Develop Reference

Force Android WebView to open external links in default browser

I am using the following code found on stackoverflow to make an app for my website.
It works, the website loads, but all links are loading inside the app.
I dont want links like facebook, youtube or any other external links to open inside my app.
How can I open external links outside my webview app ?
I am new to android coding, so if you can edit my code and post a full example answer, it will be great help.
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
private WebView mywebView;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
mywebView=(WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
mywebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());
mywebView.loadUrl("https://www.sitename.com");
WebSettings webSettings=mywebView.getSettings();
webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
}
public class mywebClient extends WebViewClient{
#RequiresApi(api = Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP)
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
if((String.valueOf(request.getUrl())).contains("facebook")) {
view.loadUrl(String.valueOf(request.getUrl()));
} else {
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, request.getUrl());
view.getContext().startActivity(intent);
}
return true;
}
}

WebView shows Choose Action Dialog, does not navigate

Given the following code, the WebView will not navigate to and display google.com but instead a Choose Action Dialog will pop up with all installed browser apps to choose from.
Is this intended and is there a fix for this imo weird behaviour?
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
WebView webview = new WebView(this);
setContentView(webview);
WebSettings settings = webview.getSettings();
settings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webview.loadUrl("http://www.google.com/");
}

See Clicking URLs opens default browser
Essentially, you'll have to provide your own WebClient and override shouldOverrideUrlLoading
private class CustomWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
view.loadUrl(url);
return true;
}
}

Android WebView memory leak

I am developing custom browser for android. When browser supports javascript, when you surf the site application gets much more Ram than I use browser without javascript support. Please give an advise how to resolve this problem
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
mWebView=new WebView(getApplicationContext());
mWebContainer=(FrameLayout)findViewById(R.id.web_container);
mWebContainer.addView(mWebView);
mWebView.getSettings().setUserAgentString("");
mWebView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setPluginState(PluginState.ON);
mWebView.getSettings().setDatabaseEnabled(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setGeolocationEnabled(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setSupportZoom(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setSavePassword(true);
mWebView.getSettings().setSaveFormData(true);
}
........................................
private static class HelloWebViewClient extends WebViewClient
{
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url)
{
view.loadUrl(url);
return true;
}
........................
protected void onDestroy()
{
super.onDestroy();
mWebContainer.removeAllViews();
mWebView.destroy();
mWebView=null;
System.gc();
}
created a simple WebView, such as a memory leak.

I'm not sure you have any choice. Memory usage is managed by the webview widget, and so by the system.
So your app will use a lot of memory.

WebView will not function with loadUrl but works with loadData

I'm using standard addresses like google and facebook, but loadUrl does nothing, it just sits there at a white screen, but if i pipe html into it using loadData, it works fine. Any ideas or tips? I've got it enabling javascript, and I have this call:
mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
#Override
public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url) {
TextView t;
t = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.pageTitle);
t.setText(view.getTitle());
}
});
Do i need to override anything else?

Hope this helps.
public class WebViewSampleActivity extends Activity {
WebView wb;
private class HelloWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
return false;
}
}
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
wb=(WebView)findViewById(R.id.webView1);
wb.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
wb.getSettings().setLoadWithOverviewMode(true);
wb.getSettings().setUseWideViewPort(true);
wb.getSettings().setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
wb.getSettings().setPluginState(WebSettings.PluginState.ON);
wb.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
wb.setWebViewClient(new HelloWebViewClient());
wb.loadUrl("http://www.foo.com");
}
}

The discussed above are cool and pretty good but I've noticed this thing in newer versions of android studio the method loadUrl() does not work direct through. so we should identify the settings first then set true for JS as like this
wb.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
wb.getSettings().setLoadWithOverviewMode(true);

Clicking URLs opens default browser

I have loaded an external URL in my WebView. Now what I need is that when the user clicks on the links on the page loaded, it has to work like a normal browser and open the link in the same WebView. But it's opening the default browser and loading the page there?
I have enabled JavaScript. But still it's not working. Have I forgotten something?

If you're using a WebView you'll have to intercept the clicks yourself if you don't want the default Android behaviour.
You can monitor events in a WebView using a WebViewClient. The method you want is shouldOverrideUrlLoading(). This allows you to perform your own action when a particular URL is selected.
You set the WebViewClient of your WebView using the setWebViewClient() method.
If you look at the WebView sample in the SDK there's an example which does just what you want. It's as simple as:
private class HelloWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
view.loadUrl(url);
return true;
}
}

in some cases you might need an override of onLoadResource if you get a redirect which doesn't trigger the url loading method. in this case i tried the following:
#Override
public void onLoadResource(WebView view, String url)
{
if (url.equals("http://redirectexample.com"))
{
//do your own thing here
}
else
{
super.onLoadResource(view, url);
}
}

Official documentation says, click on a link in a WebView will launch application that handles URLs. You need to override this default behavior
myWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
return false;
}
});
or if there is no conditional logic in the method simply do this
myWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());

Add this 2 lines in your code -
mWebView.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient());
mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());

The method boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) was deprecated in API 24. If you are supporting new devices you should use boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading (WebView view, WebResourceRequest request).
You can use both by doing something like this:
if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
newsItem.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
view.loadUrl(request.getUrl().toString());
return true;
}
});
} else {
newsItem.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
#Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
view.loadUrl(url);
return true;
}
});
}

Arulx Z's answer was exactly what I was looking for.
I'm writing an app with Navigation Drawer with recyclerview and webviews, for keeping the web browsing inside the app regardless of hyperlinks clicked (thus not launching the external web browser). For that it will suffice to put the following 2 lines of code:
mWebView.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient());
mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());
exactly under your WebView statement.
Here's a example of my implemented WebView code:
public class WebView1 extends AppCompatActivity {
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
WebView wv = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.wv1); //webview statement
wv.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient()); //the lines of code added
wv.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient()); //same as above
wv.loadUrl("http://www.google.com");
}}
this way, every link clicked in the website will load inside your WebView.
(Using Android Studio 1.2.2 with all SDK's updated)