So, I needed to add a Smart Banner to a few websites, and reading Apple’s documentation, it turns out to be a very simple mechanism to implement. So I made a plugin for Grav¹ - because why not? 😂

It’s been submitted and should be appearing in the Grav directory shortly… but if you’re impatient you can use the Tools menu to install the 1.0.0 release it before it turns up in the directory.

Smart Banner Plugin

The Smart Banner Plugin is made for the Grav CMS. It provides quick and simple way to add Apple's Smart Banners for iOS apps to a Grav website.

Smart Banners are implemented in Apple's iOS version of Safari to help developers direct users to their apps. Smart Banners have the nice attribute of being aware if the app is already installed and prompting the user to open the app directly and If the app isn't installed it changes to prompt them to download it from the AppStore.

If you’re viewing this page on an iOS device you will have seen the plugin in action promoting my “Sunrise Times” app.

Setup

Obviously you will need to install the plugin first.

After installation, the setup is very simple, so before starting make sure you have:

• the ID of your iOS app (found on your app's page on App Store Connect)
• What it looks like on your apps page in App Store Connect your Affiliate Token (optional)
• the deeplink to your app you want the AppStore to call after a user installs it (also optional)

Once you have the plugin installed just navigate to Plugins—>Smart Banner and enter your apps details into the respective fields.

That’s it… hope it useful to you.

Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels