I have a client that needed to abandon their very poor native app and needs a temporary solution immediately. They have a mobile optimized website and we'd like to deploy an app in the store to replace the current one, and design it such that as soon as you launch it, it either hosts the site within a web browser control, or just redirects the user to a website in the iPhone Safari app. I realize there are subtle differences between the browser control and the actual Safari browsers.
Are there any tools or products that auto create such simple apps, and are there any problems with getting such simple apps approved by Apple?
Sounds like you want to make a hybrid app.
http://www.cocoacontrols.com/posts/a-primer-on-hybrid-apps-for-ios
Your app could just be a UIWebView that shows the website. It's possible that Apple might reject ithe app if there is nothing to it except a web view -- do some research on that possibility.
Related
I have Universal Linking setup in my app.
Now when browsing my website in Safari and visiting a UL registered link, it opens in safari and asks me if I want to open in my App.
Is there a way that it always opens in the app? No prompt to open in app, just open when it is installed, else continue in safari.
There are two different issues here:
1. In Safari, the URL of a Universal Link needs to be on a different domain/subdomain than the page on which it appears
Apple is very conservative with where Universal Links are allowed to work. One of the limitations in Safari is not allowing the app to open if the user is already browsing the same site (this sort of pages sense — if the user made the effort to open a site in Safari instead of the app, it could be annoying if every single link on that site tried to open the app, especially if the app isn't properly configured for deep link routing).
The workaround is to use a separate domain/subdomain for links you want to open the app. For example, if your site is on example.com, point any link you want to open the app to link.example.com and then redirect users without the app back to the main website or onward to the App Store. This is actually the system we built at Branch.io (which you could consider using instead of re-building it yourself!)
2. What you have described is not Universal Links behavior
Universal Links do not ask the user for confirmation before opening the app, even the first time. They always open the app immediately without even requesting the web page, until/unless the user explicitly disables them (which is actually rather easy to do). What you're describing is the behavior of custom URI schemes, so I suspect you may have a some sort of automatic redirect to the app's URI scheme on the page the Universal Link points to. This is actually not the best idea in most cases, since users without the app will see a nasty error message.
iOS. I have a mobile web site and a mobile app for the same. i want the user to be able to navigate from web to my app through a link. Is it possible for this feature to be feasible when the app is not installed. I know i can use smart app banners when the app is already installed and this feature can be implemented then. But the main problem i am facing is when the user is asked to install the app (from smart app banners) for a particular page of my website. How can i automatically redirect the user to same page on my app from where he clicked the app banner on first launch of app ?
This is a problem that Branch, the company I'm working for, solves. It's actually fairly simple to explain, but quite a bit more tricky to implement yourself.
Apple doesn't currently allow you to persist information like that through an install (through the App Store), so you'll need an intermediate server. Now, depending on what devices you want to support, this gets more and more tricky. You mentioned you're only on iOS now, but if you expand to Android, this becomes even more complicated (with the fragmentation of Android devices and browsers, etc). For now, I'll just explain for iOS though. It's basically a two step process, starting with the smart banner on your mobile web page.
The smart banner, when clicked, will try to
* Launch the app if possible. We do this by trying to load via the app's URI scheme.
* If the URI Scheme fails (not installed), we send a device fingerprint to our servers based on IP, model, etc. and then send the user to the app store.
The second part is then within the app:
* When it launches, it needs to ask the server if it was launched via a link click. (whether directly into the app or through the app store and now into the app).
* It sends along a similar fingerprint, and then the server (if the device matches) will send back the relevant info (the page id, or whatever you use).
* If the page id is present, you need to present the view controller with that content to the user (you may need to persist this info in your app through a login, if it's behind an auth wall).
I have a mobile web app designed as a single place for employees of our company to help them locate various online resources. The app has a lot of in-app content, but also provides links to external partner websites. My issue is a common one with a bit of a twist. I like the way the app looks in standalone mode on an iphone, but am struggling to figure out a solution for keeping the app in stand-alone mode, while also providing the ability to open external links in safari. I know how to keep the app in standalone mode when links are clicked, but when an external link is clicked, one of two problems occurs:
1) If I code the external link to keep it in standalone mode, there is no way to navigate back to my app from the external site as the back button is obviously no longer available.
2) If I code the external link to open in safari, when the user is done with the external link, the session for my app is closed and the user has to go back to their homescreen and re-open it again. (I know I can code it so that they will return to where they were in the session, but this is not the solution I want).
My question is this, is there a way to open external links ON TOP OF a standalone web app session? So that when the external link is closed, the standalone web app session appears?
