: App URI scheme fallback URLs I am working on a mobile friendly website and liked the idea of having my URLs open in native apps; like say to Google Maps or Facebook using custom URI protocols

@Eichhorn148

I think I've got a working solution. (see stackoverflow.com/a/13675901/984234)
<!-- links will work as expected where javascript is disabled-->
<a class="intent"
href="http://facebook.com/someProfile"
data-scheme="fb://profile/10000">facebook</a>


And my javascript works like this.
note: there's a little jQuery mixed in there, but you don't need to use it if you don't want to.

(function () {

// tries to execute the uri:scheme
function goToUri(uri, href) {
var start, end, elapsed;

// start a timer
start = new Date().getTime();

// attempt to redirect to the uri:scheme
// the lovely thing about javascript is that it's single threadded.
// if this WORKS, it'll stutter for a split second, causing the timer to be off
document.location = uri;

// end timer
end = new Date().getTime();

elapsed = (end - start);

// if there's no elapsed time, then the scheme didn't fire, and we head to the url.
if (elapsed < 1) {
document.location = href;
}
}

$('a.intent').on('click', function (event) {
goToUri($(this).data('scheme'), $(this).attr('href'));
event.preventDefault();
});
})();


I also threw this up as a gist that you can fork and mess with. You can also include the gist in a jsfiddle if you so choose. gist.github.com/ChaseFlorell/5119047

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