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:
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
By disabling the confirmation, a malicious site could trick you into performing an action in a desktop application. That being said, most applications do not expose destructive actions via URL schemes for this reason
When you try to navigate to a link with a custom URL scheme, Chrome will prompt you to open the application:
In the prompt, enter the following with the URL scheme for the application you're using. For example, the Drafts URL scheme is drafts://, so we'd enter:
