I'm trying to prompt the user (once, I record it) to upgrade the iphone app if it is out of date. I've found a few sites that explain how to get the link to your app in the app store once it is already there. Here's one for example.
The problem is, all these guides require the app to be in the store before you can get the ID to link to it. This is a new app. Is it impossible to figure out what your app ID (and link) will be before submitting your code? Therefor it is impossible for your first version to have an upgrade link embedded?
You can link to http://itunes.com/app/App_Name, if your app's name is unique.
Your other option would be to fetch the update notice with an HTTP request instead of building the wording into the app. That'd let you present any message with wording you could determine on your web server, not in the code itself.
Related
I'd like to drive more downloads and engagement using Twitter. Right now I can have people post install links but it just takes them to the app store and I lost all the contextual data about them. Anyone know how to send the tweet information and deeplink data from twitter through the app store into the app?
Austin from Branch here. The technology you're referring to is Contextual Deeplinking, and Branch is a leader in the space.
You can use Branch to create deeplinks that work through install by dropping in the SDK inside your app and then signing up and putting in some credentials on the dashboard.
The iOS and Android SDKs allow users to share deeplinks over Twitter that will retain context through install, so people clicking on those links who don’t already have your app installed will be prompted to download, and then continue to the original link content in your app after the download finishes. The tech works by embedding params in a simple data dictionary behind a short URL, dropping this as a cookie on the BNC servers, then using some clever matching, they fingerprint and find the right user to pull down this data from within the app (hence the need for their SDK inside the app).
This should help improve engagement with new users. And Branch provides tracking for the clicks/installs coming from those tweeted links (and from all other links created with our SDK), so you’ll know exactly where your new users are coming from.
More details: https://dev.branch.io
I have a web page that redirects to the appstore, once the user has installed the app I'd like it to go fetch some data based on a parameter passed to the web page.
so http://myapp.com/?q=123 redirects to app store for app installation, once the app is opened it should go fetch data from something like http://myapp.com/data/123
Would it be possible to start a session on the web page and store the 123 there, and then make a call from the app to any page on the domain and retrieve the 123 from there?
As far as I know it is not possible to pass some value to the appstore that will then somehow be retained for the app when/if it is installed. What you will have to do is find some means of identifying the user or device both on your site and in the app. Anything from a username, email, facebook account will do. Anything like device ID and MAC addresses are pretty much off limits as well, if not impossible. I hope this helps, or maybe there is another solution out there that I do not know of.
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 am using the facebook-iphone-sdk framework to integrate my iPhone app to FB. The problem is when I click the button it gives an error "The application you are using is misconfigured for the Facebook integration. Please download the latest version of the app."
I was able to connect with FB only once. For the first time it worked fine and I was also able to post some data into my wall but afterwords it not working, and the above error occurs.
What could I be doing wrong?
The Bundle ID is case sensitive so watch out for that.
e.g. com.myapp.MyApp is not the same as com.myapp.myapp
This happened to me and gave the same error message.
May be you are using the deprecated API of facebook... Please use the New FBGraph API for facebook integration ....
How to share or post by mail, twitter and facebook from the current application?
This is not only about email... here you will find the tutorial and sample code for facebook integration.....!!
Possible Solutions:
1) Double Check that you are putting in the right facebook app id in your code, and that you didnt somehow overwrite that when you made it work the first time.
2) Check that in the facebook developer profile you have all the proper things set up (They have decent doc's for how to set up properly).
3) Check that you are using the most up to date version of the SDK for fb.
4) Consider using the built-in Facebook for iOS6, since you probably wont be releasing your app before iOS 6 comes out anyways.
5) If all else fails, start over and go through the instructions from beginning to end. Check and re-check everything you set up and carefully scan for little typos or something. It's probably a minor mistake somewhere that you're overlooking.
6) Post code if you want more specific help. An error message isnt enough to deduce what your problem is.
Just delete you app from facebook dashboard, create it again, and then change the facebookID in you App-Info.plist, in the key FacebookAppId and URL types array key. I did it and my app works fine.
Delete facebook app, force perform login in safari..
I basically need a url to open that will end up at the updates tab of the AppStore app. Preferably at the update screen for my app. Is such a thing possible?
I know you can open the app itself, or even the reviews page for the app. But when prompting users to upgrade, the "buy/free" button is actually grayed out and says "installed". Which is pretty unintuitive. We could just have text that instructs the user what to do, but it would be far better we could go directly the update page for our app. We can remotely update content in our old app, so it would be easy to have button or link that takes them to the update tab, assuming I knew what the magic url was.
There's no such URL. About all you can do is tell the user to check the App Store for an update and block them from progressing further into your app until they've installed the new version.
Someone has found a URI that will link to your app's update page:
how do you link directly to app store app update page?
You'll find the answer in the question. Frankly, I'd prefer an update URI as well.