GBA4iOS 2.0: URL Schemes (Part 1: Introduction)
It is well-known that GBA4iOS 2.0 came with a ton of new features, most of which were highly anticipated - cheats, fast forward, skins - and others were, well, not so notable. That's because some features, like the Software Update, were last-minute additions that now make the emulator one of the best around. One particular feature I personally love was not even in Riley's plans until this past December: URL Schemes.
It was about noon on December 21st when I decided to text Riley and ask him if he could consider adding this feature to GBA4iOS 2.0 before it got released - I wasn't even sure it was possible then. I had just purchased the app Launch Center Pro (which I cover in Part 3) earlier that day during a one-day sale and fell in love with the quick shortcuts and actions but was also a little disappointed that I couldn't launch GBA4iOS 2.0 (beta) from within the app. That's how I decided I would suggest this feature to Riely, as you can see below.
I know for a fact that it didn't take "only a second" and I take full responsibility for costing Riley some of his time implementing this feature that I really wanted. No regrets, though.
Riley made what I had originally thought would be just opening an app into something even more impressive, and here I'm gonna teach you all about it.
Now, first things first: what really is this URL Scheme I've been going on about? Well, in simple terms, it's kind of a link - a special link really - that allows you to do wondrous things like open apps through shortcuts but way more than just that: it can even let you open specific ROMs (i.e. games) found on GBA4iOS 2.0 at the tap of an icon in your home screen!
You could completely avoid going through your home screens looking for the emulator amidst all your other apps, finally opening it and going through what must be a very long list of your favorite ROMs by now until you find the one you're looking for. You can create a one-stop destination for all your favorite games all thanks to this little, unplanned but amazing feature. You can have your favorite games directly in your home screen as if they were real apps, and they would open immediately on GBA4iOS 2.0.
This feature is meant to improve and automate your workflow in iOS, making things easier and quicker to use, but add GBA4iOS into the mix and you get something magical like this that you never thought possible.
Excited? Well, let me tell you how to make your own, then. But first, let's take a look as to how this feature looks and works.
URL Schemes, as we have discussed, allow you to essentially link your favorite games from within the app into your home screen. But how exactly is this gonna work, you may wonder. Do you just press a button within GBA4iOS to make this happen automatically? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Let me show you what a URL Scheme actually looks like.
This is the basic URL for opening Super Mario World (capitalizing matters) on GBA4iOS 2.0. You could, at this moment, grab that link below and paste it into mobile Safari and it will jump to the game given that you have it and it's worded exactly the same:
gba4ios://Super%20Mario%20World
Note: %20 is just another way of adding a space. More on this later.
Update: Riley brought this to my attention. Although I mention a lot that you need to have the same name as the one found in GBA4iOS 2.0, there is an alternative method where the name does not matter, but you have to do a little digging through Dropbox.
In addition to the ROM name, you can use the "unique name" used by Dropbox to sync files when using URL schemes.
gba4ios://Pokemon%20Emerald
gba4ios://POKEMON%20EMER-7b058a7aea5bfbb352026727ebd87e17
It will open the ROM regardless of what it's named, so if you change the name it'll still work (I recommend this method for games you intend to have for a long time for this reason)
It will work on everyone's devices, since it is name-independent
You can find these identifiers within the Dropbox > Apps > GBA4iOS 2 (Dropbox feature must be enabled within 2.0)
URL Schemes are basically links that you create based on the names of the games from within GBA4iOS 2.0 that you have downloaded. What you need to do with these links in order to add icons to your home screen is to turn them into Web Clips. Don't know what Web Clips are? Then try this out really quick:
Go to Safari on your iDevice
Go to your favorite website
Tap the share icon (square with an arrow on top) in the bottom bar.
You have just created a web clip of your favorite site. I'm assuming it even comes with a predetermined icon ready for you to tap on when you want to access the site.
URL Schemes and Web Clips come together and allow you to launch any game on GBA4iOS 2.0 from your home screen. Now, let's learn how to make them!
Part 2: Create URL Schemes with Mac and Windows!
Part 3: Create URL Schemes through your iPhone or iPad!
