Cordova SDK

Complete guide for integrating Linkrunner in Apache Cordova apps

Installation

Step 1: Add Prerequisites to config.xml

Before adding platforms or installing the plugin, add the following preferences to your app's config.xml:

<widget id="com.your.app" ...>
    <!-- Required: iOS minimum deployment target (Linkrunner requires iOS 15+) -->
    <preference name="deployment-target" value="15.0" />

    <!-- Required: Enable Kotlin support for Android -->
    <preference name="GradlePluginKotlinEnabled" value="true" />
    <preference name="GradlePluginKotlinCodeStyle" value="official" />
</widget>

These preferences must be set before running cordova platform add ios or cordova platform add android. If you've already added platforms, remove and re-add them after updating config.xml:

cordova platform remove ios android
cordova platform add ios android

Step 2: Install the Plugin

cordova plugin add cordova-linkrunner

This single command handles everything automatically:

• Downloads the package from npm
• Copies native Swift/Kotlin bridge code into your project
• Adds iOS pod dependency (LinkrunnerKit)
• Adds Android gradle dependency (Linkrunner android-sdk)
• Injects iOS Info.plist entries (SKAN endpoints, tracking description)
• Registers the JS module globally as window.linkrunner

What the plugin auto-configures

The cordova plugin add command automatically configures the following native settings via plugin.xml. No manual editing of Info.plist or build.gradle is required.

iOS (auto-injected into Info.plist):

<key>NSUserTrackingUsageDescription</key>
<string>This identifier will be used to deliver personalized ads to you.</string>

<key>NSAdvertisingAttributionReportEndpoint</key>
<string>https://linkrunner-skan.com</string>

<key>AttributionCopyEndpoint</key>
<string>https://linkrunner-skan.com</string>

• LinkrunnerKit pod dependency (iOS 15+)

Android (auto-injected into build.gradle and AndroidManifest.xml):

• Linkrunner SDK gradle dependency
• Kotlin stdlib and coroutines dependencies
• android.permission.INTERNET and android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE permissions
• Backup rules exclusion for SharedPreferences

For complete SKAdNetwork integration details, see the SKAdNetwork Integration Guide.

For detailed Android backup configuration instructions, refer to the Android SDK Backup Configuration.

Initialization (Required)

To initialize the Linkrunner SDK, add this code inside the deviceready event. No import or require is needed — linkrunner is globally available after plugin installation.

You can find your project token here.

Note: The initialization method doesn't return any value. To get attribution data and deeplink information, use the getAttributionData method.

document.addEventListener('deviceready', function () {

    linkrunner.init({
        token: "YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN",
        secretKey: "YOUR_SECRET_KEY", // Optional: Required for SDK signing
        keyId: "YOUR_KEY_ID", // Optional: Required for SDK signing
        disableIdfa: false, // Optional: Set to true to disable IDFA collection for iOS (defaults to false)
        debug: true // Optional: Enable debug mode for development (defaults to false)
    }).then(function () {
        console.log("Linkrunner initialized");
    }).catch(function (error) {
        console.error("Linkrunner init failed:", error);
    });

}, false);

SDK Signing Parameters (Optional)

For enhanced security, the Linkrunner SDK accepts the following signing parameters during initialization:

• secretKey: A unique secret key used for request signing and authentication
• keyId: A unique identifier for the key pair used in the signing process

You can find your project token, secret key, and key ID here.

User Identification (Required)

Call the signup method as soon as the user is identified — whether through signup or login. This is the moment Linkrunner ties the install (and any future events) to a user identifier.

It is strongly recommended to use the integrated platform's identify function to set a persistent user_id once it becomes available (typically after signup or login).

• Mixpanel - ID Management & User Identification
• PostHog - How User Identification Works
• Amplitude - Identify Users Documentation

If the platform's identifier function is not called, you must provide a user identifier for Mixpanel, PostHog, and Amplitude integration.

