One of the many wonderful features of the Archer tool set is deep links. If you have ever received an email notification from Archer, there is a good chance it included an deep link to some content stored within the system.
The key to working with deep links rests in your ability to decode them.
Here is a deep link for an specific record. This would typically be used in an email notification to someone that needs to take action based upon that record.
https://servername.domain.com/default.aspx?requestUrl=..%2fGenericContent%2fRecord.aspx%3fid%3d158189%26moduleId%3d153 -specific record
The black portion of the link is common to all deep links and it identifies the server name and the method.
https://servername.domain.com/default.aspx?requestUrl=
We can break this down into two parts:
- https://servername.domain.com/default.aspx? - identifies the server
- requestURL - is the request method
The blue portion of the link constitutes the actual request we are passing to the application...%2fGenericContent%2fRecord.aspx%3fid%3d158189%26moduleId%3d153
We can split this portion down into 2 sections (request type and content).
Request type - There are different types of requests:
- Generic Content - for working with records (new or existing)
- Search Content - for working with reports
- Foundation - for navigation purposes (controlling where you land in the application)
Notice the presence of encoded characters in the URL, this is necessary to allow for the use of the reserved characters (/ & = ?). These characters must be encoded or the application will not process the request correctly. Here is an explanation of the values for the encoded character strings.
- %2f decodes to /
- %26 decodes to &
- %3d decodes to =
- %3f decodes to ?
Let’s examine this part of the request.
..%2fGenericContent%2fRecord.aspx%3f decodes to /GenericContent/Record.aspx?.
Here we are asking for a record by calling the Record.aspx page
Content Specific- Details to identify a specific element you wish to view
- Record id
- Report id
- Module id
- Workspace id
- Dashboard id
id%3d158189%26moduleId%3d153 decodes to id=158189&moduleId=153
Here we see that we are specifying record number 158189 from application moduleId 153. If you wish to open an new record you would specify 0 for the id number.
id%0%26moduleId%3d153
To determine which application is moduleId 153 you need to go to Application Builder and select manage applications. Hold your mouse pointer over an application name in the Name column and the Archer assigned Module ID number will be displayed in the lower right corner.
So you can see that moduleId 153 is the Control Procedures application. Each application has an different moduleId.
To identify a workspaceId, dashboardId, or reportId, you must use the same technique you did to locate the application id in the above example.
Here are examples of other deep links using the various request types:
Deep link to open a new record.
Deep link to open a specific report.
Deep link to open a specific workspace.
Deep link to open a specific dashboard.
Some deep links are generated by the system, like when you embed a link to a record in a system generated notification. Deep links are useful when you wish to send someone to a specific place inside Archer. You can use custom deep links on regular websites to enhance the usability of the product.
