16 Replies Latest reply: Aug 28, 2012 6:07 AM by Johannes Eckert Branched to a new discussion.

Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert May 21, 2012 2:40 PM

Hey,

I went into investigate about the "optional URL scheme" setting you can set up during building an app in the viewer builder.

Quote from the Viewer Builder help:

Optional URL Scheme

Specify the custom URL scheme that launches the viewer app from Safari and other apps. […]

For example, suppose you specify “com.sportspub.kayaking” as the URL scheme. If you embed a “com.sportspub.kayaking://” link on your webpage, clicking the link from the mobile browser opens the viewer app. […]

The possibility sounds good, to link to the app from any web page you view on the iPad.

But during testing this, I found out it's not that easy and/or not working as documented.

Bob set the URL scheme for his app supposedly to

com.dpstips.may5

a link with

<a href="com.dpstips.may5://">

will not open Bob's app on the iPad ("invalid URL").

I looked into the compiled app from the viewer builder and found out the actual URL scheme used is completly different, it is

dps.7f80a0ffed3a4ff08734bc905aac4a29

and the correct link would be

<a href="dps.7f80a0ffed3a4ff08734bc905aac4a29://">

that will open Bob's app (you can try it here if you are on an iPad).

And if you know your interal folio and article names, you can even deep link into one article from a specific folio:

<a href="dps.7f80a0ffed3a4ff08734bc905aac4a29://v1/folio/DPS%20Folios/01_Folio_TOC">

you see these links in the landing page of the web viewer on the iPad.

I collected all links and tests in this jsFiddle, that you can open on your iPad to test yourself: http://jsfiddle.net/YRUGj/15/

Unfortunately, you cannot find out your real URL scheme without extracting your .ipa file and investigate the content's of the viewer, it is listed in the info.plist file.

Is this supposed to work this way or is this currently a bug that might be fixed soon?

—Johannes

1. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert May 25, 2012 6:40 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

With knowing this, you can even open the page in Bob's App by scanning this QR code:

pretty cool, isn't it?
This would be great to integrate into a real productive environment: print/ipad.

But finding out the custom URL is pretty hard as I explained earlier.
Is this an known problem that might be fixed or am I missing something here?

—Johannes
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2. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Bob Bringhurst May 25, 2012 11:37 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

Johannes, regarding your previous post, the URL Scheme I specified in Viewer Builder is "com.bringhurst.dpstips." Sorry I didn't catch that earlier -- I got behind on email. The "com.dpstips.may5" string is my Apple App ID, and the other URL Scheme you dug up was generated behind the scenes when social sharing was enabled.

I'm currently testing the ability to use the social sharing link to jump from an article in one folio to an article in a different folio. I know this features isn't supported yet, but it might work. I'll let you know how it goes.
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3. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert May 25, 2012 12:42 PM (in response to Bob Bringhurst)

thank you for the response, Bob.
but also,

com.bringhurst.dpstips://

did not work on my iPad. if you use my URL string that I posted earlier you
can link from one folio to the other.

in fact, someone on twitter pointed out to me that you can start an SMS with
sms://
in the URL location field, and provide a number
sms:555-Bob-1234//

(works on iPhone and iPad)

—Johannes

(mobil gesendet)
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4. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Bob Bringhurst May 25, 2012 4:11 PM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

I'm trying to track down why the manually entered URL Scheme doesn't work. I'll let you know what I find out.
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5. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Felipe - dualpixel May 26, 2012 3:28 PM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

Hi, Johannes

Great post

Please, could you explain a little better how you get the "actual URL scheme used into the compliled app from viewer builder

I tried see the link above from my iPad - http://forums.adobe.com/dps.7f80a0ffed3a4ff08734bc905aac4a29: and the page can´t be found.

Am I doing something wrong?
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6. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert May 27, 2012 7:43 AM (in response to Felipe - dualpixel)

Felipe, I suspect you have some basic knowledge about nerdy stuff, follow
the pink rabbit:

(extract your developerviewer.ipa on a mac using extractor or sth.)
1st http://download.nordsueddesign.de/skitch/viewer-20120527-163947.png
(open the viewer bei right mouse click > Show Package Content)
2nd http://download.nordsueddesign.de/skitch/viewer-20120527-163947.png
(find your values in the info.plist file, try opening it with Textwrangler,
some other text editor cannot keep it readable)

—Johannes
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7. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Felipe - dualpixel May 28, 2012 8:34 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

thank you for the response.
Yes, I am a designer not programmer.
I will try
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8. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert May 28, 2012 9:22 AM (in response to Felipe - dualpixel)

I sent the same screenshot both times,

Extract the viewer here:
http://download.nordsueddesign.de/skitch/Payload-20120527-164132.png

Open the info.plist here:
http://download.nordsueddesign.de/skitch/viewer-20120527-163947.png

—Johannes
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9. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Exood Jun 1, 2012 3:58 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

I've found something like this (VBv20):
- URL scheme dps.longHashTag works without specifying it in viewer builder (just extract it form ipa) but it looks awful
- you can type anything in Viewer Builder in scheme text input for example "My-app-name" and it works perfectly (reversed domain appID looks awful as well as dps.longHashTag)
- one of my apps (but I don't remember version of VB) crashes after launch from link - i see splash screen and that's it. Whether it depends on viewer version?
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10. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Axel | Comfi Jun 1, 2012 8:43 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

Thank you, this was a good explanation to a our problem. And if not a good solution, at least a fix.

Question to Adobe representatives: Will this hashed link stay the same when we update the viewer, if we let the url scheme as text remain unchanged? We want other apps to be able to open one of our viewers, and we don't want to have to update several apps every time we need to update the viewer.

Thanks in advance, Kind regards,
Axel Garcia Henriksson
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11. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Ivan Mironchuk Jul 10, 2012 6:38 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

It seems that just setting the custom URL scheme will not work when linking to the app externally. I was able to get the app linking to work by cracking open the app and adding a URL Type and URL Scheme to the info.plist file. Once re-signed I just use the URL scheme as the link i.e. appname://folio
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12. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Bob Bringhurst Jul 10, 2012 7:17 AM (in response to Ivan Mironchuk)

The custom URL Scheme setting works in v21. To see an example, you can create a button that links to com.bringhurst.dpstips:// This opens the DPS Tips library.
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13. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Simon2Woerle Aug 28, 2012 2:43 AM (in response to Exood)

Hello all,

i have the same probleme like Exood. My app (single folio) crashes after launch from link - i see the splash screen and that's it. If i open the app normal everthing is ok. Can anybody help my with this problem?

Thanks Simon
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14. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert Aug 28, 2012 3:44 AM (in response to Simon2Woerle)

this is a bug in single edition when opened from the custom URL scheme.

don't know if adobe is aware of that, there bug report document does not
include that.

—Johannes

(mobil gesendet)
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15. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Simon2Woerle Aug 28, 2012 5:58 AM (in response to Johannes Eckert)

can i do anything to open a single edition app from an other app?

do you know a workaround?

Thanks Simon
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16. Re: Custom URL Scheme not working? (as supposed)

Johannes Eckert Aug 28, 2012 6:07 AM (in response to Simon2Woerle)

no, I don't know a workaround at this time.

—Johannes
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