Difficult for users to take advantage of URL schemes in Safari

Originator:craig.hockenberry
Number:rdar://5935641 Date Originated:
Status:Open Resolved:
Product: Product Version:
Classification: Reproducible:
 
14-May-2008 11:02 AM Craig Hockenberry:
URL scheme support via an application's Info.plist configuration is an EXCELLENT feature of the iPhone SDK. It makes it very easy for applications to share information via URLs.

One problem, however, is getting support for a new URL scheme into a Safari bookmark. A common use case will be to take some piece of information from the web into a separate application. For example, we use a bookmarklet like this:

javascript:window.location='twitterrific:///post?message='+escape(window.location)

To setup this bookmarklet, the user has to go through these steps:

<http://iconfactory.com/___?javascript:window.location='twitterrific:///post?message='+escape(window.location)>

A simpler solution would be to allow an application to automate this process. Of course, you don't want to expose this at the browser-level because it leads to the kind of bookmark abuse that you see in IE on Windows. I think that making it a part of the Info.plist configuration would make sense: limiting the automatic process to registered applications and controlling the number of bookmarks that can be added.

For example:

	<array>
		<dict>
			<key>CFBundleURLName</key>
			<string>com.iconfactory.Twitterrific</string>
			<key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
			<array>
				<string>twitterrific</string>
			</array>
			<key>CFBundleURLBookmarkName</key>
			<string>Post with Twitterrific</string>
			<key>CFBundleURLBookmarkValue</key>
			<string>javascript:window.location='twitterrific:///post?message='+escape(window.location)</string>
		</dict>
	</array>

Along with some prompts that allow the user to control the bookmark addition process, URL schemes would be much easier for a user to manage and take advantage of.

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