Wrong response when POSTing a new link

[grmmph]

We have a custom domain configured in our dashboard. We've tested it with marketing links generated via branch's UI.

The problem is, that when trying to generating a link via POSTing to url endpoint, the response received is xxx.app.link and not our pretty custom domain.

But wait, It's getting weirder! The app.link prefix we get is inconsistent to the app.link configured in our dashboard, while the whole app.link thing is inconsistent with the fact our app still uses the old bnc.lt.

For example:

• In dashboard's link settings, under "Custom Link Domain" We've got a disabled input field with the value bnc.li
• Underneath we've configured our own domain awesome.domain
• Our app.ink prefix is (e.g.) abcd, at least according to the note under the SHA256 Cert Fingerprints input field.
• When creating marketing links via branch dashboard, the link format would be awesome.domain/awesome-link
• When our app received a url from WhatsApp, we get bnc.lt/random-link-id
• When generating link via branch API (or branch.link(options)), the response is wxyz.app.link/alias-or-random-id but not awesome.domain/alias-or-random-id as expected.
• Assigning type: 2 doesn't create a marketing link as documented.

So sometime branch.io uses the bnc.lt, sometime it uses our custom domain and sometimes it uses app.link with a (probably) wrong prefix.

Not very inconsistent I'd say :) Nevertheless, the breaking issue here for me is that I'm not able to generate custom-domain links programmatically.

Thanks a good day!

[grmmph]

Ok, seems like the main issue caused because of confusion with the branch api live and test keys.

But still it could be improved:

• unifying links
• type: 2 doesn't add links to marketing table

[aaustin]

Hey @grmmph - I'm super sorry that you went through this torture. Key mixups are unfortunately all too common. We added that system to help companies better segment their test data from live data, but it seems like it sometimes adds more pain than benefit.

On your suggestions, we worry about unifying links between the two accounts, because it allows potentially bad behavior where people launch with the incorrect keys and can use them interchangeably. It's one of the reasons that we now create all links with test-app.link on the test account, to help prevent this confusion.

On type:2 not creating a marketing link, I just checked that this should still be working. Can you make sure you're passing it as an integer and not a string? I thought we handle both but it's possible that's not the case.

[grmmph]

Thanks for quick reply @aaustin!

Indeed using the test key was a stupidity on my side. But Actually, I didn't get xxx.test-app.link as you suggested, but the xxx.app.link - maybe if I would have get the test-app response I would realize much faster I'm using a wrong key. Maybe something to improve on your side?

Yes, type: 2 was passed as integer at the root of the params object (not an attribute of data)

[aaustin]

Hey @grmmph - I just tried this curl for a test app I have: curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"channel":"test","campaign":"test123","type":2,"data":"{\"$always_deeplink\":false}","branch_key":"key_live_gpk6Xg4wInPq1IYbxwG4akjhqDc7bplS"}' https://api.branch.io/v1/url

Upon reloading the marketing page, the link appeared. Can you send over an example request you make where this doesn't happen? I can help dig in there.

[aaustin]

Going to close the issue for now.