WebView - load links in external browser

Question

I am loading the content of a locally stored HTML file in a WebView in my app. This file also contains links inside it, which when clicked, load the URLs in the same WebView. I want to load these links in an external browser instead. I have taken a look at onPageStarted and shouldOverrideUrlLoading, but they don't seem to work. I have tried the following:

    webAbout = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.wvAbout);
    webAbout.loadUrl(Const.defURL);

    webAbout.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {  
          @Override  
          public void onPageStarted(WebView view, String url, Bitmap favicon){  
            if (!url.startsWith(Const.defURL)) { 
              view.stopLoading();  
              // DO SOMETHING  
            }else{
                view.loadUrl(Const.defURL);
            }
          }  
        });

I have also tried:

    webAbout = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.wvAbout);
    webAbout.loadUrl(Const.defURL);

     webAbout.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){
        public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {

            if (url != null && (url.startsWith(Const.defURL))){

                webAbout.loadUrl(Const.defURL);
                return true;
                } 

          else  {

                view.getContext().startActivity(
                new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url)));  
                return false;
          }
        }
    });

but in both cases, the WebView does not load anything. Any idea where I am going wrong?

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 31 '20 at 12:51

Return false from shouldOverrideUrlLoading when you want the URL loaded in the WebView, return true if you don't want the WebView to load the URL (that means you've somehow handled it yourself).

Remember that:

you need to set the WebViewClient before calling loadUrl,
shouldOverrideUrlLoading is not called for the URL that's passed to loadUrl.

The code you had should work with some modifications:

 webAbout.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){
    public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
        if (url != null && (url.startsWith(Const.defURL))){
            return false;
        } else  {
            view.getContext().startActivity(
            new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url)));  
            return true;
      }
    }
});
// I'm assuming Const.defURL doesn't need escaping.
String customHtml = "<html><body><a href=\"" + Const.defURL + "\">Load url in webview</a><a href=\"http://stackoverflow.com/\">load in browser</a></body></html>";
// Here you would normally load your page using loadUrl, 
webAbout.loadData(customHtml, "text/html", "UTF-8");

Edit: The method boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView, String) is marked as deprecated and the documentation recommends using boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView, WebRequest) instead. But, the new method is never called. You still have to override boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView, String).

user2952423 · Answer 2 · 2014-02-17T09:46:41.693

Just try this

webView=(WebView)findViewById(R.id.wvAbout);
String url="";
webView.loadUrl(url);

or write this condition

if (urlPath
                .compareToIgnoreCase(Const.defURL) == 0) {

        } else {
            mWebView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
                @Override
                public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
                    view.clearView();
                    view.loadUrl(url);

                    return true;
                }
            });
        }

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

0

Change your second method to this:

webAbout = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.wvAbout);
webAbout.loadUrl(Const.defURL);

 webAbout.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){    
    @Override
    public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {

        if (url != null && (url.startsWith(Const.defURL))){
            view.loadUrl(url);  //use new url instead of const.defURL
            return true;
        } else  {
            //use browser
            return super.shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view, url);
      }
    }
});

taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/8541631/2829009

edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

Community

1
1

answered Feb 17 '14 at 09:32

Manuel Allenspach

12,467
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Hmm. Tried this. But it doesn't seem to be working. :( – Rameez Hussain Feb 17 '14 at 09:40
edited... loadUrl now loads the new url instead of the defined defURL – Manuel Allenspach Feb 17 '14 at 09:47

WebView - load links in external browser

3 Answers3