What happens if user clicks on deep link in the app itself - deep-linking

Question

If I have created a deep link using the branch.io that opens a specific screen in my app. If this link is also available in my app and a user clicks on it, will it open my screen? or it will do nothing as the link I am trying to open from the app is pointing to the same app?

Answer 1

When you click on a Branch link within a webView in your App, you will have to handle the routing to the specific Activity, after reading the Branch link parameters.
Here is a sample Activity which contains a webView and and shows a couple of Branch links. When you click on a link in the webView it reopens the webview and displays the link parameters in a Toast message if a Branch link is clicked
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private WebView webView_;
private Button button_;
private String TAG = "WebViewController";
private Context context_;
private static final String URL_TO_LOAD = "https://evangelosg.github.io/index.html";
private static final String BRANCH_LINK_TO_LOAD = "https://ere6.app.link/b6sS0gsCfG";
#Override
protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
Log.d("WebView", "onNewIntent");
setIntent(intent);
}
#Override
protected void onResume() {
super.onResume();
Branch branch = Branch.getInstance();
branch.initSession(new Branch.BranchReferralInitListener() {
#Override
public void onInitFinished(JSONObject referringParams, BranchError error) {
if (error == null) {
Log.d(TAG, referringParams.toString());
Toast.makeText(context_, referringParams.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
if (referringParams.has(BundleExtraKeys.CLICKED_BRANCH_LINK)) {
try {
boolean clickedBranchLink = referringParams.getBoolean(BundleExtraKeys.CLICKED_BRANCH_LINK);
if (clickedBranchLink) {
//do stuff!
}
} catch (JSONException e) {
Log.d("BranchTrends", e.getMessage());
}
}
} else {
Log.i("MyApp", error.getMessage());
}
}
}, this.getIntent().getData(), this);
}
#Override
protected void onStart() {
super.onStart();
}
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
context_ = this;
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
webView_ = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView);
webView_.setWebViewClient(new BranchWebViewController("app.link", MainActivity.class));
webView_.loadUrl(URL_TO_LOAD);
button_ = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);
button_.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View view) {
CustomTabsIntent.Builder builder = new CustomTabsIntent.Builder();
CustomTabsIntent customTabsIntent = builder.build();
customTabsIntent.intent.putExtra("branch", BRANCH_LINK_TO_LOAD);
customTabsIntent.intent.putExtra("branch_force_new_session", true);
finish();
customTabsIntent.launchUrl(MainActivity.this, Uri.parse(BRANCH_LINK_TO_LOAD));
}
});
}
public class BranchWebViewController extends WebViewClient {
private String myDomain_;
private Class activityToLaunch_;
BranchWebViewController(#NonNull String myDomain, Class activityToLaunch) {
myDomain_ = myDomain;
activityToLaunch_ = activityToLaunch;
}
#Override
public void onLoadResource(WebView view, String url) {
super.onLoadResource(view, url);
}
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
String url = request.getUrl().toString();
if (url.contains(myDomain_)) {
Intent i = new Intent(view.getContext(), activityToLaunch_);
i.putExtra("branch", url);
i.putExtra("branch_force_new_session", true);
finish();
startActivity(i);
} else {
view.loadUrl(url);
}
return true;
}
}
}
Once you read the link parameters you can route to the appropriate Activity based on the link parameters.