Linking to specific content in an app or website (instead of the home page) is called deep linking. With the introduction of Gospel Library Online and continuing improvements to mobile operating systems, users can open Gospel Library content in the browser or in the Gospel Library app using the same URLs.
Links that are set up to work in both a browser and an app are called “universal links” on iOS or “app links” on Android. The user or the operating system decides whether to open the content in the web browser or in the app.
Users can choose if they want links to Church content to open in the Gospel Library app or in the browser.
On iOS, universal links open in the app by default if the Gospel Library app is installed. To change this behavior, long-press the link and choose either “Open” (to open in the browser) or “Open in ‘Library’” (to open in the app). iOS will remember your preference.
On Android, the first time you follow an app link, it will ask you which app or browser you want to use, then it will remember your preference. If you decide to change your preference later, you can clear defaults in Android’s application settings for Gospel Library.
Using Gospel Library Online:
Using the Gospel Library app:
Shareable URLs follow this format: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study + [content URI] + [optional parameters]
After copying the URL, or sharing to a location where you can see the URL (such as email), you can adjust the URL parameters if needed.
The “lang” parameter allows you to specify a language. To open content in a different language, replace the three-letter language code in the URL (for example, “eng”) with a different code (ISO 639-3, with a few exceptions).
Not all content is available in all languages, so make sure what you’re linking to is available in the given language. If it shows up in Gospel Library Online, it should also be available in the Gospel Library app.
Here are some examples:
If no language is specified, the link will open in the user’s current content language – though it may fail if the content doesn’t exist in that language.
The optional “id” parameter allows you to specify verse(s) or paragraph(s) to call out on the page, using their HTML “id” attribute. A bar will be drawn in the margin next to the called-out paragraphs.
You can use a hyphen (-) to indicate a range of paragraphs to call out, or a comma (,) to indicate non-sequential paragraphs or paragraph ranges.
Usually the “id” parameter is used together with a fragment identifier, which tells the browser or app where to scroll on the page. A fragment identifier starts with a pound sign (#) and is always at the very end of the URL.
Here are some examples:
Universal or app links work on iOS 10+ and Android 6+. If you need to deep link into Gospel Library on older devices, you can use the gospellibrary:// custom URL scheme. Links that start with gospellibrary:// will only work on devices with Gospel Library installed (they won’t work in a web browser).
To create a gospellibrary:// URL, start with the universal URL, then replace “https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study” with “gospellibrary://content.”
Here are some examples:
The syntax for specifying verse(s) or paragraph(s) is slightly different when targeting old versions of Gospel Library, as shown above. Old version of Gospel Library use a period after the chapter number for specifying verses. For newer versions of Gospel Library, the “id” parameter is preferred.