DPS Tip: Adding Social Sharing Features to a DPS App

Social sharing functionality can be added to a multi-issue DPS viewer app for the purpose of including links to a publication’s URL or to an article. These links can be distributed via Facebook, Twitter, email, or “Copy Link” sharing. The contents of an article can be shared and seen by a recipient in a desktop browser, or on an iPad or iPhone.

To initiate social sharing:

1. Register the app with Facebook if you plan to use Facebook for sharing your content. During that process, you will be assigned a Facebook Apple ID.
2. Create a web page for your publication. The URL for this page is referred to as the “Publication URL.”
3. Create a 1024×768 folio. Articles to be shared should use either a PNG or JPG (not PDF) image format. Create renditions for your target devices, using the same Article Name so that shared articles will link to the correct article.
4. In the Folio Producer Editor, set up protection for those articles that will not be shared. Unprotected articles are uploaded to a website on an Adobe server when the folio is published.
5. Social sharing is enabled using the Account Administration tool. Use this tool to set a limit on the number of unprotected articles that customers are able to read and that can be viewed in Adobe‘s Web Viewer, and set up paywall information.
6. Create a custom viewer app, select your social sharing options, and indicate the Publication URL and Facebook settings in the App Builder.

To register your app with Facebook:

1. Go to http://developers.facebook.com/.





2. Click Log In in the title bar, and sign in using the publisher’s Facebook account.
3. Click Apps in the title bar and click Create New App.
4. Enter the name of your app in the App Display Name field. Leave the App Namespace blank, and click Continue.
5. Supply any additional information required to verify the account, and the Apps page will open.
6. Select the appropriate app if there is more than one listed, and choose Edit Settings.
7. Fill out the Basic Info section with the necessary information.
8. Fill out the Website and Native iOS Appsections at the bottom of the page.
   • For Website, specify the iTunes link to the app in the Site URL field. This link shows up under “via [app name]” when users share an article.
   • Under Native iOS App:
     • Specify the iOS Bundle ID (optional) as it appears when you select the app in iTunes Connect, and the iPad App Store ID.
     • Set “Configured for iOS SSO” to Enabled, as recommended by Adobe.
     • Enable “iOS Native Deep Linking” so that the link bypasses the landing page on the iOS device.
9. Click Save Changes.
10. Click Advanced in the upper-left panel. Under Authentication, select “Native/Desktop” for App Type.
11. Facebook requires you to specify a Privacy Policy URL linking to a web page that describes your privacy policy.
12. 
Click Save Changes.

Note: You can only enable Facebook sharing with multi-issue viewer apps created or updated with DPS v19 or later, and that are registered with Facebook.  Select Enable Facebook Sharing and specify the Facebook App ID. For Share URL, specify the URL of your publication, such as http://www.mymagazine.com.

Additional notes:

• There are no additional steps to enable DPS social sharing on Twitter.
• Use the Folio Producer Editor to indicate which articles are protected. When you publish or update the folio, the contents of unprotected articles are uploaded to a website on an Adobe server.
• Use the Account Administration tool to enable social sharing. You can also use the tool to limit the number of articles that can be viewed, and set up paywall information.
• For the Share URL you specify for your app, Facebook selects an image thumbnail to display. You can edit metadata to control which image is selected.
• Single sign-on (SSO) lets users sign in to your app using their Facebook identity; if they are already signed in to Facebook on their device, they are not required to type a username and password.

See Adobe’s “Integrated social sharing with Digital Publishing Suite” and “Using social sharing” for additional information on social sharing in a DPS app.

Check out TFP’s DPSPublish™ Handbook or DPSPublish™ app for more details about building and publishing iPad apps.

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