Using custom url schemes to start your app

You can start your app using a link on a webpage by calling a custom url. Those custom url schemes are links that start with a custom name like mycustomapp:// and you can add parameter to it that will be forwarded to your app.

In your web page you add a simple link like this:

<a href="mycustomapp://?data=customValue">custom link</a>

and we will prepare the Titanium app to listen to those links, open the app and display the parameters.

iOS

Add this to your tiapp.xml ios – plist – dict node:

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
        <!-- you app id -->
        <string>com.app.id</string>
        <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
        <array>
            <!-- your custom scheme -->
            <string>mycustomapp</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</array>

Android

In order for Android to know that it has to start your app we will need to add the following <intent-filter> to your main <activity> in tiapp.xml:

<application>
    <activity android:name=".AppnameActivity" android:exported="true">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
            <data android:scheme="mycustomapp"/>
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
</application>

You can change the android:scheme value to your custom url and you will need to change android:name=".AppnameActivity" so it will use your activity name. When you build your app you see a log like this:

[INFO]  TiRootActivity: (main) [0,0] checkpoint, on root activity resume. activity = com.miga.app.AppnameActivity@2a1c1c5

with your activity name at the end (it should be your app name without spaces).

App code

const win = Ti.UI.createWindow();
const lbl = Ti.UI.createLabel();

Ti.App.addEventListener("resume", function() {
    var data;
    if (OS_IOS) {
        data = Ti.App.arguments.url;
    } else {
        data = Ti.Android.currentActivity.intent.data;
    }
    lbl.text = data;
});

win.addEventListener("open", function() {
    var data;
    if (OS_IOS) {
        data = Ti.App.arguments.url;
    } else {
        data = Ti.Android.currentActivity.intent.data;
    }
    lbl.text = data;
});
win.add(lbl);

if (OS_IOS) {
  // make sure the app is loaded and ready
  Ti.App.iOS.addEventListener('handleurl', event => {
     console.info(event.launchOptions.url);
     lbl.text = event.launchOptions.url;
  });
}

win.open();