Subclass UIWebView to Append Every Link (in Swift)

Question

I was wondering how I could subclass UIWebView to append every link the user goes to with a string at the end like "=Human". To be clear, if the user goes to Yahoo.com and then clicks on any link it will still have the "=Human" at the end.

No need. you can check navigation type. http://stackoverflow.com/a/36436728/2303865 — Leo Dabus, Apr 09 '16 at 01:48
@LeoDabus But that just checks with a bool. Is there a method i can call and return the URL i want (like the appended one). — jordanbana, Apr 09 '16 at 03:00
you need to show what you are trying to accomplish. Just add that suffix to the url absoluteString is pretty simple — Leo Dabus, Apr 09 '16 at 03:27
@LeoDabus haven't been successful in getting it to work. I just want every link clicked in the webview to have this "=Human" added at the end of the URL before its loaded. — jordanbana, Apr 09 '16 at 03:37

7stud · Answer 1 · 2016-04-09T09:25:02.977

I could subclass UIWebView

But the docs say:

A WKWebView object displays interactive web content, such as for an in-app browser.

For new development, employ this class instead of the older UIWebView class.

This works for me:

import UIKit
import WebKit

class WebViewController: UIViewController, 
                         WKNavigationDelegate {

    var webView: WKWebView!

    override func loadView() {

        let webView = WKWebView()
        webView.navigationDelegate = self
        view = webView

        let defaultUrl = NSURL(
            string: "https://www.yahoo.com"
        )

        if let validDefaultUrl = defaultUrl {
            let yahooRequest = NSURLRequest(URL: validDefaultUrl)
            webView.loadRequest(yahooRequest)
        }

    }

    //MARK: - WKNavigationDelegate methods:

    func webView(webView: WKWebView,
        decidePolicyForNavigationAction navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
        decisionHandler: (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void)
    {
        print("[me]: In WKWebView delegate method")

        if navigationAction.navigationType == .LinkActivated {
            print("[me]: User clicked on a link.")

            let request = navigationAction.request

            if let url = request.URL,
                   newURL = NSURL(string: url.absoluteString + "=User")
            {
                print("[me]: New url is valid.")
                print("[me]: New url is \(newURL.absoluteString)")

                let newRequest = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: newURL)
                decisionHandler(.Cancel)
                webView.loadRequest(newRequest)
            }

        }

        decisionHandler(.Allow)
    }

}

Edit: Actually, the code does not enter the if navigationAction.navigationType == .LinkActivated block every time a link is clicked for some reason. Sometimes I see just the output:

[me]: In WKWebView delegate method

and I fail to see the output:

[me]: User clicked on a link.

@LeoDabus, I'm an iOS beginner and I cobbled that code together by mysellf looking only at the Apple docs and my BNR IOS book. I'd like to know why it doesn't work. — 7stud, Apr 09 '16 at 20:17

Subclass UIWebView to Append Every Link (in Swift)

1 Answers1