityViewController animated:YES completion:nil];
}

Answer 1

The below will allow you to send a file (specifically an image in this example) using UIActivityViewController on iOS and as a share intent on Android.

FileProvider overview (Android)

Update pubspec.yaml to reference your image if local (image.jpg in this example) and to use the path_provider plugin in order to access the file system. https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/path_provider

main.dart

import 'dart:io';
import 'dart:typed_data';

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter/services.dart';
import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';

void main() => runApp(new MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      title: 'Share Demo',
      theme: new ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: new MyHomePage(title: 'Share Demo Home Page'),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);

  final String title;

  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {

    return new Scaffold(
      appBar: new AppBar(
        title: new Text(widget.title),
      ),
      body: new Center(
        child: new Column(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
          children: <Widget>[
          ],
        ),
      ),
      floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: _shareImage,
        tooltip: 'Share',
        child: new Icon(Icons.share),
      ),
    );
  }

  _shareImage() async {
    try {
      final ByteData bytes = await rootBundle.load('assets/image.jpg');
      final Uint8List list = bytes.buffer.asUint8List();

      final tempDir = await getTemporaryDirectory();
      final file = await new File('${tempDir.path}/image.jpg').create();
      file.writeAsBytesSync(list);

      final channel = const MethodChannel('channel:me.albie.share/share');
      channel.invokeMethod('shareFile', 'image.jpg');

    } catch (e) {
      print('Share error: $e');
    }
  }
}

AppDelegate.m

#include "AppDelegate.h"
#include "GeneratedPluginRegistrant.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

static NSString *const SHARE_CHANNEL = @"channel:me.albie.share/share";

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    [GeneratedPluginRegistrant registerWithRegistry:self];
    FlutterViewController* controller = (FlutterViewController*)self.window.rootViewController;

    FlutterMethodChannel *shareChannel =
    [FlutterMethodChannel methodChannelWithName:SHARE_CHANNEL
                                binaryMessenger:controller];

    [shareChannel setMethodCallHandler:^(FlutterMethodCall *call, FlutterResult result) {
        if ([@"shareFile" isEqualToString:call.method]) {
            [self shareFile:call.arguments
             withController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
        }
    }];

    return [super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
}

- (void)shareFile:(id)sharedItems withController:(UIViewController *)controller {
    NSMutableString *filePath = [NSMutableString stringWithString:sharedItems];
    NSString *docsPath = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSCachesDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0];
    NSString *imagePath = [docsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:filePath];
    NSURL *imageUrl = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:imagePath];
    NSData *imageData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:imageUrl];
    UIImage *shareImage = [UIImage imageWithData:imageData];

    UIActivityViewController *activityViewController =
    [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:@[ shareImage ]
                                      applicationActivities:nil];
    [controller presentViewController:activityViewController animated:YES completion:nil];
}

@end

MainActivity.java

package com.example.share;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;

import java.io.File;

import io.flutter.app.FlutterActivity;
import io.flutter.plugin.common.MethodCall;
import io.flutter.plugin.common.MethodChannel;
import io.flutter.plugins.GeneratedPluginRegistrant;

import android.support.v4.content.FileProvider;

public class MainActivity extends FlutterActivity {

    private static final String SHARE_CHANNEL = "channel:me.albie.share/share";

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        GeneratedPluginRegistrant.registerWith(this);

        new MethodChannel(this.getFlutterView(), SHARE_CHANNEL).setMethodCallHandler(new MethodChannel.MethodCallHandler() {
            public final void onMethodCall(MethodCall methodCall, MethodChannel.Result result) {
                if (methodCall.method.equals("shareFile")) {
                    shareFile((String) methodCall.arguments);
                }
            }
        });
    }

    private void shareFile(String path) {
        File imageFile = new File(this.getApplicationContext().getCacheDir(), path);
        Uri contentUri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(this, "me.albie.share", imageFile);
        Intent shareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        shareIntent.setType("image/jpg");
        shareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, contentUri);
        this.startActivity(Intent.createChooser(shareIntent, "Share image using"));
    }
}

AndroidManifest.xml

<provider
    android:name="android.support.v4.content.FileProvider"
    android:authorities="me.albie.share"
    android:exported="false"
    android:grantUriPermissions="true">
    <meta-data
        android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
        android:resource="@xml/file_paths" />
</provider>

xml/file_paths.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<paths>
    <cache-path name="images" path="/"/>
</paths>

build.gradle (app)

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation 'com.android.support:support-v4:27.1.1'
}