This documentation will help you quickly start using Apptentive in your iOS app. For complete documentation, as well as system requirements, see the iOS Integration guide.

1. Add Apptentive

There are several options for adding the Apptentive SDK to your app. The easiest method is to use CocoaPods. If you would like to use another integration method, please see our iOS Integration guide.

CocoaPods

You will need a recent version of CocoaPods, a text editor, and basic familiarity with the Terminal app. If you aren’t already using CocoaPods for your app, start by opening up the Terminal app and navigating to the directory that contains your app’s .xcodeproj file. Then run pod init to create a Podfile for your app.

Open your app’s Podfile with your favorite text editor, and add an entry for Apptentive:

# Uncomment this line to define a global platform for your project
# platform :ios, '9.0'

target 'MyApp' do
  # Comment this line if you're not using Swift and don't want to use dynamic frameworks
  use_frameworks!

  # Pods for MyApp
  pod 'apptentive-ios'
end

Then, in the same directory as your Podfile, run pod install in the Terminal app. Finish by opening up the .xcworkspace file created by CocoaPods.

2. Initialize Apptentive

When your app starts, it will need to initialize the Apptentive SDK.

First, you’ll need to import the Apptentive SDK, and then create a configuration object with your Apptentive App Key and Apptentive App Signature. Register Apptentive with that configuration object. Finally, set your app’s iTunes Store ID. We recommend doing this in your application delegate’s application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) method:

import UIKit
import Apptentive

class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
var window: UIWindow?

  func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
    if let configuration = ApptentiveConfiguration(apptentiveKey: "<#Your Apptentive App Key#>", apptentiveSignature: "<#Your Apptentive App Signature#>") {
        configuration.appID = "<#Your iTunes App ID#>"
        Apptentive.register(with: configuration)
    }

    // Other app initialization...

    return true
  }
}

3. Add Message Center

Find a place in your app for a button that will launch Message Center. This will allow customers to contact you with feedback, or questions if they are having trouble using your app, as well as allow them to see your responses.

If Message Center is available, show a UIButton or UITableViewCell that will launch it when tapped. This example assumes you have an UIViewController subclass called SettingsViewController that has a UIButton you would like to open Message Center with.

import UIKit
import Apptentive

class SettingsViewController: UIViewController {

  // ...

  @IBAction func openMessageCenter(sender: UIButton) {
    Apptentive.shared.presentMessageCenter(from: self)
  }
}

4. Add Events

Events record user interaction. You can use them to determine if and when an Interaction will be shown to your customer. At a minimum, you should include around 10 Events in your app to start taking advantage of Apptentive, but for now, let’s just create one. To trigger an Event, call the engage() method. This will record the Event, and then check to see if any Interactions targeted to that Event are allowed to be displayed, based on the logic you set up in the Apptentive Dashboard.

In this example, trigger an Event when your Main Activity resumes.

import UIKit
import Apptentive

class MainViewController: UIViewController {

  // ...

  override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated: animated)

    Apptentive.shared.engage(event: "main_view_appeared", from: self)
  }
}

5. Show a Survey

Now that you’ve created an Event, you can create a survey and display it when the Event is triggered.

1. Go to the Surveys page.
2. Click “New Survey” to create a new survey.
3. Give the survey a name, title, introduction, add a question, choose whether to end with a Thank You message, and click Save & Continue
4. Choose Publish survey as an independent Interaction
5. Under the Where section, chose the Event main_view_appeared (or whatever Event name you used). If your app hasn’t connected to the server after triggering that Event, you will need to add it manually at this point, by clicking Create new Event…
6. Near the bottom, check Allow multiple responses from the same person so you can display this survey more than once.
7. Click Save & Continue
8. Click Launch Survey

Now, if you restart your app, you will see this survey when you trigger the main_view_appeared Event.