Deep linking in Gospel Library for iOS

[sbradshaw]

Love this idea. I can see so many uses for this as a teacher!! Hoping this becomes an easier process like mentioned above as adding a button/option to give you the link instead of creating it.

I'm working on a third-party tool to make getting the links easier.
http://www.scripturetools.net/url
Right now it only works for scripture references. I still have some work to do improving the design and making it easier to use, and working with non-scripture content.

[mbpatte1]

So I have a couple questions maybe someone knows.

1. Every time I deep-link it makes another screen in Gospel Library. This can be slightly annoying for the user, because I created over 30 screens prior to realizing what was happening, and deleting screens can only be done one at a time.

2. If I deep link to the Book of Mormon without providing any book/chapter/verse details is there anyways that I can have it default to wherever they currently are rather than resetting them to the title page? I don't know if that makes sense.

[sbradshaw]

1. Every time I deep-link it makes another screen in Gospel Library. This can be slightly annoying for the user, because I created over 30 screens prior to realizing what was happening, and deleting screens can only be done one at a time.

This is something I noticed to, but it's a hard issue to deal with because there are use cases that support both systems. When you don't know what the user wants, adding on is usually better than replacing something that might be important.

2. If I deep link to the Book of Mormon without providing any book/chapter/verse details is there anyways that I can have it default to wherever they currently are rather than resetting them to the title page? I don't know if that makes sense.

I haven't found a way to do this yet, but I agree that it should be possible.

[bradhayashi]

I need some clarification:
1) Which direction is deep linking, from another app to GL or the other way around?
2) Is there a reference manual yet, or are we still limited to gleaning what others have said in this thread to figure this feature out?

Thanks!

[sbradshaw]

There isn't a reference anywhere currently, that I know of, besides this thread. Deep linking is linking into an app, from a web page or another app. So, I can put a link on my website or in an app I develop, that goes to a chapter in Gospel Library.

This is possible because the developers of Gospel Library have (with the latest updates) built support for a custom gospellibrary:// URL scheme into the Gospel Library.

This web page has some working examples of linking into Gospel Library and into the LDS Music app (as far as I know, the links there only work in iOS):
http://singpraises.net/hymnbooks.1
You'll need to open the web page on an iOS device with Gospel Library or LDS Music installed.

If you look at the top of a hymn in Gospel Library you'll see an "Open in LDS Music" link that is able to take you into LDS Music, because the developers of the LDS Music app have built in support for a custom ldsmusic:// URL scheme.

[bradhayashi]

OK, thanks Samuel. Do you think that in the future there will be the capability to link from GL? I would love to be able to link verses to other supporting documents, such as a website or a PDF file.

[sbradshaw]

OK, thanks Samuel. Do you think that in the future there will be the capability to link from GL? I would love to be able to link verses to other supporting documents, such as a website or a PDF file.

In order to link to something outside of an app, you need an absolute URL. For example, to link to a web page in Safari, you need a URL for that web page (which would start with http://). To link to a song in LDS Music, you need a URL for that song (which would start with ldsmusic://). But not every app has a URL scheme – for example, the Dropbox app developers haven't built in a URL scheme so it's not possible to link to a file in Dropbox.

If you have a URL, you can type or paste it into a notebook entry. Maybe Gospel Library could have a text box that comes up when you're creating a link, that allows you to type in a URL. I'm not sure what else they could do. I'm sure they don't want to be in the business of loading third-party files into the app, storing them on their servers, and syncing them between devices.

[druidsareus]

I just started in a mission office in charge of ipads. I can see a lot of potential for this. It makes me very excited that soon as a mission we can send links to scriptures, and other things that the missionaries could read.

[sjuchau]

I'm working on deep linking the MTC Teacher manuals to GL, but I'm having a similar problem to mbpatte1: some (but not all) of my PMG links are not working. The URl pattern I'm using matches the one suggested earlier on this thread, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

An example of a URl that doesn't work (I get the error message "Cannot Open Content: The requested content is not currently available"): gospellibrary://content/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/lesson-2-the-plan-of-salvation.p245?lang=eng#p243

An example of one that does: gospellibrary://content/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-develop-christlike-attributes.p74?lang=eng#p72

Any ideas? I'm grateful for any feedback!

[lajackson]

An example of a URl that doesn't work (I get the error message "Cannot Open Content: The requested content is not currently available"): gospellibrary://content/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/lesson-2-the-plan-of-salvation.p245?lang=eng#p243

The URL that works appears to be a correct URL. I see two possible problems with this one that does not work.

First, before "lesson-2-" there should be something that indicates you are in Chapter 3, What Do I Study and Teach?. Second, there are not 243 pages in PMG, so the real page number is going to be closer to 42 or 43 (just a guess, I don't have the book in front of me).

See if those two fixes help.