Handling Deep Links
Introduction#
Deep links are URLs that take users directly to specific content in your app. You can set up deep links by adding intent filters and extracting data from incoming intents to drive users to the right screen in your app.
Parameters#
| <data> Attribute | Details |
| ------ | ------ | -----|
| scheme | The scheme part of a URI (case-sensitive). Examples: http, https, ftp |
| host | The host part of a URI (case-sensitive). Examples: google.com, example.org |
| port | The port part of a URI. Examples: 80, 443 |
| path | The path part of a URI. Must begin with /. Examples: /, /about |
| pathPrefix | A prefix for the path part of a URI. Examples: /item, /article |
| pathPattern | A pattern to match for the path part of a URI. Examples: /item/.*, /article/[0-9]* |
| mimeType | A mime type to match. Examples: image/jpeg, audio/*
Remarks#
The <intent-filter>
This combination of <action> and <category> elements is what tells the Android system that a specific Activity should be launched when the user clicks on a link in another application.
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data ... />
</intent-filter>Multiple <data> tags
The set of deep links that your <intent-filter> supports is the cross-product of all the <data> elements that you define in that intent-filter. The multiple domain, multiple path, and multiple scheme examples demonstrate this.
Resources
- Enabling Deep Links for App Content (developer.android.com)
<intent-filter>(developer.android.com
Simple deep link
AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity android:name="com.example.MainActivity" >
<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="www.example.com" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>This will accept any link starting with https://www.example.com as a deep link to start your MainActivity.
Multiple paths on a single domain
AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity android:name="com.example.MainActivity" >
<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="www.example.com" />
<data android:path="/" />
<data android:path="/about" />
<data android:path="/map" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>This will launch your MainActivity when the user clicks any of these links:
https://www.example.com/https://www.example.com/abouthttps://www.example.com/map
Multiple domains and multiple paths
AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity android:name="com.example.MainActivity" >
<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="www.example.com" />
<data android:scheme="http"
android:host="www.example2.com" />
<data android:path="/" />
<data android:path="/map" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>This will launch your MainActivity when the user clicks any of these links:
https://www.example.com/https://www.example2.com/https://www.example.com/maphttps://www.example2.com/map
Both http and https for the same domain
AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity android:name="com.example.MainActivity" >
<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" />
<data android:scheme="https" />
<data android:host="www.example.com" />
<data android:path="/" />
<data android:path="/map" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>This will launch your MainActivity when the user clicks any of these links:
https://www.example.com/https://www.example.com/https://www.example.com/maphttps://www.example.com/map
Retrieving query parameters
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
Intent intent = getIntent();
Uri data = intent.getData();
if (data != null) {
String param1 = data.getQueryParameter("param1");
String param2 = data.getQueryParameter("param2");
}
}
}If the user clicks on a linkto https://www.example.com/map?param1=FOO¶m2=BAR, then param1 here will have a value of "FOO" and param2 will have a value of "BAR".
Using pathPrefix
AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity android:name="com.example.MainActivity" >
<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="www.example.com"
android:path="/item" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>This will launch your MainActivity when the user clicks any link starting with https://www.example.com/item, such as:
https://www.example.com/itemhttps://www.example.com/item/1234https://www.example.com/item/xyz/details