Open intent from URL using Java Script is not working on production - DeepLink

Question

I have a little mystery here, I have this code in my onCreate method:

    Intent intent = getIntent();

    if (Intent.ACTION_VIEW.equals(intent.getAction())) {
        Log.i(TAG, "ACTION_VIEW START");
        Uri uri = intent.getData();

        SharedPreferences.Editor tEditor = getSharedPreferences("UserFormPreferences", MODE_PRIVATE).edit();

        tEditor.putString("GuestRoomNumber", uri.getQueryParameter("h"));
        tEditor.putString("GuestSurname", uri.getQueryParameter("a"));
        tEditor.apply();
        //it shows an alert to the user
        GuestLogin(uri.getQueryParameter("h"), uri.getQueryParameter("a")); 
        Log.i(TAG, "ACTION_VIEW END");
    }

And I have this code in my manifest:

    <activity
        android:name="epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_home"
        android:launchMode="standard"
        android:screenOrientation="portrait">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        </intent-filter>
        <intent-filter>
            <data android:scheme="com.guestperience" />
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

And from a web page I'm executing this JS:

window.location = "com.guestperience://?h=x&a=x";

So here comes the funny part, if I plug my phone, and then in Android Studio, I click on the Play or Debug button, and then I go to the Mail App and tap over a hyperlink that takes me to my web page in Chrome that have the JS instruction, it opens My App and open the intent using the onCreate and onStart method like I expect and add it to the stack of intents in My App, this means that if I'm on any intent of my app and I execute the JS, the app comes to the front and it creates the intent and do what it is supposed to do and shows an alert to the user.

But if I pull the plug or I use the .apk that I have in the Play Store in Beta, this functionality does not work, and I don't understand the difference because to me is the same code, so this is what happens when I'm not connected to Android Studio:

If the app is close, I click on the link, it opens Chrome and the the app is started, and the first intent of the app that is the same that I'm calling, do what it is supposed to do and shows the alert.
Once the app is open if I repeat the steps it never shows the intent and it does not matter if I'm in the initial intent or in another intent.

I have tried to change the code to the onStart but it is almost the same behavior:

If the app is close, I click on the link, it opens Chrome and the the app is started, and the fist intent of the app that is the same that I'm calling, do what it is supposed to do and shows the alert.
Once the app is open if I repeat the steps it only shows the alert when I'm in the main intent (the same that I'm calling), if I'm in another intent it never shows the intent, but if I navigate to the intent the Alert is shown every time I call it. (on every onStart, this can be controlled with a bool).

At the end, I don't understand why the behavior is different when I'm plugged to Android Studio.

Maybe is some permission that I'm missing or something that I have to configure, but I'm lost.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

UPDATE 1:

I have detected this:

If I plug the phone and press play and keep the plug everything works like a charm.
If I plug the phone and press play and remove the plug everything works like a charm.
If I plug the phone and press play and close the app (the plug can be plugged or not) if I start the app with the link works like a charm, but if the app is started stops working on any intent.

There is something that Android Studio is doing that makes it work, I'm thinking that it has to be with permissions but I'm really lost.

UPDATE 2:

I have tried all the options of this examples and I still have the same result, if the app is open i can't get to the intent, but if the app is closed or is plugged to Android Studio works like a charm.

  <!-- Allow web apps to launch Barcode Scanner by linking to http://zxing.appspot.com/scan. -->
  <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="http" android:host="guestperience.com" android:path="/Main"/>
  </intent-filter>
  <!-- Support zxing://scan/?... like iPhone app -->
  <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="com.guestperience" android:host="Main" android:path="/"/>
  </intent-filter>

I have tried to attach it to the launcher intent and nothing seems to work.

<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>

I have tried to launch the app from an href, to see if a user action is needed and still the same result.

<a href="intent://Main/#Intent;scheme=com.guestperience;package=epinom.jm.smarthotel;end"> CLICK HERE TO LOGIN </a>

https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/intents

https://github.com/zxing/zxing/blob/master/android/AndroidManifest.xml

UPDATE 3:

I have added this to track the action that is called once the app is open:

Log.i(TAG, intent.getAction().toString());

If I open my app for the first time the value is:

"com.guestperience://Main/"

But if I open another intent and open the app through the link again the result is the last action I have called i.e.:

"epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen"

And of course if I open the app with Android Studio I always get this value:

"com.guestperience://Main/"

Because all the app is configurable through JSON files all my activities have intent filters so all my calls are like:

Intent tIntent = new Intent("epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen"); //replacing this "epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen" with the JSON string var of course
startActivity(tIntent);
finish();

I have read this too, and as far as I can tell I'm not missing anything:

http://developer.android.com/intl/es/training/app-indexing/deep-linking.html

As i know, Android Studio should launch your app the same way a launcher will do. — Nanoc, Nov 17 '15 at 15:13
@Nanoc do I need a special permission to open my intent from a browser? — Stornu2, Nov 17 '15 at 15:23
Not an expert on deeplinking but i know Google has recently changed the way you call a intent from a url, so if im not wrong, you have different ways of doing it depending on the browser. take a look https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/intents — Nanoc, Nov 17 '15 at 15:25
@Nanoc Thanks for the link, it have opened a lot of knowledge to me and lead me to the solution of this mystery — Stornu2, Nov 24 '15 at 17:03

Stornu2 · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-24T17:06:42.777

After doing a lot of tests and reading a lot, I have ended doing a base class that extends Activity and my Main Activity extends from the Base Activity.

public class BaseActivity extends Activity {

}

public class vcMainScreen extends BaseActivity {

}

Then on the onStart() of the Base Activity I have added this code to handle the call from the browser:

@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();
    Intent intent = getIntent();

    if (Intent.ACTION_VIEW.equals(intent.getAction())) {
        Uri uri = intent.getData();

        SharedPreferences.Editor tEditor = getSharedPreferences("UserFormPreferences", MODE_PRIVATE).edit();

        tEditor.putString("GuestRoomNumber", uri.getQueryParameter("h"));
        tEditor.putString("GuestSurname", uri.getQueryParameter("a").replace("/",""));
        tEditor.apply();

        Intent tIntent = new Intent("epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen");
        tIntent.putExtra("Login", "true");
        startActivity(tIntent);
        finish();
    }
}

As you can see it calls the Main Activity an there in the onStart() I have added this lines to call my login method:

@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();

    if (getIntent().getExtras() != null && getIntent().getExtras().getString("Login") != null && getIntent().getExtras().getString("Login").equals("true")) {
        SharedPreferences tPrefs = getSharedPreferences("UserFormPreferences", MODE_PRIVATE);

        GuestLogin(tPrefs.getString("GuestRoomNumber", ""), tPrefs.getString("GuestSurname", ""));
        getIntent().putExtra("Login", "false");
    }
}

And in the Manifest I have added this code:

<activity
    android:name="epinom.jm.smarthotel.BaseActivity"
    android:label="@string/title_activity_home"
    android:launchMode="singleTask"
    android:screenOrientation="portrait">
    <intent-filter>
        <data android:scheme="com.guestperience" android:host="Main" android:path="/"/>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

<activity
    android:name="epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen"
    android:label="@string/title_activity_home"
    android:launchMode="standard"
    android:screenOrientation="portrait">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="epinom.jm.smarthotel.vcMainScreen" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Is important that the Base Activity has a launchMode="singleTask", and a the end I have to use a URL like this:

<a href="intent://Main/?h=1&a=surname/#Intent;scheme=com.guestperience;package=epinom.jm.smarthotel;end"> CLICK HERE TO LOGIN </a>

And I'm using this GIT to handle my DeepLink with some changes:

https://github.com/hampusohlsson/browser-deeplink

I'm sure that this is not the correct way of doing this, but I hope this helps someone in the future.

Happy coding to all.

Open intent from URL using Java Script is not working on production - DeepLink

1 Answers1