- \n
- Traditional Deep Link<\/li>\n
- Deferred Deep Link<\/li>\n
- Contextual Deep Link<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Traditional Deep Linking<\/h2>\n
In traditional deep linking when an user click on any url it will redirect to the corresponding content in the application if the application is installed on the device otherwise it will open the url in web browser. In the case when user does not have application installed on his\/hers device and open the link and from web browser it goes to store and installed the application then open it, he\/she will land on the home\u00a0page of the application rather than the content page of the url.<\/p>\n
![\"Deep](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/deep-link.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDeferred Deep Linking<\/h2>\n
In Traditional deep linking we have a drawback of losing the link when user do not have App installed on his\/hers device. In deferred deep linking we solve this problem and when user install the App for first time from a link and open the App we redirect him\/her\u00a0to the content according to the url.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Deferred](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/deferred-deep-link.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nContextual\u00a0Deep Linking<\/h2>\n
Contextual deep linking is much similar to Deferred deep linking. Addition to Deferred deep linking in Contextual deep linking we store user information and pass it to our mobile App so that we can restore his\/hers state in mobile App. In this deep linking we not only pass data about where to land in the App but also record the information about the user including who they are, where they are referred from, who referred them or which promotion code they want to apply.<\/p>\n
URL Scheme<\/h2>\n
URL Scheme let you define a custom protocol to let other application communicate with your application. To let other applications communicate with your App you must create an appropriately formatted URL and add support in your application. To implement\u00a0URL Scheme<\/strong> you must tell the system to open it in your application and handle the incoming URL in your application. This URL Scheme looks like other URL Scheme like http:\/\/, ftp:\/\/, mailto:\/\/, tel:\/\/ etc.<\/strong> You can create your custom URL protocol like yourapp:\/\/open-home-page<\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong>Any application can open your application with this scheme by calling openURL. For Example if your custom URL is yourapp:\/\/<\/em><\/strong> then following code will open your App:<\/p>\n
let appUrl = URL(string: \"youapp:\/\/page-to-open\")\r\nUIApplication.shared.openURL(appUrl!)<\/pre>\n
Register your Custom URL<\/h3>\n
To Register your application for URL Scheme support you have to include the\u00a0CFBundleURLTypes\u00a0<\/strong>key in your Info.plist\u00a0<\/strong>file. This key will have array of dictionary with following keys:<\/p>\n
- \n
- CFBundleURLName: It is a string containing abstract name of the URL Scheme.<\/li>\n
- CFBundleURLSchemes: It is an array containing the URL Scheme names.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<key>CFBundleURLTypes<\/key>\r\n<array>\r\n\u00a0 <dict>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 <key>CFBundleURLName<\/key>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 <string>com.yourapp<\/string>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 <key>CFBundleURLSchemes<\/key>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 <array>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <string>yourapp<\/string>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/array>\r\n\u00a0 <\/dict>\r\n<\/array><\/pre>\n
Handling the URL\u00a0Request<\/h3>\n
When any application request your custom URL your App must handle the URL to open corresponding content. On any request to your custom URL will call AppDelegate’s method\u00a0application(_:open:options:),\u00a0<\/em>so you have to implement this method in your AppDelegate. Refer following code snippet:<\/p>\n
func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, options: [UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey : Any] = [:]) -> Bool {\r\n\u00a0 print(url)\r\n \/\/ Take decision according to URL\r\n\u00a0 return true\r\n}<\/pre>\nIf your application is not running (Killed) then it will first launch your application and then call the open url method. In this case the following sequence of methods will be executed:<\/p>\n
![\"URL](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/uri-scheme.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf your application is running but is in background or suspended state then following method sequence will be called:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"URL](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/url-scheme-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUniversal Link<\/h2>\n
The problem with URL Scheme is that when an user share a url the url is of a webpage which support http protocol and when an user click on it first the webpage will be open in web browser then in the web browser our web app has to make request to our custom url to open the content in the mobile app. So in Custom URL Scheme web browser has to be launched before we can open the content in our mobile App.<\/p>\n
From iOS 9.0 Apple introduced Universal Link as a solution of this problem. Universal Link support direct linking between web page url and mobile app. When any user click on a url then iOS\u00a0first check if there is any application which support this url if yes then it will open that corresponding Application otherwise the url will be opened in web browser.<\/p>\n
To support Universal Link you have to follow these three steps:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Create an apple-app-site-association<\/em> file.<\/li>\n
- Upload this file to your HTTPS server.<\/li>\n
- Handle universal link in your App.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Create apple-app-site-association File<\/h3>\n
The apple-app-site-association\u00a0<\/em>file is used to create trust relationship between your mobile application and your server.\u00a0This file contains simple json data\u00a0(Do not add .json extension in file name) with following format:<\/p>\n
{\r\n\u00a0 \"applinks\": {\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 \"apps\": [],\r\n\u00a0\u00a0 \"details\": [\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 {\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"appID\": \"9JA89QQLNQ.com.apple.wwdc\",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"paths\": [ \"\/wwdc\/news\/\", \"\/videos\/wwdc\/2015\/*\"]\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 },\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 {\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"appID\": \"ABCD1234.com.apple.wwdc\",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"paths\": [ \"*\" ]\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 }\r\n\u00a0 ]\r\n\u00a0}\r\n}<\/pre>\nIn this json the\u00a0apps\u00a0<\/em>key must be present and it’s value must be an empty array. The\u00a0details\u00a0<\/em>key is an array of dictionaries. Each dictionary contains\u00a0appId\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0paths\u00a0<\/em>keys. The value of key appId\u00a0<\/i>is your apple Id or team Id in the concatination of your bundle identifier. In Above example the first value of\u00a0appId<\/em> has\u00a09JA89QQLNQ\u00a0<\/strong>as apple Id and\u00a0com.apple.wwdc\u00a0<\/strong>as bundle identifier. You have to replace these values with your own apple Id and bundle identifiers. The value of key\u00a0paths\u00a0<\/em>is an array of string that defines the parts of your website which your application can handle. In first dictionary it will open your application if url have\u00a0\/www\/news\/\u00a0<\/em>in the url or it has any url starting with\u00a0\/video\/wwdc\/2015\/<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Use * to link your whole website or use it after a path to support some part of your website.<\/p>\n
You can also use NOT\u00a0<\/strong>to exclude any url from universal link like:\u00a0
\"paths\": [ \"\/wwdc\/news\/\", \"NOT \/videos\/wwdc\/2010\/*\", \"\/videos\/wwdc\/201?\/*\"].<\/code><\/em><\/p>\nUpload\u00a0apple-app-site-association File to Server<\/h3>\n
To support Universal Link your server must support https protocol. Once you create the file you have copy this file to the root directory of your server or the\u00a0.well-known <\/em>subdirectory. This file should be accessible with https protocol without any redirection at\u00a0
https:\/\/<your_domain>\/apple-app-site-association<\/code> orhttps:\/\/<your_domain>\/.well-known\/apple-app-site-association<\/code><\/p>\nHandle Universal Link in your App<\/h3>\n
To handle universal link in your application first you have to add an entitlement file with supported urls in your application. To do so open Xcode, Select your project, Goto Capabilities and find Associated Domain section. Turn on this capability and add an entry for each domain your app supports with a prefix of\u00a0applinks:<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"App](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-04-at-5.11.03-PM.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow you have to implement\u00a0application(_:continue:restorationHandler:)\u00a0<\/em>in your AppDelegate file. This method will be called when user click on link which your supports.<\/p>\n
func application(_ application: UIApplication, continue userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: @escaping ([Any]?) -> Void) -> Bool {\r\n\u00a0 let url = userActivity.webpageURL!\r\n\u00a0 print(url)\r\n\u00a0 \/\/ Take decision according to URL\r\n\u00a0 return true\r\n}<\/pre>\nProblem with Universal Link<\/h2>\n
In Universal link iOS also check the recent chioce of the user that whether to open the url in mobile application or web browser. When an user open the url in your application he\/she can also open the url in Safari by tapping the\u00a0breadcrumb button at the right side of the status bar.<\/p>\n
![\"breadcrumb-button\"](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/breadcrumb-button.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOnce user click on the\u00a0breadcrumb button, iOS will remember the choice of the user and next time it will always open the link in Safari. To overcome this situation we have to add a Smart Banner to our web page so that when iOS open the application in Safari user can go back to application by Smart Banner. Once user open the Application using Smart Banner iOS will remember the choice of user and next time the link will be opened in Application.<\/p>\n
Smart Banner<\/h2>\n
We can use smart banner in our webpage to let user install or open our mobile application directly from webpage. The banner intelligently changes it’s action depending upon whether the Application is installed on the device or not.<\/p>\n
To add a Smart Banner to webpage use following meta tag:<\/p>\n
<meta name=\"apple-itunes-app\" content=\"app-id=myAppStoreID, affiliate-data=myAffiliateData, app-argument=myURL\"><\/pre>\n
In this tag you have enter following parameters:<\/p>\n
- \n
- app-id:\u00a0<\/em>It is you application’s unique identifier at App Store. You can find it\u00a0Here<\/a>. Search your app and the iPhone App Link.\u00a0Your app ID is the nine-digit number in between
id<\/code><\/em> and?mt<\/code><\/em>.<\/li>\n- affiliate-data:\u00a0<\/em>If you’re an iTunes affiliate you can add your affiliate string here. It is an Optional field.<\/li>\n
- app-argument<\/em>: Here you have to give the url that will be passed to your mobile App when user open the application by Smart Banner.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Here is the Smart Banner When App is not Installed:<\/p>\n
![\"Smart](\"https:\/\/www.innovationm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smartbanner-view.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen user click View he\/she will be redirected to App Store.<\/p>\n
Here is the Smart Banner When App is Installed:<\/p>\n
- affiliate-data:\u00a0<\/em>If you’re an iTunes affiliate you can add your affiliate string here. It is an Optional field.<\/li>\n
- Create an apple-app-site-association<\/em> file.<\/li>\n