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URL Schemes


Julie Palmer

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Posting for a user:

 

"When using url schemes from Drafts and Launch Center Pro Accordance crashes. Was working prior to 2.4 update."

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Hey, Chris! That's the only info I got from the user. I'll try to contact them.

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Hi Chris,

 

The URL I use for using Drafts as a “prompt window”:

 

accord:///NKJVS;read?ref=[[draft]]

 

The URL for using Launch Center Pro:

 

accord:///NKJVS;read?ref=[prompt:Reference%20(NKJV)]

 

I don’t use LCP anymore (it’s literally only two taps to open Drafts and Launch Accordance with my search) but I use(d) Drafts all the time for looking up Scripture in Accordance. I was using LCP more to troubleshoot since Drafts was recently updated as well. So I’m suspecting the problem is Accordance, but I could definitely be wrong.

 

Using each app Accordance opens to the purple splash screen before crashing.

 

I’m on iOS 9.3.5 with Accordance 2.4.

 

Thanks for your attention to this!

 

Darryl

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Hey Darryl,

 

I was able to reproduce this issue and currently working on a fix for our next release. 

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

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  • 3 months later...

So if I'm understanding the help page correctly, a URL like this should open to the book of John:

 

accord://read/esvs/;?John

 

It works that way in Mac OS. But on iOS I'm getting a word search for "John." If I change it to the following it will do what I want and search as Scripture reference:

 

accord://read/esvs/;?John_3

 

So what am I doing wrong? Also there seems to be a disparity here between the iOS and Mac OS URL schemes...? Any info out there about how the iOS URL scheme works or how it differs?

 

It may seem picky, but I'm trying to create workflow scripts for my phone.

 

These URL schemes s are powerful. Wow. Thanks!

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So if I'm understanding the help page correctly, a URL like this should open to the book of John:

 

accord://read/esvs/;?John

 

It works that way in Mac OS. But on iOS I'm getting a word search for "John." If I change it to the following it will do what I want and search as Scripture reference:

 

accord://read/esvs/;?John_3

 

So what am I doing wrong? Also there seems to be a disparity here between the iOS and Mac OS URL schemes...? Any info out there about how the iOS URL scheme works or how it differs?

 

It may seem picky, but I'm trying to create workflow scripts for my phone.

 

These URL schemes s are powerful. Wow. Thanks!

 

 

Hey Arnold, 

 

For the links to work on iOS, here's the format accord://read/esvs#John

 

Chris

Edited by Chris Rockwell
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Hey Chris,  Does that mean that if you sync a user tool/note to iOS from Mac/Win that you need to adjust such links manually ?

 

Thx

D

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Hey Chris,  Does that mean that if you sync a user tool/note to iOS from Mac/Win that you need to adjust such links manually ?

 

Thx

D

 

If your links are not formatted properly, then yes, you'll need to make the changes to each link manually. The easiest way to add Text links to notes is using Copy As Location URL on Mac/PC then the link will be formatted properly each time. Hope this answers your question.

 

Chris

Edited by Chris Rockwell
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Ah ok - I was worried that there was a platform incompatibility.

 

Thx

D

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So if I'm understanding the help page correctly, a URL like this should open to the book of John:

 

accord://read/esvs/;?John

 

It works that way in Mac OS. But on iOS I'm getting a word search for "John." If I change it to the following it will do what I want and search as Scripture reference:

 

accord://read/esvs/;?John_3

 

So what am I doing wrong? Also there seems to be a disparity here between the iOS and Mac OS URL schemes...? Any info out there about how the iOS URL scheme works or how it differs?

 

It may seem picky, but I'm trying to create workflow scripts for my phone.

 

These URL schemes s are powerful. Wow. Thanks!

 

Hey Arnold, 

 

It was just bought to my attention that the scheme you were using should be compatible with iOS, so this is a bug. Feel free to make the changes so it works now, or wait until our next release for the fix, which is at least a couple months away. Sorry about that.

 

Chris

Edited by Chris Rockwell
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Hey this is great. Thanks for the help and I'm glad to know a fix is on the way. No biggie.

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  • 1 year later...

Ok. Got a question for Chris et al. I'm loving location and search URLs. Use case is that when teaching I don't want to pause to run a search. So when preparing my lectures on Mac OS I'm constantly dropping URLs into my notes so that mid-teaching (always on my iPad) I can go straight to the passage with ease. Love it.

