If you want to deliver a web application (or just a web page) as a part of a client application, you can do it using {@link android.webkit.WebView}. The {@link android.webkit.WebView} class is an extension of Android's {@link android.view.View} class that allows you to display web pages as a part of your activity layout. It does not include any features of a fully developed web browser, such as navigation controls or an address bar. All that {@link android.webkit.WebView} does, by default, is show a web page.
A common scenario in which using {@link android.webkit.WebView} is helpful is when you want to provide information in your application that you might need to update, such as an end-user agreement or a user guide. Within your Android application, you can create an {@link android.app.Activity} that contains a {@link android.webkit.WebView}, then use that to display your document that's hosted online.
Another scenario in which {@link android.webkit.WebView} can help is if your application provides data to the user that always requires an Internet connection to retrieve data, such as email. In this case, you might find that it's easier to build a {@link android.webkit.WebView} in your Android application that shows a web page with all the user data, rather than performing a network request, then parsing the data and rendering it in an Android layout. Instead, you can design a web page that's tailored for Android devices and then implement a {@link android.webkit.WebView} in your Android application that loads the web page.
This document shows you how to get started with {@link android.webkit.WebView} and how to do some additional things, such as handle page navigation and bind JavaScript from your web page to client-side code in your Android application.
To add a {@link android.webkit.WebView} to your Application, simply include the {@code <WebView>} element in your activity layout. For example, here's a layout file in which the {@link android.webkit.WebView} fills the screen:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<WebView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/webview"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
/>
To load a web page in the {@link android.webkit.WebView}, use {@link android.webkit.WebView#loadUrl(String) loadUrl()}. For example:
WebView myWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
myWebView.loadUrl("http://www.example.com");
Before this will work, however, your application must have access to the Internet. To get Internet access, request the {@link android.Manifest.permission#INTERNET} permission in your manifest file. For example:
<manifest ... >
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
...
</manifest>
That's all you need for a basic {@link android.webkit.WebView} that displays a web page.
If the web page you plan to load in your {@link android.webkit.WebView} use JavaScript, you must enable JavaScript for your {@link android.webkit.WebView}. Once JavaScript is enabled, you can also create interfaces between your application code and your JavaScript code.
JavaScript is disabled in a {@link android.webkit.WebView} by default. You can enable it through the {@link android.webkit.WebSettings} attached to your {@link android.webkit.WebView}. You can retrieve {@link android.webkit.WebSettings} with {@link android.webkit.WebView#getSettings()}, then enable JavaScript with {@link android.webkit.WebSettings#setJavaScriptEnabled(boolean) setJavaScriptEnabled()}.
For example:
WebView myWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview); WebSettings webSettings = myWebView.getSettings(); webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
{@link android.webkit.WebSettings} provides access to a variety of other settings that you might find useful. For example, if you're developing a web application that's designed specifically for the {@link android.webkit.WebView} in your Android application, then you can define a custom user agent string with {@link android.webkit.WebSettings#setUserAgentString(String) setUserAgentString()}, then query the custom user agent in your web page to verify that the client requesting your web page is actually your Android application.
from your Android SDK {@code tools/} directoryWhen developing a web application that's designed specifically for the {@link android.webkit.WebView} in your Android application, you can create interfaces between your JavaScript code and client-side Android code. For example, your JavaScript code can call a method in your Android code to display a {@link android.app.Dialog}, instead of using JavaScript's {@code alert()} function.
To bind a new interface between your JavaScript and Android code, call {@link android.webkit.WebView#addJavascriptInterface(Object,String) addJavascriptInterface()}, passing it a class instance to bind to your JavaScript and an interface name that your JavaScript can call to access the class.
For example, you can include the following class in your Android application:
public class JavaScriptInterface {
Context mContext;
/** Instantiate the interface and set the context */
JavaScriptInterface(Context c) {
mContext = c;
}
/** Show a toast from the web page */
public void showToast(String toast) {
Toast.makeText(mContext, toast, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
In this example, the {@code JavaScriptInterface} class allows the web page to create a {@link android.widget.Toast} message, using the {@code showToast()} method.
You can bind this class to the JavaScript that runs in your {@link android.webkit.WebView} with {@link android.webkit.WebView#addJavascriptInterface(Object,String) addJavascriptInterface()} and name the interface {@code Android}. For example:
WebView webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview); webView.addJavascriptInterface(new JavaScriptInterface(this), "Android");
This creates an interface called {@code Android} for JavaScript running in the {@link android.webkit.WebView}. At this point, your web application has access to the {@code JavaScriptInterface} class. For example, here's some HTML and JavaScript that creates a toast message using the new interface when the user clicks a button:
<input type="button" value="Say hello" onClick="showAndroidToast('Hello Android!')" />
<script type="text/javascript">
function showAndroidToast(toast) {
Android.showToast(toast);
}
</script>
There's no need to initialize the {@code Android} interface from JavaScript. The {@link android.webkit.WebView} automatically makes it available to your web page. So, at the click of the button, the {@code showAndroidToast()} function uses the {@code Android} interface to call the {@code JavaScriptInterface.showToast()} method.
