How to register a custom app opening URL scheme with Xcode 4?

Question

Xcode4 is asking for a huge number of arguments just to make this simple thing possible:

NSString *stringURL = @"twitterriffic://"; NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:stringURL]; [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url]; 

What are all these properties for? Why an image? Must I repeat the app identifier here? What role to choose if I want anyone to be able to call this URL to open my app? And what are these Additional url type properties for?

I found no Xcode4-related tutorial how to register such an URL scheme with Xcode 4.

Answer 1

• Open "Supporting Files" (folder) on left and click the "YourAppName-Info.plist"
• Choose a row like "Bundle creator OS Type Code" and mouse over row and click the (+) symbol
• This creates a new row and type "URL types"
• Click the arror to left and see Item 0 and you'll rename the value in Item 0 to "URL Schemes" as shown
• Then edit the field in Item 0 and type in your prototocol; I typed in "goomzee" as shown

Now if I install this app on my simulator, and open Safari and type "goomzee://" in the address bar it will launch my app.

Answer 2

Yup, this stuff isn't straightforward is it ?

I've outlined the steps required to register a custom URL here: Custom URLs

But, basically the key to it is setting up a "URL Types" value in your .plist file. Here's what it looks like in XCode 5:

In this example, I've registered the MKB prefix, so now, I can use this new type of URLs in hyperlinks on webpages, and emails (if I read an email in the iPad Mail app):

If a user taps on one of these links, my iPad app will start up, and I can access the full URL string, to extract the other parameters from the URL (eg "DocumentNumber=100")

The only gotcha is that I have yet to work out how to test whether a user has an iPad app installed which can recognise a particular prefix.

If they haven't, and they tap on one of these MKB:// links on their iPad, they'll get an ugly error message: