forward-deeplink

Easily create express endpoint to handle mobile deeplinks in your web server

Takes away the pain of forwarding users to the right app store / mobile app depending on their platform.

Use case

Suppose you have a custom url scheme app:// handled by your mobile apps. You want to create a universal "smart" link that will know where to send the user:

• If the user has the app installed, open the app with the deeplink.
• If the user doesn't have the app installed, send to the app store to download the app (google play / itunes).
• If the user doesn't have a supported phone, send to a fallback url.

Usage

Example:

var express = require('express');
var deeplink = require('forward-deeplink');

var app = express();

// fix deeplink conf with constance values
app.get(
  '/deeplink',
  deeplink({
    fallback: 'https://cupsapp.com',
    android_package_name: 'com.linh.demo',
    ios_store_link: 'https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myapp/id556462755',
  })
);

// attach deeplink configurations inner request query-string
app.get('/forward-deeplink', deeplink());

This example creates an endpoint GET /deeplink in your web server.

Assuming your server address is https://acme.org, you can use the link https://acme.org/deeplink?url=app://account so when users will open it the app will open with app://account deeplink or the users will be redirected to download the app in case they don't have it.

Available options

forward-deeplink currently only supports Android and ios.

Options 1: To pass on to forward-deeplink are:

• url: mandatory. The deeplink url you want the user to be directed to e.g. app://account.
• fallback: mandatory. A fallback url in case the user is opening the link via an unsupported platform like desktop / windows phone etc. In such case, the fallback url will be opened in the user's browser like a normal link.
• android_package_name: optional. In case you want to support Android deep links, pass your app's package name.
• ios_store_link: optional. In case you want to support ios deep links, pass your app's itunes url. You can get it here.
• title: optional. Title for the intermediate html page. Defaults to an empty string.

Options 2: To pass on to query params (express request):

When a request comes in, the following query params are checked:

• url: mandatory. If available, will prefer this deeplink url over the one from the options.
• fallback: mandatory. If available, will prefer this fallback address over the one from the options.
• android_package_name: optional. In case you want to support Android deep links, pass your app's package name.
• ios_store_link: optional. In case you want to support ios deep links, pass your app's itunes url. You can get it here.
• title: optional. Title for the intermediate html page. Defaults to an empty string.

Behaviour

forward-deeplink works by first sending the user to an html page with a user-agent sniffing script. After figuring out the user's device, it redirects them to the predefined deeplink. In practice, after clicking the link, the browser will be opened for a very short moment and then the redirect will happen.

TODO

• Better user-agent discovery.
• Enable non-express use.