applink

One shareable link to all your app market listings

• Automatic Device Detection: Redirect users to the correct app market (Google Play or Apple App Store) based on the device type found within the HTTP user agent string.
• Fallback Option: If automatic detection fails, users are directed to a webpage for manual app store selection.
• Optimized Previews: Link previews for messengers and social media, powered by Open Graph Protocol, to enhance engagement.
• Easy Deployment: Deploy applink microservice as a single, easy-to-configure Docker image.

Use cases

• Marketing Campaigns: Share a single link in emails, social media posts, or ads to direct users to your app.
• Print Materials: Use a single QR code linking to your app, perfect for brochures, posters, and flyers.
• In-App Recommendations: Share a link from within your app via messengers or social media, making it easy for users to recommend your app to others.

Example usage

Within the git project root, the following docker command, starts the service with the configuration found in example_storage directory:

docker run --rm -it -p 9080:80 -v $(pwd)/docs/example_storage:/applink/storage stefanhuber332/applink

Opening the link http://localhost:9080/myapp shows the fallback page inside the browser. If the link is opened with an Android or iOS device the respective redirect to the app market is executed.

Configuration

A full configuration of the applink service requires a directory which is mounted as a volume to the docker container. The directory structure would look something like this:

configuration/
  app1.yml
  app2.yml
  ...
icons/
  app1-icon.png
  app2-icon.png
  ...

Within the configuration subdirectory a yml file for each app needs to be added. The filename of the yml file corresponds to the path in the applink (e.g., https://applink.example.com/app1). Within the icons subfolder icon images can be placed, which will be served to users.

Example

Within the docs/example_storage directory a full example is available.

links:
  ios: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/festung-kufstein/id1090047406?platform=iphone
  android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.beyondit.audioguide
page:
  base-url: http://localhost:9080
  title: My Example App
  background-color: 'linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(2,0,36,1) 0%, rgba(50,217,218,1) 56%, rgba(0,212,255,1) 100%)'
  app-icon: example_icon.png

Local development (Nginx Unit and PHP)

Nginx Unit cannot be used on Windows outside a Docker container, but MacOS and Linux is supported. Follow the instruction to install on your environment (https://unit.nginx.org/installation). The php language module for unit is required.

Start unit with control port on 9090:

unitd --control 127.0.0.1:9090 --pid $(pwd)/unit.pwd --log $(pwd)/unit.log --no-daemon

Push local unit configuration for the application:

curl -X PUT -d "@unit-config-local.json" 127.0.0.1:9090/config

Local development (PHP only)

Locally install a php interpreter and start the built-in webserver from the root directory of the project:

php -S localhost:8080 -t ./public