I'm writing up an app for connecting people to videoconferencing options, and I want the ability to directly launch installed apps (on an iPhone/iPad) from the app.
The way to do this, is to register an app's scheme in the plist, then use that scheme in a URI.
I do that already with Google Maps and Zoom. Here's the Zoom page on that (the scheme is "zoomus").
I am trying to find the same scheme for the BlueJeans app, and I'm having a devil of a time, doing that. I don't want to embed their API. I want to call an installed app.
I may be able to figure it out by looking at their API (depending on how opaque it is), but I wanted to ask here, first, in case I missed something. I did root through their documentation site, and didn't have much luck. It's a fairly balkanized site.
So far, I see only that they support installing their API, which ain't happening.
I will also be looking for the answer elsewhere, and I have opened a support case with them.
OK. I found it.
Completely by trial and error (BlueJeans never responded to me).
It's "bjn".
Related
I need to open my particular UIViewController when the following link is clicked on the Safari browser:
http://my.sampledomain.com/en/customer/account/resetpassword/?id=24&token=8fbf662617d14c10f4a11f716c1b2285
When this link is clicked on the browser, I need to open my application on a particular screen and retrieve the data from this url. For example:
id = 24
token = 8fbf662617d14c10f4a11f716c1b2285
...and pass it to that particular UIViewController.
How can i do that?
What you are describing is called Deep Linking. It's a very common app feature to implement — most apps have it — and conceptually, it seems like an easy thing to build. However, it's complicated to get right, and there are a lot of edge cases.
You basically need to accomplish two things:
If the app is installed: open the app and route users to the correct content inside it.
If the app is NOT installed: forward users to the App Store so they can download it. Ideally, also route users to the correct content inside the app after downloading (this is known as 'deferred deep linking').
While not required, you'll also probably want to track all of this activity so you can see what is working.
If the app is installed
Your existing custom URI scheme fits into this category. However, Apple has decided that custom URI schemes are not a good technology, and deprecated them with iOS 9 in favor of Universal Links.
Apple is right about this. Custom URI schemes have a number of problems, but these are the biggest:
There is no fallback if the app isn't installed. In fact, you get an error.
They often aren't recognized as links the user can click.
To work around these, it used to be possible to use a regular http:// link, and then insert a redirect on the destination page to forward the user to your custom URI scheme, thereby opening the app. If that redirect failed, you could then redirect users to the App Store instead, seamlessly. This is the part Apple broke in iOS 9 to drive adoption of Universal Links.
Universal Links are a better user experience, because they are http:// links by default and avoid nasty errors. However, they are hard to set up and still don't work everywhere.
To ensure your users end up inside the app when they have it installed, you need to support both Universal Links and a custom URI scheme, and even then there are a lot of edge cases like Facebook and Twitter which require special handling.
If the app is NOT installed
In this case, the user will end up on your http:// fallback URL. At this point, you have two options:
Immediately forward the user directly to the App Store.
Send the user to your mobile website (and then use something like a smart banner to give them the option of going to the App Store).
Most large brands prefer the second option. Smaller apps often go with the first approach, especially if they don't have a website.
To forward the user to the App Store, you can use a Javascript redirect like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function() {
window.location = "https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1121012049";
};
</script>
Until recently, it was possible to use a HTTP redirect for better speed, but Apple changed some behavior in Safari with iOS 10.3, so this no longer works as well.
Deferred deep linking
Unfortunately there's no native way to accomplish this last piece on either iOS or Android. To make this work, you need a remote server to close the loop. You can build this yourself, but you really shouldn't for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being you have more important things to do.
Bottom line
Deep linking is very complicated. Most apps today don't attempt to set it up by building an in-house system. Free hosted deep link services like Branch.io (full disclosure: they're so awesome I work with them) and Firebase Dynamic Links can handle all of this for you, and ensure you are always up to date with the latest standards and edge cases.
See here for a video overview an employee at Branch made of everything you need to know about this.
The use case is, essentially, this:
the user create some content and uploads it to our server.
our server responds with the URL.
the user sends the URL (eg via text message) to another user.
the other user clicks on the URL. If they have the app installed, they should be taken to the content in the app. If they don't have it, they should still be able to view the content on our site (eg in safari).
This is easy enough, and we have that working, except our URLs are long and we'd like to use shortened URLs. With shortened URLs, the problem is it always opens in Safari, instead of the app, unless we setup a custom domain. (This is described in many places, including here: iOS Universal Links and URL Shorteners).
