protocol_handlers

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

Type	`Array`

The protocol_handlers member specifies an array of objects that are protocols which this web app can register and handle. Protocol handlers register the application in an OS's application preferences; the registration associates a specific application with the given protocol scheme. For example, when using the protocol handler mailto:// on a web page, registered email applications open.

After registering a web app as a protocol handler, when a user clicks on a hyperlink with a specific scheme such as mailto:// or web+music:// from a browser or native app, the registered PWA would open and receive the URL.

Example

In this example, a web app manifest declares that the app should be registered to handle the protocols web+jngl and web+jnglstore.

json

"protocol_handlers": [
  {
    "protocol": "web+jngl",
    "url": "/lookup?type=%s"
  },
  {
    "protocol": "web+jnglstore",
    "url": "/shop?for=%s"
  }
]

A developer can add a field in the manifest.json to declare which protocols the web app can handle. As seen in the example above, the key is named protocol_handlers and it contains an array of protocol handler declaration objects.

Registering applications to handle URL schemes is operating-system dependent. This association is usually done during application install but it can also be done afterwards from an app that has already been installed.

Values

Protocol handlers objects may contain the following values:

Member	Description
`protocol`	A required string containing the protocol to be handled; e.g.: `mailto`, `ms-word`, `web+jngl`.
`url`	Required HTTPS URL within the application scope that will handle the protocol. The `%s` token will be replaced by the URL starting with the protocol handler's scheme. If `url` is a relative URL, the base URL will be the URL of the manifest.

Specifications

Specification
Manifest Incubations # protocol_handlers-member

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser