How can I open an external link in Safari not the app's UIWebView?

Question

I have a Phonegap (cordova) application where I want to load some external webpages within the phonegap WebView and I have other external webpages that I want to load in saf

Answer 1

If the links you want to open in safari all contain a common string, you can use the next piece of code.

- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType
{
    NSURL *url = [request URL];

    // Intercept the external http requests and forward to Safari.app
    // Otherwise forward to the PhoneGap WebView
    if ([[url scheme] isEqualToString:@"SCHEME"]) {
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
        return NO;
    }
    else {
        return [ super webView:theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:request navigationType:navigationType ];
    }
}

This code placed in the AppDelegate.m will open all URL that use the specified SCHEME in Safari.

I'm afraid that is all I could come up with.

Hope this helps

UPDATE :

The code should be placed in the MainViewControler, at least for cordova 2.2.0.

The method is initially commented. I had to use it to redirect Google maps links :

NSRange isGoogleMaps = [[url absoluteString] rangeOfString:@"maps.google.com" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];
NSRange isGoogleTerms = [[url absoluteString] rangeOfString:@"terms_maps.html" options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];

if(isGoogleMaps.location != NSNotFound || isGoogleTerms.location != NSNotFound ) {
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
       return NO;
}
else 
    return [super webView:theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:request navigationType:navigationType];

Answer 2

Just catch all links in your javascript that have target="_blank", and pass them to window.open with the '_system' param. This will work on both iOS and Android.

$(document).on('click', 'a[target="_blank"]', function(ev) {
  var url;

  ev.preventDefault();
  url = $(this).attr('href');
  window.open(url, '_system');
});

Answer 3

1. Add target="_blank" to your links. ie:

   <a href="http://www.brandonbrotsky.com/" target="_blank"></a>
   

2. Make sure access has an origin of * /> in your config.xml (make sure its the one in the root of the app directory, above the www folder. ie:

   <access origin="*" />
   

3. Add the following code to MainViewController.m

   - (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType
   {
       NSURL *url = [request URL];
   
       // Intercept the external http requests and forward to Safari.app
       // Otherwise forward to the PhoneGap WebView
       if ([[url scheme] isEqualToString:@"http"] || [[url scheme] isEqualToString:@"https"]) {
           [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
           return NO;
       }
       else {
           return [ super webView:theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:request navigationType:navigationType ];
       }
   } 
   

I made a quick video explaining how to fix this issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqbjXSnAR-Q&feature=c4-overview&list=UUefS6KLvFQVjhmL6hiBq4Sg

Hope it helps!

Answer 4

The right way of doing this is using the inAppBrowser plugin

install it using the cordova CLI:

cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.inappbrowser

Then, to open a link on safari just use:

window.open('http://apache.org', '_system');

There is a newer version of the plugin hosted on npm

to install it from the cordova CLI:

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

To open the website on safari you can use

cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_system');

or, if you want to continue using window.open like the older version you can just do this on device ready event:

document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
function onDeviceReady() {
    window.open = cordova.InAppBrowser.open;
}

Answer 5

iside the xcode

//Place code in /Classes/MainViewController.m

    - (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)­navigationType
{ NSURL *url = [request URL]; 
// Intercept the external http requests and forward to Safari.app 
// Otherwise forward to the PhoneGap WebView 
if ([[url scheme] isEqualToString:@"http"] || [[url scheme] isEqualToString:@"https"]) { [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url]; return NO; } else { return [ super webView:theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:request navigationType:navigationType ]; }
}

Answer 6

This is what works for me based on the answer by @TDeBailleul. Basically, any link that has a suffix of PDF, OR if it is a specific page I want to open in Safari, OR if it is not a page within www.example.com/* (an external link) it will open in a new window:

- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType {

    // Open PDF files, Specific Pages, and External Links (not beginning with http://www.example.com) in Safari.app
    if (
        (navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationTypeLinkClicked) && 
        ([[[request URL] absoluteString] hasSuffix:@"pdf"] || [[[request URL] absoluteString] hasPrefix:@"http://www.example.com/specific-page.php"] || ![[[request URL] absoluteString] hasPrefix:@"http://www.example.com"])
        ) { 

        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:request.URL];
        return NO;
    } 

    return YES;
}

Hope this helps others!