Is it possible to create a browser extension which can change where the user is taken?
I.E. If the user puts in a certain prefix or symbol the browser will not attempt to go to the address supposedly determined by the rest of the string or search Google, etc. for the rest of the string?
E.G. YT:sdfs232 would resolve to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdfs232. I'm not specifically looking to do that, it's just an example.
You don't need a new extension or Greasemonkey to do this. Firefox has had this capability for a long time.
Just use a bookmark keyword search.
For example, create a new bookmark:
Press CtrlShiftB to open the bookmark library.
Right-click wherever you want it, and select New Bookmark....
Fill in the Name: Youtube.
Fill in the Location: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%s
Note the %s.
Fill in the Keyword: YT.
Fill in the Description: Handy direct shortcut to a video ID.
Give it tags, if you wish.
Click the Add button.
Now you have a handy flexible shortcut.
Test this one by entering YT dQw4w9WgXcQ into the address bar.
See the article for more information.
What your looking for is called a URL Scheme. http, ftp, ssl are all URL Schemes and you can define your own on any platform you want.
This is possible, and is used quite a lot by for example by IPhone apps to launch another iphone app from a browser window when the user clicks on a link. Thats how the iphone jumps from safari to itunes app.
More details here including most common schemes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URI_scheme
This link gives basic info on registering a scheme on windows
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/aa767914(v=vs.85).aspx
Ususally they are used to open a seperate application though rather than simply a differnt url, but you could do what you want with a plugin.
Related
Is it possible to make sure that (deep) links don't open a new browser window?
Use case would be e.g. QR Codes or NFC tags that contain some kind of identifier along with a URL/deep link URL.
e.g. www.example.com/mypwa/game=ID
The idea in this case would be that an asset linked to ID would become available in the app.
When you want to do that repeatedly, currently both Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS (as Standard Browser) open a new tab for each tapped NFC tag, confusing the user.
Is it possible for a PWA to check if it is already running in another tab, and if yes, take over the URL parameter (ID) and work with it ?
I'm currently working on an iOS app, Swift 4, that automatically launches on click of a link to block users from accidentally navigating to that link.
How would I set this up?
For example, YouTube opens up youtube.com links.
Sorry if this is a vague question, if more info is required feel free to ask ^^
If you create a custom URL protocol like myapp://somepath (where myapp is the protocol) then you just register that custom protocol, and when the user clicks such a link it’ll automatically open your app. You can’t intercept a general purpose URL protocol like HTTP or YouTube.
(At least not without OS support. That's how YouTube and the app store are able to open HTTP links.)
I haven't done anything like this so far but it seems like you should take a look at Apple URL Scheme and Universal Links:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/featuredarticles/iPhoneURLScheme_Reference/Introduction/Introduction.html
https://coderwall.com/p/mtjaeq/ios-custom-url-scheme
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/AppSearch/UniversalLinks.html
https://www.raywenderlich.com/128948/universal-links-make-connection?utm_source=raywenderlich.com%20Weekly&utm_campaign=95f29cf4fc-raywenderlich_com_Weekly5_31_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_83b6edc87f-95f29cf4fc-415182745
I've found two options to open my app from a Safari web page: a custom URL scheme created in my app project's Info.plist or Apple's Universal Linking. Obviously the custom URL scheme is the easiest one to set up, but the problem I'm having with this is that Safari shows a confirmation window asking "Open myapp?" first and the user has to tap OK before the app actually opens. I want my app to open automatically as the scheme is opened, and I'm being told the only way to do this is through Universal Linking (please correct me if this is not true). If this is true, however, I would like to know if it's possible in any way to put the required apple-app-site-association file on a http:// domain instead of https://? According the official Apple documentation the format of a correct Universal Link starts explicitly with https:// but my domain name can't be loaded on https:// without redirecting a few times and that messes up the web services I've written to execute other tasks in my app. The two main questions I'm left with after this issue:
1) Is it really impossible to work around the confirmation prompt using a custom URL scheme (myscheme://)? If it's not impossible, how can I do this?