The docs for google URL shortener indicate that they have overcome this somehow:
Even though App Indexing for iOS is available only in limited release, you can still enable iOS app deep links with goo.gl by implementing App Indexing for iOS. While these deep links may not begin appearing in Search results, they will start working with goo.gl links.
So I installed the app indexing for iOS into our app on a test device and ran it. Then I created a short link but it still opens in my browser, not my app.
Does this really work as advertised? Do I have to wait longer? Install the indexer on more apps? Will a created link open in the app right away, or does the content have to be indexed?
...Or am I missing something else?
Related:
Google app indexing for iOS and universal links
UPDATE:
The only way I can see this actually working without a custom domain is if Google added every app they indexed to their apple site association file. All I see is google apps there, so obviously that's not the case.
Stack overflow won't let me link it because it thinks it's a link shortener, but it's close to this:
https://goo. gl/apple-app-site-association
You are exactly right: for this to work, Google would need to add your app to their apple-app-site-association file. Unfortunately that would be impossible even if Google wanted to do so, because Apple puts a size limit of 128 kb on that file.
Integrating the App Indexing SDK was a good thought, but doesn't solve this issue either.
What you need is a (free) service like Branch.io (full disclosure: I'm on the Branch team). This is specifically designed for exactly what you're trying to accomplish, and takes care of all the housekeeping tasks you are running into. You'll be able to create branded short URLs that take you to your app (if installed) or website fallback (if not installed), and the AASA file will be generated automatically for the short URL domain.
I am trying to implement deeplinking in iOS.
After a little research i came to know the if we need to navigate to our app(if installed) on click of a link, we need to work on server side also.
Is there anyway to work out this without server side dependency?
The old-fashioned approach to deep linking used custom URI schemes, which didn't require any server-side implementation. These don't work well anymore. Apple introduced Universal Links in iOS 9, which do require a server-side update.
If you don't want to deal with all the implementation details, check out Branch.io (full disclosure: I'm on the Branch team). It's a free service that takes care of all this without any server requirements from you.
There are two ways to link to your app:
Make iOS redirect URLs of your website to your app (Universal Links)
For example http://maps.apple.com/?q=1+Infinite+Loop opens the Maps App and YouTube-Links redirect to the YouTube-App, if it is installed.
This requires some server-side configuration.
I have not worked with Universal Links yet, so I can just propose you to read this document by Apple about this topic.
Use a custom URL scheme
If you don't want to do anything on your server, you need to use a custom URL-scheme like myapp://this/is/a/url
Is it possible to read the contents of another application installed on an iPhone? What about from an extension or keyboard?
I'm trying to come up with something that 'checks' other apps to see if they have any deep links (like Twitter's Twitter://timeline that takes users straight to the timeline in the Twitter app).
Is there any smart way to check a given app for deep links?
Is it even possible to peek at another app's contents from within my app? I suspect no.
If no, what about making a keyboard or extension of some sort that I can access from an app like Twitter and see its contents, such as a URL deep link?
You don't have much options, you may use -canOpenURL:, but, since iOS9, must include special credentails listing all the custom schemes you want to check.
You can't read other app's contents on a non-rooted device unless this app is sharing a keychain (so it can exchange data via the shared keychain). The same thing goes with extensions.
iOS has some high bars on security, so, don't expect much or even, anything.
Something you may want is IntentKit. Also there are ideas around the web about standard url query format like MobileDeepLinking.
My app bounces the user out of the app into safari to do some web things (toying with using a webview but there are other concerns regarding layout, usage, re-launching the app, server errors, etc.). When they are done I would like a link on the final web page that lets them re-launch the app. I think this should be possible through a protocol implementation of some sort (such as href="myAppProtocol://relaunch") but I don't know how to go about implementing it properly.
[UPDATE] (can't answer my own question yet so editing here)
Stumbled across this just after posting (hours of looking and this is always how it comes together...) http://mobileorchard.com/apple-approved-iphone-inter-process-communication/
Using a URL type handler in your plist (as I suspected) you can declare that your app handles urls of that type (say "myAppProtocol"). iOS then launches your app and hands it the URL when it's touched in safari. What you do from there is up to you, I just need to launch so I don't take it any further, but you could grab the URL and parse it out for further passed information etc.
I guess you found the answer already, but have a look at the docs as well: Using URL Schemes to Communicate with Apps.