Create Dynamic Links with Unity

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. The Dynamic Links API will generate a URL like the following:

https://example.page.link/aSDf

Before you begin

Before you can use Firebase Dynamic Links, you will need to create a Firebase project, and add the Firebase Unity SDK packages to your Unity project.

Setup:

Prerequisites

If you don't have a Unity project already, you can download one of our quickstart samples and experiment with a specific Firebase feature. If you're using a quickstart, remember to get the bundle identifier from the project settings; you need it for the next step.

Set up your app in the Firebase console

To add Firebase to your app, you need a Firebase project and a Firebase configuration file for your app.

To create a Firebase project:

1. Create a Firebase project in the Firebase console, if you don't already have one. Click Add project. If you already have an existing Google project associated with your mobile app, select it from the Project name drop down menu. Otherwise, enter a project name to create a new project.
2. Optional: Edit your Project ID. Your project is given a unique ID automatically, and it's used in publicly visible Firebase features such as database URLs and your Firebase Hosting subdomain. You can change it now if you want to use a specific subdomain.
3. Follow the remaining setup steps and click Create project (or Add Firebase if you're using an existing project) to begin provisioning resources for your project. This typically takes a few minutes. When the process completes, you'll be taken to the project overview.

Add the Firebase Unity SDK to your app

1. Download the Firebase Unity SDK.
2. Select the Assets > Import Package > Custom Package menu item.
3. Import the FirebaseDynamicLinks.unitypackage package from the Firebase Unity SDK, downloaded previously.
4. When the Import Unity Package window appears, click the Import button.

Initialize the SDK

The Firebase Unity SDK on Android requires Google Play services, which must be up-to-date before the SDK can be used. The following code should be added at the start of your application to check for and optionally update Google Play services to the version required by the Firebase Unity SDK before calling any other methods in the SDK.

Firebase.FirebaseApp.CheckAndFixDependenciesAsync().ContinueWith(task => {
  var dependencyStatus = task.Result;
  if (dependencyStatus == Firebase.DependencyStatus.Available) {
    // Create and hold a reference to your FirebaseApp, i.e.
    //   app = Firebase.FirebaseApp.DefaultInstance;
    // where app is a Firebase.FirebaseApp property of your application class.

    // Set a flag here indicating that Firebase is ready to use by your
    // application.
  } else {
    UnityEngine.Debug.LogError(System.String.Format(
      "Could not resolve all Firebase dependencies: {0}", dependencyStatus));
    // Firebase Unity SDK is not safe to use here.
  }
});

Build your app

Use the Firebase console

If you want to generate a single Dynamic Link, either for testing purposes, or for your marketing team to easily create a link that can be used in something like a social media post, the simplest way would be to visit the Firebase console and create one manually following the step-by-step form.

Using the Firebase Dynamic Links API

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 then access the LongDynamicLink property to get the link URL.

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

var components = new Firebase.DynamicLinks.DynamicLinkComponents(
        // The base Link.
        new System.Uri("https://www.example.com/"),
        // The dynamic link domain.
        "example.page.link") {
  IOSParameters = new Firebase.DynamicLinks.IOSParameters("com.example.ios"),
  AndroidParameters = new Firebase.DynamicLinks.AndroidParameters(
      "com.example.android.package_name"),
};
// do something with: components.LongDynamicLink

Creating a short Dynamic Link

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

GetShortLinkAsync optionally takes an extra DynamicLinkOptions config parameter with the PathLength property, allowing you to control how the link should be generated. Short link generation requires a network request to the Firebase backend, so the GetShortLinkAsync method is executed asynchronously. GetShortLinkAsync returns a Task<Firebase.DynamicLinks.ShortDynamicLink>.

For example:

var options = new Firebase.DynamicLinks.DynamicLinkOptions {
    PathLength = DynamicLinkPathLength.Unguessable
};
Firebase.DynamicLinks.GetShortLinkAsync(components, options).ContinueWith((task) => {
  if (task.IsCanceled) {
    Debug.LogError("GetShortLinkAsync was canceled.");
    return;
  }
  if (task.IsFaulted) {
    Debug.LogError("GetShortLinkAsync encountered an error: " + task.Exception);
    return;
  }

  // Short Link has been created.
  Firebase.DynamicLinks.ShortLink link = task.Result;
  Debug.LogFormat("Generated short link {0}", link.Url));

  var warnings = new System.Collections.Generic.List<string>(link.Warnings);
  if (warnings.Count > 0) {
    // Debug logging for warnings generating the short link.
  }

The example above uses a lambda expression that is triggered when the task is completed.