Recently news are coming out that one can create vanity url for Apple Appstore.
But I cant find any options additionally added in itunes connect to do it.
any help is appreciated :)
It seems we dont have to do anything ...
just we have to add the company name or app name at the end of http://appstore.com/
It seems since all the app names and company names are already unique, apple does the all background job of rerouting the appstore-link to the actual itunes-link..
iOS: http://appstore.com/<.companyname.> for example, http://appstore.com/ikural
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<.companyname.> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/popcap
apple has provided this Q&A page
You don't create it. It is based on your company or application name. It is not very robust (two applications with the same name can have the same URL). See Apple's Technical Q&A.
In particular, the last paragraph reads:
These App Store Short Links are provided as a convenience and are not
guaranteed to link to a particular app or company. Be sure to test
your URLs before using them in any marketing or other public
materials. If there are naming conflicts, continue using the standard
itunes.apple.com URLs, which contain a unique numerical identifier
within the URL.
Related
I've been reading a few things about shortening URLs to the App Store so instead of having a really long, unattractive url, you can like: AppStore.com/MyAppOrMyCompanyName
I found that type of url here and there are several ways of linking to dev pages directly in older iOS here...
I'm hoping to use the Appstore.com/ or appsto.re/ scheme to make the URL look better and more readable, as well as cutting out the redirect from safari and link straight to the App Store either from my social media (as well as in my games by pressing a button).
There is some discussion here about shortening the URLs but I can't see how to use this to a developers page (so it shows all apps) instead of a single application.
Where can I find this/how can I get my company url?
You can now make short link URLs in the form of apple.co/#####
In September 2020, Apple released new marketing tools:
App Store Marketing Tools
Search for your app, and then you can generate a short link, QR code, and download app artwork.
Here's the info from the Apple Technical Q&A. Make sure you convert all letters to lowercase and remove all spaces.:
There are three types of App Store Short Links, in two forms, one for iOS apps, another for Mac Apps:
Company Name
iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple
App Name
iOS: http://appstore.com/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/keynote
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/keynote
App by Company
iOS: http://appstore.com/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/apple/keynote
Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/<companyname>/<appname> for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple/keynote
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 have encountered an unfortunate design issue with the Facebook iOS SDK. The problem is our company produces many branded apps from the same prototype codebase (think restaurant ordering) that all need to interact with the same Facebook app.
The problem is that if a user has multiple brands installed on their phone, the url schemes conflict and when authenticating from one app, the user may be returned to the wrong app!
I looked into Facebook's url scheme suffixes, but the documentation says multiple suffixes are searched in order (!), not relative to the corresponding bundle id. This is horrible. If it simply associated a suffix with a particular bundle id, our problem would go away, but as it is documented, it will place precedence on certain brands over other brands, which is no better than the default behavior.
Is there any way to associate a url scheme suffix with a specific bundle id?
You can explicitly specify the suffix for each app by setting FacebookUrlSchemeSuffix in the application's plist. When this happens, for the purposes of login and share dialog, the Facebook app will know the right suffix to use.
The only time it searches down the list of suffixes is for deep linking, which you may or may not use.
In any case, you might want to have different app IDs anyways as #WizKid recommends since you'll be able to get analytics for each app, and it also becomes easier to maintain.
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.
Is support url necessary for app submission in the Appstore? I am registered as an individual developer and i don't have a web page for support url. What can i do?
The support url is now required. You can make a free account at a site like:
http://www.wordpress.com/
or similar.
I would create a free page at github pages. Simple and straight forward. If you need something simple it is the perfect choice.
Apple provides a bit more info in their help docs:
The support website you plan to provide for users who have questions
regarding the app. The support URL must lead to actual contact
information so that users can reach you regarding app issues, general
feedback, and feature enhancement requests. Specify entire URL,
including the protocol, as in http://support.example.com.
Only customers who purchase the app can see the Support URL on the App
Store.
This property is required and can be localized.
https://help.apple.com/app-store-connect/#/devf29afbb74
I think you will be fine, I had the same problem like this. I have submitted the app without the link and it got accepted and after that i have edited the URL.