Programmatically run a search on the App Store?

Question

Can I open the App Store app from my application and search?

I am looking to see if there is appstore: // a type of URL that I could use, just like mailto: and sms: open Mail and SMS respectively.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

Edit - details:

I am trying to use the UIVpplication openURL: method by passing various forms of phobos and iTunes URLs until I get lucky.

Some may know that you can right-click links in iTunes on your desktop and copy links to specific pages. I copied the link to a page that lists all the applications for a particular company.

Some may also know that you can search the App Store on the iPhone for the name of the company, and the search results will be all applications belonging to that company.

I am trying to achieve this through a link from my application ...

Using the link copied from iTunes to the desktop, Safari simply opens, and then the iTunes application opens and finally ends with the message "Cannot connect to the iTunes Store." This is regardless of whether the URL starts with phobos or itunes.

Here is the link I'm trying to use (ID is truncated)

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=someId 

Any ideas would be awesome, thanks.

Answer 1

Erica Sadun explains how to create a search link on the App Store here .

Answer 2

To open iTunes or AppStore from your application, you need to download, use the itms: // prefix

You can then search for artists through a URL similar to this:

 itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObject/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=someId 

Or you can tell the AppStore to open and show a specific application like this:

 itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObject/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=someId 

The real difference is only that you do not need to browse, but the itms: // prefix instead of http .
For example. using viewSoftware-Version with id = 315316036 the AppStore will open
and display Rowmote Pro (random choice, I just surfed in the AppStore ..).

UPDATE

It seems like it's a little harder to associate with artists and search results than it is for apps or albums (which both worked in my tests).

I came across this technical Q & A from Apple, which says that for some links used several redirects are needed. This may be the moment when iTMS helps out.
(and you don't seem to be the only problem with this problem, see here or here ).