"Review this App" link in Phonegap/Cordova

Question

I am putting the finishing touches on an iOS / Android application built in Phonegap/Cordova. The information page will offer a link to review the app, and I am trying to implement it.

This StackOverflow Post has great documentation on how to format the links:

...if (device_ios) {
       window.open('itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/domainsicle-domain-name-search/id511364723?ls=1&mt=8'); // or itms://
   } else if (device_android) {
       window.open('market://details?id=<package_name>');
   } else if (device_bb) {
       window.open('http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/<applicationid>');
   }....

Now I'm wondering if there's any way to create these links before my app is actually approved by apple. It seems to me like I first need to submit the app, get the app id/link, and then input the newly generated review link? For the purposes of testing, that's not exactly ideal. What's the best way to accomplish this?

For iOS is possible to review the app from the app by a popUp using this plugin: https://github.com/omaxlive/com.omarben.inappreview — benLIVE, Apr 06 '17 at 09:20

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 29 '13 at 19:40

9

One interim approach could be to put in http based URL's (e.g. http://yourdomain.com/ios, http://yourdomain.com/android) to pages that you own, and replace with a redirect to URL's of the respective apps once they have been approved.

answered Apr 29 '13 at 19:40

Kevin Bluer

235
4
8

1

I'm going to go ahead and award this an answer because that does seem like a clever approach and can't find anything better. Thanks – Augie Gardner May 01 '13 at 16:52

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 22 '14 at 18:58

why dont you just replace the "package_name" with your app package name since that is what android market is going to use to create the url parameter,

for instant my app package name is com.inmoment.philecomsolutions so i created the link as "market://details?id=com.inmoment.philecomsolutions"

and added it to the app before publishing it to the store and it worked. in this case you do not worry about setting multiple sub domain or link and you dont stress your users if they want to rate or review your app.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 01 '17 at 15:45

I know this is an old question, but I ran into a similar issue. The solution for me was to create the apps in iTunes Connect and Google Play Developer Console before completing the development or building the packages. You could do it even before coding begins.

In Android it shouldn't be an issue, as you have your package name that you know and you are positive it is unique, so you can create the link of the form market://details?id=<package_name>.

For iOS, you can use a link like this one: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id<app_id>, and the main difficulty would be to find the app id. But, as I said in the first paragraph, you can start with the app process on iTunes Connect and get the app Id, even before writing a single line of code.

The steps would be:

Log into your iTunes Connect account
Click on the + and select "New App"
Enter the information needed in the pop-up form and click on "Create"
Go to the app page, even without uploading the packages, Apple has assigned the app an Id that you will be able to use in the app itself:

So, for that app in particular, the URL would be: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1201054584 (don't forget the id in front of the number).

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 05 '14 at 02:17

0

market://details?id=com.bethclip.android

edited Oct 05 '14 at 02:17

Peter Pei Guo

7,770
18
35
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answered Oct 05 '14 at 01:54

Josh Sheykman

1

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 13 '17 at 12:42

Yes, I'm aware this is an old question, but since iOS 10.3 you can make use of the awesome InAppReview from Apple.

I can attest to the fact that this new way of reviewing apps has been very fruitful for our apps in terms of the number of reviews.

You can read an even more compelling case study here of how Instagram doubled their reviews.

So, in your example, instead of leading the user away from your app, you'd present them with this popup if they tap the link.

The cordova plugin, which is very easy to use and implement is here: https://github.com/omaxlive/com.omarben.inappreview.

For brevity, and in case that GitHub seize to exist (unlikely), here are the steps to use it:

Install the plugin: cordova plugins add com.omarben.inappreview

Call it in the code like this:

var requestReview = function(){
    try{
        var success = function() {
            console.log("Success");
        }
        var failure = function() {
            console.log("Error calling plugin");
        }

        inappreview.requestReview(success, failure);
    }catch(e){
        console.log("catch: "+e);
    }
};

Hope this helps someone...

"Review this App" link in Phonegap/Cordova

5 Answers5