Possible to handle your own http URL schemes in iOS?
iTunes, App Store and YouTube on iOS clearly register http://... URL schemes to open their apps.
Can anyone do that, not just your own protocol?
The reason I want to do this is that I am working on an app for a festival. I want to "intercept" links to specific pages on the website and launch the app instead, if installed.
So far I have no had much luck
Answer
The way you can do this for "http://" URLs (and what I think Apple and Spotify do) this is to:
Register a custom URL scheme like the other answers have shown.
Set up your HTTP URL to point to a real webpage.
Put a script on that page to redirect to your custom URL if is on iOS.
For example, here is a sample page which will take you to the Twitter app for a particular user or the Twitter website depending upon if you are on the web or on your iOS device:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Twitter</title>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
var username = document.location.search.substr(1);
document.location.replace(
"standalone" in window.navigator ?
'twitter:@'+username : // iOS
'http://twitter.com/'+username); // others
</script>
</body>
</html>
Try it out here: http://bl.ocks.org/d/3153819/?mckamey