Custom WebView

While the built-in web view has a lot of features, it is not possible to handle every use-case in React Native. You can, however, extend the web view with native code without forking React Native or duplicating all the existing web view code.

info

The React Native WebView component has been extracted to react-native-webview package as part of the Lean Core effort. That is the recommended way to use WebView in React Native as of today. You should not use the WebView component as that was deprecated and removed from React Native.

Before you do this, you should be familiar with the concepts in native UI components. You should also familiarise yourself with the native code for web views, as you will have to use this as a reference when implementing new features—although a deep understanding is not required.

Native Code

info

This example assumes you already have react-native-webview installed, if not please follow their Getting Started guide first.

To get started, you'll need to create a subclass of RNCWebViewManager, RNCWebView, and RNCWebViewClient. In your view manager, you'll then need to override:

• createRNCWebViewInstance
• getName
• addEventEmitters

Java

@ReactModule(name = CustomWebViewManager.REACT_CLASS)
public class CustomWebViewManager extends RNCWebViewManager {
  /* This name must match what we're referring to in JS */
  protected static final String REACT_CLASS = "RCTCustomWebView";

  protected static class CustomWebViewClient extends RNCWebViewClient { }

  protected static class CustomWebView extends RNCWebView {
    public CustomWebView(ThemedReactContext reactContext) {
      super(reactContext);
    }
  }

  @Override
  protected RNCWebView createRNCWebViewInstance(ThemedReactContext reactContext) {
    return new CustomWebView(reactContext);
  }

  @Override
  public String getName() {
    return REACT_CLASS;
  }

  @Override
  protected void addEventEmitters(ThemedReactContext reactContext, WebView view) {
    view.setWebViewClient(new CustomWebViewClient());
  }
}

Kotlin

@ReactModule(name = CustomWebViewManager.REACT_CLASS)
class CustomWebViewManager : RNCWebViewManager() {
    protected class CustomWebViewClient : RNCWebViewClient()
    protected inner class CustomWebView(reactContext: ThemedReactContext?) :
        RNCWebView(reactContext)

    override fun createRNCWebViewInstance(reactContext: ThemedReactContext?): RNCWebView {
        return CustomWebView(reactContext)
    }

    override fun addEventEmitters(reactContext: ThemedReactContext, view: WebView) {
        view.webViewClient = CustomWebViewClient()
    }

    companion object {
        /* This name must match what we're referring to in JS */
        const val REACT_CLASS = "RCTCustomWebView"
    }
}

You'll need to follow the usual steps to register the module.

Adding New Properties

To add a new property, you'll need to add it to CustomWebView, and then expose it in CustomWebViewManager.

Java

public class CustomWebViewManager extends RNCWebViewManager {
  ...
  protected static class CustomWebView extends RNCWebView {
    public CustomWebView(ThemedReactContext reactContext) {
      super(reactContext);
    }

    protected @Nullable String mFinalUrl;

    public void setFinalUrl(String url) {
        mFinalUrl = url;
    }

    public String getFinalUrl() {
        return mFinalUrl;
    }
  }

  ...

  @ReactProp(name = "finalUrl")
  public void setFinalUrl(WebView view, String url) {
    ((CustomWebView) view).setFinalUrl(url);
  }
}

Kotlin

class CustomWebViewManager : RNCWebViewManager() {
    protected inner class CustomWebView(
        reactContext: ThemedReactContext?,
        var finalUrl: String? = null
    ) : RNCWebView(reactContext)

    @ReactProp(name = "finalUrl")
    fun setFinalUrl(view: WebView, url: String?) {
        (view as CustomWebView).finalUrl = url
    }
}

Adding New Events

For events, you'll first need to make create event subclass.

Java

// NavigationCompletedEvent.java
public class NavigationCompletedEvent extends Event<NavigationCompletedEvent> {
  private WritableMap mParams;

  public NavigationCompletedEvent(int viewTag, WritableMap params) {
    super(viewTag);
    this.mParams = params;
  }

  @Override
  public String getEventName() {
    return "navigationCompleted";
  }

  @Override
  public void dispatch(RCTEventEmitter rctEventEmitter) {
    init(getViewTag());
    rctEventEmitter.receiveEvent(getViewTag(), getEventName(), mParams);
  }
}

Kotlin

// NavigationCompletedEvent.kt
class NavigationCompletedEvent(viewTag: Int, val params: WritableMap) :
    Event<NavigationCompletedEvent>(viewTag) {
    override fun getEventName(): String = "navigationCompleted"

    override fun dispatch(rctEventEmitter: RCTEventEmitter) {
        init(viewTag)
        rctEventEmitter.receiveEvent(viewTag, eventName, params)
    }
}

You can trigger the event in your web view client. You can hook existing handlers if your events are based on them.

You should refer to RNCWebViewManagerImpl.kt in the React Native WebView codebase to see what handlers are available and how they are implemented. You can extend any methods here to provide extra functionality.

