Open Safari from my Today Extension (widget) within my app

Question

I have a Today Extension with a text field. I want to use the contents of the text field as a URL to open a browser within my app.

This is my TodayViewController.swi

Answer 1

You can do this by using deep linking.

First define a custom URL scheme

Once your app responds to the custom scheme my-app:// you can open your app from your todayViewController.

@IBAction func goButton(_ sender: Any) {

    let myAppUrl = URL(string: "my-app://openurl/\(yourURL.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlPathAllowed))")!
    extensionContext?.open(myAppUrl, completionHandler: { (success) in
        if (!success) {
            print("error: failed to open app from Today Extension")
        }
    })
}

In your app, just like described in the previous link you will have to implement in your app delegate

func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, 
  options: [UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey : Any] = [:]) -> Bool

in this method, the url will be the one you created in your app extension. Meaning it will be my-app://openurl/{the url with percent escaping} You will have to parse this url, initialise the view controller that contains the webView and pass the url to be opened.