Detect Installed Application URI Handler on Webkit browsers

Question

Guys,

I have a question mainly related to the Iphone web browser but I am hoping the same solution would work on other browsers that are webkit based.

I have a application (Iphone + Android) that registers a handler for custom URI (appuri://) on the Phone. I am able to launch the application by making a link to "appuri://act/launch" from my web pages. This works only if my application is installed on the device. If the device does not have the app installed then a message comes up "Safari was not able to open ....".

What I want to do is detect if the URI Scheme is supported from the browser and then prompt my own message saying "please download the app ..blah blah blah" if the handler for the URI scheme is not found.

Is there a way I can detect or find the list of URL Scheme handlers on the Phone from the Web Browser ?

Answer 1

Protocol handlers are implemented below the browser, and giving foreign code direct access to operating system internals would be a pretty horrible idea, so, not without a plugin.

And since you can't run plugins in Mobile Safari, the answer's probably going to be "no."

Answer 2

The best discussion I have seen is in this thread.