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Widget via Native

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Have you gone through the instructions of Getting started?

  • Make sure to complete the SDK installation before performing the procedures in the following article.
  • Widget via Native supports iOS version 6.0 and above. iOS deployment target should be set to 6.0 or later.

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See our code examples!

On our Github repository, you may find numerousΒ code examplesΒ demonstrating the usage of our features.

πŸ“˜

Stuck? Confused? Use our Support Forum!

If you need quick help in integrating Taboola SDK into your help, you can use our support forum. The forum is monitored continuously by Taboola Support and will respond within 24 business hours.

Step 1: Import Taboola SDK

For CocoaPods, import TaboolaSDK into your bridging header.

#import <TaboolaSDK/TaboolaSDK.h>
import TaboolaSDK

For Carthage, import the framework:

#import <TaboolaFramework/TaboolaFramework.h>
import TaboolaFramework

Step 2: Initialize Taboola

Create a PublisherInfo object and init Taboola

PublisherInfo *publisherInfo = [[PublisherInfo alloc]initWithPublisherId:@"publisherId"];

[Taboola initWithPublisherInfo:publisherInfo];
let publisherInfo = PublisherInfo.init(publisherId: "publisherId")
Taboola.initWith(publisherInfo)
  • publisherId - Your publisher ID as provided to you by Taboola account manager

Step 3: Adding the TaboolaWidget

Using frames

TaboolaView* taboolaView = [[TaboolaView alloc] initWithFrame:<CGRect>];
let taboolaView =  TaboolaView()

Using Constraints

Starting from iOS SDK 2.3.7, it is possible to create a taboolaView using constraints

TaboolaView* taboolaView = [[TaboolaView alloc] init];
[taboolaView setConstraintsOn: YES];
let taboolaView = TaboolaView()
taboolaView.setConstraintsOn(true)

Step 4: Set the TaboolaView Object Properties

For your production properties, contact your account manager.
For testing properties, see further down in this page.

// An identification of a Taboola recommendation unit UI template (you might use different UI templates in different parts of the app, in which case you will need to get the applicable mode for each UI template) 
taboolaView.mode = @"my-mode";

// An identification of your publisher account on the Taboola system 
taboolaView.publisher = @"my-publisher";

// Sets the page type of the page on which the widget is displayed (one of article, photo, video, home, category, search) If you're not sure what is the right value, contact your account manager.
taboolaView.pageType = @"my-page-type";

// Sets the canonical URL for the page on which the widget is displayed
taboolaView.pageUrl = @"my-page-url";

//Sets the publisher internal ID for the page on which the widget is displayed
taboolaView.pageId = @"my-page-id";

// An identification of a specific placement in the app (you might place Taboola recommendation units in multiple placements in the app, in which case you should get applicable placement ids for each such placement) 
taboolaView.placement = @"my-placement";

//The target type of the page on which the widget is displayed. If you're not sure what is the right value, contact your account manager.
taboolaView.targetType = @"my-target-type";
// An identification of a Taboola recommendation unit UI template (you might use different UI templates in different parts of the app, in which case you will need to get the applicable mode for each UI template) 
taboolaView.mode = "my-mode"

// An identification of your publisher account on the Taboola system 
taboolaView.publisher = "my-publisher"

// Sets the page type of the page on which the widget is displayed (one of article, photo, video, home, category, search) If you're not sure what is the right value, contact your account manager.
taboolaView.pageType = "my-page-type"

// Sets the canonical URL for the page on which the widget is displayed
taboolaView.pageUrl = "my-page-url"

//Sets the publisher internal ID for the page on which the widget is displayed
taboolaView.pageId = "my-page-id"

// An identification of a specific placement in the app (you might place Taboola recommendation units in multiple placements in the app, in which case you should get applicable placement ids for each such placement) 
taboolaView.placement = "my-placement"

//The target type of the page on which the widget is displayed. If you're not sure what is the right value, contact your account manager.
taboolaView.targetType = "my-target-type"
  • publisher - Your publisher id parameter as provided by your Taboola account manager
  • mode - Your mode parameter as provided by your Taboola account manager
  • placement - Your placement parameter as provided by your Taboola account manager
  • pageUrl - The full URL of a public web page which reflects the current screen's content
  • pageId - An internal identification for the current screen's content. Pass this along the page URL to set the item ID as your internal ID
  • pageType - Your page type parameter as provided by your Taboola account manager
  • targetType - Your target type parameter as provided by your Taboola account manager

Step 5: Fetch content

To show the widget, call fetchContent when the screen (view) loads

- (void)viewDidLoad{
	[super viewDidLoad];

