Deep linking

Once you have carefully read the article List of Action URLs you will notice that Purple uses the following URL scheme for the internal usage of an action URL: "purple"

A fictitious action URL could therefore look like this: "purple://app/do_something"

At this point, there are two variants of executing a deep link in your Purple App.

The manual variant by the potential app user:

The potential app user taps on a deep link that is integrated into one of your websites, for example. This variant supports the fact that the app does not have to be installed.

The automatic variant delivers a deep link to the device, for example via push or in-app message.

For this variant, the app must already be installed and configured accordingly for the input channel used.

As an introduction, the following figure shows the very rough process of how a deep link is passed to your Purple App after the user tapped a deep link:

This feature relies on registering your Purple App with custom URL schemes in the operating system. This tells the operating system that this app can open deep links for the registered URL scheme.

iOS To read more about the Apple feature in detail, continue reading at official documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-custom-url-scheme-for-your-app

Android To read more about Android's feature in detail, continue reading at official documentation: https://developer.android.com/training/app-links/deep-linking



Create your custom URL scheme

Before we get into the example, let's start with a warning:

To avoid this problem, after creating your app in Purple Manager, the default value is: "purple-your_app_package_name".

That way the scheme is unique since the package name is unique.

Are you migrating your app to Purple and already have a custom URL scheme for your app, or just want to use a different URL scheme as Purple's default one?

You can configure this custom scheme in the Purple Manager:

"Your app" => "Basic Settings" => "General" => "Basic Settings" => "Deeplink Scheme Name"

This feature relies on registering your Purple App to use Universal links. This feature is for use in iOS only.

iOS To read more about the Apple feature in detail, continue reading at official documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/allowing-apps-and-websites-to-link-to-your-content

You can configure this in the Purple Manager:

"Your app" => "Basic Settings" => "iOS" => "Basic Settings" => "Associated Domain Prefix "

"Your app" => "Basic Settings" => "iOS" => "Basic Settings" => "Apple App ID Prefix"

"Your app" => "Basic Settings" => "iOS" => "Basic Settings" => "Deferred Deep Linking"

Do not be confused that one setting takes place under "Deferred Deep Linking".

Theoretically, content from your Purple App can be linked to your website using deep links. If a user clicks on such a deep link and the corresponding Purple App is installed, the content addressed opens. If the potential app user has not installed this app, this is usually a "dead end". With the deferred deep link feature, the deep link can still be evaluated after installing your Purple App and the app user opens it for the first time. This mechanism is currently supported by Purple itself and by Firebase Dynamic Links.

Purple Manager

Apple Developer Account

If your Purple App is already installed, the following channels for sending deep links can be used:

These channels can be used but require the use of 3rd party SDKs.

Typically used to notify app users about breaking news articles.

May be used to reach inactive subscribers to make a discount on a subscription.

These 3rd-party SDKs support the input channels for deep links as follows: