Open a WKWebview target="_blank" link in Safari

Question

I am trying to get my Hybrid IOS app that uses Swift and WKWebviews to open a link that has target="_blank" or if the URL contains http://, https://, or mailto: in Mobile Safari.

From this answer I get this code.

func webView(webView: WKWebView!, createWebViewWithConfiguration     configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration!, forNavigationAction navigationAction:     WKNavigationAction!, windowFeatures: WKWindowFeatures!) -> WKWebView! {
    if navigationAction.targetFrame == nil {
        webView.loadRequest(navigationAction.request)
    }
    return nil
}

First, that doesn't do anything for me. Second, I want it to open in a new window. And I found this code that is supposed to do something like that...

if let requestUrl = NSURL(string: "http://www.iSecurityPlus.com") {
     UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(requestUrl)
}

How do I put these two together and get them to work? What do I need to add to the ViewController declaration to make it work?

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

13

In (from here)

 override func loadView() {
    super.loadView()
    self.webView.navigationDelegate = self 
    self.webView.UIDelegate = self  //must have this
 }

Then add the function (from here, with additions)...

func webView(webView: WKWebView,
    createWebViewWithConfiguration configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration,
    forNavigationAction navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
    windowFeatures: WKWindowFeatures) -> WKWebView? {
        if navigationAction.targetFrame == nil {
            var url = navigationAction.request.URL
            if url.description.lowercaseString.rangeOfString("http://") != nil || url.description.lowercaseString.rangeOfString("https://") != nil || url.description.lowercaseString.rangeOfString("mailto:") != nil  {
                UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(url)
            }
        }
        return nil
}

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

1
1

answered Jun 02 '15 at 19:03

Jed Grant

1,305
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Not sure if it's implied, but in order for `self.webView.UIDelegate = self` to work in iOS 10 your ViewController needs to inherit `WKUIDelegate`. i.e. `class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate, WKScriptMessageHandler, WKUIDelegate` – ltrainpr Oct 27 '16 at 21:02
I've added this code and updated it for iOS 10 and Swift 3 (see my answer for the converted code). `createWebViewWith configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration,` is not being called for some reason. I don't have a `loadView` function, but I've added the `self.webView.uiDelegate = self` is in the `viewDidLoad` function. What am I missing? – ltrainpr Oct 27 '16 at 21:51
This doesn't seem to work for links opened with JavaScript, i.e., `window.open(url, "_blank")`. Does it work for you? – Crashalot Oct 28 '16 at 18:55
3

I just used this a month ago.. Now it's not working anymore. – KarenAnne May 08 '17 at 03:19

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 17 '17 at 19:15

13

Code updated for iOS 10 Swift 3:

override func loadView() {
    super.loadView()
    self.webView.navigationDelegate = self 
    self.webView.uiDelegate = self  //must have this
}

func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
               createWebViewWith configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration,
               for navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
               windowFeatures: WKWindowFeatures) -> WKWebView? {
    if navigationAction.targetFrame == nil, let url = navigationAction.request.url {
      if url.description.lowercased().range(of: "http://") != nil ||
        url.description.lowercased().range(of: "https://") != nil ||
        url.description.lowercased().range(of: "mailto:") != nil {
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
      }
    }
  return nil
}

edited Nov 17 '17 at 19:15

Dmitry

6,716
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answered Oct 27 '16 at 21:08

ltrainpr

3,115
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This doesn't seem to work for links opened with JavaScript, i.e., `window.open(url, "_blank")` – Crashalot Oct 28 '16 at 18:54
1

Received error: `cannot assign type viewcontroller to type wkuidelegate`, corrected with `class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate, WKUIDelegate {` – oortCloud Nov 06 '16 at 10:05
I can also confirm javascript's window.open() worked for me – oortCloud Nov 06 '16 at 10:06
When adding `self.webView.uiDelegate = self` I get `Thread 1: Fatal error: Unexpectedly found nil while implicitly unwrapping an Optional value`. I have `var webView: WKWebView!` on top – Limpuls Nov 10 '20 at 12:58

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 17 '22 at 13:42

12

First add WKNavigationDelegate and webviewWk.navigationDelegate = self

func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
            
// This is a 'new window action' (aka target="_blank") > open this URL externally. 
// If we´re doing nothing here, WKWebView will also just do nothing. 
// Maybe this will change in a later stage of the iOS 8 Beta
       if navigationAction.navigationType == WKNavigationType.linkActivated {
           if let url = navigationAction.request.url, UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
               print("Trying to open \(url.absoluteString)")
               UIApplication.shared.open(url)
            }
       }
       decisionHandler(WKNavigationActionPolicy.allow)
}

edited Nov 17 '22 at 13:42

Henadzi Rabkin

6,834
3
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answered Nov 19 '15 at 16:05

jose920405

7,982
6
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Jut out of curiosity, what does `let urlString = url!.absoluteString` do? The variable `urlString` is not referenced anywhere after initialisation. – Fizzix Mar 17 '16 at 09:59
after a long struggle i have found what is exactly needed.Thank you so much. – Code Tree Mar 30 '16 at 05:00
This doesn't seem to work for links opened with JavaScript, i.e., `window.open(url, "_blank")`. Does it work for you? – Crashalot Oct 28 '16 at 18:55
1

WKNavigationType.LinkActivated is triggered with ANY link click, not only when `target="_blank"`. This snippet will open ALL links in Safari. – Blago Mar 27 '19 at 10:26

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 19 '18 at 08:36

Swift 4.2

func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Swift.Void) {
    if navigationAction.navigationType == WKNavigationType.linkActivated {
        print("here link Activated!!!")
        if let url = navigationAction.request.url {
            let shared = UIApplication.shared
            if shared.canOpenURL(url) {
                shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
            }
        }
        decisionHandler(.cancel)
    }
    else {
        decisionHandler(.allow)
    }
}

`UIApplication.shared` is not available on macOS. Can I fix it? — PascalS, Nov 19 '20 at 14:56

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 14 '16 at 05:13

func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
           createWebViewWith configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration,
           for navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
           windowFeatures: WKWindowFeatures) -> WKWebView? {
  if navigationAction.targetFrame == nil, let url = navigationAction.request.url, let scheme = url.scheme {
    if ["http", "https", "mailto"].contains(where: { $0.caseInsensitiveCompare(scheme) == .orderedSame }) {
      UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
    }
  }
  return nil
}

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 26 '22 at 05:22

While some of the above solutions worked to an extent, the issue was that all the links started to open externally not just the ones where the HTTPs url scheme was not followed like mailto, blank, deeplinks etc.

I implement these WKNavigationDelegate functions

decidePolicyFor navigationAction (documentation link) to allow even urls that do not follow the HTTPs scheme to be allowed to be processed
this navigation fail delegate function webView didFailProvisionalNavigation and check if iOS can handle the open in a new tab, mail, deep link etc so in your case it would open the app store
You could also implement the same logic as point 2 in this WKNavigationDelegate function just in case

Here is the code:

class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate
{
    // Initialize the webview anywhere you wish
    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool)
    {
        super.viewDidAppear(animated)
        
        let html = """
        <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/directorio-notarios-cdmx/id1544000342"> App store Deep link usually doesn't open </a></span></span><br />

        <a href="https://landercorp.mx" rel="noopener"> Normal link </a></span></span><br />
        """
        
        let webview = WKWebView()
        webview.frame = view.bounds
        webview.navigationDelegate = self
        view.addSubview(webview)
        webview.loadHTMLString(html, baseURL: nil)
    }
    
    // MARK: WKNavigationDelegates
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
                 decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
                 decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void)
    {
        decisionHandler(.allow)
    }
    
    
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
                 didFailProvisionalNavigation navigation: WKNavigation!,
                 withError error: Error)
    {
        manageFailedNavigation(webView,
                               didFail: navigation,
                               withError: error)
    }

    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
                 didFail navigation: WKNavigation!,
                 withError error: Error)
    {
        manageFailedNavigation(webView,
                               didFail: navigation,
                               withError: error)
    }

    private func manageFailedNavigation(_ webView: WKWebView,
                                        didFail navigation: WKNavigation!,
                                        withError error: Error)
    {
        // Check if this failed because of mailto, _blank, deep links etc
        // I have commented out how to check for a specific case like open in a new tab,
        // you can try to handle each case as you wish
        if error.localizedDescription
            == "Redirection to URL with a scheme that is not HTTP(S)"
           //let url = webView.url, url.description.lowercased().range(of: "blank") != nil
        {
            // Convert error to NSError so we can access the url
            let nsError = error as NSError
            
            // Get the url from the error
            // This key could change in future iOS releases
            if let failedURL = nsError.userInfo["NSErrorFailingURLKey"] as? URL
            {
                // Check if the action can be handled by iOS
                if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(failedURL)
                {
                    // Request iOS to open handle the link
                    UIApplication.shared.open(failedURL, options: [:],
                                              completionHandler: nil)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

This way, both cases are handled where the HTTPs url scheme is followed and not

Open a WKWebview target="_blank" link in Safari

6 Answers6

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