Question:
I am actively looking in the source code on Github's facebook-ios-sdk project myself but I was wondering if anyone already knows how to relaunch an app that sent an iPhone user to Safari, such that the user can come back after some work has been finished?
Example:
When using facebook to login, the original app is relaunched after the facebook login page has authenticated the user.
Motivation:
I would like to be able to do the same for youtube videos without having to completely lose the user. I don't want to use the standard webview approach because I don't want to provide extra space to first let the video load for the user and then have the user click the play button. I want to skip the play button and its associated click entirely! Instead I want the user to be able to click on just an everyday regular iPhone button and be shown the video with the navigation for coming back to the app via relaunch.
You need your app to register a "custom URL scheme". Then get the callback in the remote web service to return a URL with that scheme. iOS will then launch your application.
More (somewhat old) info available here.
A list of common custom URL schems on iOS can be found here.
Generally, as part of the OAuth login process, you supply a callback URL as one of the paramaters. What this does, is tell the remote server (YouTube), that on successful authentication, redirect the user to the supplied URL. If YouTube supports this (does it support OAuth?) then on successful user login within safari, youtube will tell users safari to redirect to the supplied url. If this url is a "custom URL scheme" it will cause your app to relaunch and you can handle the situation from there.
Related
I'm building a public installation using an iPad, built as an iOS web app (using the "Add to Home Screen" functionality) which is going to allow users to share content on Facebook.
I'm currently logging the user in to Facebook and getting them to authorize my Facebook app when they click my custom share button. On a successful login, I open Facebook's Feed dialog and allow them to share. Once they have shared (or clicked cancel) I automatically log them out, making sure that the next user that uses the public installation won't be able to share to the previous user's Facebook account.
This all works well, but things get tricky if someone was to hit my custom share button, log in to Facebook and then not allow my app. This would mean that they have logged in, but as they haven't authorized the app, I don't have an access token, and so can't log them out (FB.logout() requires an access token).
Is there a way around this?
Or is there another way that I can log a user out?
Or is there a safe way to allow a user of a public installation (built in HTML) to share on Facebook and be automatically logged out afterwards? Would building a native obj-c app, and using Facebook's iOS SDK help?
The best I can think of is that if the user logs in but doesn't allow the application, they are told that they need to log out, and redirected to Facebook to be able to do this. However this offers them the chance to browse Facebook and (through shared links in their feed) the whole Internet - this isn't acceptable for our installation.
I solved this problem by creating a native iOS app, where the Facebook share link opened in it's own UIWebView. And once the sharing was complete, I deleted all session & cookie information, effectively logging the user out.
I'd like to be able to send invitation in an email to a specific "event" happening inside my iOS app. So I figured I'd need to use custom URL. That's fine.
But I'd also like to be able to handle the user that doesn't have the app installed yet, to be taken to a mobile Safari and to the webpage with installation instructions for the app.
What would be the best way to do it?
I could try the following:
In the email I send a link to a http://www.example.com/joinevent/?id=foo
User is taken to a Safari webpage that sends a redirect to mycustomscheme://joinevent/?id=foo
If the user doesn't have the app installed this redirection won't work and he stays in the Safari - I could then handle the displaying of installation instructions probably.
But this approach doesn't seem "natural" for me. Is there a better/more native way to do it?
Try http://rdrct.it
It is a web service that allows you to achieve exactly this functionality very easily.
Full disclosure - I created rdrct.it
Here's the basics:
Login to the site, create a project for your particular app. Choose a unique code (this could be the name of your app).
You'll then be provided with a URL in the form: http://rdrct.it/uniqueCode
Once you've done that, you need to register the app's ID in the app store, and also details about the custom URL scheme. Tick "Auto-redirect" - what it will then do is try to open the app, and if that fails, it will automatically send the user to the app store.
If the app is opened, then the querystring is also passed to the app, so in your example case, the device will have been served: mycustomscheme://joinevent/?id=foo
It also works across multiple device types, so if you have the app available for Blackberry, Android or Windows Phone, then it will also do the same for those depending on which device type the user is using.
Like I said, I created it, but it should solve your problem.
If you are using Distimo to track you app analytics, they provide a shortlink to your apps that can be used also used to track conversions. It shows a custom page depending on the device used to access. This is especially convenient if you have the same app published in the AppStore, Google Play, Amazon, etc.
I have a HTML5 mobile web app that needs to provide links so that the user can make phone calls. Adding the link to make the phone call is easy:
Call me
However, managing the post call behaviour is not.
If I view the app inside Mobile Safari, and click on the link, I get taken to the Phone app to make the call. When the call ends, the iPhone returns to Mobile Safari, on the same page I was on previously (i.e., the page that initiated the call).
However, if I bookmark the same page to the desktop (so the user experience is closer to an "app"), and click on the same link, I am directed to the phone desktop at the completion of the call. This means I need to reload the mobile "app", and navigate back to where I was when I made the call.
Why is the behaviour different between the two? Is there any way to get the bookmarked app to return to the same context that initiated the call?
Just a complete guess, but what if the link is to a page that redirects to the "tel:" URL?
Have you tried target = _blank? Just a blind guess. :-)
We use URL Schemes for our iPhone Application. If a user enters a certain URL in his Browser, then our App opens right away, if installed. If it is not installed then the user is directed to our mobile Website.
We embed these URLs in QR-Codes. So our user just need to scan the barcode, click "open url" and are directed right to our App / mobile Website.
However there is a Problem with some QR-Code-Scanners. For example "QR Code Scanner" from "iHandy Corp" opens the URL inside their own app. And because they open it inside their own app, URL Schemes apparently doenst work anymore. Even though the User has installed our App, he is still directed to our mobile Website.
Has anyone else run into that issue? I just want our users be able to use any QR-Code-Scanner they please und still be directed directly into our app, when they scan our URLs.
Yes, but you can't do anything about it. If the app sends the URL to an internal web view control, and not to the platform to be opened by the browser, it just doesn't work.
I have installed the facebook API in phonegap but i have hard time making it work see link .The index.html file in the exemple folder has a login button that once taped opens the native facebook application on my device requiring email and password. After having authenticated me, it takes me back succesfully to my app.
Whenever i tap on the "getsession" button for exemple it shows me an alert saying "undefined". I want to know how to get the access token that is given right after the authentication process within my app and everything related to the session so i can perform other tasks?
Thank you