Links

The Links screen, at https://app.dectog.com/dashboard/links, is where you create the links people tap. Its header reads “Deep links that open your app, track installs and expire when you want.” Next to it, Templates manages link templates, Import CSV creates many links from a file (Importing links), and New link opens the create panel; the panel is always open while the account has no links.

On load the screen fetches your links, your apps (an account with exactly one app gets it preselected) and your username, which the deep-link previews use.

Creating a link

The New link panel has four fields. Submit with Create link, or Create temporary link when an expiry is set. The button reads “Creating…” while the request runs. Errors appear in red next to the button, verbatim from the server. On success the form resets, the panel closes and the list switches to the matching tab.

Field	What to enter	Rules
Fallback URL	Either App fallback URL (default), which inherits the Fallback URL of the selected app, or Custom URL with an address (placeholder https://destination.com). For temporary links the first option reads Default app fallback. Hint: “Where this link points when the app can’t serve it (desktop continue button, last mobile fallback). The default inherits the app’s Fallback URL from the Apps page.”	The app option is disabled, with the tooltip “Set a Fallback URL on the Apps page to enable”, while the app has no Fallback URL; Custom URL is then the only choice. A custom URL must be http(s), otherwise the server replies Invalid target: must be a valid http(s) URL.
Link URL	The slug after your link domain (placeholder launch, or auto for temporary links). The prefix shows the host of your existing links, or / until you have one.	Letters, digits, _ and - only, up to 128 characters. Required for permanent links (Invalid or missing slug). Slugs starting with r- are kept for referral links (Slugs starting with 'r-' are reserved for referral links). Optional for temporary links: leave it blank for a generated slug of the form t_ plus 10 hex characters; the hint reads “Optional — leave blank for an auto-generated slug. Temporary links use your default app’s routing and fallback.” A slug must be unique across your permanent and temporary links, otherwise Slug already exists.
App	Default app or one of your apps. Tooltip: “App used for platform routing”. Hidden for temporary links and when you have no apps.	Default app means your oldest app. The app decides store URLs, schemes, interstitial pages and the social preview for this link.
Expires	Never (default), 5 min, 1 hour, 1 day or 7 days.	Anything other than Never creates a temporary link. The dashboard offers only these four durations; the API accepts 60 seconds to 30 days.

When the account has templates, a Template box next to App picks one for a permanent link. A permanent link is sent to POST /api/admin/links; a temporary one to POST /api/admin/temp-links with the chosen ttlSeconds. Temporary links always route through the default app and have no click counter, no deep-link paths, no tracking fields and no routing overrides. See Temporary links.

Advanced options

Advanced options appears under the form for permanent links once the account has at least one app. Its header shows an orange chip for every section in use: fallback URL, deep link, redirect, desktop fallback, tracking.

Deep link · the route your app opens

Hint: “Optional app route this link opens — the path becomes the URI (e.g. scheme://login), so the app receives it exactly as typed. Without a path, links open scheme://username/slug. Schemes come from the selected app (manage them on the Apps page).”

Field	What to enter	Rules
iOS deep link path	A route such as products/42?color=black.	Disabled, with the placeholder no scheme set and the hint “Set the iOS scheme on the Apps page to enable this path.”, while the selected app has no iOS scheme. A live preview shows scheme://path, or scheme://username/slug while the box is empty.
Android deep link path	Same, for Android.	The same rules, with the Android scheme.

Server rules for both paths: at most 512 characters; no :, whitespace, #, ; or control characters, so no full URLs; a leading / is removed. The errors read Invalid ios_deep_link_path: must be a relative path, not a full URL (no ":": no scheme, no spaces, no "#"/";") and Invalid ios_deep_link_path: deep link path is too long (max 512 chars), or the same with android_deep_link_path.

A dec_deeplink parameter on the tapped URL replaces the saved path for that tap; see URL parameters.

Tracking · label, campaign, adgroup, creative

Hint: “Saved on every click of this link and returned to your app after install. Override any of them per share by adding ?dec_campaign=… (or dec_label, dec_adgroup, dec_creative) to the link URL.”

Field	Placeholder	Rules
Label	partner-42	Up to 255 characters, no control characters: Invalid label: max 255 characters.
Campaign	spring_sale	Same.
Adgroup	instagram_stories	Same.
Creative	video_15s	Same.

These values are stored on every click of the link, can be overridden per tap with dec_label, dec_campaign, dec_adgroup and dec_creative, and come back to the app in the install verdict and in the app.installed webhook. They do not feed the Overview’s campaign and source charts, which read utm_campaign and utm_source; see Overview.

