cordova-android-referrer

android-referrer-plugin

This plugin captures the referrer value passed when an android app is installed from a webpage and stores it in the applications shared preferences for later retrieval.

You'll typically want to use the AppPreferences plugin to pull the referrer value into your phonegap app for your javascript code to manipulate.

Purpose

This plugin lets your app display different behavior based on where it was installed from. If you have a sports app, for example, and want to use the same codebase, but brand the app differently for different teams, you can use this plugin to capture whether the app was installed from the Denver Broncos or Washington Redskins page, and skin the app appropriately.

Don't forget when using this plugin that if an app is installed directly from Google Play, this plugin will not execute--the intent will never fire.

Install

This plugin uses plugman

cordova plugins add https://github.com/8zrealestate/android-referrer-plugin

Usage

To use this plugin, add &referrer=xyz to app install links on your webpages. For example:

http://market.android.com/details?id=com.yourid.here&referrer=textinreferrer
market://details?id=com.yourid.here&referrer=textinreferrer

The value in the referrer text (textinreferrer above) will be stored as a string in your apps shared preferences object, under the key referrer.

To test that the install referrer event is received by the plugin in your emulator:

run adb shell and then

am broadcast -a com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER \
-n <your package here>/com.eightz.mobile.cordova.plugin.android.referrer.Receiver \
--es "referrer" "textinreferrer"

Limits

• I don't know how long a referrer string can be.
• I believe the referrer string can contain any characters that are valid in URL query strings, but don't think that ampersands are allowed. For example: &referrer=foo&bar would result in a captured referrer of foo
• If you are trying to be compatible with the app-argument text in Apple smart banners, be aware that app-argument text block is required to be a url.