Create Dynamic Links with C++

You can create short or long Dynamic Links with the Firebase Dynamic Links API. The API takes several optional parameter structures to build links. Short links can also be created from a previously generated long link. Firebase Dynamic Links generates a URL like the following:

https://abc123.app.goo.gl/WXYZ

The C++ SDK works for both Android and iOS, with some additional setup required for each platform.

Before you begin

Android

  1. If you haven't yet connected your app to your Firebase project, do so from the Firebase console.
  2. Add Firebase to your Android project.
  3. Add the dependency for Firebase Dynamic Links to your app-level build.gradle file: 
    dependencies {
     compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-invites:11.4.2'
}
  4. Link the libapp.a and libdynamic_links.a static library, from the C++ SDK.

iOS

  1. If you haven't yet connected your app to your Firebase project, do so from the Firebase console.
  2. Add Firebase to your iOS project.
  3. The Firebase Dynamic Links C++ client library uses custom URL schemes on iOS to process links. You must add custom URL schemes to your app to support receiving Dynamic Links:
    1. To open your project configuration, double-click the project name in the left tree view. Select your app from the TARGETS section, then select the Info tab, and expand the URL Types section.
    2. Click the + button, and add a URL scheme for your reversed client ID. To find this value, open the GoogleService-Info.plist configuration file, and look for the REVERSED_CLIENT_ID key. Copy the value of that key, and paste it into the URL Schemes box on the configuration page. Leave the other fields blank.
    3. Click the + button, and add a second URL scheme. This one is the same as your app's bundle ID. For example, if your bundle ID is com.example.app, type that value into the URL Schemes box. You can find your app's bundle ID in the General tab of the project configuration (Identity > Bundle Identifier).
  4. Include the following Pod in your Podfile: 
    pod 'Firebase/DynamicLinks'
  5. Run pod install
  6. Add firebase.framework and firebase_dynamic_links.framework, from the C++ SDK, to your Xcode project.

Using the Firebase Dynamic Links API

Create and initialize App

Before you can create Dynamic Links, you'll need to create and initialize a firebase::App object.

Include the header file for firebase::App:

#include "firebase/app.h"

The next part varies depending on your platform:

Android

Create the firebase::App, passing the JNI environment and a jobject reference to the Java Activity as arguments:

app = ::firebase::App::Create(::firebase::AppOptions("APPLICATION NAME"), jni_env, activity);

iOS

Create the firebase::App:

app = ::firebase::App::Create(::firebase::AppOptions("APPLICATION NAME"));

Creating a long Dynamic Link from parameters

To create a Dynamic Link, create a DynamicLinkComponents object, setting any of the optional members for additional configuration, and passing it to dynamic_links::GetShortLink or dynamic_links::GetLongLink.

The following minimal example creates a long Dynamic Link to https://example.com/ that opens with your Android app com.example.android.package_name and iOS app com.example.ios:

firebase::dynamic_links::IOSParameters ios_parameters("com.example.ios");

firebase::dynamic_links::AndroidParameters android_parameters(
    "com.example.android.package_name");

firebase::dynamic_links::DynamicLinkComponents components(
    "https://example.com/", "abc123.app.goo.gl");
components.android_parameters = &android_parameters;
components.ios_parameters = &ios_parameters;

firebase::dynamic_links::GeneratedDynamicLink long_link =
    firebase::dynamic_links::GetLongLink(components);

Creating a short Dynamic Link

To create a short Dynamic Link, pass a previously generated long link to GetShortLink or build DynamicLinkComponents the same way as above.

GetShortLink optionally takes an extra DynamicLinkOptions config parameter with PathLength; this allows you to control how the link should be generated. Generating a short link requires a network request to the Firebase backend, so GetShortLink is asynchronous, returning a Future<GeneratedLink>.

For example:

firebase::dynamic_links::DynamicLinkOptions short_link_options;
short_link_options.path_length = firebase::dynamic_links::kPathLengthShort;

firebase::Future<firebase::dynamic_links::GeneratedDynamicLink> result =
    firebase::dynamic_links::GetShortLink(components, short_link_options);

If your program has an update loop that runs regularly (say at 30 or 60 times per second), you can check the results once per update:

if (result.status() == firebase::kFutureStatusComplete) {
  if (result.error() == firebase::dynamic_links::kErrorCodeSuccess) {
    firebase::dynamic_links::GeneratedDynamicLink link = *result.result();
    printf("Create short link succeeded: %s\n", link.url.c_str());
  } else {
    printf("Created short link failed with error '%s'\n",
           result.error_message());
  }
}

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