search apis & universal links

Search APIs & Universal LinksMercari Inc.

@kitasuke

About me

Mercari

My works

→ Cardio -Simple HealthKit wrapper for workout app in watchOS 2-

→ PagingMenuController -Paging view controller with customizable menu-

→ GoogleMaterialIconFont -Google Material Design Icons for Swift and ObjC-

My future talks

→ Introducing new features for watchOS 2@MOSA software meeting

Search API

Completely New Search Experience

App results appear in Spotlight and Safari even

app not installed

Rich contents with powerful action

Universal and Seamless experience

How it works

Index contents via Search APIs

What to index?

Index Architecture

On-Device index

Apple's cloud index

Let's see in-depth features!

3 Search APIs

NSUserActivity

App Search

→ Activities can be designated as searchable→ Add indexable metadata

→ Results in Spotlight and Safari→ Revisit activity on Search selection

Enable Capabilities

var eligibleForHandoff: Boolvar eligibleForSearch: Boolvar eligibleForPublicIndexing: Bool

Provide Attributes and Keywords

var title: String?var keywords: Set<String>var contentAttributeSet: CSSearchableItemAttributeSet?var expirationDate: NSDate

Restoring on the Web

var webpageURL: NSURL?

Create Activity

var activity: NSUserActivity = NSUserActivity(activityType: "com.example")

activity.title = "Baked Potato Chips"activity.userInfo = ["id": "http://www.example.com/recipe/111"]

activity.eligibleForSearch = trueactivity.eligibleForPublicIndexing = trueactivity.becomeCurrent()

Continue Activity

func application(UIApplication, continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: [AnyObject]? -> Void) -> Bool { if userActivity.activityType == "com.example" { // Restore state for userActivity and userInfo } return true}

Public Indexing

→ Activities can be designated as public→ Multiple users engage with device results

→ Popular public results available to other users→ Results in Search and Safari (if URL included)

Public vs Private

→ Designated "public" if searchable activity fields are solely public

→ Provisions to prevent user-specific activities from being indexed

Additional Benefits

Handoff

Siri suggestions

CoreSpotlight

CoreSpotlight

→ For any app content→ Methods to add, update and delete items→ Used by Messages, Mail, Calendar and Notes

Create item// Create attributeSet and populate with metadatalet attributeSet = CSSearchableItemAttributeSet(itemContentType: kUTTypeImage as String)

attributeSet.title = "Haleakala Sunrise"attributeSet.contentDescription = "May 12, 2015 Maui, Hawaii"

// Create item with unique identifier, domainIdentifier used to group itemslet item = CSSearchableItem(UniqueIdentifier: "1", domainIdentifier: "album-1", attributeSet: attributeSet)

Index item

// Index itemCSSearchableIndex.defaultSearchableIndex().indexSearchableItems([item]) { error in if error != nil { print("Item indexed!") }}

Restore

// Application delegate called when CoreSpotlight result is tappedfunc application(UIApplication, continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: [AnyObject]? -> Void) -> Bool { if userActivity.activityType == CSSearchableItemActionType { let uniqueIdentifier = userActivity.userInfo? [CSSearchableItemActivityIdentifier] as? String // Use 'uniqueIdentifier' } return true }

Update

// Same method as adding item to indexfunc indexSearchableItems(items: [CSSearchableItem], completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)

Delete

// Identifiersfunc deleteSearchableItemsWithIdentifiers(identifiers: [String], completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)

identifiers = ["1", "4", "5"]

Delete

// DomainIdentifierfunc deleteSearchableItemsWithDomainIdentifiers(DomainIdentifiers: [String], completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)

domainIdentifiers = ["domain-2"]

Delete// Allfunc deleteAllSearchableItemsWithCompletionHandler(completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)

Web Markup

Indexing Web Content

→ The content driving your app may live on the web, not locally inside the app

→ Deep linked pages from your app's website are indexed for app search

Applebot finds deep links from the web

Enabling app search

1. Allow Apple to discover and index your app's website

2. Ensure your app's website contains markup for mobile deep links

3. Enable deep link handling for your app4. Add markup for structured data (optional, but

highly recommended)

