On the iPhone, how can you cause a URL to display an entry in the App Store?

Question

For instance, if someone views a URL for an app on the iPhone, we would like the URL to open the App Store and display the entry related to that app. The idea is to allow downloading of an app with two clicks (click on link, then click on "Install" button) on the iPhone.

How is this possible?

[Edit] To clarify, from within the iPhone app, how can we automatically launch the right entry in the App Store? I understand that mobile Safari recognizes iTunes URL, but we prefer launching the App Store without redirecting to mobile Safari first.

Answer 1

App Store uses the following url format for apps:

http://itunes.com/app/your-app-name

so you can use the following code to open the url:

- (void) buyButtonPressed{
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://itunes.com/app/your-app-name"];
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];    
}

Answer 2

You should be able to simply copy the URL straight out of iTunes and use that on your website. Mobile Safari will automatically detect that it should open the App Store.

To get the URL just open up iTunes, find the title you're looking for, right click it and click copy link. Here's one I just grabbed, try it on your phone.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8

Edit - oh, are we talking about from Objective-C or from a website? Sorry, that wasn't completely clear.

Answer 3

EDITED for a better answer:

There's a specific url type for the App Store. Using it will prevent Safari and iTunes from popping up first. The App Store link is:

itms-apps://

As an example, you could do this in response to the user tapping a button (or whatever action):

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString: @"itms-apps://yourAppLinkHere"]];

You can get the correct app link from the iTunes Link Maker at http://itunes.apple.com/linkmaker

In the case of one of my apps, it would look like this:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString: @"itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/its-on-my-way/id334996949?mt=8&uo=4"]];