• mixpanel_distinct_id for Mixpanel
• posthog_distinct_id for PostHog
• amplitude_device_id for Amplitude

linkrunner.signup({
    user_data: {
        id: "123", // Required: User ID
        name: "John Doe", // Optional
        phone: "9876543210", // Optional
        email: "user@example.com", // Optional
        // These properties are used to track reinstalls
        user_created_at: "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z", // Optional
        is_first_time_user: true, // Optional
        mixpanel_distinct_id: "mixpanel_distinct_id", // Optional - Mixpanel Distinct ID
        amplitude_device_id: "amplitude_device_id", // Optional - Amplitude User ID
        posthog_distinct_id: "posthog_distinct_id", // Optional - PostHog Distinct ID
        braze_device_id: "braze_device_id", // Optional - Braze Device ID
        ga_app_instance_id: "ga_app_instance_id", // Optional - Google Analytics App Instance ID
        ga_session_id: "ga_session_id", // Optional - Google Analytics Session ID
        netcore_device_guid: "netcore_device_guid" // Optional - Netcore Device GUID
    },
    data: {} // Optional: Any additional data
}).then(function () {
    console.log("Signup successful");
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.error("Error during signup:", error);
});

Handle Deeplink

To enable remarketing and reattribution, you need to capture deep links and pass them to the Linkrunner SDK. This allows Linkrunner to detect returning users who open the app via a deep link.

Cold Start

Cold start deeplinks are automatically captured by the native SDK during init(). The deeplink URL is available via getAttributionData().

Warm Start

For warm start deeplinks (app is already running), use Cordova's handleOpenURL:

// Initialize SDK first
document.addEventListener('deviceready', function () {
    linkrunner.init({ token: "YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN" });
}, false);

// Handle warm start deeplinks
window.handleOpenURL = function (url) {
    linkrunner.handleDeeplink(url).then(function (data) {
        console.log("Deeplink data:", JSON.stringify(data));

        if (data && data.deeplink) {
            var deeplink = data.deeplink;
            console.log("Navigate to:", deeplink);
        }
    }).catch(function (error) {
        console.error("Deeplink handling failed:", error);
    });
};

Linkrunner sends the updated deeplink back after processing. For Linkrunner campaign links, use the returned deeplink as the resolved destination instead of the original tracking URL.

{
    "deeplink": "https://app.yourdomain.com/product/123"
}

Getting Attribution Data

To get attribution data and deeplink information for the current installation, use the getAttributionData function:

linkrunner.getAttributionData().then(function (attributionData) {
    console.log("Attribution data:", JSON.stringify(attributionData));
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.error("Error getting attribution data:", error);
});

The getAttributionData function returns:

{
    deeplink: "https://..." | null,
    campaignData: {
        id: "string",
        name: "string",
        type: "string", // "ORGANIC" | "INORGANIC"
        adNetwork: "string" | null, // "META" | "GOOGLE" | null
        installedAt: "string",
        storeClickAt: "string" | null,
        groupName: "string",
        assetName: "string",
        assetGroupName: "string"
    }
}

Setting User Data

Call setUserData each time the app opens and the user is logged in:

setUserData is optional and is not a replacement for signup. Always call signup first as soon as the user is identified (signup or login). Use setUserData afterwards only when additional user details become available later — for example, when the user adds a phone number, email, or completes their profile after identification.

linkrunner.setUserData({
    id: "123", // Required: User ID
    name: "John Doe", // Optional
    phone: "9876543210", // Optional
    email: "user@example.com", // Optional
    mixpanel_distinct_id: "mixpanel_distinct_id", // Optional - Mixpanel Distinct ID
    amplitude_device_id: "amplitude_device_id", // Optional - Amplitude User ID
    posthog_distinct_id: "posthog_distinct_id" // Optional - PostHog Distinct ID
}).then(function () {
    console.log("User data set successfully");
});

Setting CleverTap ID

Use the setAdditionalData method to set CleverTap ID:

linkrunner.setAdditionalData({
    clevertapId: "YOUR_CLEVERTAP_USER_ID" // CleverTap user identifier
}).then(function () {
    console.log("Additional data set successfully");
});

Parameters for linkrunner.setAdditionalData

• clevertapId: string (optional) - CleverTap user identifier

This method allows you to connect user identities across different analytics and marketing platforms.

Revenue Tracking

Revenue data is only stored and displayed for attributed users. Make sure you have implemented the .signup function before capturing payments. To attribute a test user, follow the Integration Testing guide. You can verify your events are being captured on the Events Settings page.

Capture Payment

Use this method to capture payment information:

linkrunner.capturePayment({
    amount: 100, // Payment amount
    userId: "user123", // User identifier
    paymentId: "payment456", // Optional: Unique payment identifier
    type: "FIRST_PAYMENT", // Optional: Payment type
    status: "PAYMENT_COMPLETED", // Optional: Payment status
    eventData: { // Optional: Ecommerce/custom event data
        content_ids: ["product_123"],
        content_type: "product",
        currency: "USD",
        value: 99.99,
        num_items: 1,
        order_id: "order_12345",
        contents: [
            {
                id: "product_123",
                quantity: 1,
                item_price: 99.99
            }
        ]
    }
}).then(function () {
    console.log("Payment captured");
});

Parameters for linkrunner.capturePayment

• amount: number (required) - The payment amount
• userId: string (required) - Identifier for the user making the payment
• paymentId: string (optional) - Unique identifier for the payment
• type: string (optional) - Type of payment. Available options:
  • FIRST_PAYMENT - First payment made by the user
  • SECOND_PAYMENT - Second payment made by the user
  • WALLET_TOPUP - Adding funds to a wallet
  • FUNDS_WITHDRAWAL - Withdrawing funds
  • SUBSCRIPTION_CREATED - New subscription created
  • SUBSCRIPTION_RENEWED - Subscription renewal
  • ONE_TIME - One-time payment
  • RECURRING - Recurring payment
  • DEFAULT - Default type (used if not specified)
• status: string (optional) - Status of the payment. Available options:
  • PAYMENT_INITIATED - Payment has been initiated
  • PAYMENT_COMPLETED - Payment completed successfully (default if not specified)
  • PAYMENT_FAILED - Payment attempt failed
  • PAYMENT_CANCELLED - Payment was cancelled
• eventData: object (optional) - Key-value pairs for additional event data, including Meta ecommerce properties.

Removing Payments

Remove payment records (for refunds or cancellations):

linkrunner.removePayment({
    userId: "user123", // User identifier
    paymentId: "payment456" // Optional: Unique payment identifier
}).then(function () {
    console.log("Payment removed");
});

Parameters for linkrunner.removePayment

• userId: string (optional) - Identifier for the user whose payment is being removed. If only userId is provided, all payments for that user will be removed.
• paymentId: string (optional) - Unique identifier for the payment to be removed

Note: At least one of paymentId or userId must be provided when calling removePayment.

Ecommerce Events

If you are tracking Ecommerce events to sync with Meta Catalog Sales, you must format your eventData to include Meta's required fields. You also need to map your custom event to the standard commerce event in the Linkrunner Dashboard.

For detailed explanations of the required fields like content_ids, contents, and value, refer to our Meta Commerce Manager documentation.

Add To Cart Example

Use the trackEvent method to send an AddToCart event:

linkrunner.trackEvent(
    "add_to_cart", // Map this custom event to "AddToCart" in the Linkrunner Dashboard
    {
        content_ids: ["product_123"],
        contents: [
            {
                id: "product_123",
                quantity: 1,
                item_price: 49.99
            }
        ],
        content_type: "product",
        currency: "USD",
        value: 49.99,
        num_items: 1
    }
).then(function () {
    console.log("Add To Cart event tracked successfully");
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.error("Error tracking Add To Cart event:", error);
});

View Content Example

Use the trackEvent method to send a ViewContent event:

linkrunner.trackEvent(
    "view_item", // Map this custom event to "ViewContent" in the Linkrunner Dashboard
    {
        content_ids: ["product_123"],
        contents: [
            {
                id: "product_123",
                quantity: 1,
                item_price: 49.99
            }
        ],
        content_type: "product",
        currency: "USD",
        value: 49.99,
        num_items: 1
    }
).then(function () {
    console.log("View Content event tracked successfully");
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.error("Error tracking View Content event:", error);
});

