android apps can't be launched by incoming links - android

I have followed tutorials from Deep Links to App Content.
However my app can't intercept the links. The app can't be launched at all.
Here is part of my Android manifest:
<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter >
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<!-- Accepts URIs that begin with "http://www.example.com/gizmos” -->
<data android:scheme="http"
android:host="www.example.com"
android:pathPrefix="/gizmos" />
<!-- note that the leading "/" is required for pathPrefix-->
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Here is the test page index.html i put on my web server.
<a id="applink1" href="http://www.example.com/gizmos/sss">
Open Application</a>
I have tried hours and still can't figure out why it doesn't work.
Ps:
If I change scheme to some random stuff, it will work.
However I want to intercept the http link.
I also tried change the order of action, category, data, it makes no difference.

Additionally to the Android portion, you need to verify that you are indeed allowed to intercept links for the given URL on the web server serving the URL. To do that, you need to create and upload a JSON file to the given URL (under .well-known/assetlinks.json) that contains verification information about your app, effectively allowing your app to intercept links.
See https://developer.android.com/training/app-links/verify-site-associations.html for the details.

Related

Android deep link and issues non clickable links or not working links

I made an Android application in which I want to implement deep linking (example: http://myApp/seeMore?id=123456)
When I send a sms via intent, I receive it, and the link is clickable, and it opens the content of the application I want to see!
What's the problem? If I send myself the link via whatsapp (or messenger), I receive it, but this same link in the whatsapp message is not clickable!
I also tried the format myApp://seeMore?id=123456 (with the Manifest xml updated as it should be), but nothing happens, the link sent is not clickable, even via SMS.
The only time I had a clickable link in whatsapp and messenger, it's with the http://myApp.com/seeMore?id=123456 format. But when I click on the link, it opens the browser saying that the page does not exist.
And I saw that in this case, I have to link my app to my website but I don't have a website... And I don't want to have one!
Questions :
Is there a way to make "myApp://seeMore?id=123456" clickable in SMS, Whatsapp, Messenger apps? By forcing in the code to say that it's a hyperlink? something else? :) )
Is it possible to make the link "http://myapp.com/seeMore?id=123456" work to point directly to my apk and not to the browser? (Did I configure my intent-filter wrong?) I saw a style attribute verifyAuto=true in the xml manifest, but when I tried, it didn't work...
Is it possible to generate a clickable link (even if it's not a url?) via intent send to messenger/whatsapp?
Does anyone have any idea whatsoever for my concern? :)
Here it is, if you have any idea, I'm interested! Thanks for reading and possibly helping me :)
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
My current AndroidManifest:
<activity
android:exported="true"
android:name=".vue.activity.GraphActivity"
android:screenOrientation="landscape"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:parentActivityName=".vue.activity.MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<!-- Accepts URIs that begin with "http://speedchyps/course” -->
<data android:scheme="http"
android:host="speedchyps"
android:pathPrefix="/course" />
<!-- note that the leading "/" is required for pathPrefix-->
</intent-filter>
<meta-data
android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
android:value=".vue.activity.MainActivity" />
</activity>
Config when i try "maJolieAppli://seeMore?id=123456":
<intent-filter android:label="#string/filter_view_example_gizmos">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<!-- Accepts URIs that begin with "speedchyps://course” -->
<data android:scheme="speedchyps"
android:host="course" />
</intent-filter>

Launch Android App from Shorten URL ( Through DeepLink)

There is a perfect way to launch our android application through Deeplink.
<activity
android:name="com.example.android.GizmosActivity"
android:label="#string/title_gizmos" >
<intent-filter android:label="#string/filter_title_viewgizmos">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="http"
android:host="www.example.com"
android:pathPrefix="/gizmos" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Here, I can easily launch my application through “http://www.example.com/gizmos”, But my question comes when I am going to hit shorten URL of this link i.e. goo.gl/tNQpWe.
What could be the ways to launch my app through tiny/ shorten url too ?
Please suggest.
The short url will be redirecting to your server/domain and from there you do the same what "gizmos" did. Deep linking is basically a HTML page rendering some expected data by your android application (In your case android:host and android:pathPrefix)
You will need to create a basic html rendering the android schema if you need data to be passed. I would suggest you to follow Branch.io.
https://blog.branch.io/technical-guide-to-deep-linking-on-android-chrome-intents