Note: The object that is bound to your JavaScript runs in another thread and not in the thread in which it was constructed.
Caution: Using {@link android.webkit.WebView#addJavascriptInterface(Object,String) addJavascriptInterface()} allows JavaScript to control your Android application. This can be a very useful feature or a dangerous security issue. When the HTML in the {@link android.webkit.WebView} is untrustworthy (for example, part or all of the HTML is provided by an unknown person or process), then an attacker can include HTML that executes your client-side code and possibly any code of the attacker's choosing. As such, you should not use {@link android.webkit.WebView#addJavascriptInterface(Object,String) addJavascriptInterface()} unless you wrote all of the HTML and JavaScript that appears in your {@link android.webkit.WebView}. You should also not allow the user to navigate to other web pages that are not your own, within your {@link android.webkit.WebView} (instead, allow the user's default browser application to open foreign links—by default, the user's web browser opens all URL links, so be careful only if you handle page navigation as described in the following section).
When the user clicks a link from a web page in your {@link android.webkit.WebView}, the default behavior is for Android to launch an application that handles URLs. Usually, the default web browser opens and loads the destination URL. However, you can override this behavior for your {@link android.webkit.WebView}, so links open within your {@link android.webkit.WebView}. You can then allow the user to navigate backward and forward through their web page history that's maintained by your {@link android.webkit.WebView}.
To open links clicked by the user, simply provide a {@link android.webkit.WebViewClient} for your {@link android.webkit.WebView}, using {@link android.webkit.WebView#setWebViewClient(WebViewClient) setWebViewClient()}. For example:
WebView myWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
myWebView.{@link android.webkit.WebView#setWebViewClient(WebViewClient) setWebViewClient}(new WebViewClient());
That's it. Now all links the user clicks load in your {@link android.webkit.WebView}.
If you want more control over where a clicked link load, create your own {@link android.webkit.WebViewClient} that overrides the {@link android.webkit.WebViewClient#shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView,String) shouldOverrideUrlLoading()} method. For example:
private class MyWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {
@Override
public boolean {@link android.webkit.WebViewClient#shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView,String) shouldOverrideUrlLoading}(WebView view, String url) {
if (Uri.parse(url).getHost().equals("www.example.com")) {
// This is my web site, so do not override; let my WebView load the page
return false;
}
// Otherwise, the link is not for a page on my site, so launch another Activity that handles URLs
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
startActivity(intent);
return true;
}
}
Then create an instance of this new {@link android.webkit.WebViewClient} for the {@link android.webkit.WebView}:
WebView myWebView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
myWebView.{@link android.webkit.WebView#setWebViewClient(WebViewClient) setWebViewClient}(new MyWebViewClient());
Now when the user clicks a link, the system calls {@link android.webkit.WebViewClient#shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView,String) shouldOverrideUrlLoading()}, which checks whether the URL host matches a specific domain (as defined above). If it does match, then the method returns false in order to not override the URL loading (it allows the {@link android.webkit.WebView} to load the URL as usual). If the URL host does not match, then an {@link android.content.Intent} is created to launch the default Activity for handling URLs (which resolves to the user's default web browser).
When your {@link android.webkit.WebView} overrides URL loading, it automatically accumulates a history of visited web pages. You can navigate backward and forward through the history with {@link android.webkit.WebView#goBack()} and {@link android.webkit.WebView#goForward()}.
For example, here's how your {@link android.app.Activity} can use the device BACK key to navigate backward:
@Override
public boolean {@link android.app.Activity#onKeyDown(int,KeyEvent) onKeyDown}(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
// Check if the key event was the BACK key and if there's history
if ((keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK) && myWebView.{@link android.webkit.WebView#canGoBack() canGoBack}() {
myWebView.{@link android.webkit.WebView#goBack() goBack}();
return true;
}
// If it wasn't the BACK key or there's no web page history, bubble up to the default
// system behavior (probably exit the activity)
return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}
The {@link android.webkit.WebView#canGoBack()} method returns true if there is actually web page history for the user to visit. Likewise, you can use {@link android.webkit.WebView#canGoForward()} to check whether there is a forward history. If you don't perform this check, then once the user reaches the end of the history, {@link android.webkit.WebView#goBack()} or {@link android.webkit.WebView#goForward()} does nothing.