Dewu's front-end calls end-to-end business scenarios and technologies

foreword

When you are browsing the circle of friends, you suddenly see an advertisement for trendy shoes, which is exactly the one you liked and wanted to buy at a beautiful price, so you excitedly click on the advertisement to open the shopping app directly, and go directly to the one you just saw. On the details page of trendy shoes, you only need to click to buy directly to get this pair of trendy shoes that you have been waiting for for a long time. The process is as smooth as silk!

The idol you are madly chasing has posted a co-branded trendy play content on Weibo, or it is an exclusive sale. There is a web link in the post. After you click it, you will directly open the shopping platform and enter the details page of the trendy play co-branded with the idol. , can't wait to place an order to have a fashionable tide play!

What I want to share with you today is the technology of getting things called terminals. There are already many excellent articles on the terminal network. I will not repeat the URL Scheme protocol, Universal Link protocol, etc. over and over again. This may You will also feel nothing new.

Caller classification

1. Clipboard reduction

scene 1:

Whenever there is a big promotion season, due to the large number of banned links on online advertising carrier platforms, e-commerce platforms can only send texts to invite relatives and friends to help themselves or share good things. Other users copy the entire information and open the Dewu App. The client can open a specific page when it detects the content of the specific information in the clipboard. We call this approach clipboard reduction.

Scenario 2:

In addition to forwarding it to a friend and restoring it by copying the content, there is another scenario that can also use the clipboard, that is, new users pull new ! When you launch a new pull activity in a third party, and the user clicks to download the app, the third-party platform will block the URL Scheme and Universal Link, then you can neither open the app market nor open the app. , can we just helplessly lose a large number of potential new users? In this case, clipboard restore is an alternative. You can prompt the user to click the button to copy and restore the copy to the clipboard, and then let the user manually go to the application market to download the app, then when the user opens the app after the download is complete, the effect of scene restoration can also be achieved, but the link becomes longer and the experience It's not very friendly, but it's better to have a way than to do nothing 👀.

2. Linked Restore

When the user clicks the link outside the site to load the h5 page, if the Dewu App has been installed, then you can directly open the Dewu App and restore the user's associated product details page or list page outside the site. We also know the use of this function. It is nothing more than through special links such as Url Scheme (universal), Universal Link (for iOS>=9), Chrome Intent (used in Chrome >= 25 browsers in Android system), APP Links (Universal Link for Android), etc. Refer to the implementation, and I will not repeat the URL Scheme and Universal Link here, because these protocols are the most complete and detailed solutions listed on the Internet, and I classify this type of caller as link restoration .

3. Server-assisted restore

If it is a new user, he has not downloaded the Dewu app, so he can only go to the app market to download it and then open it. Let us first assume that the downloaded APP does not use APP Links and Chrome Intent technology, then when the user downloads it, open it When you get the Wuwu App, you can also restore to the relevant pages outside the site. It is clear that the user jumps from outside the site to the application market or the Android system directly downloads the installation package, and when the user opens the Dewu App, the link has been broken. How does the Dewu App know that it needs to restore to a specific page? The answer is server-assisted restore!

Before the user jumps to the application market or directly downloads the installation package, the front-end transmits the user's device fingerprint and the page parameters restored when the Dewu App needs to be opened to the server through the interface. When the user opens the newly downloaded application, the client passes The adjustment interface also transmits the corresponding device fingerprint to the server. The interface judges that it is the same user through a series of cross-end device fingerprints, and sends it to the client. The new user can jump to the relevant page seen outside the site.

practical problems

According to the three categories in the previous paragraph, the pros and cons of the three methods were evaluated.

clipboard restore

advantage:

• There are a wide range of application restoration scenarios. Whether it is recalling old users from outside the station, or pulling a new download to open the Dewu App, you can directly restore the scene in the station.
• Strong compatibility, the clipboard does not need to distinguish between iOS and Android or other systems, and can be used in cross-end scenarios.

shortcoming:

• Data is easily lost. The content in the clipboard is easily polluted or emptied by other apps in the phone.
• No end-calling ability. Users need to copy and paste, and then manually open the Dewu App to restore the scene.

