Nativescript: WKWebView plugin to hook into webView

[swlemp]

@tjvantoll "The web view module indeed uses UIWebView https://github.com/NativeScript/NativeScript/blob/e458a94191ea593e2a940c3610e7c9570aac1740/ui/web-view/web-view.ios.ts#L12 I don’t think there are any plans to switch to WKWebView at the moment. You’re welcome to file an issue. This would be a good candidate for a plugin"

I hear the hype about WKWebView and I'm sold, I am moving from cordova and it's such a bummer that there is no WKWebView :-(

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[NathanaelA]

@vbresults The reason it uses UIWebView is because of compatibility. WKWebView is iOS 8 and greater. NativeScript supports iOS 7. So unfortunately they have to program nativescript using what works on ALL the platforms.

[x4080]

Its time to move to ios 8 above?

[thepian]

Who cares about iOS 7 ?? People that also support IE 5 ?

[N3ll]

We are currently discussing the matter with the iOS 7 support. It will be stopped soon, so just stay tuned!

[x4080]

That is good news

[NathanaelA]

@N3ll you know rather than dropping ios 7 support; we could set it up so that it uses UIWebView on < 8 and WKWebView >= 8.
The code just needs to detect which platform it is on, then create the proper WebView. The app consuming the webview doesn't need to know about the underlying implementation.

[swlemp]

@NathanaelA I discovered in my Cordova project that WK on iOS 8 has the perplexing limitation of not being able to set a custom user agent. WK.customUserAgent and updating NSUserDefaults do nothing.

Seems the iOS 9 implementation is more solid all around, maybe this was intentional. @N3ll I second Nathan's idea with two changes -- WK default on iOS >= 9 and/or option to pick implementation.

[NathanaelA]

@vbresults Hmm, I wonder if this is something caused by cordova, or if this is something that is a bug in WKWebBrowser on iOS.

[NathanaelA]

@N3ll @hshristov If I updated the NativeScript core code to have the ability to use UIWebView <= 7 and WKWebVeiw => 8 would this be a patch that would be accepted; or would it be better for me to just create a WKWebView plugin?

[swlemp]

@NathanaelA It's definitely the WK in iOS 8. I also confirmed by going to the iPhone dev IRC and asking.

[PierBover]

So was WKWebView implemented in NativeScript?

Only 3% of iOS users are on iOS 7 or below. https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/

[swlemp]

@PierBover It wasn't, but I have been able to implement it successfully in a private plugin (and unfortunately, for the time being it needs to remain private, but if that changes I'll post an update).

WKWebView should only be implemented for iOS 9 or newer. The iOS 8 implementation (by Apple) is incomplete, some documented features simply don't work. On iOS 9 it's perfect, zero problems.

[PierBover]

On iOS 9 it's perfect, zero problems.

I beg to differ... but the most annoying ones are related to the file:// protocol.

[bnussey]

I am seeing memory leaks with UIWebView in our NativeScript project.. and a quick look on stackoverflow, looks like many others are experiencing this as well and recommend switching to WKWebView. Lets go to WKWebView!

[triniwiz]

We should get it after https://github.com/NativeScript/NativeScript/pull/5093

[davidsandoz]

It looks like this is done and included in NativeScript 3.4.0.

Shouldn't it be mentioned in the CHANGELOG?

[m-abs]

@davidsandoz Yes, it should've been in the changelog.
It's a breaking change for us.