Payment / Purchase Example

Use the capturePayment method to send a Purchase event containing the ecommerce payload:

linkrunner.capturePayment({
    amount: 49.99,
    userId: "user123",
    paymentId: "payment_456",
    type: "FIRST_PAYMENT", // Map this payment type to "Purchase" in the Linkrunner Dashboard
    status: "PAYMENT_COMPLETED",
    eventData: {
        content_ids: ["product_123"],
        contents: [
            {
                id: "product_123",
                quantity: 1,
                item_price: 49.99
            }
        ],
        content_type: "product",
        currency: "USD",
        value: 49.99,
        num_items: 1,
        order_id: "order_abc123" // Required for Purchase events
    }
}).then(function () {
    console.log("Purchase captured successfully");
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.error("Error capturing purchase:", error);
});

Note: For more information on testing and verifying your ecommerce events, please see our Testing Ecommerce Events guide.

Tracking Custom Events

Events are only stored and displayed for attributed users. Make sure you have implemented the .signup function before tracking events. To attribute a test user, follow the Integration Testing guide. You can verify your events are being captured on the Events Settings page. For capturing revenue, it is recommended to use the .capturePayment method instead of .trackEvent.

Track custom events in your app:

linkrunner.trackEvent(
    "purchase_initiated", // Event name
    { product_id: "12345", category: "electronics", amount: 99.99 } // Optional: Event data, include amount as a number for revenue sharing with ad networks like Google and Meta
).then(function () {
    console.log("Event tracked");
});

Revenue Sharing with Ad Networks

To enable revenue sharing with ad networks like Google Ads and Meta, include an amount parameter as a number in your custom event data. This allows the ad networks to optimize campaigns based on the revenue value of conversions:

linkrunner.trackEvent("purchase_completed", {
    product_id: "12345",
    category: "electronics",
    amount: 149.99 // Revenue amount as a number
}).then(function () {
    console.log("Purchase event tracked");
});

For revenue sharing with ad networks to work properly, ensure the amount parameter is passed as a number, not as a string.

Enhanced Privacy Controls

The SDK offers options to enhance user privacy:

// Enable PII (Personally Identifiable Information) hashing
linkrunner.enablePIIHashing(true);

When PII hashing is enabled, sensitive user data like name, email, and phone number are hashed using SHA-256 before being sent to Linkrunner servers.

Uninstall Tracking

Before you begin

Here's what you need to know before getting started:

Requirements:

• A Cordova push notification plugin (e.g., cordova-plugin-push)
• Firebase in your Cordova project (Android)
• Registering your app with APNs (iOS)

Android

Connect Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) with Linkrunner

FCM HTTP v1 API

To configure FCM HTTP V1 for uninstalls:

Enable the FCM API:

1. Go to the FCM console.
2. Select a project.
3. Go to Project Overview > Project settings.
4. Copy the Project ID. This will be required in a later step.
5. Go to the Cloud Messaging tab.
6. Make sure that Firebase Cloud Messaging API (V1) is set to Enabled.

Create a custom role for Linkrunner Uninstall:

1. Go to the Service accounts tab.
2. Click Manage service account permissions.
3. A new browser tab opens in Google Cloud Platform.
4. In the side menu, select Roles.
5. Click + Create role.
6. Enter the following details:
   • Title: Linkrunner Uninstalls
   • ID: lr_uninstalls
   • Role launch stage: General availability
7. Click + Add permissions.
8. In Enter property name or value field, enter cloudmessaging.messages.create and select it from the search results.
9. Check the cloudmessaging.messages.create option and click Add.
10. Click Create.

Assign Linkrunner the FCM uninstall role:

1. In the side menu, select IAM.
2. Open the View by Principals tab.
3. Click Grant Access.
4. In Add Principals -> New principals field, enter lr-uninstalls-tracking@lr-uninstalls-tracking.iam.gserviceaccount.com
5. In Assign Roles -> Select a role field, enter Linkrunner Uninstalls and select it from the search results.
6. Click Save.