2) If I have to use Apple Universal Linking, can I use a http:// domain? If so, how do I do it? Right now if I load up the universal link, it just shows the dictionary inside the apple-app-site-association file, which I'm pretty sure is not supposed to happen. I'm told it's supposed to send a NSUserActivity object to my app delegate. How can I accomplish this with a http:// link?
It is not possible to trigger a custom URI scheme without showing an alert to the user. This used to be possible in iOS 8, but iOS 9 started showing the alert for all apps. And iOS 10.3 has extended that even to the App Store itself. You cannot bypass this. Universal Links were created to replace URI schemes for this behavior, so you do need to use them instead.
From your description, I believe you may be misunderstanding how Universal Links work. To answer the literal questions you asked first, no the Universal Link URL itself does not need to be on the https:// protocol, and yes, the apple-app-site-association must be served over https:// without redirects.
However, it sounds like you're trying to serve the content of the apple-app-site-association file for every Universal Link. That is not the correct implementation — the AASA file is hosted only at https://example.com/apple-app-site-association, and iOS automatically retrieves it when the app is installed. After that, any URL on example.com that matches the criteria in the AASA file will be eligible for Universal Links.
All of that said, you really don't want to built out this system on your own. I suggest looking into Firebase Dynamic Links or Branch.io (full disclosure: I'm on the Branch team).
Is it really impossible to work around the confirmation prompt using a custom URL scheme (myscheme://)? If it's not impossible, how can I do this?
That is possible with some hacky tricks and BAD user experience. It requires user to press "add to home screen" button, so I don't recommend this solution in most cases.
set your app scheme like myapp
create the following html file and put it into the web
window.onload = function() {
if (("standalone" in window.navigator) && window.navigator.standalone) {
window.location.href = 'myapp://open'
}
}
open the html file with safari and "add to home screen"
open the home screen icon and your native app will launch
The point is the meta tag.
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
Without this, safari will launch and confirmation prompt will appear.
I'm fighting with UIActivityViewController in iOS 8. I'd built a custom Pinterest sharing mechanism which works beautifully in iOS 7 -- specifically, it uploads an image to my server, and then creates a Pin with that image and a URL which I specify. This is the desired functionality.
Now, in iOS 8, Pinterest has implemented its own sharer, which accepts either a URL or an image. If a URL is included in the list of Activity Items, the sharer pops up and asks the user which image s/he wants to share from the page at that URL, and totally ignores the image which is also in the list of Activity Items. If there's no URL, and just the image, then the uploaded pin doesn't include a URL.
In order to resolve this, I need to do one of these things:
Disallow Pinterest's sharer from appearing in the list, so my customized sharer can show up instead;
Somehow specify a Source URL within a pin of an image using Pinterest's sharer (I doubt this is possible);
Remove all the other images from the generated web page. I'd really rather not do this.
Or if all else fails, it would be useful to at least be able to detect if the user has Pinterest's sharer selected to show up in their list.
Does anyone know if there's a way to achieve any of these things?
Just an idea, you could set a custom UIActivitySource on your UIActivityViewController.
Then check the incoming activity type for Pinterest. Then disable that via the exclusions.
To launch app page in App Store app on iOS 7, this URL format is required:
#"itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id%#"
Can you also append the affiliate ID and campaign token to this URL like this?
#"itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id%#&at=%#&ct=%#"
Or does it have to be a plain
#"https://itunes.apple.com/app/%#/id%#?mt=8&uo=4"
type URL like you do in websites? Disadvantage of this URL is it opens Safari and causes redirects.
Try it and see; the link will either open or it won't, and if it does, and if you specify a custom campaign for testing, it will either show up in PHG or it won't. Let us know what happens, as I'm curious myself.
Oh, and if it doesn't, please file a bug, as that seems like a useful feature, and it should be trivial for Apple to add it if they haven't already.