I have a WebView in which i display web content which i have no control over. The content displays fine, but have links which spawn a popup window. The javascript function that does that looks like this:

function getEntry(id) {
var win = window.open('', 'Booking',
'resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=no,width=500,height=400');
win.document.location = '/some/url/1-' + id ;
}

I can't easily change this, and if the people responsible for the page i download would change it, i guess my app would fail miserably...

My WebView setup in the activity looks like this:

    _webview = new WebView(this);
    setContentView(_webview);

    final Activity activity = this;
    _chromeClient = new MyChromeClient();

    _webview.setWebChromeClient(_chromeClient);

    //I experimented with changing user agent, in case that would have any effect, it didn't...
    _webview.getSettings().setUserAgentString("Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1");

    _webview.setWebViewClient(new MyWebViewClient());
    _webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setSupportZoom(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setDomStorageEnabled(true);
    //Cache settings...
    _webview.getSettings().setAppCacheMaxSize(1024*1024*8);
    _webview.getSettings().setAppCachePath("/data/data/com.your.package.appname/cache");
    _webview.getSettings().setAllowFileAccess(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setAppCacheEnabled(true);

MyWebClient:

private class MyWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {

    @Override
    public void onLoadResource(WebView view, String url) {
        Log.d("MyWebViewClient",url);
    }
    @Override
    public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
        showProgressDiag();
        Log.d("MyWebViewClient","shouldOverride... : " + url);
        view.loadUrl(url);
        return true;
    }
    @Override
    public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url){
        hideProgressDiag();
    }
    @Override
    public void onReceivedError(WebView view, int errorCode, String description, String failingUrl) {

        if(failingUrl.equals("file:///android_asset/html/error.html")){
            hideProgressDiag();
            Toast.makeText(_context, "Error! Check internet connection, or try again later...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
        else {
            Toast.makeText(_context, failingUrl, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

            view.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/html/error.html");
        }

    }

}

MyChromeClient:

private class MyChromeClient extends WebChromeClient{

    @Override
    public void onProgressChanged(WebView view, int progress) {
     Pdiag.setProgress(progress * 100);
    }

}

When clicking one of the links that points to the javascript function all that happens is that the WebView turns grey, without going through shouldOverrideUrlLoading(). When i hit the back key the app exits, meaning that nothing was placed in the nav history of the WebView. Sometimes nothing happens, but then the shouldOverrideUrlLoading() do run and from a Log.d() i can see that the correct URL for the popup has been given to the WebView.

The thing is, on very rare occasions it shows up fine, but i have no clue how to reproduce it, and wether it actually shows in a popup.

I'm lost... And quite frustrated... Thinking of watching a bad sitcom instead :(

EDIT: Actually, maybe the URL wasn't all that correct after all... In Firefox the URL ends with "X<<<<" but in my Log.d() output it ends with "X%3C%3C%3C%3C"... I'll investigate if i could change that...

EDIT 2: Nope, didn't do anything... The URL is identical to the one in Firefox...

I have a WebView in which i display web content which i have no control over. The content displays fine, but have links which spawn a popup window. The javascript function that does that looks like this:

function getEntry(id) {
var win = window.open('', 'Booking',
'resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=no,width=500,height=400');
win.document.location = '/some/url/1-' + id ;
}

I can't easily change this, and if the people responsible for the page i download would change it, i guess my app would fail miserably...

My WebView setup in the activity looks like this:

    _webview = new WebView(this);
    setContentView(_webview);

    final Activity activity = this;
    _chromeClient = new MyChromeClient();

    _webview.setWebChromeClient(_chromeClient);

    //I experimented with changing user agent, in case that would have any effect, it didn't...
    _webview.getSettings().setUserAgentString("Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1");

    _webview.setWebViewClient(new MyWebViewClient());
    _webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setSupportZoom(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setDomStorageEnabled(true);
    //Cache settings...
    _webview.getSettings().setAppCacheMaxSize(1024*1024*8);
    _webview.getSettings().setAppCachePath("/data/data/com.your.package.appname/cache");
    _webview.getSettings().setAllowFileAccess(true);
    _webview.getSettings().setAppCacheEnabled(true);

