How to link to the page of a single author/company page on the App Store?

Question

I would like to provide a link to all the apps of a single author/company on the App Store from my iPhone app.

Let's take Ngmoco for instance. Clicking on the following link on iTunes for PC or Mac opens iTunes and redirects the user to a page with all the published apps of Ngmoco up to today: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=293559501

However, opening the same URL from the iPhone (e.g. from Mail.app, or from another app) causes the iTunes Music Store browser to be launched instead of the App Store browser, and an error message pops up. Anybody knows how should I craft an iPhone-friendly URL linking to all the apps of a single author or company? Thanks.

Answer 1

NSString *str = @"itms-apps://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?media=software&term=glbasic";
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL: [NSURL URLWithString:str]];

That seems to work for me!!

Answer 2

Even easier are the itunes.com urls. http://itunes.com/CompanyName (remove any spaces in the company).

Answer 3

Here's what I found works for me, redirecting from within an iPhone app. This goes directly to the App Store app:

NSString *iTunesLink = @"itms-apps://itunes.com/apps/companyname/";
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:iTunesLink]];

Simply substitute in the name of the app developer for "companyname".

Answer 4

Here's the latest answer with a link to Apples Dev guidelines and examples.

// Goes to App Store
NSString *iTunesLink = @"itms-apps://itunes.com/apps/gameloft/";  
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:iTunesLink]];

How to Launch App store from iOS Application

How Apple says to do it - Company Store link

Answer 5

Try replacing itunes with phobos, e.g.:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=293559501

Links to phobos.apple.com will open in the App Store application, while links to itunes.apple.com will open in the iTunes application.

Answer 6

So, the procedure in Apple's Technical Q&A on the subject doesn't work? (That seems to match Jason's answer that you said was not successful.) It did work for the user that posted this other question and this one, although perhaps the difference is linking to an app versus linking to a company?

Answer 7

The answer by @JohnFricker worked best for me. Although it's worth noting that I had to remove all spaces and punctuation from the developer name. I tried it with spaces removed but not punctuation and it still didn't work.

Answer 8

Using the previous answers as guidelines, I did the following:

1. Google an example app from your company and bring it up as an iTunes preview page (example: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/facebook/id284882215?mt=8)
2. In the top right of that page, right click the link entitled "View more by this developer" and copy that link (example: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/facebook-inc./id284882218)

3. You can then change it so that it uses itms-apps instead of https, as below:

   itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/facebook-inc./id284882218
   

When used in app this will open up the App Store on a nice page with your company name at the top and all the apps listed below. You can copy and paste the link into the address bar of mobile Safari to see a preview of it in the App Store without having to delve into any code.

Answer 9

I think the Apple sample code has a bug. Change

self.iTunesURL = [response URL];

to

self.iTunesURL = [request URL];

Answer 10

simply go to itunes than click on the name of your company , copy and paste it whereever you want . i think previous answers were usefull for previous versions of itunes