Display.canExecute(url) provides us with a generic tool to test the availability of a feature before executing a command. This is very useful for inter-app communications and allows us to achieve various things such as launching Google Map instead of Apple Maps on iOS.
Lets say I want to navigate using Google Maps if it’s installed in iOS but if not I’ll settle for Apple Maps I can do something like this:
String url = "comgooglemaps://?q=" + Util.encodeUrl(address);
Boolean b = Display.getInstance().canExecute(url);
if(b != null && b.booleanValue()) {
Display.getInstance().execute(url);
} else {
// google maps is probably not installed
Display.getInstance().openNativeNavigationApp(address);
}This should work and would have worked but might not have…
The reason this might have failed in recent iOS & xcode versions is because Apple changed the behavior of the underlying API used by canExecute to always return false. The workaround is to add the prefix of the URL into a list within the plist file. We have a build hint for that which accepts a comma separated list:
ios.applicationQueriesSchemes=comgooglemaps
If there are additional entries you can separate them with a comma. You can use up to 50 URL prefixes.
The reason for this requirement isn’t 100% clear but it’s assumed that some apps used this feature to query the installed apps on the device thus violating users privacy in a subtle way.
Thanks to the recent build hint automation we can detect cases where you use the canExecute API and automatically setup the build hint correctly. Obviously, this won’t work for dynamic values that change on the device but should work for standard prefixes.
