NatShare - Free Sharing API

[Lanre]

Hi all! I am pleased to announce an API we decided to make public, open, free: NatShare. With NatShare, you can share images and videos, save to the camera roll, and retrieve a thumbnail for a video. NatShare has been made an independent project from NatCorder , our video recording API for Unity Engine.

NatShare Features Include:

• Share images (Texture2D) using the native sharing UI
• Share videos (using the video path) using the native sharing UI
• Save images (Texture2D) to the camera roll
• Save videos (using the video path) to the camera roll
• Get a thumbnail for a video (using the video path)

The API is free and is hosted on the Asset Store and GitHub. Please feel free to open issues for bugs and feature requests:

NatShare on the Asset Store

NatShare on GitHub

Also, check out the release article.

NatShare will be added to the Asset Store soon. Thank you!

[brainz]

Hi. Coming back to my question about custom actions, the idea is to allow the player to choose what to do with a video. They can share on a social network, but might, on the other hand, to place it on the in game chat. We could make to share buttons in the game, but it feels much cleaner if we have a single share button, that shows the Native Share Sheet, but it includes, not only the supported share targets for that media type, but also some in game action, like for example share share in clan chat, or send to in game friend’s inbox.

Something like this:
http://pinkstone.co.uk/how-share-objects-using-your-own-uiactivity/
http://jayeshkawli.ghost.io/using-uiactivityviewcontroller-swift/

[Lanre]

@brainz

Hi. Coming back to my question about custom actions, the idea is to allow the player to choose what to do with a video. They can share on a social network, but might, on the other hand, to place it on the in game chat. We could make to share buttons in the game, but it feels much cleaner if we have a single share button, that shows the Native Share Sheet, but it includes, not only the supported share targets for that media type, but also some in game action, like for example share share in clan chat, or send to in game friend’s inbox.

Something like this:
http://pinkstone.co.uk/how-share-objects-using-your-own-uiactivity/
http://jayeshkawli.ghost.io/using-uiactivityviewcontroller-swift/

This use case is pretty specific to your application from the looks of it. This level of modification would have to be done by developers (you). You can fork the NatShare project and begin to modify it.

[brainz]

Will give it a go.

[sinjimonkey]

Does this api allow for posting to social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram? I think those are the main ones my boss wants. We’d like to be able to share images (taken with a different api) and video taken from NatCorder.

It seems there are some pretty common device-native solutions for this that I wouldn’t know where to begin to access. I presume they are device native because a lot of the Android apps and games seem to do these things in the exact same way.

[Lanre]

@sinjimonkey

Does this api allow for posting to social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram? I think those are the main ones my boss wants. We’d like to be able to share images (taken with a different api) and video taken from NatCorder.

It seems there are some pretty common device-native solutions for this that I wouldn’t know where to begin to access. I presume they are device native because a lot of the Android apps and games seem to do these things in the exact same way.

Yes it does. It is indeed a native solution, so it is similar to other apps that provide similar functionality.

[sinjimonkey]

Thanks! I got that implemented so far (was easy - or at least it seemed easy… I’m building the first test now.)

Is there a way to be able to write the text of the post? I know a lot of games post messages to Facebook with things like coin requests or whatnot. We’d like to use it to be able to add event hashtags for our Augmented Reality campaigns.

[Lanre]

@sinjimonkey

Thanks! I got that implemented so far (was easy - or at least it seemed easy… I’m building the first test now.)

Is there a way to be able to write the text of the post? I know a lot of games post messages to Facebook with things like coin requests or whatnot. We’d like to use it to be able to add event hashtags for our Augmented Reality campaigns.

That sounds good. Currently there isn’t, but feel free to open a feature request issue on GitHub and we’ll review it.

[gilkansolizaris]

@Lanre

Hi all!
[…]
NatShare will be added to the Asset Store soon. Thank you!

Actually, I would suggest as well to remove the “Sharing” example code from NatCorder, here https://medium.com/@olokobayusuf/natcorder-unity-recording-made-easy-f0fdee0b5055, and replace with a redirect to NatShare stuff.