If the app isn’t installed (mobile)

App Store / Play Store (default) sends a phone without the app to the store configured on the app: the App Store, Google Play, or the OEM store that matches the phone’s brand. Custom URL (placeholder https://promo.example.com/offer) sends it to that address instead. When the custom address is itself a store page on an Apple, Google Play, Huawei, Samsung or Xiaomi host, DecTog adds its attribution tag to it; vivo store addresses are not tagged. Stored as redirect_url; must be http(s).

If the app can’t open the link (desktop)

Branded QR page (default), or App fallback URL (default) when the selected app has one, or Custom URL (placeholder https://web.example.com/page). Stored as fallback_url; must be http(s). This is the last stop for desktop visitors and for phones that have no destination at all. With no custom URL, the tap falls through to the app’s Fallback URL and, if there is none, to the QR page.

The complete decision order for a tap is in How a tap is routed. In short, on a phone the chain is: custom redirect, then the tagged store, then the app’s Fallback URL (which outranks this link’s own Fallback URL), then the link’s Fallback URL. Desktop visitors are never redirected to the link’s Fallback URL automatically; they get a “Continue to {host} on desktop” button on the QR page.

The list

Three tabs, Permanent {n}, Temporary {n} and Referrals {n}, sit above a table. Next to them, Active, Archived and Deleted pick which links the tabs show: active links (paused and expired ones included), archived links, or deleted links, with a count once there is one. The Search links box filters the current tab in the browser, case-insensitively: slug, destination, campaign and label on the Permanent tab; slug and destination on the Temporary tab; slug, customer and campaign on the Referrals tab. There is no pagination; the screen loads every permanent and temporary link, and the referral links when their tab opens.

Permanent links

Column	What it shows	Period
Link	/slug, which opens the live link in a new tab; a copy icon that turns into a check mark for 1.5 seconds; chips for the campaign and the label when set, and Paused (amber; hover for your reason), Expired (red; hover for where taps go) or Archived; underneath, the destination host and path, or App fallback when the link inherits the app’s Fallback URL, then · expires in 3d 4h when an expiry is set.
Clicks	The link’s click counter. It increases on every web tap, every click reported by the SDK and every click the server reconstructs from an install referrer, and it never decreases. A green +{n} 7d underneath counts the clicks of the last 7 days.	Lifetime; the 7d line covers a rolling 7 days
Installs	Installs matched to one of this link’s clicks, excluding reinstalls. Underneath, {n}% conv. is installs ÷ the click counter, rounded to a whole percent, shown only when both are above 0.	Lifetime Click the number to list those installs; each opens the install detail described on Overview.
Opens	Times this link opened the already installed app.	Lifetime
Leads	Events of type lead credited to this link: those from installs it brought, plus those within the re-engagement window after it re-opened the app.	Lifetime
Revenue	Net revenue (purchases minus refunds) credited to this link, in your revenue currency; — when 0. A second line, … after re-open, shows the part credited because the link re-opened the installed app within the app’s re-engagement window.	Lifetime
Web	Leads, purchases and custom events dectog.js sent from your website for this link, with their net revenue below; — when none. Part of Leads and Revenue, not on top of them.	The retention window
Created	The creation date, such as Oct 12, 2026.

All per-link numbers are all-time totals, which is why they do not match the Overview’s 7-, 30- or 90-day figures.

Each row ends with Edit (a pencil; the label reads “Edit (custom social preview)” and the icon carries a dot when the link has its own preview), Screens after open (a numbered list), Pause or Resume, Archive or Unarchive, and Delete (a trash can). On the Deleted view the row offers Restore and Delete permanently instead. See Pausing, archiving and deleting.

Screens after open

The numbered-list icon opens a side panel with the screens people reached in your app right after this link opened it, for the last 7, 30 or 90 days. An open is the first launch of an install credited to the link, or a later re-open through it; a screen counts once per open when it was viewed within 30 minutes, an app restart in those minutes included. A link tapped while the app was already running keeps that run’s screens with the open that started it. Reached is how many opens got to the screen, with its share of the opens that reported any screen; First screen is how many started there, which shows whether the link’s deep link landed people where you meant. At most 20 screens are listed. The screens come from the SDK’s trackScreenView or its navigator observer; without them the panel stays empty. Screen views count in no event total on this page or any other.

Temporary links

Column	What it shows
Link	/slug, the copy icon, and the destination or App fallback.
Expires	A red Expired chip, or a green countdown such as 42m left, 3h 5m left or 2d 4h left.

Temporary links show no click, install or revenue numbers.

