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How to share text (HTML)

[This article is for Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 8.x developers writing Windows Runtime apps. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation]

Sharing text is one of the most basic, yet essential, methods for sharing content. We recommend your app support sharing text:

  • When you want the content to be available to a large number of target apps.
  • As a secondary source when sharing links or sharing HTML.

What you need to know

Technologies

Prerequisites

  • You should be familiar with Visual Studio and its associated templates.
  • You should be familiar with JavaScript.

Instructions

Step 1: Set up your app as a share source

Add a DataRequested event handler to fire when the user wants to invoke Share. In a Windows Store app, this occurs automatically when the user invokes the Share charm. If you're developing for Windows Phone, there is no built-in Share charm, so you'll need to add a control for the user to tap and trigger the handler.

var dataTransferManager = Windows.ApplicationModel.DataTransfer.DataTransferManager.getForCurrentView();
dataTransferManager.addEventListener("datarequested", shareTextHandler);

The remaining steps implement the shareTextHandler function.

Step 2: Get a DataRequest object

When a datarequested event occurs, your app receives a DataRequest object. This object contains a DataPackage that you can use to provide the content that the user wants to share.

var request = e.request;

Step 3: Set the title and description properties

request.data.properties.title = "Share Text Example";
request.data.properties.description = "Demonstrates how to share.";

Step 4: Add the text to the DataPackage

To add text, use the setText method.

request.data.setText("Hello World!");

Complete example

Here's an example of a function that sets some text for a user to share. For a more complete example, check out our code gallery sample.

function shareTextHandler(e) {
    var request = e.request;
    request.data.properties.title = "Share Text Example";
    request.data.properties.description = "Demonstrates how to share.";
    request.data.setText("Hello World!");
}

app.onactivated = function (args) {
    if (args.detail.kind === activation.ActivationKind.launch) {
        if (args.detail.previousExecutionState !== activation.ApplicationExecutionState.terminated) {
            // This app is newly launched. Register the app as share source.
            var dataTransferManager = Windows.ApplicationModel.DataTransfer.DataTransferManager.getForCurrentView();
            dataTransferManager.addEventListener("datarequested", shareTextHandler);
        } else {
            // TODO: This app was reactivated from suspension.
            // Restore the app state here.
        }
        args.setPromise(WinJS.UI.processAll());
    }
};

Sharing content source app sample

Sharing and exchanging data

How to share files

How to share HTML

How to share a link

Quickstart: Sharing content

DataPackage

Windows.ApplicationModel.DataTransfer

Windows.ApplicationModel.DataTransfer.Share