connect or redirect to itunes music search from my iphone app

[sgopinath]

hello,
I have a buy button in my iphone app which i want to link to itunes music store.Any idea how to do it

[DevTeamOfOne]

Just send someone to the link. This following excerpt is directly from the iPhone OS Programming Guide:

You can link to the iTunes music store from your web content or launch iTunes from a native application
using a URL. The iTunes URL is complicated to construct, so you create it using an online tool called iTunes
Link Maker. The tool allows you to select a country destination and media type, and then search by song,
album, or artist. After you select the item you want to link to, it generates the corresponding URL. For example,
this HTML fragment links to a song:
<a
href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=156093464&id=156093462&s=143441">
<img height="15" width="61" alt="Randy Newman - Toy Story
- You've Got a Friend In Me"
src="http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/images/
badgeitunes61x15dark.gif"></img>
</a>
Go to iTunes Link Maker FAQ for more information on creating iTunes links.

iTunes Link Maker FAQ: Apple - iTunes - Link Maker - FAQ

[sgopinath]

thanks for the reply.
sowmya

[Soleil]

I tried this, putting a link (created with the LinkMaker) in the HTML which is loaded in a UIWebView, but I just get a bunch of text in the WebView instead of being directed to iTunes. What is the code you need to have your app automatically open iTunes?

[smithdale87]

i think it does that in the simulator, but redirects on the actual device

[Soleil]

you're right- it works on the phone. thanks.

[Soleil]

I would like to make a smoother transition though. I've seen other apps open iTunes right away. On mine, I click the link (which is displayed on an html page in a UIWebView), you see Safari open to a blank page, then it zooms out to multi-window mode, then iTunes finally opens. How do you bypass the Safari-opening steps and go straight to iTunes?

[smithdale87]

I also have the same problem with my app. It opens safari, then itunes.

[sgopinath]

To call itunes directly from your app without accessing safari use open url to connect to itunes

NSString *buyString=@"itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction/search?term=dido"
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:[buyString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSASCIIS tringEncoding]];
[application openURL:url];
[url release];



hope this helps

Sowmya Gopinath

[smithdale87]

changing the "http://" to "itms://" still causes safari to open.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

[sgopinath]

it will work in the device (not simulator).It works for me unless you don't have itunes

Sowmya Gopinath

[Soleil]

changing to itms://phobos... seems to work for me too. thanks!

[kenroyandfamily]

This string works for me on my iPhone app:

NSString *sstring = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?WOURLEncoding=ISO8859_1&lang=1&output=lm&co untry=US&term="Duran Duran"];

But I want to be able to search by artist ID instead of name.

However, this following string does not work on my iphone app:

NSString *sstring = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/WOURLEncoding=ISO8859_1&lang=1&output=lm&country=U S&viewArtist?id=23456"];

Or this either

NSString *sstring = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/viewArtist?id="23456"];

So how do I bring up iTunes from my iPhone app with an artist ID rather than a search term like artist name?