Some dev blogs have published information about the "fb://" url scheme for opening various views in the Facebook iPhone App. No matter how much I've searched, I haven't found one word from any official Facebook source about this.
Since the information is public anyways, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to know, whether using this url scheme is officially approved, am I allowed to use it, does it work correctly, and if it's not approved, will it be and what's the approximate schedule for that?
Thanks in advance for any info on this subject!
It's there to support the iOS push notification system (i.e. you get a push notification that says "Friend's Name tagged you in a photo", and you tap on it, it takes you straight to the photo).
I'd assume it's not intended for third party use and therefore subject to change. Hell, Facebook's public-facing APIs are subject to change on a whim anyhow, so I'd be especially cautious about something they hadn't documented.
It's for iOS only. The iOS API lets you define you own URL scheme, so Facebook must have developed their application to register the fb:// URL scheme on iOS devices. It's not a feature that was created by Apple, it's something you, the developer, can make up.
Here are some resources you can investigate
The Facebook iOS SDK
Here on StackOverflow
A tutorial on how it works (not Facebook-specific)
You can use it from your own applications on iOS, but only if the Facebook application is installed. There are, however, plugins and browser extensions out there that mimic the behavior by handling the fb:// schema on your desktop browser.
Related
I've found two ways to open the Whatsapp app from a webpage,
whatsapp
and
whatsapp
I understand the first one works on phone only but apart from that what are the differences between the two?
In my trials I've found that the api method doesn't always work properly in certain mobile browsers. In some cases it doesn't detect the installed app and takes me to the Appstore to install the app.
Does the first method work across all platforms and browsers?
Is it safe to use JavaScript to detect the platform (desktop or mobile) and then load the appropriate link format?
The first approach usually requires the browser / OS to understand how to handle the whatsapp:// protocol. This usually requires some setup beforehand (e.g. registering a protocol in Chrome, or a deep link schema in Android), and the browser / OS will pass the request to whatever app / program can handle it.
The second approach doesn't require any setup, and passes the request to WhatsApp's API directly. This is less likely to completely fail, but as you've seen may have issues on mobile when an app claims it should handle all requests to the domain.
You're better off following WhatsApp's documentation, and using their wa.me domain for a universal link:
Universal links can also include a pre-filled message that will automatically appear in the text field of a chat. Use https://wa.me/whatsappphonenumber/?text=urlencodedtext where whatsappphonenumber is a full phone number in international format and urlencodedtext is the URL-encoded pre-filled message.
Example: https://wa.me/15551234567?text=I'm%20interested%20in%20your%20car%20for%20sale
This will handle all the complexities for you. For example, on Android that URL opens the WhatsApp app, on Windows that universal link redirects to the api.whatsapp.com URL, and Chrome asks if I want to use my installed WhatsApp program for it:
I am talking about this notification:
Somehow SoundCloud (the website) makes this notification appear and it has working controls. I do not have the app installed, that notification originates from com.android.chrome. I don't really need to know this to reproduce it, but I'm curious as to how it accomplishes this and perhaps in what other ways you can use it.
This is accomplished with Chrome Media Notifications. https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/07/media-notifications
To get the playback controls, and other information on the notification, you can customise them by providing meta data with the Media Session API. https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/02/media-session
When Android is programmed, it gets certain features that allow it to communicate with web hosts and websites. The website will have to be built a certain way that allows it to be communicative, but that seems to be what's happening in this situation.
I have an iOS and Android app and I'm building a corresponding website. I would like that the webpage, if opened using a mobile device, opens the app or its corresponding app store page (without using Facebook app links).
On the app side everything is working, including the url schema.
Does someone know how to implement this procedure, without external services, using HTML and JS?
Thanks in advance for your help.