Delete expired appears on the Temporary tab of the Active view once at least one link has expired. It asks “Delete all expired temporary links? They leave this list. Their clicks, installs and revenue stay in your stats, and you can restore them from Deleted.” and deletes every temporary link whose expiry has passed, as the trash icon does: they move to the Deleted view with their clicks and installs, and keep their slugs until you restore them or delete them permanently. The server’s daily job does the same automatically 24 hours after a link expires, except for links with an expired URL, which keep sending taps there.

Referral links

Your app makes one referral link per customer with createReferralLink; they are listed here rather than among the permanent links.

Column	What it shows	Period
Customer	The customer the link belongs to, which opens their page. Viewers see —.
Link	/slug, the copy icon, a chip for the campaign when it is not referral, and the Paused, Expired or Archived chips.
Clicks	The click counter, with +{n} 7d underneath.	Lifetime
Installs	Installs credited to the link, excluding reinstalls. Click the number to list them.	Lifetime
Referrals	New customers who signed up after installing through the link: the referrals recorded for the customer.	Lifetime
Created	The creation date.

A referral link has no Edit: the server made it for one customer. Each row offers Screens after open, Pause or Resume, Archive or Unarchive, and Delete; pause or delete the link of a customer who abuses the program. A deleted referral link stays the customer’s: createReferralLink answers 410 link_deleted for them until you restore it.

Empty states: “No permanent links yet.”, “No temporary links. Pick an expiry when creating a link to make one.” and “No links match your search.”

Templates

Templates opens a panel listing your templates with the fields each sets and how many links use it. New template and Edit show Name, App for new links, and the fields a template can fill: Desktop destination, Mobile without the app, the iOS and Android deep link paths, Campaign, Label, Adgroup, Creative and the UTM source, medium and campaign. A link that uses a template takes its value for every field the link leaves empty, at tap time: editing a template changes all its links. Delete asks first and names how many links use it; they keep their own fields and stop inheriting. The create form and the link drawer pick a template under Template. Fields only the API sets (the target, the social preview, the page settings) are kept when you edit a template here. See Templates.

Importing links

Import CSV opens a panel with two column presets: DecTog columns (headers named like the API fields, such as slug, target, campaign, utm_source, external_id) and Firebase Dynamic Links export (see Importing an FDL export). After you pick a file, the panel shows how many links it found, the first ten with notes (a row without a slug, afl and ifl that differ), and Import {n} links. Links are created 100 per request; the result reads “{n} created, {m} failed.” with a table of the failed rows by line number and error. Nothing is created until you press the button.

Editing a link

Edit opens a side drawer titled Edit link /slug. Permanent links get five blocks; temporary links get the expiry and the social preview.

Template and tracking

Permanent links only. Template (when the account has templates) picks the link’s template or None; an empty field below then shows the template’s value as its placeholder, followed by “(template)”. Below it, the label, campaign, adgroup and creative from the create form, and the link’s UTM source, UTM medium, UTM campaign, UTM term and UTM content (added to its web destinations; see Link-level UTM values), each up to 255 characters, then Add the click id to website destinations, which adds dtg_click to the link’s web URLs (never a store or an app scheme) for dectog.js on that site. Save template and tracking sends them all; an emptied field clears the stored value. The button is followed by “Saved” or the server’s error.

Expiry

Expires at (permanent links; a date and time in your browser’s time zone, empty for never) and After expiry, send visitors to (a URL; empty serves a “Link expired” page with status 410). A temporary link shows its fixed expiry instead of the date box. While the link is paused, a third box, Why it is paused (only you see this), edits the pause note. Save expiry sends the block. An expired link records no clicks: taps go straight to the URL, or get the 410 page.

Geo and language routing

Permanent links only (the block is titled Routing rules). Add rule adds a block with its name in the header (placeholder Rule 1; recorded on each click it routes), Countries (two-letter codes such as DE, AT, CH), Languages (such as de), From and Until (scheduled routing, in your browser’s time zone), Share of visitors (%) (an A/B split, a whole number such as 50 or 50%; empty for everyone), and the destinations it replaces for a matching tap: Desktop destination, Mobile without the app, iOS deep link path, Android deep link path and Fallback URL. Empty fields keep the link’s own. The first matching rule wins; Move up reorders and Remove deletes a rule. Save rules sends them all; the server’s error, such as routing_rules[0] needs a condition: countries, languages, percent, starts_at or ends_at, shows next to the button. Taps that match no rule are routed as usual. See How a tap is routed.

Preview

A card that mimics a social unfurl: the image (or “No image configured”), the title (or “Open in the app”), the link’s domain and the description, with the note “Actual results, including image size, may vary across platforms.”

Under the card, Which social preview should this link use? offers:

• App preview (marked Default), followed by the title of the app preview it would use. Choosing it clears the link’s own preview on save, so the link falls back to the app’s social preview and then to a generic “Open in the app” card.
• Custom preview, which reveals three fields.

