Add App Links to Android Apps

You will learn

• ✔Add App Link to your Android Application
• ✔Host an Assets.json File using SAP Mobile Services [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 1: ](Real world use case)]

  

  As a Vendor Manager, you oversee a web and mobile application that enables you to view, manage, and order products from vendors. When a vendor adds a new product using the web app, they notify you via email, providing a web app link to the newly added product for your approval. As you primarily use the mobile application, you want to click on the link to open the product detail page on your application and perform the necessary action. This tutorial, will help you configure App Links on Android, thereby eliminating the need for the user to manually navigate to the product page. Click here to learn more about universal links on SAP BTP SDK Android. [DONE] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 2: ](Launch App Links Assistant)] 1. Open your Android Studio project. 2. Select Tools → App Links Assistant in the menu bar.

  

  [VALIDATE_2] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 3: ](Add URL intent filters)] 1. Click Open URL Mapping Editor in the App Links Assistant window. 2. Click + to add a new URL mapping.

  

  3. Open SAP Mobile Services admin UI. 4. Click Mobile Applications → Native/MDK in the sidebar. 5. Click on your app (For example com.native.links).

  

  6. Click APIs tab. 7. Copy the Server URL.

  

  8. Use the following table to fill the details requested in the Add URL Mapping window, and click OK. | Field Name | Value | Details | |—-|—-|—-| | Host | <Server URL> | | | Path | pathPrefix | From the drop-down menu | | Path - pathPrefix | /data | You can add any prefix | | Activity | .ui.WelcomeActivity | You can select any activity. The application in the tutorial has been created using Jetpack Compose-based UI

  

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  > The required code is added to the AndroidManfifest.xml file. 9. Paste the following URLs in the Check URL Mapping input field to test if the URL will be handled by the app. | URL | Status | |—-|—-|—-| | <Server URL> | This URL doesn’t map to any Activity. | | <Server URL>/data | This URL maps to any .ui.WelcomeActivity | [DONE] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 4: ](Add logic to handle the intent)] 1. Select Tools → App Links Assistant in the menu bar of your Android Studio project. 2. Click Select Activity in the App Links Assistant window. 3. Select .ui.WelcomeActivity in the pop-up, and click Insert Code.

  

  4. Open WelcomeActivity.kt. 5. Locate the inserted code block. kotlin // ATTENTION: This was auto-generated to handle app links. val appLinkIntent: Intent = intent val appLinkAction: String? = appLinkIntent.action val appLinkData: Uri? = appLinkIntent.data 6. Add the following code after the inserted code block. kotlin appLinkData?.let { uri -> val pathSegments: List<String> = uri.pathSegments if (pathSegments.isNotEmpty()) { val lastPathSegment: String = pathSegments.last() if (lastPathSegment == "product") { Toast.makeText(this, "Product App Link", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show() } else if (lastPathSegment == "vendor") { Toast.makeText(this, "Vendor App Link", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show() } } } > Ensure that the necessary libraries are imported. [DONE] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 5: ](Generate assets for web association)] 1. Select Tools → App Links Assistant in the menu bar of your Android Studio project. 2. Click Open Digital Asset Links File Generator in the App Links Assistant window. 3. Leave the default settings, and click Generate Digital Asset Links file.

  

  > For productive apps, you must select the same certificate that will be used to sign the .apk file. 4. Click Link and Verify.

  

  5. Copy the text under the Preview section.

  

  [DONE] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 6: ](Add web association on Mobile Services)] 1. Open SAP Mobile Services admin UI. 2. Click Mobile Applications → Native/MDK in the sidebar. 3. Click on your app (For example com.native.links). 4. Click Application Links tab. 5. Click on the pencil next to the Android App Links section.

  

  6. Use the following table to fill the details requested in the Edit Apple Universal Links form, and click OK. | Field Name | Value | Details | |—-|—-|—-| | Enabled | Checked | | | Site Domain | <Server URL> | This field is not editable. | | Association File Content | <Website Association> | Text copied in the previous step |

  

  [DONE] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 7: ](Check the asset links file on Mobile Services)] 1. Click APIs tab. 2. Copy the Server URL. 3. Open a new browser window. 4. Paste the Server URL and add the suffix /.well-known/assetlinks.json. > The URL should look like https://<YourUser-CFSpace-App>-com-example-tutorialapp.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json 5. Go the above constructed URL.

  

  > The Asset Links file is a JSON file on the web server of the associated domain. When a user clicks an App Link (web page link), Android checks for the assetlinks.json file. If found and configured correctly, Android opens the native app instead of the web page in the browser. [VALIDATE_7] [ACCORDION-END] [ACCORDION-BEGIN [Step 8: ](Try the Android App Links)] 1. Click ▶ in Android Studio to run the application. 2. Complete the onboarding steps. > Please refer to the pre-requisite for a step by step guide for the onboarding flow. 3. Go to your SAP Mobile Services Admin UI. 4. Click on your app (For example com.native.links). 5. Click APIs tab. 6. Copy the Server URL. 7. Open the Messages App provided by Android on your Simulator/Device. > If the app is running on a real device, choose any option that hyperlinks the URL text, for example, Mail, Notes, Keep, etc. 8. Try the following links. | URL | Expected Behaviour | |—-|—-| | server_url | The OS tries to open the URL using the default browser. | | server_url/data | The OS launches the app. | | server_url/data/product | The OS launches the app and a toast message specific to products is shown. | | server_url/data/vendor | The OS launches the app and a toast message specific to vendors is shown. | | server_url/product | The OS tries to open the URL using the default browser. |

  

  [DONE] [ACCORDION-END] Congratulations on successfully completing the tutorial. You can now configure universal links for your native applications built using SAP BTP SDK for Android.