Webview white screen on some phones - android

The android app that i'm building has a webview that loads a mobile website. On most phones the webview loads perfect but on some phones with android 4.4.2 the webview loads perfect the first time but when you open the app after you paused or closed it it will just show a white screen.
Now the question is - what am i doing wrong and why is this problem only on some devices?

I had the same issue - but with different Android versions.
For me adding the following helped. Still investigating if I can narrow down the phones for which this is necessary.
webview.settings.apply {
cacheMode = WebSettings.LOAD_NO_CACHE
setAppCacheEnabled(false)
}
It's Kotlin obviously.

Enable the WebView cache by using the following properties:
webview.getSettings().setAppCacheMaxSize(1024*1024*8);
webview.getSettings().setAppCachePath("/data/data/com.your.package.appname/cache"‌​);
webview.getSettings().setAppCacheEnabled(true);
webview.getSettings().setCacheMode(WebSettings.LOAD_DEFAULT);

Related

Azure streaming is slow only inside Android app

I have started experiencing a strange case about 2-3 months ago. I have an application that streams videos from azure media services and it was all working fine. I am using EXO Player to play videos with progressive download mode. Azure provides a progressiove download link to videos inside the blob storage with media services.
Then i have realized the streaming became ridiculously slow inside the app. I am opening the same link in Chrom inside my Android Phone (Samsung Note 8) and it loads fine. I am opening the same streaming link on desktop browser and it loads fine too. Only strange thing is it loads excruciatingly slow inside the app.
I am suspecting that it could be an issue with newer android versions like 8 or 9. Because i used to use Samsung Note 2 and it was streaming fine there. I have seen similar performence issues in these questions too but none of them are related to streaming services not have an answer.
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Any idea would be appreciated.
UPDATE
Streaming services is not the problem because the same streaming link also works fine inside the IOS app. Only trouble is inside the android app.
UPDATE 2
I have converted the player to ExoPlayer and the result is still the same. I have written a small app and opened exactly the same video link and it has loaded just fine on my phone. Only and literally only problem is inside my own app. I open it in demo app, it loads fine. I switch to my original app, it loads slow and sometimes does not even start. I have tried every solution i can ever think of :(
Well Android web views are slow. I am facing the same issues from generations. But it depends on particular fields. Here are few code snippets which you can try. Or modify it according to your use case.
WebView mWebView = new WebView(this);
WebSettings settings = mWebView.getSettings();
Enable javascript and other modes
settings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
settings.setLoadWithOverviewMode(true);
settings.setUseWideViewPort(true);
Well, I don't thik you need it. But if needed by someone else.
settings.setSupportZoom(false);
settings.setBuiltInZoomControls(false);
Set algorithm type in webview.
settings.setLayoutAlgorithm(WebSettings.LayoutAlgorithm.SINGLE_COLUMN);
Try to change cache options like, Disable the cache if you have problems with your content
settings.setCacheMode(WebSettings.LOAD_NO_CACHE);
Try to use DOM storage
settings.setDomStorageEnabled(true);
Well this are optional, but it helps in my case
mWebView.setScrollBarStyle(WebView.SCROLLBARS_OUTSIDE_OVERLAY);
mWebView.setScrollbarFadingEnabled(true);
Here are some more. If you want to set acceleration type in webview then
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
// chromium, enable hardware acceleration
mWebView.setLayerType(View.LAYER_TYPE_HARDWARE, null);
} else {
// if you are using older android version, disable hardware acceleration
mWebView.setLayerType(View.LAYER_TYPE_SOFTWARE, null);
}
Well you can also use android:hardwareAccelerated="true" or "false" in your manifest. For me false did the trick. You can see the proof reading of it here.

Oreo - unable to set fresh values through setUserAgentString in WebView

I am facing an issue in WebView in devices running API 27 (8.1.0).
I pass off my params in the userAgentString based on which a php page loads the appropriate data. When I open the WebView for the first time it works well.
However, whenever I open the WebView after this first time (I call setUserAgentString each time I load it, with fresh values), it persists with that old value of userAgentString, thus not loading the correct data. This happens irrespective of whether I am in the same activity and re-using the same WebView, or move to a different activity where a new instance of WebView is used.
The following devices gave this odd behaviour -
Google Pixel 2XL, version 8.1.0
Xiaomi Mi A1, version 8.1.0
...and the webview was working perfectly on the following devices, not showing this behaviour -
Samsumg GALAXY Tab SM-T825, version 8.0.0
Moto G4, version 7.0.0
HTC Desire 526, version 4.4.2
I think this could be linked with how the Android Webview implementation has been changed to Chrome in Oreo.
However, the behaviour did not change irrespective of what I set as "Webview Implementation" in Developer settings, implying that may not be the cause.
Additionally, only when I clear data, or do a fresh install, is the userAgentString value reset.
I have read dozens of posts on SO, and tried all sorts of methods related to WebView and WebSettings, but I haven't managed to find a solution.
What am I missing here?
Maybe, this code can help you.
webView.clearCache(true);
webView.clearHistory();
webView.getSettings().setAppCacheEnabled(false);
webView.getSettings().setCacheMode(WebSettings.LOAD_NO_CACHE);
Lucky :)
I experienced this issue recently and the problem was that the device had an outdated Chrome WebView framework. Simply update it via the Play Store and the issue should resolve.

