Offering media for sale in your app

Overview

This sample code project shows how to let users purchase media from your app using the SKStoreProductViewController class. Additionally, the sample demonstrates how to measure the effectiveness of a cross-promotional campaign for your apps or third-party apps using the SKStoreProductParameterCampaignToken and SKStoreProductParameterProviderToken keys. When cross-promoting your apps, set SKStoreProductParameterProviderToken to your own provider token. When promoting apps for other developers, set it to their provider token.

The app in this sample project displays a list of media items that the user can tap to make purchases from the App Store. You can also track advertising and promotions from this interactive list of media items for sale.

The sample app requires an iOS or iPadOS device.

Configure the sample code project

This sample code project defines a Product data type to represent media information it saves in the Products.plist file. Products.plist contains a single Product entry. Before you can run this sample on your device, you need to update this entry with your own data.

1. Set the sample’s productIdentifier key to your media’s iTunes identifier. For more information about iTunes identifiers, see SKStoreProductParameterITunesItemIdentifier.

2. Set the title key to your media’s name.

3. Set the isApplication key to YES if your media is an app, and NO, otherwise.

4. Set the campaignToken and providerToken keys to the appropriate tokens if you’re cross-promoting apps, and leave them empty if you’re not. For more information about generating campaign and provider tokens, see Manage campaigns, Campaign Token, and Provider Token.

To add more data, duplicate and update the Product entry in Products.plist as necessary.

Display media from the App Store

This sample launches to the TableViewController, which shows a list of media associated with iTunes identifiers in Products.plist. When the user taps any item in the list, TableViewController presents a page where they can purchase the media from the App Store.

The sample creates a parameters dictionary and sets the SKStoreProductParameterITunesItemIdentifier key to the media’s iTunes identifier.

var parametersDictionary = [SKStoreProductParameterITunesItemIdentifier: product.productIdentifier]

The sample creates an SKStoreProductViewController object and sets the view controller class as its delegate. Then it passes the dictionary to the loadProduct(withParameters:completionBlock:) method of the SKStoreProductViewController object.

// Create a store product view controller.
let store = SKStoreProductViewController()
store.delegate = self

Then the sample presents the SKStoreProductViewController object modally.

/*
   Attempt to load the selected product from the App Store. Display the
   store product view controller if successful. Print an error message,
   otherwise.
*/
store.loadProduct(withParameters: parametersDictionary, completionBlock: {[unowned self] (result: Bool, error: Error?) in
    if result {
        self.present(store, animated: true, completion: {
            print("The store view controller was presented.")
        })
    } else {
        if let error = error {
            print("Error: \(error.localizedDescription)")
        }
    }})

The delegate needs to dismiss the store view controller when the purchase completes, or if the user cancels it. TableViewController implements the productViewControllerDidFinish(_:) method to dismiss the presented store product view controller. Apps can also use this method to resume any activities that they pause before presenting the store.

Track advertising and promotions

The SKStoreProductParameterCampaignToken and SKStoreProductParameterProviderToken keys track advertising and promotion for the app. When the user taps an item in the list, TableViewController adds these keys and their values to a dictionary, which already contains SKStoreProductParameterItunesItemIdentifier with the iTunes identifier.

TableViewController passes the dictionary to a created SKStoreProductViewController object, and then displays the store product view controller modally.

/*
    Update `parametersDictionary` with the `campaignToken` and
    `providerToken` values if they exist and the specified `product`
    is an app.
*/
if product.isApplication, !product.campaignToken.isEmpty, !product.providerToken.isEmpty {
    parametersDictionary[SKStoreProductParameterCampaignToken] = product.campaignToken
    parametersDictionary[SKStoreProductParameterProviderToken] = product.providerToken
}

See Also

Recommendations

• SKStoreProductViewController
• SKOverlay