Integrate with Desktop Apps via Custom URL Schemes

Integrate with Desktop Apps via Custom URL Schemes

Operating systems allow applications to register a custom URL scheme (as opposed to, e.g., https://). Applications (including the Web Browser) can use this to deep-link into and perform actions in other desktop applications

Some popular productivity applications supporting URL schemes:

Using a Custom URL Scheme

To use a custom URL scheme, you can use the @pixiebrix/browser/open-tab brick just like with a normal URL

Depending on the application, you may need to specify a different encoding for spaces URL query parameters using the spaceEncoding. For most cases, the default %20 encoding is what's expected. But you may need to use + in some cases.

Advanced: Disable Browser Confirmation

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When you try to navigate to a link with a custom URL scheme, Chrome will prompt you to open the application:

If you're trying to trigger a lot of actions, that can become tedious. Here are some steps for disabling the confirmation in Chromearrow-up-right.

MacOS

  1. In the prompt, enter the following with the URL scheme for the application you're using. For example, the Draftsarrow-up-right URL scheme is drafts://, so we'd enter:

  2. Restart Chrome

Desktop Developer Resources

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