Deep Linking

Version and platform compatibility

• Deep linking support was introduced in version 4.89.0 of the JourneyApps Runtime and version 1 of the JourneyApps Container.

• Deep links are currently only supported in Android, iOS, Windows, and MacOS containers.

  • Currently, on Web containers, deep links can be generated and called, but the Web container cannot be opened using a deep link.

• The "Deep linking" feature flag must be enabled.

• @journeyapps/runtime-build version 2.1.9 is required for TypeScript apps.

Overview

Deep links can be used in emails, external systems, or other apps to open an app on a specific view. This improves the usability of an app by reducing the number of steps to get to the right place in the app.

Limitations

• When generating a deep link, parameters can only be of type text, boolean, integer or number.See the Handling view parameters section below for handling more complex types.

• Users need to be enrolled in the target app.

The structure of a deep link is:

yourcontainerurlscheme:///deeplink?view=viewPath&paramName1=value1&paramName2=value2

Deep links take a view path and, optionally, a number of parameters.

yourcontainerurlscheme

This value corresponds to the URL scheme of the container. This is the standard way of opening containers (see the Open other Containers section).

• The URL scheme of the JourneyApps container downloaded from OXIDE our through the App Stores is journeyapps.

• In custom containers, the URL scheme is specified in the Enrollment section when creating the container configuration.

view

The viewPath value corresponds to the view path as defined in OXIDE. Also see view.path.

paramName

Substitute paramName with the name of a parameter in your view. Additional view parameter-and-value pairs can be added, separated by a &.

The following are reserved terms and should not be used as parameter names: j, k, h, t, u, enroll, user, url, view

Basic Example

job_details.view.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<view title="Job Details">
    <param name="job" type="job" />
    ...
</view>

For example, a deep link to this job_details view would be structured as

acmecontainer:///deeplink?view=job_details&job=358e03d-a6b9-4b5a-a7c1-024765fb9b23

Basic deep link flow

Start --> User clicks on a deep link
        |--> Browser opens the app based on 'urlScheme'
            |--> If app found, open JourneyApps container
                |--> Container checks if the user is enrolled
                    |--> If user is not enrolled, navigate to the login screen
                    |--> If user is enrolled, loads JourneyApps runtime
                        |--> Runtime checks deep link view and view params
                            |--> If View found, 
                                 |--> processes any view params and calls 'transform-value' if defined
                            |--> If no view found, load the 'main' view
                            |--> If an error occurs while deep linking
                                |--> user is navigated to 'main'
                        |--> End
                    |--> End
            |--> End

Generating a deep link

Deep links for an app can be generated in an app by calling the navigate.getDeeplink() function from a view's JS/TS or by constructing the URL manually. This latter approach is useful for generating deep links from external systems or from CloudCode tasks.

Example: Generate deep link in an app

main.ts

const link = await navigate.getDeepLink({
        path: 'technician/landing',
        urlScheme: 'acmecontainer',
        args: {
            technician: 'technicianId',
            job: 'jobId'
        }
});

// link is a string of the compiled url
console.log(link); // -> acmecontainer:///deeplink?view=technician%2Flanding&technician=technicianId&job=jobId

Example: Generate deep link manually

// Create the initial url with the container urlscheme and the "deeplink" url pathname
const link = new URL('acmecontainer:///deeplink'); 
// Append a "view" parameter
link.searchParams.append('view', 'technician/landing');
// Append any required view parameters 
link.searchParams.append('technician', 'ABCD 123! 567? 89/|\\');

// link.href is a string of the compiled url
console.log(link.href); 
// -> acmecontainer:///deeplink?view=technician%2Flanding&technician=ABCD+123%21+567%3F+89%2F%7C%5C

Handling view parameters

When generating a deep link all parameters become strings. When opening the deep link, certain parameters are automatically cast to JourneyApps types - e.g. "true"/"false" strings are turned into booleans. This happens for the following types: text, boolean, number, integer.

Developers will need to handle more complex view parameter types, e.g. where a view parameter is a DB object, or a date. The transform-value attribute is available on a view parameter for this purpose. In addition, the required attribute is available to improve link/deep link management throughout an app in the case where optional parameters are added to a view at a later stage.

Developer Recommendations

View-level access control

Access control, such as limiting access to a view to certain user roles only, should happen in the init() function of a view, not in the navigation function that navigates to the view. This ensures that access control is being applied whether users navigate using in-app navigation or using deep links.

For example, the following is recommended:

admin_view.ts

async function init() {
  if (user.role !== 'admin') {
      notification.error('You do not have access to this view');
      return navigate.replace('main');
  }
}

And the following is not recommended:

main.ts

async function adminNav() {
  if (user.role === 'admin') {
    return navigate.link('admin_view');
  }
  else {
    return notification.error('You do not have access to this view');
  }
}

Validation and error handling of view parameters

This should happen in the init() function of a view i.e. after parameters have received their values. This should not happen in the transform-value function.

Encode URL when generating a deep link from an external system

Deep links should be URL encoded. When generating a deep link from an external system (including CloudCode) this can be done using the URL( ) class since it handles encoding of slashes, spaces and other non browser-safe characters into a valid url.

• navigate.getDeeplink() has this built-in

• Example in CloudCode:

index.ts

import { TaskContext } from '@journeyapps/cloudcode';
import { URL } from 'url';

export async function run(this: TaskContext) {
    const link = new URL('acmecontainer:///deeplink');
    link.searchParams.append('view', 'technician/landing');
    link.searchParams.append('technician', 'ABCD 123! 567? 89/|\\');
    console.log(link.href); // -> acmecontainer:///deeplink?view=technician%2Flanding&technician=ABCD+123%21+567%3F+89%2F%7C%5C
}