I have an app that plays music and I need to implement iTunes search. So, for example, I need to find song by Pink Floyd called Time. How can I open iTunes Store on iOS with results of search query "Pink Floyd - Time"?
I know it's possible, since there is an app in App Store, called VK App, a client for social network that does exactly that.
And do I need to somehow request approval of this function by Apple?
For loading dynamically you can use like this example, it will open the itunes store with the searched item: #"itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=pink%20floyd&songTerm=High%20Hopes"
Also, you can perform a search and parse the result (a json) to provide a more specific link using this web service:
https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=pink+floyd%20high%20hopes
Here is the link for the API: http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/resources/documentation/itunes-store-web-service-search-api.html
I am using the second approach on one of my app's. Works good
Wish it helps
Apple has a link maker designed to do just that.
Here's the link to it.
Related
We use an LMS calles Canvas by instructure. Our students access the LMS via the iOS app, however we would like to be able to call out from this app to another app (e-book reader).
We just want to be able to select a link which will redirect us to the app.
We have a coder in our staff, and we would really appreciate any advise on how to achieve the above.
You can communicate with URL Schemes between apps Apple Inter-App Communication
And here is Tutorial explaining URL Schemes implementation.
If you have access to the e-book reader app's codebase, this is simple to achieve by specifying a URL Scheme this app may respond to (or, alternatively, if you happen to know what URL Schemes this app supports). Then it will be as simple as calling out a URL of a corresponding format from within the iOS app your students use.
Alternatively, if your app provides access to the documents of some sort, you could look into UIDocumentInteractionController that can add "Open in..." functionality to your app, allowing app users to open a document in an arbitrary app that supports this file format.
Objective: i want to fetch my custom parameter(referrer) from iTunes link upon installation of my application in device.
iTunes links look somethings like this:
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/complete-gym-guide-lite/id550449574?mt=8
If i append my parameter say(&referrer=xyz)at the end and i open this url in ios safari browser then it will prompt to download the application.
Confusion: will app store send my parameter(referrer) to my application on launch so that i can fetch it in my application and use it.
In case of Android play store link look like this: http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=&referrer=guid%3D%guid%
As you can see referrer parameter at the end of url. Once app is installed in device then play store will send this parameter to app using INSTALL_REFERRER broadcast receiver. We can use this parameter.
What i tried OR Other people doing for conversion tracking: Other people are simply sending static data to their server at the first time opening of app and maintain a flag in NSDefault to make sure that app does not send same data again. I can also do the same as well as alternate ways suggested in below links but i want to do something with custom parameter.
I have already seen below links:
iOS - track which ad campaigns my installs are coming from
Tracking iOS installs from multiple marketing sources
Please help me out.
As #Aditya said, for now, Apple is not sending any referrer (or params) from iTunes to installation.
The only way you have it's to use a third party sdk to get your installations.
I have been working on a own sdk to get this but the way to get any info it's really hard and not really confident to use it. So endly we used some third party which are using many techniques to getting this (as fingerprint data, App2App methods, etc...)
I have tested appsflyer sdk and facebook sdk, they work as expected, use this or any else you prefer.
Hope this helps
I'm working on episodic game for iOS and would like to have a menu with links to all the episodes. When the menu is shown, I want to check if the episodes are available in App Store or not, and depending on the answer enable a button to take the user to the game's App Store page.
Is there any way of checking the existence of an app in the App Store?
All the questions I found were about checking if the user had INSTALLED certain other app on their device, but all I want to know is if it exists in App Store.
I already tried canOpenURL but that returned true for any App Store url such as http://appstore.com/nononondsds
(Docs say "It does not guarantee that the full URL is valid.")
Thanks in advance!
You can use Apple API as follows:
https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=Skype
Where "term" would be the search criteria. This will give you a JSON encoded result.
For full documentation you can check Apple Search API
Hope this is what you're looking for.
Or you just need to your App's appstore URL to https://fnd.io/ and if it returns correct response mean your app is there on appstore
OK, first thing I'd do is listen to #AdamRichardson. It might be a better idea to release each episode as an in app purchase rather than a new app?
However, if you want to do your AppStore thing then I'd do it by having a server with data on it that you can inspect.
On the server have an API that returns a list of your Apps that are available on the app store.
This way you don't need to go to the app store to check you can just update your server.
I want to programmatically track my app's search ranking on Apple's app store. Is there any API or website to do this, outside of the 'App Store' app on my iPhone?
the following websites allow searching the iOS app store.
https://theappstore.org
http://fnd.io
I'm not sure how the exact ranking is reflected, but Apple now provides an JSON API call that you can make.
https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/itunes-store-web-service-search-api/
This includes the ability to add in a callback parameter so you can even incorporate it into a web app without having to parse the results on your server.
The end API call would looks something like this:
http://itunes.apple.com/search?term=props&entity=software&country=US&callback=lkasdfj
In case users are still looking for this. Apple finally made it possible to just use the apple.com website:
https://www.apple.com/ios/app-store/ Use the magnifying glass in the top right to search the apps.
Once you find the app you want, there is a unique URL that you could use to grab information for tracking or other purposes as well.
You can't do anything other than look at the app information at this time (no way to initiate a remote install to your phone or leave a review, that has to be done on the device)
You can use the google advance search option like
site:itunes.apple.com/us/ "requires iOS 9 or later"
and then scrape the response.
You can use data.ai formerly App Annie. The free version will give you daily and overall search ranking for your app, and will help you immensely in ASO (App store optimization)
It is possible to launch another app (such as youtube, AppStore,Map, etc) from my iOS app & give it keyword for searching?
For example, I would like provide to user ability search cartoon video from my app & show the results in Youtube app.
Please share your though/
Thanks,
Huy
The only way to communicate with other apps is through URLs. Have a look at communicating with other apps. To answer your question, just create a URL that contains the search terms.
Since tagged app-store in your question, I'm sure you find this useful: How to link to apps on the app store.
A tip is to use itms:// instead of http://, then it'll open in the app
store directl