Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/how-to-create-a-smooth-installation-process-for-your-ios-keyboard-extension-ae9bf8f08eff?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Aleksander Skjølsvik <img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*sZTFsvDHzw6R4zPPMs5-1g.png">Your average user trying to install an iOS keyboard
If you’ve ever downloaded a custom keyboard for your iPhone, you know just how cumbersome it is to enable the damn thing. And if you’re having difficulties, just imagine how you users must feel!
To reiterate, this is what you have to do:
<ol>
<li>Open the Settings app</li>
<li>Tap General</li>
<li>Tap Keyboard</li>
<li>Tap Keyboards</li>
<li>Tap Add New Keyboard…</li>
<li>Tap your keyboard’s name</li>
</ol>
And if you need full access, add the following two steps:
<ol>
<li>Tap your keyboard’s name again</li>
<li>Enable Full Access</li>
</ol>
That’s a total of 6–8 steps, depending on the features you need! There’s no way a user can figure that out on their own.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*VZDARPcojcHa6RwWhTiPzg.png">~ user experience ~
<h4>Why not just list the steps?</h4>
Well, that’s what we’ve been doing.
But do you really want to force your users to memorize those steps? And even then, do you think they’ll be able to?
My experience providing a keyboard app for the past 2 years shows me that this is a huge deterrent, and whether you like it or not, you’re probably losing a significant amount of users right about here.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*svP1K1qahpxuvDXE6Pzq0Q.png">Don’t be this guy
<h4>So, what’s the alternative?</h4>
Application Settings to the rescue!
You might’ve noticed that almost every app you install on your device gets a custom entry in the Settings app. Maybe you even knew you could link directly to this page from your own app using the UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString key? But did you know you can also enable a custom keyboard from here?
Yup that’s right, you can just direct your users to your app’s custom Settings entry and they’ll be able to enable the keyboard — including Full Access — directly there!
If you’re not sure how to go about that, just execute this line of code whenever a user presses a button in your app that should take them there:
<pre>[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString] options:@{} completionHandler:nil];</pre>
Go ahead, give it a try — I’ll wait!
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/222/1*2O2bFVDUJGfQrLdBsnOHrQ.gif">You should see something like this
<h4>Wow that was easy, thanks!</h4>
Not so fast there.
Try running this in the simulator — after resetting content and settings. After all, this is how it’d be for your user their first time around.
<h4>Wait, it doesn’t work after all?</h4>
That’s right, your app hasn’t registered any Settings yet!
The reason it worked for you is because you already had enabled the keyboard, thereby letting iOS know about its existence. Whether or not this is a bug I don’t know (fyi, I have submitted a Bug Report with Apple — still waiting to hear back).
<h4>So now what?</h4>
Don’t fret, where there’s a will there’s a way.
All you need to do is register a Settings Bundle with something — anything — in it, and iOS will take care of the rest.
For example, you could just display your app’s version and build number there. It really is that easy!
<h4>What are you even talking about?</h4>
Okay, let me take a few steps back.
Apple allows your app to specify a certain set of settings — or preferences — to be editable from the default Settings app. This is what’s called a <a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/UserDefaults/Preferences/Preferences.html">Settings Bundle</a>.
To create one, simply open your project, click File -&gt; New -&gt; File, scroll down and select Settings Bundle, and save it as Settings in your top-level directory.
Once you’ve done that, go ahead and open the Root.plist file. This is a key-value store of different properties you can make editable.
You can specify what type of field you’d like — anything from a Slider and Text Field, to just a static Title.
Inside each of those dictionaries you specify their properties — the most important being the Identifier as this is the corresponding entry in your UserDefaults.
If you don’t have any settings to display, simply add a few Titles. I decided to display my app’s Version and Build numbers.
If going for the last option, note that you need a default_value for it to work, even if this gets replaced by the user defaults value you linked.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*GzOdNc1BuO6lq4VqprQjTQ.png">This simply displays two static strings, labeled “Version” and “Build” respectively that both default to “-”
<pre>NSString *version = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@”CFBundleShortVersionString”];</pre>
<pre>[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:version forKey:@”version_pref”];</pre>
<pre>NSString *build = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:(NSString *)kCFBundleVersionKey];</pre>
<pre>[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:build forKey:@”build_pref”];</pre>
The above code is run in application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: and replaces the default “-” with the actual values for your app.
Once you’ve added this, go ahead and run it in a clean simulator again. Notice how when clicking your button, it takes you straight to the correct settings page — and you’re able to enable the keyboard directly from within it.
If you found this guide helpful, please leave a few claps! And if you think it’s dumb we have to employ this workaround, submit a bug report with Apple regarding your app not showing up in the settings by default.
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/how-to-create-a-smooth-installation-process-for-your-ios-keyboard-extension-ae9bf8f08eff">How to create a smooth installation process for your iOS keyboard extension</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to create a smooth installation process for your iOS keyboard extension

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