MyWebClient:

private class MyWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {

    @Override
    public void onLoadResource(WebView view, String url) {
        Log.d("MyWebViewClient",url);
    }
    @Override
    public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
        showProgressDiag();
        Log.d("MyWebViewClient","shouldOverride... : " + url);
        view.loadUrl(url);
        return true;
    }
    @Override
    public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url){
        hideProgressDiag();
    }
    @Override
    public void onReceivedError(WebView view, int errorCode, String description, String failingUrl) {

        if(failingUrl.equals("file:///android_asset/html/error.html")){
            hideProgressDiag();
            Toast.makeText(_context, "Error! Check internet connection, or try again later...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
        else {
            Toast.makeText(_context, failingUrl, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

            view.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/html/error.html");
        }

    }

}

MyChromeClient:

private class MyChromeClient extends WebChromeClient{

    @Override
    public void onProgressChanged(WebView view, int progress) {
     Pdiag.setProgress(progress * 100);
    }

}

When clicking one of the links that points to the javascript function all that happens is that the WebView turns grey, without going through shouldOverrideUrlLoading(). When i hit the back key the app exits, meaning that nothing was placed in the nav history of the WebView. Sometimes nothing happens, but then the shouldOverrideUrlLoading() do run and from a Log.d() i can see that the correct URL for the popup has been given to the WebView.

The thing is, on very rare occasions it shows up fine, but i have no clue how to reproduce it, and wether it actually shows in a popup.

I'm lost... And quite frustrated... Thinking of watching a bad sitcom instead :(

EDIT: Actually, maybe the URL wasn't all that correct after all... In Firefox the URL ends with "X<<<<" but in my Log.d() output it ends with "X%3C%3C%3C%3C"... I'll investigate if i could change that...

EDIT 2: Nope, didn't do anything... The URL is identical to the one in Firefox...

• javascript
• android
• popup
• android-webview

• 1 It does look like those type of javascript url changes don't reliably call shouldOverrideUrlLoading. Maybe there is a workaround or a hackish way of solving your problem. Let's say it was able to be caught normally, what are you trying to do with it once you catch it? – cottonBallPaws Commented Feb 6, 2012 at 7:20
• At the moment I don't do anything. Yesterday it opened just fine. It doesn't look like a floating popup, but at least it showed up. But since the script produces the correct url, ideally I'd just grab that url and do a loadUrl() with it. But if that works, how do I stop it from loading twice, manually by me and automatically by the webview? And where do I intercept the url? In on LoadResource()? – mickey Commented Feb 6, 2012 at 10:20
• 1 If you don't override shouldOverrideUrlLoading() or only return false in it, does it load properly? What is the problem? Is it because it isn't in the back button history when it loads this way? – cottonBallPaws Commented Feb 6, 2012 at 17:24
• I'll check what happens if I don't override shouldOver...(). The problem is that 80% of the times I click the link, the only thing happening is the webview turns grey (possibly my bgcolor, I'll try changing that to a funkier color to verify that), 10% of the times nothing happens, although onLoadRes...() gets called with the correct url, and the remaining 10% of the clicks gives the correct result, albeit not in a floating popup as the standard browser shows it. – mickey Commented Feb 6, 2012 at 17:59
• I'll be able to try your suggestion in am hour our so. I just don't understand why webview should behave differently from the browser. It works perfectly in the browser, so why should I have to hack the html when I don't want to change either the content or the way it shows. I keep having a feeling that it is just something stupid, like having setJavascriptCanOpenWindows() on the wrong line or something... – mickey Commented Feb 7, 2012 at 8:54

2 Answers 2

First of all, you need to set the following settings on your WebView:

WebSettings webSettings = webView.getSettings();
webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
webSettings.setJavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically(true);
webSettings.setSupportMultipleWindows(true);

Then you need to attach a WebChromeClient that overrides onCreateWindow. Your implementation of this method can create a new web view, and display it inside a dialog:

webView.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient() {

        @Override
        public boolean onCreateWindow(WebView view, boolean isDialog, boolean isUserGesture, Message resultMsg) {
            WebView newWebView = new WebView(MyActivity.this);
            WebSettings webSettings = newWebView.getSettings();
            webSettings.setJavaScriptEnabled(true);

            // Other configuration comes here, such as setting the WebViewClient

            final Dialog dialog = new Dialog(MyActivity.this);
            dialog.setContentView(newWebView);
            dialog.show();

            newWebView.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient() {
                @Override
                public void onCloseWindow(WebView window) {
                    dialog.dismiss();
                }
            });

            ((WebView.WebViewTransport)resultMsg.obj).setWebView(newWebView);
            resultMsg.sendToTarget();
            return true;
        }

});

Don't forget to set the new web view to the resultMsg, send it to its target and return true, as mentioned in the API documentation.

Please check with adding this -

    getSettings().setSupportMultipleWindows(true);