Java

public class NavigationCompletedEvent extends Event<NavigationCompletedEvent> {
  private WritableMap mParams;

  public NavigationCompletedEvent(int viewTag, WritableMap params) {
    super(viewTag);
    this.mParams = params;
  }

  @Override
  public String getEventName() {
    return "navigationCompleted";
  }

  @Override
  public void dispatch(RCTEventEmitter rctEventEmitter) {
    init(getViewTag());
    rctEventEmitter.receiveEvent(getViewTag(), getEventName(), mParams);
  }
}

// CustomWebViewManager.java
protected static class CustomWebViewClient extends RNCWebViewClient {
  @Override
  public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
    boolean shouldOverride = super.shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view, url);
    String finalUrl = ((CustomWebView) view).getFinalUrl();

    if (!shouldOverride && url != null && finalUrl != null && new String(url).equals(finalUrl)) {
      final WritableMap params = Arguments.createMap();
      dispatchEvent(view, new NavigationCompletedEvent(view.getId(), params));
    }

    return shouldOverride;
  }
}

Kotlin

class NavigationCompletedEvent(viewTag: Int, val params: WritableMap) :
    Event<NavigationCompletedEvent>(viewTag) {

    override fun getEventName(): String = "navigationCompleted"

    override fun dispatch(rctEventEmitter: RCTEventEmitter) {
        init(viewTag)
        rctEventEmitter.receiveEvent(viewTag, eventName, params)
    }
}

// CustomWebViewManager.kt

protected class CustomWebViewClient : RNCWebViewClient() {
    override fun shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view: WebView, url: String?): Boolean {
        val shouldOverride: Boolean = super.shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view, url)
        val finalUrl: String? = (view as CustomWebView).finalUrl
        if (!shouldOverride && url != null && finalUrl != null && url == finalUrl) {
            val params: WritableMap = Arguments.createMap()
            dispatchEvent(view, NavigationCompletedEvent(view.getId(), params))
        }
        return shouldOverride
    }
}

Finally, you'll need to expose the events in CustomWebViewManager through getExportedCustomDirectEventTypeConstants. Note that currently, the default implementation returns null, but this may change in the future.

Java

public class CustomWebViewManager extends RNCWebViewManager {
  ...

  @Override
  public @Nullable
  Map getExportedCustomDirectEventTypeConstants() {
    Map<String, Object> export = super.getExportedCustomDirectEventTypeConstants();
    if (export == null) {
      export = MapBuilder.newHashMap();
    }
    export.put("navigationCompleted", MapBuilder.of("registrationName", "onNavigationCompleted"));
    return export;
  }
}

Kotlin

class CustomWebViewManager : RNCWebViewManager() {
    override fun getExportedCustomDirectEventTypeConstants(): MutableMap<Any?, Any?>? {
        val superTypeConstants = super.getExportedCustomDirectEventTypeConstants()
        val export = superTypeConstants ?: MapBuilder.newHashMap<Any, Any?>()
        export["navigationCompleted"] = MapBuilder.of("registrationName", "onNavigationCompleted")
        return export
    }
}

JavaScript Interface

To use your custom web view, you'll need to create a class for it. Your class must:

• Export all the prop types from WebView.propTypes
• Return a WebView component with the prop nativeConfig.component set to your native component (see below)

To get your native component, you must use requireNativeComponent: the same as for regular custom components. However, you must pass in an extra third argument, WebView.extraNativeComponentConfig. This third argument contains prop types that are only required for native code.

import React, {Component, PropTypes} from 'react';
import {WebView, requireNativeComponent} from 'react-native';

export default class CustomWebView extends Component {
  static propTypes = WebView.propTypes;

  render() {
    return (
      <WebView
        {...this.props}
        nativeConfig={{component: RCTCustomWebView}}
      />
    );
  }
}

const RCTCustomWebView = requireNativeComponent(
  'RCTCustomWebView',
  CustomWebView,
  WebView.extraNativeComponentConfig,
);

If you want to add custom props to your native component, you can use nativeConfig.props on the web view.

For events, the event handler must always be set to a function. This means it isn't safe to use the event handler directly from this.props, as the user might not have provided one. The standard approach is to create a event handler in your class, and then invoking the event handler given in this.props if it exists.

If you are unsure how something should be implemented from the JS side, look at WebView.android.js in the React Native WebView source.

export default class CustomWebView extends Component {
  static propTypes = {
    ...WebView.propTypes,
    finalUrl: PropTypes.string,
    onNavigationCompleted: PropTypes.func,
  };

  static defaultProps = {
    finalUrl: 'about:blank',
  };

  _onNavigationCompleted = event => {
    const {onNavigationCompleted} = this.props;
    onNavigationCompleted && onNavigationCompleted(event);
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <WebView
        {...this.props}
        nativeConfig={{
          component: RCTCustomWebView,
          props: {
            finalUrl: this.props.finalUrl,
            onNavigationCompleted: this._onNavigationCompleted,
          },
        }}
      />
    );
  }
}

Similar to regular native components, you must provide all your prop types in the component to have them forwarded on to the native component. However, if you have some prop types that are only used internally in component, you can add them to the nativeOnly property of the third argument previously mentioned. For event handlers, you have to use the value true instead of a regular prop type.

For example, if you wanted to add an internal event handler called onScrollToBottom, you would use,

const RCTCustomWebView = requireNativeComponent(
  'RCTCustomWebView',
  CustomWebView,
  {
    ...WebView.extraNativeComponentConfig,
    nativeOnly: {
      ...WebView.extraNativeComponentConfig.nativeOnly,
      onScrollToBottom: true,
    },
  },
);