I've read that I can use AJAX to open external links within the active session, but I don't know how to do this and can't find anything online that explains it well. Any help would be MUCH appreciated.
My app functions fine in safari, but looks SO much better in standalone mode; I would be SO appreciative if anyone can provide a solution. I am also willing to discuss paying someone to help with this as well.
Cheers,
SC
Turn your app into an actual app, not just a web site. You should implement your own web browser in your app using UIWebView. It's very simple. You probably only need a back button and a close button, you don't need a full search/address bar, bookmarks, etc. UIWebView and two buttons will do it.
As soon as you switch apps to Safari you will see the behavior you have described - there's no getting around it. Your only choice is not to exit.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/uikit/reference/UIWebView_Class/Reference/Reference.html
my site is responsive, and it's looking good on Safari on iPhone. But when I browse to my website from my Twitter app on my iPhone, it seems to ignore most of my mobile styling and looks very bad. Is there something I can do to detect if the browser is some kind of mobile app (such as Twitter) and cause the page to load in the default mobile browser instead (Safari, Browser, etc.)?
Edit: I strictly used CSS' max-width media query and targeted HTML5 block elements to change widths into percents. On two navs, I changed the display attribute as necessary.
Turns out it was a caching issue. It loads fine in the Twitter app. Oddly, it didn't before, even after several tries.
To the best of my knowledge, you can't force the site to open in the default mobile browser. The decision whether to open your site in the app's UIWebView or the default Safari browser is made by the Twitter app alone. If the Twitter app was gracious enough to provides any interface for you to choose, it might be possible, but they probably don't. Most app publishers try to keep users inside the app for as long as possible, and throwing them outside to a different app usually goes against this.
Your best bet is probably to try to improve your site's responsiveness to also work inside the Twitter app UIWebView as well (or inside other apps for that matter). If you base your responsiveness on screen width for example (CSS max-width and friends), I assume it should also work inside the Twitter app UIWebView.
The problem you are describing is indeed a very serious and annoying one. UIWebViews inside apps don't implement by default all of Apple's special handlers (that work inside the original Safari). The app maker is expected to implement these manually, and 99% of all apps simply don't do this. It's true for many other apps as well, the Google native search app also opens URLs inside a UIWebView - and sites tend to look lousy there too.
You should also consider filing a bug with Twitter and urge them to improve website compatibility when opened inside their app.
You can't force the user to open the link from a browser from your website. Android WebView is restricted and by default does not allow javascript and other extensions.
You can find more information here: Android WebView VS Phone Browser
I will soon be writing a native iPhone app for my web site. The web site is already mobile optimised so could potentially just sit in a UIWebView. How does the Facebook app work? Does it do something similar?
If I did use a UIWebView then how would I store user credentials so they don't have to log in every time and how would they upload photos? These are my two main requirements.
The facebook app is going to be a native app. It is different from the mobile website.
There are two things you can do here. If you're going to make your native app just a UIWebView then don't bother! You can have an apple icon embedded in your website which will show if a user bookmarks your website on their home screen. To use this use the <link rel="apple-itouch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png" /> code to do it.
The second is make a fully native app. I know the benefits of a UIWebView app, but the negatives are plain to see. UIWebView apps are tacky, nonfunctional and terrible to use. A mobile website is not an app (unless done very well). You will have links to click, pinch and zoom, awful bounce effects on the web view, links that may possibly allow users to navigate away from your mobile website but within your app. Again, unless done cleverly, you will have to provide browser controls on your app which will make it look like a tacky web browser.
My suggestion would be either stick with your website, optimise it for touch based input, make it a really good mobile website, or create a fully functional native application. Remember not all websites need to have an app to go with it. If your app isn't necessary then its merely counter productive to make an app for it. I don't know about anyone else, but I spend more time in my web browser than I do in apps.
With regards to uploading and auth then a) auth should be done already in your website. A UIWebView is just an instance of safari working within your app, so it will be able to get and store cookies and all sorts. I believe these degrade at the end of the app session, however its easy to pass to the objective c and store in an stored preference. b) uploads not going to work even if you put your site in a web view. You will have to (at some point) hand off to an upload screen in your app which is running natively.
I would suggest that you start off with a simple native app. Let the users log in, upload stuff and do other basic stuff - whatever they can't currently do on your mobile website. Then move on to other things as people ask for them, or as you have the time to make them. You don't have to launch your app with a fully functioning version of you website (in fact this would be silly because the only thing they cannot do on your mobile website on their phone is upload stuff). I'm sure people will request features as your product evolves.
I would take a look at PhoneGap, you can get access to native device features through javascript http://phonegap.com/