I fear that I must link to the App Store of the users country. How could I do that automatically?
For example, the link I've got from Apple is this:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=99999999999&mt=8
It opens up iTunes but fails loading the app. They say it takes up to 24h until it's there. So that is the link I can give anyone, no matter if from US, India, Australia or Holland? I'm confused because sometimes Google throws me at URLs like this one:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id308928075?mt=8
These URLs show an app description in the web browser, and obviously they're localized. This one is for us, but you could enter any country code for /us/ to see the special description.
So is it intelligent to link to the first, very long URL (itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...) or is it better to link to the US page of the app description online?
You're correct that the web links are localised. However, if you click 'View in iTunes' from that link or indeed launch any link that opens iTunes then the user is taken to the product on the correctly localised version of the store. I've just tested it with the web link you give above — clicking 'View in iTunes' took me to your product on the UK store, with UK pricing.
The direct to iTunes link you supply doesn't work, but you seem not to have substituted your product id for the 99999999999 placeholder.
I'm not sure which you'd consider better; Apple seem to be pushing the web preview URLs, based on the new behaviour of right clicking and selecting 'Copy Link' while in iTunes itself. Also, the type of link that you expect to open iTunes, with your product id substituted (ie, http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=308928075&mt=8) now appears to go to the web preview rather than to open iTunes. As a quick tip, this appears to be the 'international' version:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id308928075?mt=8
i.e. just remove the 'us'. My browser still went to the US listing based on the price and reviews, but I'll bet it does something to at least get the display language correct.
Related
I am trying to create a Facebook store for my Facebook page with the checkout leading to my website and not Facebook. When setting up the store I am not given an option to do it. I have seen it in some tutorials showing this choosing checkout option. Is there a way to get to the checkout option?
Found this video by Mexbs that explains how to overcome the issue. In short, here are the steps:
Change the location of your Facebook page to Germany (or some other country that Facebook didn't limit yet)
Add the Shop tab and proceed with the Shop setup. "Checkout on another website" and "Message to buy" should be available now.
Add one product to your shop (so Facebook won't delete your shop tab once you change the page location back to the original).
Change the page location back to your original location.
Apparently this feature was available before FB had its own payment method. Even though you can manage your catalog and add a product url, the checkout button only goes through the FB interface. I am going to ask FB tech support if there is currently a way around this.
I haven't found this yet either and would be stoked if someone can give a clear answer. I've found that if you add products from the Catalog section, you can add a website link for each product which is described by FB as, "a link to the website page where people can view more details and buy this product."
However, my store page is all sorts of mangled at the moment and I'm (sloowwwwlllyyyy) working with FB to get it all sorted out so I can't tell if it's actually working as I'm hoping it does.
To anyone who stumbles on this thread and needs help finding the answer to this problem...
When you click the shop tab to start the setup process DO NOT choose the United States as your location. Choose your location as literally any other location, I did Canada. When you do, it wont try to force you to use Facebook's automatic checkout. It will immediately pop up with the option to buy through messages or direct them to your website. This does not change the location of your actual page either, just choose another country when it asks you right at the shop set up process.
Because of the kind of product I sell I cant accept returns. I needed the ability to send them to my store
I have been getting into iOS 6 and its Share functionality. I see that some people (e.g. apple in their app store), pre-populate the Facebook share pop-up with some relevant text, while others leave this empty for users to fill (providing only the image/url).
I see the benefits with the former (since you can save users time) e.g. by posting: "Loving this new app". But equally, if this section is left blank then users are more likely to create a personalised message.
Does anyone know the best practise?
Ok so it looks like the iTunes App Store does pre-populate these fields with the app name and developer name.
However just had this pointed out to me by a colleague at work:
The relevant part of Facebook's platform policy is section IV. 2 here:
https://developers.facebook.com/policy/#integration
Guess the jury is still out?
Copying the iTunes link for an app includes my home country, but sharing this same link with people in Hong Kong fails to surface the app.
This SO post shows how to craft one using the app name, but what if we want to reference the app ID and not the app name (since we may change the name based on a user survey)?
What's the right iTunes app URL for global sharing purposes? In other words, the same URL should lead to the app regardless of the user's country.
Use this
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=516500375&mt=8
Just replace id with your app id and you are done.
Hope this helps you...
iTunes doesn't offer any links that are truly global.
You can use third party services that are free like GeoRiot or SmartURL that are built specifically to solve this problem for the iTunes store.
Simply copy/paste any iTunes link into the form on the home page and each of the services return a link that can be used world-wide.
recently I uploaded my app internationally. I found that the app is selling in China compared to other countries that I localized my app to.
So, I would like access to Chinese Apple App Store so that I can read their feed back if there is any. But I only have ID for North America, not China.
I tried http://www.apple.com.cn/itunes/ but this page is for downloading iTunes for Chinese users.
any ideas? many thanks.
I don't know about the web interface, but you can switch the store from within iTunes. There is a little country flag all the way down in the right corner. Click on it to get to a page where you can choose the country whose store to show.
You can browse other countries' stores, you need the ID only to buy.
Especially for languages you don't speak fluently, the following can also be helpful and will display your app (or any other app) in your browser in the language of your choosing. Search your own app on the web, you'll find a link like:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/groink/id452227727
You can view the same information in other stores by changing the store identification part - "us" in the example link above for the United States store.
To see the Chinese page of your app, it would suffice to change "us" to "cn":
https://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/groink/id452227727
A quick and easy way to find what you're looking for.
Is that possible pop up the UI which comes during the deletion process before deleting the app ? (A UI which has stars, no thanks, rate my app button).
If no, can you tell me whether it is possible to create a screen and send the rating captured to iTunes connect ?
As other people said, your best option is to send people to the review/ratings page on iTunes.
The best open source solution I found for this is Appirater.
I use it in my apps and it works great + it generates many reviews.
You can configure when the popup should show. It basically looks like this:
(source: arashpayan.com)
It was created by Arash Payan, visit his page about Appirater with all the information.
This form always pops up if you delete an app on your iPhone. I don't think you can grab personal ratings out of iTunes but once you gather a sufficient number of votes you'll see the details on your app iTunes page.
You cannot present this UI yourself—it's handled by the OS. You can, however, direct your users to your app's rating page in the App Store app by opening an appropriate iTunes store URL, as documented in the “Heading straight to a review form” section of this article.