 

Still a bit mysterious for me is that there are two different styles of doing the links.

  • Mac OS automatically generates this form of link: https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVS#Heb._13:17
  • If opened on Mac OS, this link will take me to a web page where I can copy out a new style of link that will then open directly to the Mac OS app without going through Safari. accord://read/ESVS?#Heb._13:17
  • This second style is more functional for me. Actually, I don't really understand the point of an intermediate step—especially since it won't work if I happen to not have internet. Even if sent to another user, it isn't useful unless they own Accordance, so it might as well open to the app directly.
  • The more mysterious part to me is that iOS will open either style directly to the app. Only Mac OS maintains the distinction between style 1 (opens to safari) and style 2 (opens directly to the app).
  • It looks like the  support page describes style 1 but not style 2. 

Anyway, I love the feature and it fits my needs amazingly. Just trying to understand what's happening and make sure I'm not saving links into my notes in a way that will go obsolete.

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Arnold, let me explain the two different types.

 

Accordance recognizes and supports the accord:// syntax on Mac, Windows, and iOS.  However, this is a unique scheme to Accordance. If you try to send this link to anyone else, their system will simply say "Bad format" or "Unknown link.". To this end, we set up the system at accordance.bible/link/.  If a non-Accordance user clicks the link, it is now a far more helpful page that provides a preview of the link, along with more information about Accordance.  This link is also better supported in a variety of software, such as MS Word or even these forums, which refuse to recognize the "accord://" scheme (as you can even see in your post!).

 

The only downside is, if on a desktop computer and clicking on the link from outside of Accordance, it requires internet and two clicks.  This is unfortunately out of our control - Apple set up a scheme to handle the links better on iOS, but never supplied the same technology to Mac.  Similar restrictions are present on Windows.

 

 

I hope this helps clarify.  Due to the far better handling of the https:// style links, we decided a few revs back to change the automatic link generation to use this new scheme.  It does mean the two step process in the singular case of clicking on it, on the macOS or Windows, when not from inside of Accordance, but we felt the tradeoff was still worth it.

 

Of course, you can still use the accord:// scheme as you like if the https:// style advantages are not needed.

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Makes total sense. Great. That's the kind of explanation I was looking for.

 

Just two things I would toss out there...

1) What if this was a preference users could set? Within Accordance preferences a user can decide that he wants Accordance to generate links in the accord:// style? It would really simplify my workflow.

2) It might be nice to drop your explanation into help files somewhere? But maybe the kind of people that ask the question will search around and find this thread anyway.

 

Both points may be more trouble than they're worth for maintaining a user base and answering questions. Feel free to ignore.

 

Thanks!

Edited by Joel Arnold
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 It might be nice to drop your explanation into help files somewhere? 

 

 

I think so too. We'll add Joel's great explanation.

Edited by Mark Allison
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This is funny--I had Arnold's exact question/desire last night, searched the forums and help files, and only now found this, with Joel's explanation. Would love to see the user's ability to set a preference, as Arnold suggests, to skip the intermediate step on macOS of opening in Safari or Web browser.

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Don't forget, if you're on MacOS you can use this service by (inspired by ) to intercept those links. Just install the attached service and then you can right click accordance.bible links, select the service, and then it will open directly in Accordance.

http-accord.workflow.zip

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  • 9 months later...

Just a note that another user on a different feed requested some kind of preference to default to the accord: scheme on both Mac OS and iOS. I understand the reasoning behind having the “accordance.bible” scheme go to the web, but it largely defeats the purpose of having an app specific URL. If we could set Accordance to generate “accord:” style schemes it would eliminate various workarounds we are using to convert it into the more useful style of URL scheme that opens directly to the app.

 

https://www.accordancebible.com/forums/topic/26183-setting-to-use-accord-for-location-urls/

 

Thanks!

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  • 8 months later...

I'm commenting here only in case a future user is searching around. Accordance did implement the above suggestion — the Desktop app now has a default toggle in preferences so that if you prefer, your URLs will be in the accord: format and open directly both in Mac OS and iOS. It's fabulous. 

 

Thanks for the great work on this. URLs are a big deal in my workflow every, single day. Love it!

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