Ensure Unique URL Records (CFBundleURLSchemes) for iPhone Applications

Question

I would like to know if (and how) Apple guarantees the uniqueness of CFBundleURLS entries for iPhone applications.

In the Apple documentation (http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/StandardBehaviors/StandardBehaviors.html) section "Implementing custom URL schemes") they say that CFBundleURLName is called "To provide uniqueness, it is recommended that you specify a reverse DNS identifier style, but nothing about CFBundleURLScheme. And when the application starts another application using the URL scheme, there is no link to the BundleURLName, it just refers to the URL scheme. (method "- (BOOL) openURL: (NSURL *) url" UIApplication).

So, if I publish an application that responds to a specific URL scheme in the app store, can I be sure that no other application will respond to this URL scheme? Is this part of Apple's verification process?

I can not find documentation about this either on the Apple website or on any other site.

Answer 1

No, as far as I know, the uniqueness of application URL schemes is not guaranteed by Apple - it only gives a recommendation that can significantly improve the chances of this. If everyone uses the recommended reverse dns style for their custom URLs, they will not “collide” (provided that the combinations of company names and applications used for the URL are unique)

Answer 2

As far as I can tell, Apple does not guarantee the uniqueness of the URL scheme, and the "URL" is good for documentation, but does not take into account when determining uniqueness. Only the URL scheme is used.