Is it possible to open a link in Google chrome and Opera like safari in iOS from iOS Application

Question

I need a clarification that Is it possible to open a URL in Google Chrome and Opera browsers like Safari in iOS from iOS Application.

Anyone's help will be deeply appreciated.

Answer 1

For Google Chrome you can look here for some example code from google showing how to load a URL in Chrome instead of Safari https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/ios-links

Opera supports the "ohttp" scheme so a similar thing can be done for that too.

Answer 2

Here is a URLOpener class to use,

Usage,

NSString * url = @"http://www.apple.com";
NSString * userAgent = BROWSER_CHROME;
URLOpener * opener = [[URLOpener alloc] initWithURLString:url browser:userAgent];
[opener openURL];

URLOpener.h

#define BROWSER_CHROME  @"chrome"
#define BROWSER_OPERA   @"opera"

@interface URLOpener : NSObject

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSURL * url;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString * browser;

- (id) initWithURL:(NSURL *)u;
- (id) initWithBrowser:(NSString *)b;
- (id) initWithURL:(NSURL *)u browser:(NSString *)b;
- (id) initWithURLString:(NSString *)us browser:(NSString *)b;

- (BOOL)openURL;

@end

URLOpener.m

#import "URLOpener.h"

@implementation URLOpener

@synthesize url, browser;

- (id) initWithURL:(NSURL *)u
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.url = u;
    }
    return self;
}

- (id) initWithBrowser:(NSString *)b
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.browser = b;
    }
    return self;
}

- (id) initWithURL:(NSURL *)u browser:(NSString *)b
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        self.url = u;
        self.browser = b;
    }
    return self;
}

- (id) initWithURLString:(NSString *)us browser:(NSString *)b
{
    NSURL * u = [NSURL URLWithString:us];
    return [self initWithURL:u browser:b];
}


- (BOOL)openURL
{
    if ([BROWSER_CHROME compare:self.browser options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch] == NSOrderedSame) {
        return [self openInChrome];
    } else  if ([BROWSER_OPERA compare:self.browser options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch] == NSOrderedSame) {
        return [self openInOperaMini];
    }else  if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:self.url] )
    {
        return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:self.url];
    } else {
        NSLog(@"Could not open url: %@", self.url);
        return NO;
    }
}

- (BOOL) openInChrome
{
    // is chrome installed??
    if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"googlechrome://"]])
    {
        NSString *scheme = self.url.scheme;

        // Replace the URL Scheme with the Chrome equivalent.
        NSString * chromeScheme = nil;
        if ([scheme compare:@"http" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch] == NSOrderedSame) {
            chromeScheme = @"googlechrome";
        } else if ([scheme compare:@"https" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch] == NSOrderedSame) {
            chromeScheme = @"googlechromes";
        }

        if (chromeScheme) {
            NSString *absoluteString = [self.url absoluteString];
            NSRange rangeForScheme = [absoluteString rangeOfString:@":"];
            NSString *urlNoScheme = [absoluteString substringFromIndex:rangeForScheme.location];
            NSString *chromeURLString = [chromeScheme stringByAppendingString:urlNoScheme];
            NSURL *chromeURL = [NSURL URLWithString:chromeURLString];
            return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:chromeURL];
        } else {
            return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:self.url];
        }

    } else {
        return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:self.url];
    }
}

- (BOOL) openInOperaMini
{
    // is opera mini installed??
    if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"ohttp://"]])
    {
        NSString *scheme = self.url.scheme;

        // Replace the URL Scheme with the opera equivalent.
        NSString * operaScheme = nil;
        if ([scheme compare:@"http" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch] == NSOrderedSame) {
            operaScheme = @"ohttp";
        } else if ([scheme compare:@"https" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch] == NSOrderedSame) {
            operaScheme = @"ohttps";
        }

        if (operaScheme) {
            NSString *absoluteString = [self.url absoluteString];
            NSRange rangeForScheme = [absoluteString rangeOfString:@":"];
            NSString *urlNoScheme = [absoluteString substringFromIndex:rangeForScheme.location];
            NSString *operaURLString = [operaScheme stringByAppendingString:urlNoScheme];
            NSURL *operaURL = [NSURL URLWithString:operaURLString];
            return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:operaURL];
        } else {
            return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:self.url];
        }

    } else {
        return [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:self.url];
    }
}

- (void) dealloc {
    [url release];
    [browser release];

    [super dealloc];
}

@end

Answer 3

Stumbled on this... @karim provided awesome code here. I ran into similar problem and eventually wrote Choosy - you can use it in your project to add support for many 3rd-party apps.