Deep linking in Android - Chrome does not launch #intent links

I've been trying to use deep linking from a website I own to a resource inside my app. I've been reading about how things has evolved with deep linking in Android, particularly Paul Kinlan's blog post which seems to be the most recent explanation on how things should work.
I also have read this discussion on why custom scheme is a bad practice and should not be used, which made sense.
Now I decided to use the #intent link in my website to open the resource in the app when user taps on the link. For this, I used a link like this:
intent:#Intent;package=com.example.project;component=com.example.project/.ui.ActivityWithResource;i.res_id=80;end
But when I click on it, nothing happens, and I see this in the logs:
chromium: [INFO:CONSOLE(0)] "Navigation is blocked: intent:#Intent;package=com.example.project;component=com.example.project/.ui.ActivityWithResource;i.res_id=80;end", source: http://example.com/?res_id=80 (0)
I then read about this on Chrome documentation, which interestingly, their example was using a custom scheme, contrary to what they had argued before should not be done!
Now if I add the HTTP scheme to my intent link, like this:
intent://example.com/?res_id=80#Intent;scheme=http;package=com.example.project;component=com.example.project/.ui.ActivityWithResource;end
Then it works, because the activity has the intent-filter to handle the urls like http://example.com/, but why when I specify the component, it doesn't work?
Also, when I use HTTP scheme in my intent, in shows activity resolver (except android 6.0 as I do use auto-verify), but I assume if I can get my explicit intent link to work, it should directly open the resource in the app, as I already have defined the component in the intent link. right?
Maybe the only way is to use custom scheme after all?
Thanks
P.S: Here is the activity definition in my AndroidManifest. I wasn't sure if it requires android:pathPrefix to work or not, so I added both intent-filters
<activity
android:name=".ui.ActivityWithResource"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:exported="true"
android:screenOrientation="portrait">
<intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="http" android:host="example.com" android:pathPrefix="/"/>
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="http" android:host="example.com"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>

Android: using intent filter to launch app doesn't work

I know this question is asked and answered many times on SO, but I just couldn't get it to work. Here is my manifest file (I have 3 activities, I'm showing the only one that I want to be displayed when associated):
<activity
android:name=".MyActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/HoloDarkTheme" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.ACTION_SEND" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.EXTRA_TEXT" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.action.BROWSABLE" />
<category android:name="android.intent.action.DEFAULT" />
<data android:scheme="http" />
<data android:host="example.com" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
When I launch a browser and go to "example.com", my app isn't launched. Is there something wrong with the above XML?
Not sure if relevant, but this activity uses MediaPlayer to play videos. Also, I'm using SDK version 11.
I figured it out. It's simply a case of typo. Instead of this,
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.action.BROWSABLE" />
<category android:name="android.intent.action.DEFAULT" />
I needed to replace "android.intent.action" with "android.intent.category" in the last two lines:
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
I'm adding this answer here because this thread is one of the top hits when googling "intent filter to launch app from http not working". I suppose the root cause for me could also be considered a typo, but I'm going to call it an "Android documentation defect".
There's a line way toward the bottom of this page that breaks down a URI as:
<scheme>://<host>:<port>/<path>
This breakdown indicates that the "://", ":" and "/" will be added for me so I used the following data in my intent-filter:
<data android:scheme="http" />
<data android:host="my.school.edu" />
<data android:path="thingy" />
I then sent myself an SMS with the following text: "my.school.edu/thingy", which was recognized by my SMS client (Hangouts) as a web address, so it made it clickable. However, clicking on it just gave me a choice of browsers, my app was a no-show.
So I removed the host and the path, and my app launched for any link (or at least every one I tried). I put the host back in and it still worked. Put the path back and we're back to not working. On a whim I decided to prepend a slash to the path:
<data android:path="/thingy" />
...et voilà! There's my app in amongst the browsers! So the error in my view is Android's doc that suggests that the slash is inserted automagically. :) It apparently is not.
More Info: I'm using the HTTP scheme because that's what gets made clickable in SMS and email messages, giving me a free ride to that point.
And note that if you specify a unique host (and path), and the user selects "Always" when choosing your app from the list, future taps on your link will bypass that choice dialog and go straight to your app, which is nice.
Make sure you have the internet permission in your manifest.
I doubt that you can override the http scheme to point back to your app.