Field	What to enter	Rules
Image URL	An image address (placeholder https://…/preview.jpg). Hint: “JPG or PNG. Recommended size 1200 × 630 px (shown as a large card).”	http(s), or the server replies og_image_url must be a valid http(s) URL.
Title	Placeholder My App. Hint: “Recommended 30 to 60 characters. Maximum 150 characters.”	The box stops at 150 characters; the server rejects longer values with og_title must be at most 150 characters.
Description (optional)	Hint: “Maximum 150 characters.”	Same limit: og_description must be at most 150 characters.

The card and the App preview line are built from the app currently selected in the New link form’s App dropdown, or from your oldest app when nothing is selected there. The preview people actually see when they share the link is resolved by the server from the link, then the link’s app, then a generic card; see Social previews and QR.

At the bottom of the drawer, Check the preview on each platform asks for the link as the crawlers of Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, iMessage and Telegram do and shows, per platform, the title, description and thumbnail it gets with Looks right, {n} issues or No preview, and each issue in a sentence: no image, an image host that refuses that crawler, an image too large for the platform, an image address that is a page. It checks the saved link, so save first. See Check the preview on each platform.

Routing

Permanent links only.

Field	Options
iOS deep link path, Android deep link path	Free text, placeholder products/42?color=black, with the same server rules as the create form. Each box is disabled, with the placeholder no scheme set, while the link’s own app has no scheme for that platform, because a path is only used in a scheme URL. The drawer’s app preview and fallback default also come from the link’s own app.
If the app isn’t installed	App stores (marked Default) or Custom URL (placeholder https://promo.example.com/offer). Sets redirect_url.
Mobile landing pages	iOS tap-to-store page and Interstitial page, each App setting (on) or App setting (off) (the default, following the link’s app), On for this link or Off for this link. See How a tap is routed.
If the app can’t open the link (desktop)	Branded QR page, or App fallback URL when the link’s app has one (marked Default), or Custom URL (placeholder https://web.example.com/page). Sets fallback_url.

The last row sets the same fallback_url field, with the same labels, as the create form. The field is the desktop and no-destination tail: with no custom URL, a desktop visitor gets the app’s Fallback URL if there is one, otherwise the branded QR page.

Save sends the preview choice and, for permanent links, every routing field at once; an emptied field clears the stored value. Before sending, the drawer checks “Enter the custom redirect URL” and “Enter the custom fallback URL” when a Custom URL option is selected with an empty box. Success shows “Saved ✓”; failures show the server’s message.

Pausing, archiving and deleting

Action	What happens
Pause	Asks “Pause “{slug}”? Taps get a “link paused” page and nothing is recorded.” with an optional reason that only you see. Every tap then gets a “Link paused” page with status 410, bots included, and nothing is counted: no click, no install credit, no app open. Resume turns it back on and clears the reason.
Archive	Moves the link to the Archived view. It keeps working and counting; archiving only tidies the list. Unarchive moves it back.
Delete	Asks “Delete link “{slug}”? It stops working and leaves this list. Its clicks, installs and revenue stay in your stats, and you can restore it from Deleted.” The link answers 404, moves to the Deleted view, and keeps its slug: creating a link with that slug fails until you restore it or delete it permanently. Thirty days after the delete, its clicks and app opens lose their device data (IP hash, device id, user agent), the same anonymisation retention applies after RETENTION_DAYS; the counts stay.
Restore	On the Deleted view: the link works again, with its history.
Delete permanently	On the Deleted view; see below.

Delete permanently

The trash icon on the Deleted view asks:

Delete “{slug}” permanently?

This also deletes its {n} clicks, the installs, events and app opens attributed to it, and removes them from the Overview. This cannot be undone.

For temporary links the first line reads “its clicks” without a count.

Deleting permanently is a single atomic batch that removes, in this order:

1. the events attributed to the link, by slug or through one of its installs;
2. the app opens through the link, and the referrals it converted;
3. the first_install_id of customers whose first install came through the link (the customer record itself stays);
4. the installs matched to one of the link’s clicks;
5. the link’s clicks;
6. the link itself.

The Overview, the Customers screen and the per-link totals drop those rows immediately. The request succeeds even for a slug that no longer exists. If the request fails, the list reloads and shows “Could not delete “{slug}”: …“.

The slug is free again as soon as the link is gone, for permanent and temporary links alike.

Self-hosting

Link URLs follow the deployment’s URL mode: https://{username}.{root-domain}/{slug} in subdomain mode, {base-url}/r/{username}/{slug} in path mode. The Settings screen shows which one applies.