NativeScript URL Handler Plugin

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Usage

Just add App links to your app, see iOS and Android instructions below, and register a handler for the URL data.

See this example for Angular:

import { Component, OnInit } from "@angular/core";
import { handleOpenURL, AppURL } from 'nativescript-urlhandler';

@Component({
  selector: "gr-main",
  template: "<page-router-outlet></page-router-outlet>"
})
export class AppComponent {
    constructor() {
    } 
    
    ngOnInit(){
        handleOpenURL((appURL: AppURL) => {
            console.log('Got the following appURL', appURL);
        });
     }
}

And for pure NativeScript:

var handleOpenURL = require("nativescript-urlhandler").handleOpenURL;

handleOpenURL(function(appURL) {
  console.log('Got the following appURL', appURL);
});

Or as TypeScript:

import { handleOpenURL, AppURL } from 'nativescript-urlhandler';

handleOpenURL((appURL: AppURL) => {
  console.log('Got the following appURL', appURL);
});

Note: see demo app for sample usage. Start by adding handleOpenURL in app main!

Installation

$ tns plugin add nativescript-urlhandler

Or if you want to use the development version (nightly build), which maybe not stable!:

$ tns plugin add [email protected]

Android

Replace myapp with your desired scheme and set launchMode to singleTask

<activity android:name="com.tns.NativeScriptActivity" ... android:launchMode="singleTask"...>
        ...
    <intent-filter>
    <data android:scheme="myapp" /> 
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" /> 
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" /> 
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" /> 
    </intent-filter>

For example:

<activity android:name="com.tns.NativeScriptApplication" android:label="@string/app_name" android:launchMode="singleTask">
  <intent-filter>
      <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
      <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
  </intent-filter>
  <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="myapp" android:host="__PACKAGE__" />
  </intent-filter>
</activity>

The android:launchMode="singleTask" tells the Android operating system to launch the app with a new instance of the activity, or use an existing one. Without this your app will launch multiple instances of itself which is no good.

iOS

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
        <string>com.yourcompany.myapp</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
        <array>
            <string>myapp</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</array>

FAQ

Callback handling

The "handleOpenURL" callback must be called before application initialization, otherwise you'll see this error in the console:

    No callback provided. Please ensure that you called "handleOpenURL" during application init!

Webpack

TypeScript Config

If your Webpack Build is failing, try adapting your tsconfig to this:

    "compilerOptions": {
        "module": "commonjs",
        "target": "es5",
        "experimentalDecorators": true,
        "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
        "noEmitHelpers": true,
        "noEmitOnError": true,
        "lib": [
            "es6",
            "dom",
            "es2015.iterable"
        ],
        "baseUrl": ".",
        "paths": {
            "*": [
                "./node_modules/tns-core-modules/*",
                "./node_modules/*"
            ]
        }
    },
    "exclude": [
        "node_modules",
        "platforms",
        "**/*.aot.ts"
    ]

HTTPS intent

This lib also support HTTPS intent, you can define a host for it. Here is an example on Android with both custom & HTTPS scheme :

<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="my-app" />
</intent-filter>
<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="https" android:host="my-website.com" />
</intent-filter>

Let's suppose your put a <a href="https://my-website.com/check-our-app">Check our mobile app</a> link on your website to open your mobile app. Because https intent is also linked to the mobile browser, when user will tap on the link, a popup will appears to let the user choose between the browser and your mobile app to open this link.

In the other hand, if you setup a android:scheme="my-app" that only your app react to, putting a <a href="my-app://check-our-app">Check our mobile app</a> link like this on your website will avoid this popup and open your mobile app directly.