Launch custom android application from android browser

Can anybody please guide me regarding how to launch my android application from the android browser?
Use an <intent-filter> with a <data> element. For example, to handle all links to twitter.com, you'd put this inside your <activity> in your AndroidManifest.xml:
<intent-filter>
<data android:scheme="http" android:host="twitter.com"/>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
</intent-filter>
Then, when the user clicks on a link to twitter in the browser, they will be asked what application to use in order to complete the action: the browser or your application.
Of course, if you want to provide tight integration between your website and your app, you can define your own scheme:
<intent-filter>
<data android:scheme="my.special.scheme" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
</intent-filter>
Then, in your web app you can put links like:
<a href="my.special.scheme://other/parameters/here">
And when the user clicks it, your app will be launched automatically (because it will probably be the only one that can handle my.special.scheme:// type of uris). The only downside to this is that if the user doesn't have the app installed, they'll get a nasty error. And I'm not sure there's any way to check.
Edit: To answer your question, you can use getIntent().getData() which returns a Uri object. You can then use Uri.* methods to extract the data you need. For example, let's say the user clicked on a link to http://twitter.com/status/1234:
Uri data = getIntent().getData();
String scheme = data.getScheme(); // "http"
String host = data.getHost(); // "twitter.com"
List<String> params = data.getPathSegments();
String first = params.get(0); // "status"
String second = params.get(1); // "1234"
You can do the above anywhere in your Activity, but you're probably going to want to do it in onCreate(). You can also use params.size() to get the number of path segments in the Uri. Look to javadoc or the android developer website for other Uri methods you can use to extract specific parts.
All above answers didn't work for me with CHROME as of 28 Jan 2014
my App launched properly from http://example.com/someresource/ links from apps like hangouts, gmail etc but not from within chrome browser.
to solve this, so that it launches properly from CHROME you have to set intent filter like this
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data
android:host="example.com"
android:pathPrefix="/someresource/"
android:scheme="http" />
<data
android:host="www.example.com"
android:pathPrefix="/someresource/"
android:scheme="http" />
</intent-filter>
note the pathPrefix element
your app will now appear inside activity picker whenever user requests http://example.com/someresource/ pattern from chrome browser by clicking a link from google search results or any other website
Please see my comment here: Make a link in the Android browser start up my app?
We strongly discourage people from using their own schemes, unless they are defining a new world-wide internet scheme.
In my case I had to set two categories for the <intent-filter> and then it worked:
<intent-filter>
<data android:scheme="my.special.scheme" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
</intent-filter>
For example, You have next things:
A link to open your app: http://example.com
The package name of your app: com.example.mypackage
Then you need to do next:
Add an intent filter to your Activity
(Can be any activity you want. For more info check the documentation).
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity">
<intent-filter android:label="#string/filter_title_view_app_from_web">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<!-- Accepts URIs that begin with "http://example.com" -->
<data
android:host="example.com"
android:scheme="http" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Create a HTML file to test the link or use this methods.
Open your Activity directly (just open your Activity, without a choosing dialog).
Open this link with browser or your programm (by choosing dialog).
Use Mobile Chrome to test
That's it.
And its not necessary to publish app in market to test deep linking =)
Also, for more information, check documentation and useful presentation.
There should also be <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/> added to the intent filter to make the activity recognized properly from the link.
