strange openURL with Facebook and Twitter

latyl1 · June 30, 2017, 12:56pm

Hi all,

Something strange on my iphone using system.openURL :

– Facebook : open MYPAGE in my browser ( whereas i have the fb app on my phone ) :

system.openURL("https://facebook.com/MYPAGE")

– Twitter : open MYPAGE on the twitter app on my iphone :
system.openURL("https://twitter.com/MYPAGE")

Is it the same result for you with facebook and twitter ?

and on android ?

rob · June 30, 2017, 4:21pm

What are you seeing?

latyl1 · June 30, 2017, 5:14pm

With the same code, fb open the browser whereas twitter directly open the webapp (which is cool).

Why fb doesn’t directly open the fb webapp too ?

rob · June 30, 2017, 6:31pm

That would be a behavior determined by the operating system. Perhaps a Google search on “open facebook app with openurl” will yield you some useable results. Our system.openURL() is just calling the iOS or Android version of the call. We just pass the URL to the system call.

Rob

latyl1 · June 30, 2017, 7:18pm

Indeed rob, the link to open a fb page directly in the app via openurl seems to be : fb://profile/xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxx is your pageid. I have to test this monday. But what if the user has no fb app ? An error occurs then? And is there a prompt “do you want to open this fb link in the app?”… Answer in 2 days

rob · June 30, 2017, 7:24pm

You can call system.canOpenURL() to see if you can open it or not, if it returns falls, fall back to opening the web browser version.

Rob

latyl1 · July 3, 2017, 11:58am

hi all,

i use the following code now :

local my\_fb\_id = 111111111111 local my\_urlfb = "mypage" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; if ( system.canOpenURL( "fb://profile/" .. my\_fb\_id ) ) then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL( "fb://profile/"..my\_fb\_id ) -- open in webapp &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; else &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL(my\_urlfb) -- open in browser &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; end

and i have modify my build.settings like that :

settings = { &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; iphone = &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; { &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; plist = &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; { &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; LSApplicationQueriesSchemes = { "fb" }, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }, }

now, it works perfectly on ios, but NOT on android… grrrrr… blank page… any idea ?

latyl1 · July 3, 2017, 3:29pm

I have added the following in build.settings, but android always show “content non available” in the facebook webapp…

settings = { &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;android = &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;{ &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; intentFilters = &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; { &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; { &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; label = "Facebook", -- Optional Title Goes Here &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; actions = { "android.intent.action.VIEW" }, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; categories = &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; { &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "android.intent.category.DEFAULT", &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "android.intent.category.BROWSABLE", &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; data = { scheme = "fb" }, -- for fb:xxxxxxxxxxx &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -- You can add more intent filters here. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;}, }

latyl1 · July 3, 2017, 4:52pm

Hum… this is not the good solution.
Indeed, android well open the Facebook app with the fb:xxxxx link, but doesn’t sucess to open the ask page, just showing : “content non available”.
Whereas it’s ok on iOS for the same link. I don’t understand why…

latyl1 · July 3, 2017, 9:38pm

It seems that for android the url format should be : “fb://facewebmodal/f?href=” + url

latyl1 · July 4, 2017, 9:24am

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; local fbPageID&nbsp; = "1044933568990607" -- your page id : STRING MANDATORY &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; local fbPageURL = "https://m.facebook.com/"..fbPageID &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; local platform = system.getInfo( "platform" ) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; if platform == "android" then -- android &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; local fbPageURL\_androidApp = "fb://page/"..fbPageID &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; if ( system.canOpenURL(fbPageURL\_androidApp) ) then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL(fbPageURL\_androidApp) -- open in native app &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; else &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL(fbPageURL) -- open in browser &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; end &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; elseif platform == "ios" then -- ios &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; local fbPageURL\_iosApp = "fb://profile/"..fbPageID &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; if ( system.canOpenURL(fbPageURL\_iosApp) ) then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL(fbPageURL\_iosApp) -- open in native app &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; else &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL(fbPageURL) -- open in browser &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; end &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; else &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; system.openURL(fbPageURL) -- open in browser &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; end

Hi created this code and it works for me, opening my fb page in the native fb app on ios or android.

This is my contribution, hope it helps someone

rob · June 30, 2017, 4:21pm