How to test Smart App Banner Urls on in Dev environment
As of now, Xcode 8 and iOS 10, I have tried all the methods but Cannot Debug the smart banners URL that is being opened, as it needs the store versions of the application.
I have found a workaround of this, and have tested my application using this.
Apart from the <meta ...> tag I have also added a link button on the page that uses the scheme to open the app.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=xxxx,pt=xxxxx,ct=xxxxx,app-argument=myappscheme://www.mymobilesite.com/link/detailpage?query=x">
<title>Banner Debug Sample</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Visit <a href="myappscheme://www.mymobilesite.com/link/detailpage?query=x">App Using Scheme</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>
With this link I can debug the Dev builds and works well.
Though this only works when the app has registered a scheme for itself, but just for testing we can register a dummy scheme say appscheme:// and replace http:// scheme with dummy scheme, test it, and then revert links from app scheme:// to http://
What worked for me was to download my application from the appstore, and then overwrite it using a build from XCode. This worked and allowed me to debug the smart banner feature using my current build. This won't work from the simulator, you need to use a device.
Just to be clear, you must overwrite it. You can't delete the appstore version, and then build from XCode.