Android WebView VS Phone Browser

I've experienced a LOT of strange behaviours with using WebView in Android and I'm wondering why there are so many diffrences between the WebView and the Browserinstalled on each phone?
As an example, I've developed some applications that had to display HTML content, which contained either jquery-mobile, flash,javascript, YouTube embedded and so on. So I had a lot of problems with displaying this pages inside WebViews. Either they wouldn't get displayed at all, just blank, either the videos won't play and so on. And the strange thing is that they work properly if opened in the Browser installed on the phone. I had JavaScript enabled, I tried diffrent WebSettings, I had set the WebChromeClient and WebViewClient looking for javascript errors... but nothing worked.
So I got to the conclusion that the WebView component is completely different from the Browser application installed on the phones. I'm thinking that every manufacturer makes their own Browser to support as many as possible pages, and the WebView remains the standard one, included in the Android SDK.
Am I right? Or there is another reasons/explanation for this?
Thanks.
EDIT: Everything that #ondoteam has suggested was enabled and set at the time being. I no longer have the references to that websites, which anyway were internal.
This article outlines your speculation about stock browser differences between manufacturers, that absolutely is true: 5 reality checks every team needs before working on Android webkit
...which does cause trouble and mysterious/difficult to diagnose/solve problems.
As far as your issues with your WebView implementation:
Version of jquery-mobile may be an issue jquery-mobile loaded into an android WebView if you are using jquery.mobile-1.0.1.min.js you may want to try the uncompressed jquery.mobile-1.0.1.js
And Flash :-/ Good luck:
Screen blinking when using a webview with flash
Flash in WebView not working on Android 3.2
Flash video not displaying in WebView for Android 3.0.1
For loading SWF:
Load an SWF into a WebView
loading flash files (.swf) webview in android
Good luck with that, seems like a lot of variables with devices, Android versions, etc. And will take persistence with trial/error.
The stock browser and WebView differs .Using all the tweaks like
WebView browser;
browser.clearFormData();
browser.clearHistory();
browser.clearCache(true);
browser.getSettings().setAppCacheEnabled(true);
browser.getSettings().setDatabaseEnabled(true);
browser.getSettings().setDomStorageEnabled(true);
browser.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient());
still it does not load high resolution images properly which is being loaded perfectly well by the android browser.
Only part of the image can be visible on the webview screen which appears fully on normal android browser.
This behavior is observed with latest Android 4X SDK as well.
Which means android default browser significantly tweaks the webkit/webview code to show any url
WebView by default is restricted. You should call setWebChromeClient and family to have a decent browsing experience. In addition, don't forget setJavaScriptEnabled() and other similar stuff. Sorry for my brevity... I think that you don't need examples.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView.html
have you checked this question : jquery-mobile loaded into an android WebView
it might be that you're using the wrong libraries. Just check in any case.

Flash in WebView not working on Android 3.2

I am having a problem that only happens on my Motorola Xoom which I have updated to 3.2 through OTA. I have a simple application that uses a WebView to load a small html that has flash content in it. Here is the code snippet.
mWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
mWebView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
I know it is correct because it can run fine on my Samsung Galaxy S running Android 2.2. Anybody else seen this problem? Any idea how I can solve this problem?
Many thanks and I am really stuck here.
Try to build your application with the latest android Api (13), and activate hardware acceleration (same link, just a little below) on your activity that need to display flash.

Android Flash Page in WebView

There is a web page that contains Flash content that I need to load into a WebView. I have tried with these settings:
mWebView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setPluginState(WebSettings.PluginState.ON);
mWebView.loadUrl(URL);
However the flash portion of the site never loads, it just stays a big white space. The same exact site Flash content and all loads perfectly in the stock browser. Is there something I am missing to get WebView to show Flash content?
Edit: Does WebView.refreshPlugins(boolean reloadPages) have anything to do with it? I have tried putting this in various spots but still no luck.
If you are using Android 3.0 or greater you may need to add android:hardwareAccelerated="true" to the application (or activity depending on where you might have WebViews) attributes in the manifest, I was caught out by this recently.

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