Button Merchant Library Overview
Your Android and iOS apps need a small bit of code in order to successfully track the high-performing customers Button sends you. We've developed the Button Merchant Library code as a compact and easy solution for you.
What it does
Button’s Merchant Library has three key responsibilities:
Capturing attribution information from inbound links. When Button sends you customers through a deep link, an attribution parameter of that link needs to be intercepted, and saved locally for later use (when you report an order). This is how we attribute orders back to a publisher. The Merchant Library takes care of that capture.
Deferred deep linking for new installs. Often Button will send you new customers. These new customers may arrive through the app store, which breaks deep linking and publisher attribution. The Merchant Library makes a call to Button, upon first (and only first) app open, to attempt to retrieve the original deep link and attribution token, through server-side device signature matching, restoring a positive customer experience.
Tap-through tracking for incoming customers. Button is in the business of driving repeat purchasers to your app. Many of these campaigns are structured around measurement of view→tap performance. In order to achieve the highest performance, when a customer is sent to your app through Button, Button needs a signal that the customer has successfully opened the app. The Merchant Library reports an event back to Button when the app has been opened from a Button link.
Why use Button’s Merchant Library
Button’s Merchant Library is a free, open source, liberally-licensed set of code for both Android and iOS, designed to accomplish the above three purposes (and only those three).
We strongly recommend using our Merchant Library for the following reasons:
Saves development time, easy to integrate. Button’s Merchant Library is easy to integrate. It can be included in a project through Android/iOS package managers for maximum convenience. Alternatively, for high control and audit-ability, your team may “vendor” the code by copying it into your application.
Stable and battle-tested. We have drawn upon years of expertise in deep linking and mobile application management to build the simplest, most stable implementation for the three key responsibilities. The Merchant Library is in use by millions of active installs in well-known brands.
Handles all corner-cases, best user experience. While the responsibilities of the library are straightforward, both platforms have corner cases that took us time and expertise to identify and “bullet-proof”. Failing to handle these corner cases often results in a poor customer experience, like not earning an advertised discount.