Smart App Banner

Description

This is a WordPress plugin that allows you to use the Smart App Banners with your
WordPress blog.

According to Apple, Smart App Banners:

vastly improve users’ browsing experience compared to other promotional methods.
As banners are implemented in iOS 6, they will provide a consistent look and
feel across the web that users will come to recognize. Users will trust that tapping the
banner will take them to the App Store and not a third-party advertisement. They will
appreciate that banners are presented unobtrusively at the top of a webpage, instead of
as a full-screen ad interrupting the web content. And with a large and prominent
close button, a banner is easy for users to dismiss.

It’s really simple to use. In short, you download and activate the plugin. On pages and posts you should find a “Smart App Banner” settings box. If you want the Smart App Banner to appear on this page then enter the App ID of your application here. You can also enter affiliate data and an app argument here.

If you want to display a banner on the home page there’s a setting screen (Settings -> Smart App Banner) where you can enter the App ID.

You can find the App ID in iTunes Connect, using the
iTunes Link Maker or if the iTunes URL for your
app looks like this:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rootn-tootn-baby-feed-timer/id530589336?ls=1&mt=8

Then your ID is “530589336”.

The other two fields are optional.

The affiliate data field varies depending on the affiliate. The most common is PHG, where the value looks like “at=AFFILIATE_TOKEN” or “at=AFFILIATE_TOKEN&ct=CAMPAIGN” (without the quotes). You can find the token when you sign into the PHG website. The campaign is just some text you use to identify a particular marketing campaign.

So I might have “at=11lmMT&ct=wordpress” on the product pages of my website. Check the documentation to find your affiliate token and confirm the format.

According to the documentation, the app argument value is:

A URL that provides context to your native app. If you include this, and the user has your
app installed, she can jump from your website to the corresponding position in your iOS app.

This plugin does not restrict or validate what you put here.

You can format it however you’d like, as long as it is a valid URL.

Screenshots

Installation

1. Upload wsl-smart-app-banner.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Add your App ID on the home page and/or specific pages or posts

FAQ

I can’t see the banner!

It’s only available on devices with iOS 6 or later. if you want to check that it’s working and you
don’t have a device, you can “View Source” on your page and look for the text
“apple-itunes-app”.

I’ve specified an App ID for my iPad app but I don’t see the banner

Where did you put the App ID? Or in the App ID field or in the “App ID (iPad)” field?

If you only have one app — iPad-only or Universal — you only need to specify the
“App ID.” The “App ID (iPad)” field is for when you have two apps of the same name,
one for the iPhone and one for the iPad. You should put the default (iPhone) ID in
the top field and the iPad App ID in the other one.

I found a bug!

The quickest way is to see if you can fix it yourself. I accept patches! But if
you can’t, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

I really need it to do x

I accept patches! I’m also happy to hear your suggestions but I can’t promise anything.

Does it really need WordPress version 3.1.4?

Probably not. But since I always keep my installations up to date I have no way of testing on older versions. I believe it should work going back all the way to 1.5.1, but I’ve not tried. Let me know if you get it working.

It’s really great! How can I ever thank you?!

I quick thanks is always appreciated! Recommending the plugin is good and I’m always happy
to receive fixes and improvements.

Reviews

I’m loving it!

dmetaj75 July 17, 2023

As an iOS app developer, this plugin was a lifesaver. Instead of having to add the code to every single page on my site, I can just use this plugin to put it on the homepage and add other apps too. Great plugin, 10/10.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.1.6

• More fixes for deployments on PHP 8.x
• More general code quality enhancements

1.1.5

• Fix for warnings when deployed on PHP 8.x
• General code quality enhancements

1.1.4

• Improve input validation (CVE-2023-46200)
• Remove references to Wandle Software

1.1.3

• Fix for CSRF vulnerability

1.1.2

• Fix for undefined variables warning, contrinuted by @craigiswayne.

1.1.1

• Fix for dropdown app list on Chrome

1.1.0

• Add dropdown list of apps

1.0.0

• Localisation support
• Translation into Serbo-Croation (sr_RS) thanks to Borisa Djuraskovic

0.4.2

• Option to use the same Smart App Banner on all pages

0.4.1

• Fixed: Occasionally displayed the iPad version of the meta code when no iPad App ID was specified

0.4

• New option: if you specify an iPad App ID, it’ll display that only on iPads. It does the check on the device itself, so the code is “safe” even if you use WordPress caching plugins

0.3

• Updates to reflect public nature of iOS 6
• Add affiliate data and app argument

0.2.1

• Show admin box for all page types, not just page and post

0.2

• Option to display a banner on the home page
• Settings box rather than having to enter custom fields manually
• Fix ‘Warning: Missing argument 1 for get_page()’ error

0.1

• Initial version