	// Load taboolaView with testing values
	taboolaView.delegate = self;
	taboolaView.ownerViewController = self;
	taboolaView.mode = @"alternating-widget-without-video-1-on-1";
	taboolaView.publisher = @"sdk-tester";
	taboolaView.pageType = @"home";
	taboolaView.pageUrl = @"http://blog.taboola.com";
	taboolaView.placement = @"Mid Article";
	taboolaView.targetType = @"mix";

	// Fill taboolaView with recommendations 
	[taboolaView fetchContent];
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        // Load taboolaView with testing values
				taboolaView.delegate = self
        taboolaView.ownerViewController = self
        taboolaView.mode = "alternating-widget-without-video-1-on-1"
        taboolaView.publisher = "sdk-tester"
        taboolaView.pageType = "article"
        taboolaView.pageUrl = "http://blog.taboola.com"
        taboolaView.placement = "Mid Article"
        
        // Fill taboolaView with recommendations 
        taboolaView.fetchContent()
    }

🚧

Important!

  • To maintain good UX - please fetch content as soon as the screen loads and not when the user reaches the Taboola area on the screen
  • When working with UIPageViewController, Please fetch the widget content only when the view is visible to the user
  • Make sure you load the taboolaView object only from the main UI thread

Step 6: Adjust the Widget height

Taboola Widget adjusts it height automatically. We highly recommend to use this option as the final height of the widget may dynamically change according to the different UI mode that is loaded in Taboola Backstage.

In order to adjust your app layout to these changes, set 'autoResizeHeight' to YES (This is the default) and listen to the height parameter within the didLoadPlacementNamed delegate (See in Step 7)

Please keep in mind that the widget height can change throughout the app lifecycle after the first loading event - make sure you are listening to the didLoadPlacementNamed for any height change.

If wish to adjust the size of Taboola Widget manually, you can do so by setting autoResizeHeight to NO.

Step 7: Additional Integration Information (Optional)

This section describes some optional points in the integration

Delegates

To receive client-side callbacks, the client can set a delegate for each widget. The following events are available:

  • didLoadPlacementNamed - Triggered after the TaboolaView is successfully rendered; returns the placement name and the updated height value
  • didFailToLoadPlacementNamed - Triggered after the TaboolaView fails to render; returns the placement name and the error string value. Since iOS SDK 2.5.0, it is possible to get the detailed error strings by activating the detailedErrorCodes feature flag; NO_ITEMS (no fill by Taboola), WRONG_PARAMS (wrong "tb_mode" was used), RESPONSE_ERROR, TIMEOUT (connectivity issue), UNKNOWN_ERROR, and INTERNAL_1

Example:

taboolaView.delegate = self;
[taboolaView setExtraProperties:@{@"detailedErrorCodes":@"true"}];

- (void)taboolaView:(UIView *)taboolaView didLoadPlacementNamed:(NSString *)placementName withHeight:(CGFloat)height;

- (void)taboolaView:(UIView *)taboolaView didFailToLoadPlacementNamed:(NSString *)placementName withErrorMessage:(NSString *)error;
class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        taboolaView.delegate = self
        taboolaView.setExtraProperties(["detailedErrorCodes": true])
    }
}

extension ViewController: TaboolaViewDelegate {    
    func taboolaView(_ taboolaView: UIView!, didLoadPlacementNamed placementName: String!, withHeight height: CGFloat) {
        print("Placement \(String(describing: placementName)) loaded successfully. height \(height)");
    }
    
    func taboolaView(_ taboolaView: UIView!, didFailToLoadPlacementNamed placementName: String!, withErrorMessage error: String!) {
        print("Placement \(String(describing: placementName)) failed to load because: %@ \(String(describing: error))");
    }
    
}

Intercepting Organic Recommendation Items Clicks

The SDK enables app developers to change the default behavior when a user clicks on an organic item. For example, you might want to create a click-through or to override the default way of opening the organic recommended article.

// To intercept recommendation clicks
- (BOOL)onItemClick:(NSString *)placementName withItemId:(NSString *)itemId withClickUrl:(NSString *)clickUrl isOrganic:(BOOL)organic {
	NSLog(@"Start load request on first screen: %@ isOrganic? %@", clickUrl, organic ? @"YES":@"NO");
    if (organic) {
        NSLog(@"organic items should open as native app pages.");
    }
    return YES;
}
  
//Returns: YES if the taboolaView should handle the click; otherwise, NO. Default value is YES.
  
