JavaFX stop opening URL in WebView - open in browser instead

Question

The embedded WebView browser I am using needs special handling for particular URLs, to open them in the native default browser instead of WebView. The actual browsing part w

Answer 1

I found another solution:

1. Register a CreatePopupHandler that returns a different WebEngine than the main one
2. The main WebEngine sends the load-call to the secondary WebEngine
3. Register a LocationChangeListener on the secondary WebEngine and catch the location change (including the address) and open it in our external browser
4. Finally clean up the secondary WebEngine: stop loading & unload the URL

I implemented it so the secondary WebEngine is initialized lazy. It may also be initialized in the constructor. Both has pros and contras.

Note: This only triggers for Links which open as a popup. This usually is the case when an a-element has a target-attribute that is not "_self" or with JS: window.open(...).

Here is the Magic ...

Register it like this:

engine.setCreatePopupHandler(new BrowserPopupHandler());

The core class:

public static class BrowserPopupHandler implements Callback
{

    private WebEngine popupHandlerEngine;

    public WebEngine call(PopupFeatures popupFeatures)
    {
        // by returning null here the action would be canceled
        // by returning a different WebEngine (than the main one where we register our listener) the load-call will go to that one
        // we return a different WebEngine here and register a location change listener on it (see blow)
        return getPopupHandler();
    }

    private WebEngine getPopupHandler()
    {
        if (popupHandlerEngine == null) // lazy init - so we only initialize it when needed ...
        {
            synchronized (this) // double checked synchronization
            {
                if (popupHandlerEngine == null)
                {
                    popupHandlerEngine = initEngine();
                }
            }
        }
        return popupHandlerEngine;
    }

    private WebEngine initEngine()
    {
        final WebEngine popupHandlerEngine = new WebEngine();

        // this change listener will trigger when our secondary popupHandlerEngine starts to load the url ...
        popupHandlerEngine.locationProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener()
        {

            public void changed(ObservableValue observable, String oldValue, String location)
            {
                if (!location.isEmpty())
                {
                    Platform.runLater(new Runnable()
                    {

                        public void run()
                        {
                            popupHandlerEngine.loadContent(""); // stop loading and unload the url
                            // -> does this internally: popupHandlerEngine.getLoadWorker().cancelAndReset();
                        }

                    });

                    try
                    {
                        // Open URL in Browser:
                        Desktop desktop = Desktop.getDesktop();
                        if (desktop.isSupported(Desktop.Action.BROWSE))
                        {
                            URI uri = new URI(location);
                            desktop.browse(uri);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            System.out.println("Could not load URL: " + location);
                        }
                    }
                    catch (Exception e)
                    {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }

        });
        return popupHandlerEngine;
    }

}