Im making a phone automation system with a web interface. As part of this I am looking to replace all remote controls (tv media center etc) with my phone.
I have a Roku media player that has a remote control iOS app, what I am trying to do is to launch the Roku native phone app from my web interface.
I know it is possible to launch apps via href such as this:
Launches native FB app
But I have tried both these which fail
Fails to launch native 'Roku' app
Fails to launch native 'ROKU' app
So I have two main questions:
Is it possible to launch any app from a web link, or does the app developer need to enable that function in some way?
Answer - Yes the app developer will need to set a url schemer
Is there a way to determine the URL you would need to launch an app IE the Facebook app can be launched by fb:// but can you determine that anywhere?
Answer - There is a link to multiple URL schemers for popular apps below but my understanding is that the app developer would need to release them
Thanks
JS Fiddle just in case - https://jsfiddle.net/0znc12bs/
Update - as a point of reference I am not developing an app this is a
web service trying to connect to apps I didn't author.
Update2 - I have been in touch with Roku support and their remote app
currently doesn't support deep linking.
To open the app from the web url the app developer need to set the id (deep linking) setting and URL Schemas in the app
For the famous app you can find the deep linking url from the net,from that you can make your list to open the app
else you can find on it's site if they have written that
List of sites which can provides some list of url schemas which you can use to open app from the web :https://stackoverflow.com/a/11155918/4557505
Related
I need to implement Deep Linking concept without using any third party libraries (Branch and etc..). The link (starts with http/https) will be shared from app through Message, Email or any Social media apps. By tapping on shared link I want to open corresponding app if its already installed on device else it should navigate to the Apple Store to download the app.
I have knowledge on URL schemas but it works only when the app is already installed on device and the schema URL format also be different (like fb:// for Facebook app).
I have also done some R&D on Universal Links but I don't know whether it supports for dynamic links as for me the link will be combination of base URL(static) and referrer key(dynamic). I also need to track the referrer information once the corresponding app is opened like who referred this app (referrer details).
e.g: https://domain.com/ReferrerID
Can you please help me on it. Thanks in advance.
To make it clear on Universal Links in iOS will not take you to Apple Store if app is not installed on device. When you click on a link then Universal Links helps you to open the app if the app is already installed on device else the same link will be going to browse in Safari. When the url browse in Safari then we have to run JavaScript to navigate/redirect to Apple Store.
Yes you can support universal links to your application from iOS 9 or above. You can generate dynamic links and have deferred deep linking also.
Follow this steps its simple Click Here
For the file mentioned in the link you need to add that file in the root of your website which consists of the path valid for deeplinking. And that file should not have any extension.
Then validate your domain at Here.
After that you can add all the domains thing in your associated domain under the project capabilites.
From Apple's guide in Support Universal Links:
When you support universal links, iOS 9 users can tap a link to your website and get seamlessly redirected to your installed app without going through Safari. If your app isn’t installed, tapping a link to your website opens your website in Safari.
But i'm confused that if my app is not installed,and I tap a universal link of my app in another app's UIWebView,will the system launch Safari app to load my website,or still load it in the UIWebView?
I test some app's universal links when the app is not installed,and they never launch Safari to load the next page ,they still load it in the UIWebView.
I want to konw if it's possible to launch Safari,but not stay in UIWebView.Do I need any configuration in apple-app-site-association file?
Actually I want to trace where my app was installed from by using cookie.I can store a cookie in Safari with informations of the download page,and get the cookie with SFSafariViewController when my app is installed and opened,and present different views according to the cookie.
What you are trying to build is called 'deferred deep linking'. This (plus a lot more) is exactly what we provide at Branch.io. If you want to avoid the headache of configuring it all yourself, give this a look. Apps like Pinterest, Airbnb, and Tinder all use us for this reason.
Apple's documentation is referring to the default behavior with the standalone Safari browser. Handling links inside an app with UIWebView supersedes this, and there is no way to automatically bounce out of the origin app into the main Safari app.
The workaround is to store data on your own backend. As you've discovered, relying on a cookie pass-through on the device itself won't work in many cases.
In the iOS docs for Google App Invites, under Receiving Invitations, it is suggested that a deep link can be retrieved on first launch if the app wasn't installed in advance:
If the user has not yet installed the app, the user can choose to
install the app from the iTunes App Store. When the app opens for the
first time, the App Invites SDK will supply a deeplink if one is
available.
I've looked through the reference docs for GINInvite and GINReceivedInvite but I don't see any way to instantiate GINReceivedInvite outside of an application openURL call. Anybody know how to actually have the SDK retrieve the deep link in this scenario?
What you are trying I will say is not the correct way. You have to check in Safari web browser if app is install or not. If not navigate to App store
You can find your solution in here How to check if an app is installed from a web-page on an iPhone?
I am working with my web developers that are stuck on a problem with a Web-app we are creating.
The webapp works great, you add the website to your home screen on the ipad, open it and use the website within the webapp interface outside of safari.
The issue is that we have one function that doesnt work, where when clicking a URL link within mobile safari, it calls an external app (Optiscan- a qr code reader), and then when scanning the code, then returns you to Mobile safari.
The question is - is there a way to call a URL that will open an external app, from within a webapp? Similar to how it would work from mobile safari?
If so - i am then wondering if an app can be written that calls the webapp to open. For example if i needed the QR code reader to then re-open the web app and pass it the QR code.
-Dana
In iOS, native Apps can define Custom URL Schemes. If you know the scheme of an App, you can simply open it by clicking on a link like Launch Facebook App. This should launch the Facebook App for iOS if installed.
There was a crowd-sourced list of known URL schemes on akosma.com but they seem to have some problems and the list is not available as of writing this. If the URL scheme of the App you need to open is not public, try contacting the developer and ask for it. I'm sure if you ask kindly, he will help you ;-)
Edit: Almost forgot to say, opening Apps like this won't return to your Web-App magically. That's something the developer of said App would have to implement.
Edit 2: I found another website that has many custom URL schemes in it's database: http://handleopenurl.com. It does not have a URL scheme for Optiscan but for other QR Readers, maybe this will help you.
I am trying to detect if my ipad app is installed on a device when visiting my website, in order to suggest different action to the visitor.
Thanks to this post :
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8310348/1128754
I found that the "store" application on iphone seems to have achieve to detect if the app is installed on the device. When you click on store links, it launch the app instead of going to the mobile web version.
For example, if you go to :
http://store.apple.com/xc/anythinghere
with an iphone on which apple store app is installed ( http://itunes.apple.com/app/id375380948 )
it automatically start the store app, instead of the web page.
I tried to follow the stack call with mitmproxy but safari doesn't seems to ask query before launching the app.
So, I guess they did custom url scheme recognition, with http:// links.
Do you think it is possible?
This is done with URL protocol handlers:
http://www.iphonedevfaq.com/index.php?title=URL_schemes#URL_Protocol_Handlers
You cannot detect if an app is installed from HTML, but you can launch an app. For example, the popular game "Doodle Jump" can be launched by going to doodlejump://, but if you don't have it installed, the link won't work. As mentioned, this is done with a custom URL scheme and needs to be coded into your app.