Set a cookie to a webView in Android

Question

I'm getting a HttpResponse from a server when checking if a username or password is correct. When I load the url in a webview I want the webView to have the cookie (the answer I get with postData() stored in the webView. I want the webView to pickup the cookie and load the url with that cookie stored in the webview.

I'm getting the response through.

public HttpResponse postData() {
    HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
    HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("https://example.com/login.aspx");

    try {
        List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2);
        nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("txtUsername", "user"));
        nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("txtPassword", "123"));
        httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));

        HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
        String responseAsText = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
        Log.v(TAG , "Response from req: " + responseAsText);
        return responseAsText;

    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {

    } catch (IOException e) {

    }
    return null;
}

And I loadUrl with:

webView.loadUrl("http://a_page.com/getpage.aspx?p=home");

I guess I'm not really managing a cookie and I have no idea how to do so. Any suggestions or solutions?

Answer 1

It's quite simple really.

String cookieString = "cookie_name=cookie_value; path=/";
CookieManager.getInstance().setCookie(baseUrl, cookieString);

where cookieString is formatted the same as a more traditional Set-Cookie HTTP header, and baseUrl is the site the cookie should belong to.

Answer 2

Couple of comments which I found out from my experience and gave me headaches:

1. http and https urls are different. Setting a cookie for http://www.example.com is different than setting a cookie for https://www.example.com
2. A slash in the end of the url can also make a difference. In my case https://www.example.com/ works but https://www.example.com does not work.
3. CookieManager.getInstance().setCookie is performing an asynchronous operation. So, if you load a url right away after you set it, it is not guaranteed that the cookies will have already been written. To prevent unexpected and unstable behaviours, use the CookieManager#setCookie(String url, String value, ValueCallback callback) (link) and start loading the url after the callback will be called.

I hope my two cents save some time from some people so you won't have to face the same problems like I did.

Answer 3

You should use it with some loop if you have few items with cookies (like in my case):

val cookiesList = listOf("key1=someValue1", "key2=someValue2", "key3=someValue3")
cookiesList.forEach { item ->
 CookieManager.getInstance().setCookie("http://someHost.com", item)
}

You can't use it like:

CookieManager.getInstance().setCookie("http://someHost.com", "key1=someValue1;key2=someValue2;key3=someValue3")

Answer 4

You may want to take a look of how I am setting the a webview cookie at :

Android WebView Cookie Problem

Where in my answer you could see how I'm handling this like:

val cookieManager = CookieManager.getInstance()
cookieManager.acceptCookie()
cookieManager.setCookie(domain,"$cookieKey=$cookieValue")
cookieManager.setAcceptThirdPartyCookies(view.webViewTest,true)

Answer 5

Just wanna throw another way how this can be done. Not saying it is the best, but it is a way. You can use JavaScript to set cookies as well. Just override onPageFinished in WebViewClient

new WebViewClient() {

        override fun onPageFinished(view: WebView, url: String) {

                val javascript = """document.cookie = "key=$value""""

                if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
                    view.evaluateJavascript(javascript) { s -> Timber.d("Inject: %s", s) }
                } else {
                    view.loadUrl("javascript:" + javascript, null)
                }
        }
}

One thing with this approach: you will have to reload the webView. If anyone knows how to fix that, please comment.