Can I know the URL of my product at Blackberry storefront (e.g. from SKU) before it has been submitted?
As you can see here, the URL to the BlackBerry World store is based on the app's Content ID.
So, if your app has a content ID of 1000, your url would be:
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1000/
I honestly can't remember exactly when the Content ID gets assigned, and I don't have a new app I can submit right now.
But, if you've already started adding a definition for your app in the BlackBerry vendor portal, login, then choose Manage Products, and then pick the (unreleased) app, to edit the details. On a page that looks like this, see if you have a Content ID already. If so, that's what you'll use.
If not, I'm not sure you're going to be able to generate the URL yet. I do know that the Content ID is a BlackBerry world unique ID, and it's not simply your own SKU, that you have complete control over. You can certainly choose to make your SKUs match the BlackBerry Content ID, but you can't force BlackBerry World to take your SKU as the Content ID. Hope that makes sense.
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Looking to integrate the branch.io in such a way that the admin gets the deep link at web end where he adds the content. And then he manually post the link to some social media say Twitter,Facebook etc. then user clicks on that link and it will take the user to app or app store.
Is it possible, please guide how to handle this. I am quite confused about branch.io. As far i understood branch.io creates the link send via sms and user clicks and gets redirected to app or app store. Is my requirement valid? How to achieve this please guide. Already spent more than a half day on it.
(Full disclosure: I am on the Branch.io team)
This is actually a very common Branch use case, so it's fairly straight forward to implement.
1. Sign up for Branch
Easy step!
2. Integrate the SDK into your app
This is a fairly simple process that should take less than half an hour, and the latest step-by-step docs for doing this are always at the link above. I won't include the full instructions in this answer because Apple creates new roadblocks fairly regularly, and we often have to make small tweaks to the guide.
After you complete this step, any time a user opens a Branch link associated with your app, either your app will launch (if installed) or that user will be sent to the App Store page to download it.
3. Create your marketing link
The link above takes you to the Branch dashboard. From that page, you can create a new Marketing Link, and use the Deep Link Data section to specify a key/value pair. For example, you can set a key of content and assign it the value mycustomvalue:
When your app launches after a user opens this link, the content : mycustomvalue pair will be magically returned to you.
4. Configure Deep Link Routing and Universal Links.
These methods are what actually call back to the Branch API every time your app opens, returning the content : mycustomvalue pair that you encoded in the link. You can do whatever you like with these values, but here are two common approaches:
Route the user to the content that you specify corresponds to mycustomvalue.
Use the values directly to display something customized (for example, if you encoded content : You've been sent a special invitation!
5. Share the link wherever you like!
The link you created can be put anywhere. Email, Twitter, Facebook, paid Google Ads, etc.
I'm self taught, and program alone so I have no one else to ask what might be a dumb question but at the same time could be very important. Is keeping your iOS appID and Bundle ID private important? Everyone always whites out their IDs on SO. Or do these pieces of information make their way around the web in plain text?
I ask because I stumbled on a text document of applinks that shows the corresponding iOS app associated with the link and its appID: "ABDJCEI890.com.john.smith" along with associated keys for a popular API. Mine was on the list and I was taken aback thinking that that information should be private.
There are hundreds of apps on this list, just a quick scroll reveals the IDs and keys of: lonelyPlanet, NBCUniversal, Vevo, etc.
Is this important or not important?
Important, no. Embarrassing, perhaps. For example, com.DanielStorm.iHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing as a published application's Bundle Identifier might be a little awkward if you're trying to maintain a professional image on the App Store.
To be honest, I always hid my app id & bundle id for two reasons
app id, So the competitors wouldn't know what's my app name and what I am working on
bundle id, for most users it their real apple developer name. I don't like the world to know that either
Their maybe other better valid reasons that I don't know.
As for the site that you just mentioned, they didn't get appID info directly from some apple website and I bet they used some sort of web crawlers program that downloaded and decompiled their ipa and read info.plist file. It's really easy to do that. I bet you wouldn't find info for apps that are paid and were never made free.
To be honest its a shame apple doesn't encrypt everything in a ipa. Only certain data is encrypted the rest is easily viewable with a text editor
I going to show my other apps in one app. I know only one way to do that - just hardcoded icons, links and names of other applications, but it extremely inconvenient. Is there are way to reach itunesconnect's list of apps via some API?
You can use the iTunes lookup API to accomplish this. All you need is the developer ID of the account you want to lookup.
Here is a sample query for all of Facebook's apps:
https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=284882218&entity=software
The response contains a JSON object for the developer and then for each app, which includes any info you may want to grab such as the name or icon.
I want to open iTunes with list of all the apps by a particular developer or company and in this very case my own applicaitons.
The problem is I don't know how should the URL string be
itms://itunes.com/apps/xxxx
what should I replace this xxx with ? and where would I find this text. Is it the company name? If so, should I look for it in developer account's profile info.
What else could be used? I heard there is some artistId or something like that. If so, how do I find it?
Well if you know the developer or company that you're looking for beforehand, you can use Apple's iTunes Link Maker web utility to generate links for the appstore (or any store really). You just put the developer's / company name in 'Search' field and set 'Media Type' to iOS Apps (or whatever you need). After the search is completed click on the appropriate result link under 'Artists' and you'll be presented with a sheet containing a link like this:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/vasileios-akoinoglou/id339374807?uo=4
Note that you can safely replace http:// with itms:// so to avoid a redirection (if you use http then the link is first opened in Safari and then in Appstore).
As I can see from the link the components after artist is the developer / company name (whitespaces are replaced by dashes) and the id I think is the enrollment id (edit: it's not). I hope that this will be useful to you.
The iTunes lookup API will also help in this case - simply replace the adamID for any app in the following URL:
http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=524731580
In the results, look for the artistViewUrl to determine the best URL to link to all apps developed by this Seller
Your URL should be in this format for the AppStore app to open it on iOS:
http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?media=software&term=ideal%20development%20aps
This basically performs a search on a term in the appstore. it is the only bulletproof solution we have found, but it might be problematic if your developer name accidentally matches another developer or product. Also note that sometimes the search fails, in which case the AppStore app needs to be closed completely.
I use the Facebook API for iOS, which enables posting content to the Facebook wall. The API allows custom links to be added next to "Like" and "Comment". I would like to add "Get App" here which links to my app on App Store, but how do I do this when my App ID will not be known to be before the app is actually approved? ("Chicken-and-egg" situation)
Possible solutions:
A) Link to a temporary URL which is changed to the App Store link after approval
B) Wait until version 1.1 to add this, when the App ID is known
Is there any other way to accomplish this?
You get an App ID once you create an app in iTunes Connect. That means you get the ID before you publish the app and it doesn't change when the app goes trough review or publishing process. I'm not able to make a screenshot right now, but it's easily found in top left corner when you click on manage apps > your app.
Some ISPs and independent providers offer domain name services that would help here, possibly.
I use EasyDNS, but there are other options.
The idea is that you register a domain name with them and purchase a plan that includes web forwarding. Web forwarding lets you send any web traffic for your domain to a specific URL.
You temporarily forward to any URL you like (presumably a page on your regular site, maybe a "Coming soon" page). Then, when you receive the real URL, change the forwarding to point there.
It might take a day or so for the change to percolate across the while interweb, but generally you can see and test results fairly quickly yourself, or at least that's been my experience.