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We have an offline-enabled web app that up until now has worked in both Chrome and Firefox on iOS (but not Safari).

We just tested with a new, up-to-date iPad and found that while Safari still has issues with incomplete indexedDB support Chrome and Firefox now don't operate offline at all.

Versions are iOS 9.2.1, Chrome 48.0.2564.104.

This thread seems to suggest that Chrome at least is now using WKWebView which doesn't support Application Cache.

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=582192&q=label%3AOS-iOS&colspec=ID%20Pri%20M%20Stars%20ReleaseBlock%20Cr%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20OS%20Modified

  1. Can anyone confirm that my understanding of this is correct, ie that it's a fact that Chrome/Firefox on iOS just don't support Application Cache at all anymore, and that only Apple could change this?

  2. Any suggestions on what we can do about it? The only thing I can think of right now is that we'll need to get the app working in Safari by using something other than indexedDB.

centralscru
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1 Answers1

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As you mentioned both Chrome and Firefox on iOS has issue with appCache, because both are WebKit based.

• The related bug is reported here: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=152490 “Application cache is not supported by WKWebView, but window.applicationCache object exists! so web pages cann’t distinguish if applicationCache is not supported or it is not loaded yet.”

• http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/01/new-chrome-for-ios-is-finally-as-fast-and-stable-as-safari/ "Chrome 48 on iOS will be as fast as Safari on iOS for the first time ever thanks to a switch from iOS ’UIWebView’ rendering engine to the ‘WKWebView’ engine”

Chrome iOS ver 48.x.x.x release date was 2016-01-27

• This version uses WKWebView, the latest rendering engine from Apple.

Instead of IndexDB you try to use localStorage to keep your data, just one of the possible suggestions.

Farhad
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