To be honest, this is kind of a pain to implement on your own. There is no easy way to handle everything without a ton of nasty edge cases, most notably the 'Cannot Open Page" error users will see if they don't have your app installed. Until iOS 9, a reasonable basic implementation was putting a JavaScript redirect like this into a dedicated redirect page on your site:
setTimeout(function() {
window.location = "https://yourdomain.com";
}, 25);
// If "yourapp://" is registered, the user will see a dialog
// asking if they want to open your app. If they agree, your
// app will launch immediately and the timer won't fire.
// If not installed, you'll get an ugly "Cannot Open Page"
// dialogue and your fallback page will open when the timer expires.
window.location = "yourapp://";
Unfortunately this would still show a 'Cannot Open Page' error, but until recently it was possible to get around this in a reasonably user-friendly way by using a more nuanced version of this script. Sadly, Apple intentionally broke that with the iOS 9.2 update, so custom URL schemes are actually pretty much useless for deep linking now, unless you are certain the app is already installed on that device.
Apple is obviously trying to push the newer Universal Links standard as much as possible. Universal Links lets you use a normal http:// URL to a page on your website (the page could be a simple redirection to your desired fallback webpage without the custom URL trigger that causes the 'Cannot Open Page' error), which is intercepted by your phone and sent directly into your app if installed.
This is quite a lot to handle, so the best option might be a free service like Branch.io (full disclosure: I work with the team) to take care of all the technical aspects. You can find examples of apps using the Branch service here.
I have website link at which I have designed a html/javascript web app. I used iOS and Android app to create an app that encapsulates the web app.
Is there a way to block access to the website link and only allow access to the website link only thru the native apps calling the link.
In short safari, IE, Chrome must not be able to access the link, but the iPhone & Android app should be able to access it.
Is there some way to tell that the app is accessing the site and not the phone or pc browsers.
I am sure there a number of ways to implement this.
Thanks,
It depends on how is the web app implemented. Since native Web Views are pretty much the wrapper for the standard browser (Safari/Chrome), you will find it tough to filter it based on that.
What you can do, however, is to add an extra GET variable (for ex. &ref=youruniquecodehere) or a custom User-Agent, based on which you will be able to identify, whether your application authorized the request (with a proper access code) or if it's a generic request using browser.
However, both of these options can still be bypassed if researched, although it'd require slightly more time. Not sure whether a solution that would work in 100% of cases exists.
Hope that helps, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I spent a lot of time to search for solution but without result.
I check this topics :
Website Bookmark/ Shortcut Icon for Android Help. Cant get passed standard ribbon icon
Whick is very nice ,but here user must click on bookmark.That`s not what i need. May be button,or automatic script that prompt user for this and created automaticaly.For example something like this :
http://socialmedia.biz/2012/02/21/encourage-visitors-to-save-your-site-as-a-mobile-shortcut/
But it`s work only on Apple devices .. What im looking for is a similar solution for android.
Is this possible at all?
May be the only solution is to create simple app that act like a shortcut to my web page?
The page that is talking about has a mobile version ..
Have you looked here [for Chrome]? https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/installtohomescreen
May be the only solution is to create simple app that act like a shortcut to my web page? The page that is talking about has a mobile version ..
If this is "allowed" and doesn't go against too many guidelines, this might be your only option. Basically you'd want to create a one Activity application and all it does is call the default Intent for your web page. This should push the user into the default Browser.
You could put the app in the Google Play store and link to it from the site or a script. I'd call the app something like "SITE_NAME Web Shortcut" and make it clear in the description that the only purpose is to launch the browser -- as previously mentioned this doesnt "feel" like something that should be in an app store, and if users think they're getting something extra you'll definitely get bad reviews.
(I'd also make the Activity with #style/Theme.Transparent)
Please be aware that Chrome has changed the way that installs web apps.
Here are the details: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/06/a2hs-updates
There is an install criteria now:
The web app is not already installed
Meets a user engagement heuristic
Be served over HTTPS
Includes a Web App Manifest that includes:
short_name or name
icons - must include a 192px and a 512px icon
start_url
display - must be one of fullscreen, standalone, or minimal-ui
prefer_related_applications must not be present, or be false
-Registers a service worker with a fetch handler