I’ll wait it at Assets Store. Great job.

[Lanre]

@gilkansolizaris

Actually, I would suggest as well to remove the “Sharing” example code from NatCorder, here https://medium.com/@olokobayusuf/natcorder-unity-recording-made-easy-f0fdee0b5055, and replace with a redirect to NatShare stuff.

I’ll wait it at Assets Store. Great job.

Nice catch! I have updated the post. I will let you know when we publish the API onto the Asset Store.

[magglemitch]

Hi,

Using natshare, I’m trying to get the thumbnail for the recorded video. Works perfect on Android, but iOS I get a weird result with the image becoming warped.

This is the code I’m using:

void OnReplay (string path) {

NatShare.GetThumbnail(path, OnThumbnail);

}

void OnThumbnail (Texture2D thumbnail) {
rawimage.texture = thumbnail;
}

Am I messing something up here?

[Lanre]

@magglemitch

Hi,

Using natshare, I’m trying to get the thumbnail for the recorded video. Works perfect on Android, but iOS I get a weird result with the image becoming warped.

This is the code I’m using:

void OnReplay (string path) {

NatShare.GetThumbnail(path, OnThumbnail);

}

void OnThumbnail (Texture2D thumbnail) {
rawimage.texture = thumbnail;
}

Am I messing something up here?

Can you share a screenshot? Also, what is the resolution of the returned thumbnail.

[Sacker3407]

Hi,

I updated the NatCorder assets in my project and added the NatShare assets as well.

I am getting this error: “…/NatShare-API-1.0/WebGL/NatShare.js(6,6): UCE0001: ‘;’ expected. Insert a semicolon at the end.”

This semicolon error appears for all 9 lines with “const”. Is there something I need to do for these imported assets to make this not appear as an error?

Edit:
I assume I downloaded the right asset pack from “GitHub - videokit-ai/natshare: Cross-platform social sharing for Unity Engine.”. I just brought it into my project normally, but perhaps I am missing something?

[Lanre]

@Sacker3407

I am getting this error: “…/NatShare-API-1.0/WebGL/NatShare.js(6,6): UCE0001: ‘;’ expected. Insert a semicolon at the end.”

Can you share a screenshot of the error? You aren’t supposed to be receiving any error with the raw Javascript file (it shouldn’t be compiled by anything). What version of Unity are you using? Did you move files around after importing?

[Sacker3407]

I am using Unity 2017.3.1.
I imported the files into a specific sub-folder, but didn’t move anything after it had been added to the project.

Also, I reimported it and this error shows up in addition: “You are trying to import an asset which contains a global game manager. This is not allowed.”

[Lanre]

It seems that you downloaded the entire GitHub project. You should download the unitypackage instead. When you import it, do not move it into a sub-folder as it may break Unity’s plugin import schemes.

[magglemitch]

@Lanre

Can you share a screenshot? Also, what is the resolution of the returned thumbnail.

Attached screenshot. How do I check the resolution of the thumbnail? I haven’t set one manually.

[Lanre]

@magglemitch

Attached screenshot. How do I check the resolution of the thumbnail? I haven’t set one manually.

To get the size of the image, simply log the returned textured width and height. I have a pretty good idea what’s going on. I’m working on a fix.

EDIT: I have made a fix for this issue. Grab NatShare 1.0f2.

[magglemitch]

@Lanre

To get the size of the image, simply log the returned textured width and height. I have a pretty good idea what’s going on. I’m working on a fix.

EDIT: I have made a fix for this issue. Grab NatShare 1.0f2.

For some reason now the app crashes on iOS as soon as recording is done. I’ll test it today and see what’s making it crash.

[Lanre]

@magglemitch

For some reason now the app crashes on iOS as soon as recording is done. I’ll test it today and see what’s making it crash.

Can you share the logs and a screenshot of the call stack in Xcode? These should have a clue as to what’s going on.