I was just about to link an app to a domain using universal links (or also refered to as associated domains; available since iOS 9). So far everything worked out and while testing with Safari I was able to open my app correctly, also parse path and query parameters of any URL.
But when I opened an URL that worked before with Safari from inside iMessage or Mail it failed.
I found out that when opening an app that way each query parameter gets reformatted to lowercase characters, which is invalid towards my data handling.
For example
https://www.example.com/path?paramNameOne=ValueOne¶mNameTwo=ValueTwo
is altered to
https://www.example.com/path?paramnameone=valueone¶mnametwo=valuetwo
So question is if there is a detail with this technology that I'm not aware of or - in case of a known bug - a propper strategy to cope with this issue.
Universal linking does not accept font formatting. Remove styling from your link and check
Related
Is it possible to make sure that (deep) links don't open a new browser window?
Use case would be e.g. QR Codes or NFC tags that contain some kind of identifier along with a URL/deep link URL.
e.g. www.example.com/mypwa/game=ID
The idea in this case would be that an asset linked to ID would become available in the app.
When you want to do that repeatedly, currently both Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS (as Standard Browser) open a new tab for each tapped NFC tag, confusing the user.
Is it possible for a PWA to check if it is already running in another tab, and if yes, take over the URL parameter (ID) and work with it ?
I've found two options to open my app from a Safari web page: a custom URL scheme created in my app project's Info.plist or Apple's Universal Linking. Obviously the custom URL scheme is the easiest one to set up, but the problem I'm having with this is that Safari shows a confirmation window asking "Open myapp?" first and the user has to tap OK before the app actually opens. I want my app to open automatically as the scheme is opened, and I'm being told the only way to do this is through Universal Linking (please correct me if this is not true). If this is true, however, I would like to know if it's possible in any way to put the required apple-app-site-association file on a http:// domain instead of https://? According the official Apple documentation the format of a correct Universal Link starts explicitly with https:// but my domain name can't be loaded on https:// without redirecting a few times and that messes up the web services I've written to execute other tasks in my app. The two main questions I'm left with after this issue:
1) Is it really impossible to work around the confirmation prompt using a custom URL scheme (myscheme://)? If it's not impossible, how can I do this?
2) If I have to use Apple Universal Linking, can I use a http:// domain? If so, how do I do it? Right now if I load up the universal link, it just shows the dictionary inside the apple-app-site-association file, which I'm pretty sure is not supposed to happen. I'm told it's supposed to send a NSUserActivity object to my app delegate. How can I accomplish this with a http:// link?
It is not possible to trigger a custom URI scheme without showing an alert to the user. This used to be possible in iOS 8, but iOS 9 started showing the alert for all apps. And iOS 10.3 has extended that even to the App Store itself. You cannot bypass this. Universal Links were created to replace URI schemes for this behavior, so you do need to use them instead.
From your description, I believe you may be misunderstanding how Universal Links work. To answer the literal questions you asked first, no the Universal Link URL itself does not need to be on the https:// protocol, and yes, the apple-app-site-association must be served over https:// without redirects.
However, it sounds like you're trying to serve the content of the apple-app-site-association file for every Universal Link. That is not the correct implementation — the AASA file is hosted only at https://example.com/apple-app-site-association, and iOS automatically retrieves it when the app is installed. After that, any URL on example.com that matches the criteria in the AASA file will be eligible for Universal Links.
All of that said, you really don't want to built out this system on your own. I suggest looking into Firebase Dynamic Links or Branch.io (full disclosure: I'm on the Branch team).
Is it really impossible to work around the confirmation prompt using a custom URL scheme (myscheme://)? If it's not impossible, how can I do this?
That is possible with some hacky tricks and BAD user experience. It requires user to press "add to home screen" button, so I don't recommend this solution in most cases.
set your app scheme like myapp
create the following html file and put it into the web
window.onload = function() {
if (("standalone" in window.navigator) && window.navigator.standalone) {
window.location.href = 'myapp://open'
}
}
open the html file with safari and "add to home screen"
open the home screen icon and your native app will launch
The point is the meta tag.
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
Without this, safari will launch and confirmation prompt will appear.
How to Open an iOS App using Firebase Dynamic Links and Pass or get Parameters To an App Via Custom URL Scheme in iOS(swift)?
for eg :- https://q3tyj.app.goo.gl/abcd
My URL Scheme is ‘q3tyj.app.goo.gl’ in iOS app in Url Types.
If I type q3tyj.app.goo.gl in safari, I am able to open the application. But if I type q3tyj.app.goo.gl with some extra parameter like https://q3tyj.app.goo.gl/abcd in safari, , I am not able to open the application.
please also explain me how to get “link” parameter (which associated with dynamic link) from dynamic link in iOS app ( Swift ) .
I followed steps which were mentioned in Firebase.google.com for iOS ( Swift ).but its not working.
Thanks,
Nirav Virpara
It's hard to know exactly where your error is, but a few things to help you debug:
If you go to https://q3tyj.app.goo.gl/apple-app-site-association, you should see some JSON that points to your app. If you don't see this, make sure you've entered your team ID and your App Store ID in the project settings in the Firebase console
Make sure you're using your Bundle ID, not the shortlink domain, as your custom URL scheme in Xcode
Make sure you've enabled Associated Domains in the Capabilities tab of your Xcode project, and your domain looks like applinks:q3tyj.app.goo.gl
Universal Links (and, therefore, Dynamic Links) generally don't work if you type them directly into the Safari address bar. Instead, try typing the URL into an app like Notes and then clicking on them from there.
Good luck!
If you type https://q3tyj.app.goo.gl/apple-app-site-association this link in your browser and check, you will end up seeing a json, meaning your apple-app-site-association is correctly configured on your google website. However, you need to make sure that teamid in your google console or appid is correct.
The official Apple documentation doesn't seem to specify whether iOS URL schemes are case-sensitive or not.
Can I register myApp and still get opened for someone calling openURL: on MyApp://params?
They are not case-sensitive.
You can verify this by entering both sms:// and sMs:// into the URL box in Safari.
Also, it seems that third-party URL schemes in the Safari address bar now lead to a page not found error. This must be new in iOS 9.3.x, because it did not do this before. Entering the URL into another app (e.g. Notes) and then opening it still works.
Edit: the above hypothesis about iOS 9.3.x is actually a bit more nuanced...
They work if…
You are starting from a blank screen
A page is still loading when you request the custom URL scheme
They do NOT work if…
You are on a webpage that has fully loaded before you request the custom URL scheme
Go figure
To launch app page in App Store app on iOS 7, this URL format is required:
#"itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id%#"
Can you also append the affiliate ID and campaign token to this URL like this?
#"itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id%#&at=%#&ct=%#"
Or does it have to be a plain
#"https://itunes.apple.com/app/%#/id%#?mt=8&uo=4"
type URL like you do in websites? Disadvantage of this URL is it opens Safari and causes redirects.
Try it and see; the link will either open or it won't, and if it does, and if you specify a custom campaign for testing, it will either show up in PHG or it won't. Let us know what happens, as I'm curious myself.
Oh, and if it doesn't, please file a bug, as that seems like a useful feature, and it should be trivial for Apple to add it if they haven't already.