Open Link + Return Always Returns to Home Screen

My app’s URL: https://clrsta.glideapp.io/

This may not be a bug at all, but I feel like this hasn’t always been the case when linking out to external sites. This app is an aggregate of links out to resources built by educators using different tools (such as Google Forms quizzes, webpages, etc.). In the stories tab, if you click on any story there are three options…one links to a website (which ultimately will launch in an app if they have the app, otherwise a URL), the other two link to webpages, which appear to open in-app b/c they do not open a separate tab and have a “Done” link on the top left.

The idea is students are supposed to be able to return to the story they launched from. However, right now no matter what the user does after finishing one of the external links, when they return to the app it refreshes them back to the home screen, so unless they remember exactly what story they were in, they have to navigate back to the screen from which they launched.

Should I be creating these links (they are linked images) differently so that when a learner clicks done they will return to the screen from which they launched?

Images attached show what happens when launching to the external link (for which it ends up opening the app on my phone…Quizlet) and one that shows the view of the Google Form that is launched “in-app” with a Done button. In both instances, when I return to the app, it refreshes as though I’m opening it and returns to the main screen.

This seems to be an issue with IOS as I’ve never had this problem on Android. Have you tried the Web View action instead of Open Link? It’s kind of hit or miss if the website works in web view, but it’s worth a shot.

@SkillBlox_Demo thx for bringing it up again. It is quite a pain. Open as webview has the same bug. Might work the first time but next time it will fail

Open link return to front page

@mark have you this bug on the radar - and do you have plans to fix it?

@Krivo We do have a handle on why this could be a problem outside of the webview. But this being a problem with “Open as webview” is new for us. Could you please make us a video demonstrating the behavior when you open the links in a Webview instead?

@Daniel_Sweet of course. It was posted in my original bug report
Open link return to front page

@Krivo That video looks like you aren’t using the Webview action or component, but instead are still using the “Open as link” action. Please take a video explicitly using the Webview action or Webview component.

Is this the same device, iPhone 11 Pro running a recent version of iOS?

@Daniel_Sweet seems as I was mistaken. I don’t have a case where webview doesn’t work

Can you confirm you have fixed open link action. I cannot provoke the error as described in the bug report

Unfortunately, it’s not simple to “fix” the open link action. What you’re witnessing is iOS trying to conserve resources by restarting your app in the background. We have no control over when it does that.

We’re working on better linking mechanisms, so in the future at least you’ll always go back to the exact screen you came from, but this will still lose the rest of the navigation. Going back from that screen itself will just put you at the home screen of the app.

It’s going to unfortunately be a very long time before we can work around this design limitation imposed on us by iOS. In the meanwhile, you should probably use Webviews as a workaround.

@Daniel_Sweet thx for the clarification. :+1:

I couldn’t provoke the error as I mentioned. Maybe because I’m at a place with poor internet. Maybe you could benefit in someway from that. Delay stuff?

I don’t think I will be able to use webview as I want to link to Facebook and Instagram. Actually I would very much like to open the app natively on the phone but e.g. Facebook have operation system specific URLs for that. I wonder if you will let us get a special value like “operation system” - then it would be possible to open Facebook app directly which would be very beneficial for my business community app.

Thanks​:+1::+1:

So, webview did not work for two of the three links (Google Forms was one of them and Quizlet was the other). The third one, which was a URL, did open within, but the page was zoomed and would not size down for viewing on a mobile device as it does if I do “Open Link”

Shots attached of what happens with one vs the other…first one is open link (full website view appears) the other is web view (only a snippet of the page appears and you cannot shrink down).

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Hey @SkillBlox_Demo,

If I understood your problem correctly, Google form works with both webview component and actions. You just have to make sure your using the viewform link.

image

I’m still looking for a way to be able to embed Quizlet, Kahoot, and Gimkit.