Linked Restore

advantage:

• The response time is extremely fast, and the scene restoration process is silky smooth. Users can directly open the Dewu App scene restoration by clicking the link outside the station, which reduces the user's operation process and retains potential users to the greatest extent.

shortcoming:

• Compatibility is too poor.

a. Since various traffic platforms often ban the technology of link restoration, it is impossible to properly implement the call-up in a non-commercial environment, let alone restoration.

b. Different systems and different versions have different ways of link jumping. For example, Universal Link does not support iframe triggering, automatic triggering, etc.

server-assisted restore

advantage:

Strong compatibility. There is no need to distinguish between iOS and Android or other systems, and it can be used in cross-end scenarios. \

shortcoming:

• Without the ability to call the terminal, you need to manually open the App.
• The accuracy of cross-end device fingerprints is a test of the technical team's previous experience and capabilities. Since the off-site browser information directly obtained through js is limited, it is necessary to collect as much data as possible through other channels, and to accumulate and optimize continuously to generate a device fingerprint with high accuracy. The relevant experience and ability of the team determine the device fingerprint. conflict rate.

key point

With the above technical principles, by observing some key buried points, the process can be better optimized in a timely manner. The success rate of various methods of calling or restoring is the most important indicator. For new pulls, we pay more attention to the call-out rate, and for recall, we pay more attention to the recall rate .

• The off-site front-end triggers the terminal call event and reports the trigger event buried point
• When the app opens and checks that there is a link to restore the scene, report the buried point
• Report the buried point again when the WebView is opened
• Report a buried point after successfully restoring the venue

Through such four buried points to form a funnel, the statistics of these four buried points can be used to determine which step has the largest loss rate of the calling end, and then give corresponding strategies in a targeted manner.

Magical Device Fingerprint

You should be familiar with clipboard and link-type as front-end development, even as an ordinary user, you are already very familiar with clipboard-type restoration. Server-assisted restoration sometimes makes us feel a little "magic" because the "lack" of the necessary complete link can actually be restored.

There is an M App in the phone that has not been used for a long time. Maybe the phone is a bit stuck because of the shy memory of the phone, or maybe you don't want to see the app store keep prompting you to upgrade M, so you simply uninstall it. After a period of time, you suddenly need to use the M App again, and you go to the app store to download and install it again. The amazing thing is that the M App doesn't ask you to enter the account number, verification code/password, but instead directly logs in to the account you used before uninstalling. What's even more amazing is that the newly installed app that belongs to M's family also logs in to your account by default!

The above example is very easy to do in the native App, because the client can get a lot of information in the device, so as to generate a unique device fingerprint according to a certain algorithm, and then bind the account to the device fingerprint. The device becomes a stable account, so there is no need to tediously enter the account, verification code/password.

Status Quo and Future Prospects of Dewu Technology

In the early stage of Dewu's development, considering the complex URL Scheme compatibility problem, a third-party SDK was selected for access. The ability is limited to the above -mentioned link restoration . When a new user downloads Dewu and opens the App, the scene restoration cannot be performed, which reduces the new user experience. At the same time, when encountering targeted media calling end compatibility problems, it is necessary to communicate with third parties, which increases the link time to solve the problem, and also requires our developers to spend a lot of time and cost to coordinate positioning and solve the problem.

In the face of the growing business demand of Dewu App, we have a higher pursuit of the success rate of the caller, and obviously feel that the third-party solutions are getting more and more difficult, so we also began to gradually build our own caller. The technology platform, by continuously accumulating experience and learning from others' excellent end-calling solutions, expects to work hard to complete the ability of self-research and end-calling platform as soon as possible.

In addition to supporting the common technologies of URL Scheme and Universal Link, the calling terminal of Dewu in the future will also include the clipboard and server-assisted restoration mentioned above. Among them, the difficulty of server-assisted restoration is cross-end fingerprints, which is also the main technical difficulty we are overcoming, to get through all the recovery scenarios!

Summarize

The principle of calling the terminal is actually very simple, but the situation in the actual scene is very complicated. Excluding the control of the URL Scheme and Universal Link protocol by media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo, the response of different browsers to the protocol may also be different. Android and HarmonyOS systems also have different compatibility issues with protocols. For example, when using URL Scheme, whether to use a tag, iframe, or location needs to be selected according to the environment. There is no perfect solution for end-calling technology, and an optimal solution can only be selected according to business needs.

Text / SUWENKANG

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