//NOTICE: As of version 1.5.1, clicks on non-organic items will be handled by
//Taboola SDK and the app will not be allowed to override the default click
//handler. "No" responses from taboolaViewItemClickHandler will only be 
//honored for organic items.
func onItemClick(_ placementName: String!, withItemId itemId: String!, withClickUrl clickUrl: String!, isOrganic organic: Bool) -> Bool {
        if organic {
            print("itemId: \(String(describing: itemId))")
        } else {
            print("clickUrl: \(String(describing: clickUrl))")
        }
        return true
    }

The method is called every time a user clicks a recommendation, immediately before triggering the default behavior. If recommendation clicks are not intercepted, they are presented by a Taboola powered in-app browser. It is also important to note that TaboolaView also fires notifications that can be caught by any object inside the app. This is in case you want to react to these notifications elsewhere in your code.

The app can intercept the click there, and returns a boolean value:

  • Returns NO - abort the default behavior (in which case the app displays the recommendation content on its own - e.g. using a custom in-app browser)

  • Returns YES - this enables the app to implement a click-through and continue with the default click handling behavior (which displays the clicked content with an in-app browser)

  • "organic" indicates whether the item clicked was an organic content recommendation or not. Best practice is to suppress the default behavior for organic items. Instead, open the relevant screen in your app which shows that piece of content.

  • Use "itemId" in organic clicks for deeplink

  • "clickUrl" is the URL with the redirect

🚧

Important!

In some cases the delegates parameters can be with null value. Please make sure to handle such a case in your code

Replacing the Default In-app Browser Icons

The file TaboolaViewResources.bundle includes the default icons for the TaboolaView in-app browser. You can replace these icons by providing an alternative TaboolaViewResources.bundle file which contains the following files:

  • back_icon.png
  • forward_icon.png

Using more than one Taboola asset on the same screen

It is possible to add more than one Taboola asset on the same screen. For example, placing two Taboola widgets on a feed style screen. When doing so it is important to avoid duplicate items on each asset

  1. Set the same viewId value for each taboolaWidget object before fetching content. The viewId value must be a string of digits. We recommend using the current epoch timestamp. In any case, the viewId value can not exceed 19 digits.
  2. Fetch the content for the second asset only after a response is received for the first asset. Please use the didLoadPlacementNamed to listen to render is done events

To do so, please make sure you do the following:

//sets the viewId to be a string of digits (current epoch timestamp)
int timestamp = [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970];
String *viewId = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d",timestamp];
BOOL didLoadFeed = NO;
  
//fetching content for the first Taboola item -
//for example, mid article widget
_taboolaMidArticleWidget.viewID = viewId;
[_taboolaMidArticleWidget fetchContent];

(void) taboolaView:(UIView *)
     taboolaView didLoadPlacementNamed:(NSString *)
     placementName withHeight:(CGFloat) height
{
  if (!_didLoadFeed)
    {
      _didLoadFeed = YES;	
    // We are loading the feed only when the widget finished loading- for dedup. 
      _taboolaFeed.viewID = viewId;
      [_taboolaFeed fetchContent];
    }

}
//sets the viewId to be a string of digits (current epoch timestamp)
lazy var viewId: String = {
        let timestamp = Int(Date().timeIntervalSince1970)
        return "\(timestamp)"
    }()

var didLoadFeed = false 

//fetching content for the first Taboola item -
//for example, mid article widget
taboolaMidArticleWidget.viewID = viewId
taboolaMidArticleWidget.fetchContent()

func taboolaView(_ taboolaView: UIView!, didLoadPlacementNamed placementName: String!, withHeight height: CGFloat) {
if !didLoadFeed
{ didLoadFeed = true // We are loading the feed only when the widget finished loading- for dedup. 
 taboolaFeed.viewID = viewId
 taboolaFeed.fetchContent()
}
}

Step 8: Resetting Taboola When Closing the Screen

Do not forget to reset Taboola when leaving the current screen.

- (void)dealloc
	{
		[taboolaView reset];
	}
deinit {
        taboolaView.reset()
    }

Step 9: Testing and Examples

You can find code examples on our Github repository.

You can use the following parameters for testing and development. Sponsored items are flagged with an "SC: " prefix in the title; organic items are flagged with an "OC: " prefix in the title

ParametersMid Article WidgetBelow Article Widget
publisher"sdk-tester-demo""sdk-tester-demo"
placement"Mid Article""Below Article"
PageUrl"https://blog.taboola.com""https://blog.taboola.com"
PageType"home""home"
TargetType"mix""mix"
mode"alternating-widget-without-video-1-on-1""alternating-widget-without-video-1x4"

Step 10: Submit Build for QA

When you have finished the integration, contact your account manager and send a debuggable (TestFlight or other beta platform) version of your iOS project.

You're done!

Integration Support

Should you have any problems integrating the product, log a ticket with us by emailing your account manager. For a quick support you can also check our discussion forum