How to launch my windows universal app with button click in browser?

  • 1 year ago
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Launching a Windows Universal App from a web browser using a button click involves using a custom URI scheme registered by your app. Here's how you can achieve this:

  1. Register a URI Scheme:

    Register a custom URI scheme for your Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app. This will allow you to launch your app using a specific URI format. To do this:

    • Open your UWP project in Visual Studio.
    • Open the Package.appxmanifest file.
    • Go to the "Declarations" tab.
    • Click "Add URI" and specify a unique URI scheme (e.g., myapp://).

  2. Create an HTML Page:

    Create an HTML page with a button that, when clicked, opens the custom URI you registered. Here's an example:

    html
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    
<html>
    
<head>
    
    <title>Launch My App</title>
    
</head>
    
<body>
    
    <button onclick="launchApp()">Launch App</button>
    

    
    <script>
    
        function launchApp() {
    
            // Replace 'myapp://' with the registered URI scheme of your app
    
            window.location.href = 'myapp://';
    
        }
    
        </script>
    
</body>
    
</html>

  3. Host the HTML Page:

    Host the HTML page on a web server or locally on your computer. You can use a simple HTTP server, a web hosting service, or even just open the HTML file in a web browser.

  4. Configure Browser and App:

    • For Edge and Internet Explorer, the browser might directly open your app if the URI scheme is registered correctly.
    • For other browsers, you might need to configure a protocol handler to launch your app. This might require modifying the Windows Registry, so be cautious.

  5. Handle URI Activation in App:

    In your UWP app, handle the activation when the custom URI is used to launch the app. To do this:

    • Open the App.xaml.cs file in your UWP project.
    • Override the OnActivated method and handle the activation based on the URI.
    csharp
    protected override void OnActivated(IActivatedEventArgs args)
    
{
    
    if (args.Kind == ActivationKind.Protocol)
    
    {
    
        ProtocolActivatedEventArgs protocolArgs = args as ProtocolActivatedEventArgs;
    
        // Handle the URI activation here
    
    }
    
    // ...
    
}

Remember that launching apps from browsers using custom URI schemes might have limitations and security considerations. Users might need to give permission for the browser to open external apps, and some browsers might restrict launching apps for security reasons.

Always test thoroughly and consider user experience and security aspects when implementing this feature.