Apple search Ads on Cordova 9

The problem is that we don’t see any data on Apple search Ads dashboard.

node: v10.16.3 cordova: 9.0.0 xcode: 11.3.1

The plugin version is 4.1.3 but with the following changes in order to be able to build with CLI:

Removed from: src/ios/BranchNPM.h #define BRANCH_NPM true

And added at plugin.xml and from xcode after building the framework is there <framework src="iAd.framework" weak="true"/>

I tried both with and without use-frameworks="true" with no difference.

The Branch service initialisation: function init() { return $window.Branch.delayInitToCheckForSearchAds() .then($window.Branch.initSession).then(linkHandler); }

[echo-branch]

Within Xcode, you can locate an AppDelegate.m file. You can enable early lifecycle calls here.

In this example, I enable logging to confirm ASA is working, remove it for production as it is very verbose. I then enable search ads and the longer delay as Cordova has a long launch time.

#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "MainViewController.h"
#import "Branch.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication*)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary*)launchOptions
{
    [Branch.getInstance enableLogging];
    [Branch.getInstance delayInitToCheckForSearchAds];
    [Branch.getInstance useLongerWaitForAppleSearchAds];
    
    self.viewController = [[MainViewController alloc] init];
    return [super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
}

@end

You should see the Search Ad base 64 encoded in the install json. On test devices, Apple provides a test payload so you should always see this while debugging.

"search_ad_encoded" = "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";

If you wish to ignore the Apple test payload call this method.

[Branch.getInstance ignoreAppleSearchAdsTestData];

[echo-branch]

This works by setting the Branch SDK to lookup Apple Search Ads before the install event. This will ensure we have it show up properly on the dashboard, we also return it in the callback to the JS code.

This is not possible from JS alone, cause the Cordova JS environment starts up after the initial install. Which means we probably sent the install without the ASA data payload.