Handling url schemes with golang? - windows

Question

I would love to be able to set my executable to handle custom Url Scheme (aaa:) so that I can handle deep linking with my program.

Answer 1

You need to modify Windows registry, in order to tell os which protocol to open with which executable.
There are multiple ways you can go about it, depending if you want to add your url scheme handler for all users or for current user.
Easiest way to handle it is to make Windows pass custom url as argument to default executable.
That way both chrome and edge will ask user to open your installed app.
Here is a minimal Golang implementation to set your executable as default url scheme handler:
var k registry.Key
var err error
prefix := "SOFTWARE\\Classes\\"
urlScheme := "aaa"
basePath := prefix + urlScheme
permission := uint32(registry.QUERY_VALUE | registry.SET_VALUE)
baseKey := registry.CURRENT_USER
programLocation := "\"C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe\""
// create key
registry.CreateKey(baseKey, basePath, permission)
// set description
k.SetStringValue("", "Notepad app")
k.SetStringValue("URL Protocol", "")
// set icon
registry.CreateKey(registry.CURRENT_USER, "lumiere\\DefaultIcon", registry.ALL_ACCESS)
k.SetStringValue("", softwareToOpen+",1")
// create tree
registry.CreateKey(baseKey, basePath+"\\shell", permission)
registry.CreateKey(baseKey, basePath+"\\shell\\open", permission)
registry.CreateKey(baseKey, basePath+"\\shell\\open\\command", permission)
// set open command
k.SetStringValue("", softwareToOpen+" \"%1\"")
Getting custom URL after having your app set as default is quite straightforward
You can do this:
func main() {
url := os.Args[1:]
log.Printf("my custom aaa url is: %s", url)
}