Hyperlinks Not Working for iOS Users

[haanaj]

Hi there.

I am currently helping out on a study that is using the Beiwe2 app and we have noticed that the hyperlinks (created using R Markdown) we’d like to include in the text of certain survey questions are not working for iOS users (they do work for Android users). Instead of a link, the Markdown code shows up for iOS users.

Is there any way to include hyperlinks that work for iOS users in the survey text? Thank you in advance.

[biblicabeebli]

Hello, thank you for letting us know about this.

Can you provide an example of how you are formatting a link? you may need to provide a plaintxt attachment due to github using markdown.

It would also help if you could test whether it occurs just inside questions, or more generally.

[haanaj]

Hi, thank you for your response!

As for formatting, I have attached a screenshot of what the question looks like (this is how we are formatting the link):

That's a good idea. We might set up a test survey to see if the link issue is occurring elsewhere. If we do, I will get back to you on that!

[biblicabeebli]

Okay, thanks, we will try and look at this fairly soon.

The app is finally getting updated right now. Its been a while so we have a lot of iOS system stuff to get caught through, but you've let us know about the issue and that's the big thing.

@tjaeni01
I want to take a look at this when the app is stable again. I remember Keary had some difficulty when adding the markdown support, but on Android it was laughably easy. Could you make sure to test some markdown content in surveys and other UI fields after we get the new WKView styling functional?

[tjaeni01]

Once the iOS support updates are finished I will take a look at it

[haanaj]

Sounds good, thank you for looking into this!

I am sending out a test survey to see if the link issue is occurring elsewhere (i.e. in the survey answer choices) and will update you on any changes.

[haanaj]

Hi! Just thought I would let you know that when I ran a test survey, the hyperlink didn't work in the survey answer choices either. The Markdown code showed up instead.

Thanks!

[biblicabeebli]

Just in case I'm super stupid.... can one of you check if we actually have any markdown support on iOS at all? I searched my email for all written communication with the original developer and I'm not finding anything about markdown support...

[haanaj]

Hi there, I just searched online and I found this on the Beiwe backend documentation: https://github.com/onnela-lab/beiwe-backend/wiki/App-Markdown-support

It says that iOS (as of April 2017) doesn't support Markdown for the app...I didn't see this before! I suppose this resolves the issue since there wasn't support for iOS in the first place.

Do you know if there are any plans for support in the future? Thank you!

[biblicabeebli]

Hi Haana,
We discussed adding the markdown support to the iOS app today. We are going to try and do this, we need to research interactions with one of the libraries (Apple's ResearchKit) to identify if there is any rich text support in the first place.

@tjaeni01 let me know out of band how this research goes (went?)