Question

I have saved a pdf file in the apps documents folder on the iPad. I want the user to open that PDF file on iPad using iBooks. Is there any way to open the PDF in iBooks which is saved in documents folder of the application?

Answer 1

EDIT : Best option : Use UIActivityViewController

//create file path here
NSString *strFileURL = [NSTemporaryDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"data.pdf"];

//Check if file path exists or not
BOOL checkExist = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:strFileURL isDirectory:nil];
if (checkExist)
{
    //create NSURL object from string path
    NSURL *urlFilePath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:strFileURL];

    UIActivityViewController *activityViewController = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:@[urlFilePath] applicationActivities:nil];

    //for iOS8 check
    if ( [activityViewController respondsToSelector:@selector(popoverPresentationController)] )
    {
       //use triggering UI element like say here its button
       activityViewController.popoverPresentationController.sourceView = yourBtnSender;
    }

    //now present activityViewController
    [self presentViewController:activityViewController animated:YES completion:NULL];

}

---

Another option use UIDocumentInteractionController for this:

//create file path here
NSArray  *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory , NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDir = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *pdfFilePath [documentsDir stringByAppendingPathComponent:yourPdfFile.pdf];// your yourPdfFile file here
NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:pdfPath];

//create documentInteractionController here
UIDocumentInteractionController *docController = [UIDocumentInteractionController interactionControllerWithURL:url];
//set delegate
docController.delegate = self;

//provide button's frame from where popover will be lauched
BOOL isValid = [docController presentOpenInMenuFromRect:yourReadPdfButton.frame inView:self.view  animated:YES]; // Provide where u want to read pdf from yourReadPdfButton 

//check if its ready show popover
if (!isValid) 
{
  NSString * messageString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"No PDF reader was found on your device. In order to consult the %@, please download a PDF reader (eg. iBooks).", yourPDFFileTitle];

  UIAlertView * alertView = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Error" message:messageString delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil];
  [alertView show];
}

Use UIDocumentInteractionControllerDelegate method

// UIDocumentInteractionController delegate method
- (void)documentInteractionControllerDidDismissOpenInMenu:(UIDocumentInteractionController *)controller {
   NSLog(@"dissmissed");
}

Credit goes to @Mutix ‘s answer