How can your BUILD app open external links?

Oftentimes, your website contains hypertext links to external pages or documents. In most cases, clicking on such links will open a new window or browser tab on the web. As your website is used as the foundation for your BUILD app, there are often questions about how those same links will be handled from your app.

With our BUILD framework, we have incorporated 4 ways of opening external links while browsing your app: modal webview, current webview, in-app browser, and external link.

With the modal view, the user remains within the app and the link content opens in a new window on top of the current view. The modal window does not cover the current view entirely. The user can interact with the content in the modal window, and when it’s closed, they are back to their original navigation point within the app.

With the current webview, the user remains within the app and the link content will be displayed within the app frame. The user can use a back button to return to their previous view in the app.

With the in-app browser, the user remains within the app and the link content opens in a web browser within the app. The content will be displayed in a full screen view (on top of the app frame). The user can close the in-app browser by clicking on ‘done’ (on iOS) or on the back button (on Android) and get back to the previous webview.

With the external link, the user is taken outside of the app and the link content opens on the default browser for the device. SSO will not work as the user is leaving the app and the user session cannot be maintained.

Thanks for reading ! Do not hesitate to contact your CSM if you have any questions!