DeepLinkDispatch

DeepLinkDispatch provides a declarative, annotation-based API to define application deep links.

You can register an Activity to handle specific deep links by annotating it with @DeepLink and a URI. DeepLinkDispatch will parse the URI and dispatch the deep link to the appropriate Activity, along with any parameters specified in the URI.

Example

Here's an example where we register SampleActivity to pull out an ID from a deep link like example://example.com/deepLink/123. We annotated with @DeepLink and specify there will be a parameter that we'll identify with id.

@DeepLink("foo://example.com/deepLink/{id}")
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
  @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Intent intent = getIntent();
    if (intent.getBooleanExtra(DeepLink.IS_DEEP_LINK, false)) {
      Bundle parameters = intent.getExtras();
      String idString = parameters.getString("id");
      // Do something with the ID...
    }
    ...
  }
}

Multiple Deep Links

Sometimes you'll have an Activity that handles several kinds of deep links:

@DeepLink({"foo://example.com/deepLink/{id}", "foo://example.com/anotherDeepLink"})
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
  @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Intent intent = getIntent();
    if (intent.getBooleanExtra(DeepLink.IS_DEEP_LINK, false)) {
      Bundle parameters = intent.getExtras();
      String idString = parameters.getString("id");
      // Do something with the ID...
    }
    ...
  }
}

Method Annotations

You can also annotate static methods that take a Context and return an Intent. DeepLinkDispatch will call that method to create that Intent and use it when starting your Activity via that registered deep link:

@DeepLink("foo://example.com/methodDeepLink/{param1}")
public static Intent intentForDeepLinkMethod(Context context) {
  return new Intent(context, MainActivity.class).setAction(ACTION_DEEP_LINK_METHOD);
}

Query Parameters

Query parameters are parsed and passed along automatically, and are retrievable like any other parameter. For example, we could retrieve the query parameter passed along in the URI example://example.com/deepLink?qp=123:

@DeepLink("foo://example.com/deepLink")
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
  @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Intent intent = getIntent();
    if (intent.getBooleanExtra(DeepLink.IS_DEEP_LINK, false)) {
      Bundle parameters = intent.getExtras();
      if (parameters != null && parameters.getString("qp") != null) {
        String queryParameter = parameters.getString("qp");
        // Do something with the query parameter...
      }
    }
  }
}

Callbacks

You can optionally register a BroadcastReceiver to be called on any incoming deep link into your app. DeepLinkActivity will use LocalBroadcastManager to broadcast an Intent with any success or failure when deep linking. The intent will be populated with these extras:

• DeepLinkActivity.EXTRA_URI: The URI of the deep link.
• DeepLinkActivity.EXTRA_SUCCESSFUL: Whether the deep link was fired successfully.
• DeepLinkActivity.EXTRA_ERROR_MESSAGE: If there was an error, the appropriate error message.

You can register a receiver to receive this intent. An example of such a use is below:

public class DeepLinkReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
  private static final String TAG = DeepLinkReceiver.class.getSimpleName();

  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    String deepLinkUri = intent.getStringExtra(DeepLinkActivity.EXTRA_URI);

    if (intent.getBooleanExtra(DeepLinkActivity.EXTRA_SUCCESSFUL, false)) {
      Log.i(TAG, "Success deep linking: " + deepLinkUri);
    } else {
      String errorMessage = intent.getStringExtra(DeepLinkActivity.EXTRA_ERROR_MESSAGE);
      Log.e(TAG, "Error deep linking: " + deepLinkUri + " with error message +" + errorMessage);
    }
  }
}

public class YourApplication extends Application {
  @Override public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    IntentFilter intentFilter = new IntentFilter(DeepLinkActivity.ACTION);
    LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver(new DeepLinkReceiver(), intentFilter);
  }
}

Usage

Add to your project build.gradle file:

buildscript {
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.neenbedankt.gradle.plugins:android-apt:1.8'
  }
}

apply plugin: 'android-apt'

dependencies {
  compile 'com.airbnb:deeplinkdispatch:2.0.1'
  apt 'com.airbnb:deeplinkdispatch-processor:2.0.1'
}

Register DeepLinkActivity with the scheme you'd like in your AndroidManifest.xml file (using airbnb as an example):

<activity
    android:name=".DeepLinkActivity"
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoDisplay">
    <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="airbnb" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Note: Intent filters may only contain a single data element for a URI pattern. Create separate intent filters to capture additional URI patterns.

That's it. The library will generate the class DeepLinkActivity during compilation.

Starting with version 2.0.0, you no longer need to add the DeepLinkActivity to your manifest. Just annotate one of your existing activities with @DeepLinkHandler. If you do that, DeepLinkDispatch will not generate the DeepLinkActivity for you. Instead, you'll be responsible for handling the deep links yourself. This is useful if you want to do any custom handling before the deep link is launched, like logging, sign-up, etc. Example:

@DeepLinkHandler
public class CustomDeepLinkHandler extends Activity {
  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    // perform your application-specific logic (eg.: logging, launch sign-in, etc.)
    // ...

    // Let DeepLinkDispatch handle the Intent and finish this Activity
    DeepLinkDelegate.dispatchFrom(this);
    finish();
  }
}

Snapshots of the development version are available in Sonatype's snapshots repository.

Proguard Rules

-keep class com.airbnb.deeplinkdispatch.** { *; }
-keepclasseswithmembers class * {
     @com.airbnb.deeplinkdispatch.DeepLink <methods>;
}

Testing the sample app

Use adb to launch deep links (in the terminal type: adb shell).

This fires a standard deep link. Source annotation @DeepLink("dld://example.com/deepLink")

am start -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "dld://example.com/deepLink" com.airbnb.deeplinkdispatch.sample

This fires a deep link associated with a method, and also passes along a path parameter. Source annotation @DeepLink("dld://methodDeepLink/{param1}")

am start -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "dld://methodDeepLink/abc123" com.airbnb.deeplinkdispatch.sample

You can include multiple path parameters (also you don't have to include the sample app's package name). Source annotation @DeepLink("http://example.com/deepLink/{id}/{name}")

am start -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "http://example.com/deepLink/123abc/myname"

Note it is possible to call directly adb shell am ... however this seems to miss the URI sometimes so better to call from within shell.

License

Copyright 2015 Airbnb, Inc.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.