I have an app which is already published in app store, I need to send mail to users with link clicking on which it should open the app if its installed or should go to app store. I'm aware of the URL schemes and universal links and that would require modification in my app. I was wondering if there is any other way that this could be achieved where I could create a link maybe using itms-app or some other method where I don't need to make any changes in the app. Any help is appreciated
Unfortunately, not. For a phone to open your application, it needs a way to recognize your application.
URI Schemes
The URI scheme information is configured in the .plist file and is local to the application and therefore cannot be changed without an update. Although you probably don't want to use URI schemes anyways since they will present the user an error if they don't have the app instead of taking them to the app store.
Universal Links
This is the new way Apple performs deep linking and the only other way a link could open up the app. These require a locally stored entitlements file along with an .apple-app-site-association that is hosted on your own website domain and cached when the app is downloaded or updated. These also do not take users to the app store, they take users to the domain in which the AASA file is hosted.
Best Solution
Use Branch's iOS SDK to handle all of the AASA file hosting and App Store redirection. This would still require you to push out a new update, but that is the only possible way to accomplish this.
Related
We would like that when the visitor of our website clicks on the appstore button to download the app, he is not redirected to the appstore but a popup of the appstore appears where he can download the app.
This function already exists in some apps and is called "SKStoreProductViewController".
We would now like to include this on our website so that our customers stay on the website when they download the app.
We do not want to bypass the app store
As you stated yourself this is used in native apps. You want to use it in a browser, i.e. not possible.
Using Smart App Banners is probably as close as you can get in a browser: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/promoting_apps_with_smart_app_banners
Or you "fake" the app store and build your own modal, which then links to the store page.
I would greatly appreciate some help with the following problem.
I am attempting to build an app with HTML/CSS/JQM that I plan to wrap with PhoneGap to package as a native app for deployment on Android & iOS Platforms.
The app will be basically a form for users to input information which upon submit will be posted to an email using PHP on our web server. It is of the utmost importance that the information is encrypted between the user device and our web server.
I have planned to do this by having a single terms & conditions page packaged with the native app, with the 'accept' button loading the 'form' page on the web server.
I would like to make it impossible to access the hosted 'form' page via a web browser (i.e. the only way to access the page is via the native app).
What I would like to do is to have the native app automatically log in to the web server, so that the user does not have to go through a registration process.
I have considered using Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla as a solution but as there will only ever be a single html page, jquery, jqm and php form submission scripts on the server - this seems overcomplicated.
It is very important that the hosted files are unable to be hacked as the user information being submitted is of a sensitive nature (e.g. financial information). Also the connection between the native app and the host server must be SSL.
Would a .htaccess / .htpasswd restriction be the best way to go about this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
I'm trying to create a web app that lets users share files with each other through Dropbox. At the moment, Dropbox handles all the sharing, and there's one central Dropbox account running on the web server that shares the folder with the people who want it.
I'm trying to change it so people don't have to accept a new folder invitation each time. I'd like to have them authorize my app to access an app folder in their Dropbox account, and all their shared folders would go inside there. Any changes they make would get noticed by the app on the server and synced to everyone else's folders.
There's a couple things I'm having trouble figuring out to make this work:
Do I need to make repeated calls to /delta for every account? I can't think how else I'd do this, but that sounds like it would quickly turn into thousands of requests a minute just polling for updates.
When someone adds a file, do I have to upload it once for each account? That seems like a huge waste of bandwidth. I've looked into using /copy_ref, which I think would add a file to another user's account without my app ever touching it, but my app's web interface also allows users to upload files directly to my server, which would then need to be synced with everyone else's folders. That file isn't on Dropbox's servers yet, so /copy_ref obviously wouldn't work.
For a little extra context, my app is written in node.js, and I've been playing with this library to interface with Dropbox, which uses their REST API.
I am thinking about having the following use-case:
User installs application on local machine.
User goes to our website, and are presented with many links (choices).
User clicks on a link.
Application starts, with some information contained within the link passed to the application.
Step 4 is obviously a security minefield. The end goal is that the user makes a choice, and if the application is installed, it starts with some information passed to it (ie command line parameters, or perhaps a temp file somewhere on the user's machine)
Can I/ Should I access the registry from javascript? Are there any ideas about how I might go about this? Do you have an alternative suggestion?
Assuming the applications the user installs are also developed by you.
Register a file extension for use by the specific application - then your web links can be links to a file that is downloaded and auto-run by your app. The file could contain details on the defaults for your app to use.
Sort of like how clicking on a .pdf file opens your pdf reader.
As an alternative to the file-extension solution you may want to know about Custom Application Protocol feature. Link is for Windows but there are nearly same techniques on other systems. I can't say if this approach works in every browser but you may want to try it out.
Accessing the registry from JavaScript inside a browser is nigh on impossible for the security implications. To access the registry from the web, I'd imagine you'd have to use a binary (C++ or others) program that can read the registry, but also has an HTTP module to communicate with your server.
Sounds like you might need the Click Once deployement feature for your app. I think once it's installed over http there should be a pretty easy way to launch an executable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClickOnce
We have a requirement for people to be able to look at documents people have uploaded to us (mainly word, possibly some rtf) via our web app. We want the user to be able to open the docs inside the browser, but keep the original formatting and not have the need for another application (like word, acrobat etc).
We thought about using google docs to do this, there appears to be some batch uploading options to get stuff in there but does anyone know if we can use the API's to keep the user on our site without them having to login to google docs themselves, and keep them still on our website with re-directing to google docs to view them.
Cheers
There's an option to make documents public (Somewhere in Share->Advanced Options).
Using api you can get list of documents in your google docs account, you can even search em. In your app you could make a link to the document in google docs which opens in a new window. That way your user will never navigate away from your page. An alternative would be to use an IFrame, but it's considered bad practice.
A completely different approach could be to automatically generate and host a pdf each time someone uploads a file. There are scripts/programs which can do that, just call them after you receive a file.