Branch Universal Deep Link does not display custom view controller elements

Question

So I have a Universal link that leads to a view controller in my app. On that particular view controller I display a couple of images as well as a web view. The webView displays a url chosen by the user. How do I save this custom url so that it is displayed every time someone clicks the link? I think the code to this is under:

@synthesize deepLinkingCompletionDelegate;
 -(void)configureControlWithData:(NSDictionary *)data {


NSString *string = data[@"favoriteArticle"];

Answer 1

Alex from Branch.io here:

To accomplish this, you need to do two things.

Step 1

Store the URL of the article you want to load as one of the Branch link custom parameters. Full instructions on how to do that here, but essentially:

BranchUniversalObject *branchUniversalObject = [[BranchUniversalObject alloc] initWithCanonicalIdentifier:@"item/12345"];
branchUniversalObject.title = @"My Content Title";
branchUniversalObject.contentDescription = @"My Content Description";
branchUniversalObject.imageUrl = @"https://example.com/mycontent-12345.png";
[branchUniversalObject addMetadataKey:@"favorite_article" value:@"https://example.com/path/to/article"]; // this is used to route inside the app
[branchUniversalObject addMetadataKey:@"property2" value:@"red"];

BranchLinkProperties *linkProperties = [[BranchLinkProperties alloc] init];
linkProperties.feature = @"sharing";
linkProperties.channel = @"facebook";
[linkProperties addControlParam:@"$desktop_url" withValue:@"https://example.com/path/to/article"]; // this is used for desktop visitors
[linkProperties addControlParam:@"$ios_url" withValue:@"https://example.com/path/to/article"]; // this is used for iOS mobile visitors without the app installed

Step 2

Then when the app opens after a link click, watch for that data key. Again, full instructions, but basically:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

  // initialize the session, setup a deep link handler
  [[Branch getInstance] initSessionWithLaunchOptions:launchOptions
                          andRegisterDeepLinkHandler:^(NSDictionary *params, NSError *error) {

    // start setting up the view controller hierarchy
    UINavigationController *navC = (UINavigationController *)self.window.rootViewController;
    UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"Main" bundle:nil];
    UIViewController *nextVC;

    // If the key 'favoriteArticle' is present in the deep link dictionary
    // then load the picture screen with the appropriate picture
    NSString * favoriteArticle = [params objectForKey:@"favorite_article"];
    if (favoriteArticle) {
      nextVC = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"ArticleVC"];
      [nextVC setArticleUrl: favoriteArticle];
    } else {
      nextVC = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"MainVC"];
    }

    // navigate!
    [navC setViewControllers:@[nextVC] animated:YES];
  }];

  return YES;
}

After this, in your ArticleVC, retrieve the favoriteArticle value and use it for your webview.

Step 2 (Alternate)

The configureControlWithData method you mentioned is used in the automatic deep link routing implementation. You may be able to adapt this to work with a webview, but I haven't personally tried that. It would look something like this:

@synthesize deepLinkingCompletionDelegate;
- (void)configureControlWithData:(NSDictionary *)data {
    NSString *favoriteArticle = data[@"favorite_article"];

    // load the webview with the URL stored inside favoriteArticle
}