The following link gives information on launching the app (if installed) directly from browser. Otherwise it directly opens up the app in play store so that user can seamlessly download.
https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/intents
Please note if your icon is disappear from android launcher when you implement this feature, than you have to split intent-filter.
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="your-own-uri" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Yeah, Chrome searches instead of looking for scheme. If you want to launch your App through URI scheme, use this cool utility App on the Play store. It saved my day :)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.naosim.urlschemesender
Xamarin port of Felix's answer
In your MainActivity, add this (docs: Android.App.IntentFilterAttribute Class):
....
[IntentFilter(new[] {
Intent.ActionView },
Categories = new[] { Intent.CategoryDefault, Intent.CategoryBrowsable },
DataScheme = "my.special.scheme")
]
public class MainActivity : Activity
{
....
Xamarin will add following in the AndroidManifest.xml for you:
<activity
android:label="Something"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="#style/MyTheme"
android:name="blah.MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="my.special.scheme" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
And in order to get params (I tested in OnCreate of MainActivity):
var data = Intent.Data;
if (data != null)
{
var scheme = data.Scheme;
var host = data.Host;
var args = data.PathSegments;
if (args.Count > 0)
{
var first = args[0];
var second = args[1];
...
}
}
As far as I know, above can be added in any activity, not only MainActivity
Notes:
When user click on the link, Android OS relaunch your app (kill prev instance, if any, and run new one), means the OnCreate event of app's MainLauncher Activity will be fired again.
With this link: <a href="my.special.scheme://host/arg1/arg2">, in above last code snippet values will be:
scheme: my.special.scheme
host: host
args: ["arg1", "arg2"]
first: arg1
second: arg2
Update: if android creates new instance of your app, you should add android:launchMode="singleTask" too.
Felix's approach to handling deep links is the typical approach to handling deep links. I would also suggest checking out this library to handle the routing and parsing of your deep links:
https://github.com/airbnb/DeepLinkDispatch
You can use annotations to register your Activity for a particular deep link URI, and it will extract out the parameters for you without having to do the usual rigmarole of getting the path segments, matching it, etc. You could simply annotate and activity like this:
#DeepLink("somePath/{someParameter1}/{someParameter2}")
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
...
}
Hey I got the solution. I did not set the category as "Default". Also I was using the Main activity for the intent Data. Now i am using a different activity for the intent data. Thanks for the help. :)
You need to add a pseudo-hostname to the CALLBACK_URL 'app://' doesn't make sense as a URL and cannot be parsed.
example.php:
<?php
if(!isset($_GET['app_link'])){ ?>
<iframe src="example.php?app_link=YourApp://blabla" style="display:none;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<iframe src="example.php?full_link=http://play.google.com/xyz" style="display:none;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<?php
}
else { ?>
<script type="text/javascript">
self.window.location = '<?php echo $_GET['app_link'];?>';
window.parent.location.href = '<?php echo $_GET['full_link'];?>';
</script>
<?php
}
Look #JRuns answer in here. The idea is to create html with your custom scheme and upload it somewhere. Then if you click on your custom link on your html-file, you will be redirected to your app. I used this article for android. But dont forget to set full name Name = "MyApp.Mobile.Droid.MainActivity" attribute to your target activity.
As of 15/06/2019
what I did is include all four possibilities to open url.
i.e, with http / https and 2 with www in prefix and 2 without www
and by using this my app launches automatically now without asking me to choose a browser and other option.
<intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="https" android:host="example.in" />
<data android:scheme="https" android:host="www.example.in" />
<data android:scheme="http" android:host="example.in" />
<data android:scheme="http" android:host="www.example.in" />
</intent-filter>

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