Smart App Bannersif app is not installed, Safari prompts the user

<meta name="myApp" content="app-id=123, app-argument=https://example.com/about affiliate-date=optionalAffiliateData">

app-argument is passed to application(_:openURL:sourceApplication:annotation:), and is

also used to index your app

Deep Linking

→ Universal linkhttps://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2014/?

include=101#101→ Custom URL scheme

apple://wwdc/2014/?include=101#101

Universal links advantages

→ Unique→ Secure→ Flexible

→ Work seamlessly across app and website

Support Universal Link in your server

→ Create your apple-app-site-association file→ Generate an SSL certification

→ Sign your file→ Upload to your server

Support Universal Link in your app

func application(application: UIApplication, continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: ([AnyObject]!) -> Void) -> Bool

var webpageURL: NSURL?var activityType: Stringlet NSUserActivityTypeBrowsingWeb: Stringclass NSURLComponents: NSObject

Configure your associated domains

Other deep link schemesTwitter Cards

<meta name="twitter:app:name:iphone" content="myAppName"><meta name="twitter:app:id:iphone" content="myAppID"><meta name="twitter:app:url:iphone" content="myURL">

Facebook's App Links

<meta name="al:ios:app_name" content="myAppName"><meta name="al:ios:app_store_id" content="myAppID"><meta name="al:ios:url" content="myURL">

Support deep linking

func application(application: UIApplication, openURL url: NSURL, sourceApplication: String?, annotation: AnyObject) -> Bool { // In this example, the URL is http://example.com/profile/?123 guard let component = NSURLComponents(URL: url, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: true), let path = component.path, let query = component.query else { return false }

if path == "/profile" { // Pass the profile ID from the URL, to the view controller return profileViewController.loadProfile(query) } return false}

Rich Results

→ Go beyond just a title and description→ Results can contain images, structured data, and

even actions→ Rich results are more engaging to users and can

improve your ranking

Other deep link schemesOpen Graph

<meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/hello.jpg"><meta property="og:audio" content="http://example.com/music.m4a"><meta property="og:video" content="http://example.com/cats.mp4">

schema.org JSON-LD

<script type="application/ld+json">{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "AggregateRating", "ratingValue": "4", "reviewCount": "250"}</script>

Supported schemas

→ AggregateRating→ Offers

→ PriceRange→ InteractionCount→ Organization

→ Recipe

App Search API Validation Tool

Test your webpage for iOS 9 Search APIs. Enter a URL and Applebot will crawl your webpage and show

how you can optimize for best results.https://search.developer.apple.com/appsearch-

validation-tool/

Improve Ranking

Relevance

Linking 3 APIs

Linking 2 APIs

Relevance score

User Experience

Descriptive Results

Richer results have better satisfaction and engagement

→ Thumbnail, well-structured description, ratings, and actions

→ Relevant and applealing image→ Key information user is looking for

Keywords associate your result with queries

→ Typical items should have 3 to 5 keywords→ Category keywords, e.g., "ticket" or "recipe"→ Synonyms or abbreviations for item subject

UI Behavior on App Launch

Speed

Time from tapping a search result to the content in your app is measured and used in ranking.

Data protection

Pay attention to the appropriate data protection level for your user's content.

Common FAQs

Not showing in the search results

→ Try using different keywords→ In the case of Web Markup, results will only show

up after the page has been crawled by Applebot, and once a certain level of relevance has been

attained

Supported devices?

App Search is available with iOS9, However, the search functionality of NSUserActivity and

CoreSpotlight are not supported on the iPhone 4s, iPad 2, iPad (3rd generation), iPad mini, and iPod

touch (5th generation).

Available on OS X?

CoreSpotlight and the search functionality of NSUserActivity are not supported. However, web

search results may be shown.

ReferencesIntroducing Search APIs

Seamless Linking to Your AppiOS Search API Best Practices and FAQs