The Linkrunner service account has been assigned the role of Linkrunner Uninstalls.

Linkrunner Dashboard

1. In Linkrunner, go to Settings > Uninstall Tracking.
2. Under the Android tab, enter the Firebase Project ID that you copied initially and click Save.

Integrate with Linkrunner SDK

Follow these instructions to integrate FCM with the Linkrunner SDK:

1. Set up Push Notifications:

Install a push notification plugin for Cordova. For example, using cordova-plugin-push:

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-push

2. Configure your app to provide the device's push token to the Linkrunner SDK.

var push = PushNotification.init({
    android: {},
    ios: {
        alert: true,
        badge: true,
        sound: true
    }
});

// Send push token to Linkrunner
push.on('registration', function (data) {
    linkrunner.setPushToken(data.registrationId).then(function () {
        console.log("Push token set successfully");
    });
});

// Filter out Linkrunner silent notifications
push.on('notification', function (data) {
    if (data.additionalData && data.additionalData['lr-uninstall-tracking']) {
        // Silent notification for uninstall tracking, ignore
        return;
    }
    // Handle other notifications here
});

Custom implementations of push notification handlers can unintentionally make uninstall push notifications visible to users, disrupting the intended silent experience. To avoid this, ensure your logic checks if the notification contains lr-uninstall-tracking and handles it accordingly, as shown in the code example above.

iOS

Connect APNs with Linkrunner

Apple Developer Portal

Get the required credentials from the Apple Developer Portal:

APNs Authentication Key (p8) and Key ID:

• Go to the Apple Developer Portal.
• Select Identifiers under Certificates, IDs & Profiles.
• Click on the app you want to track uninstalls for. Then, under Capabilities, search for Push Notifications and enable it.
• Under Certificates, IDs & Profiles, select Keys and click on plus (+) icon to create a key. Enable APNs when creating the key and download the key file (p8).
• The Key ID can be found in the Keys tab.

Bundle ID and Team ID:

• Under Identifiers, click on your app and you will see the Bundle ID and Team ID (App ID Prefix).

Linkrunner Dashboard

1. In Linkrunner, go to Settings > Uninstall Tracking.
2. Under the iOS tab, upload the APNs Authentication Key (p8) file and enter the Key ID, Bundle ID and Team ID (App ID Prefix) that you copied from the Apple Developer Portal.

Integrate with Linkrunner SDK

Follow these instructions to integrate APNs with the Linkrunner SDK:

1. Set up Push Notifications:

Set up push notifications in your Cordova app using a push notification plugin (e.g., cordova-plugin-push).

2. Configure your app to provide the device's APNs token to the Linkrunner SDK.

var push = PushNotification.init({
    ios: {
        alert: true,
        badge: true,
        sound: true
    }
});

push.on('registration', function (data) {
    // On iOS, this provides the APNs token
    linkrunner.setPushToken(data.registrationId).then(function () {
        console.log("APNs push token set successfully");
    });
});

Function Placement Guide

Function	Where to Place	When to Call
linkrunner.init	deviceready event handler	Once when app starts
linkrunner.getAttributionData	Attribution data handling flow	Whenever the attribution data is needed
linkrunner.setAdditionalData	Integration code	When third-party integration IDs are available
linkrunner.signup	Identification flow (signup or login)	Once when the user is identified
linkrunner.setUserData	Authentication logic	Every time app opens with logged-in user
linkrunner.trackEvent	Throughout app	When specific user actions occur
linkrunner.capturePayment	Payment processing	When user makes a payment
linkrunner.removePayment	Refund flow	When payment needs to be removed
linkrunner.setPushToken	Push notification setup	When push token is available
linkrunner.handleDeeplink	handleOpenURL handler	When app is opened via a deep link

Next Steps

Test Your Integration

Validate your setup end-to-end

Set Up Deep Linking

Configure deep links for your app

Support

If you encounter issues during integration, contact us at support@linkrunner.io.