Xcode 6 + iOS 8 SDK but deploy on iOS 7 (UIWebKit & WKWebKit)

Question

We are creating an app using Xcode 6 beta 5 + Swift on iOS 8 SDK. We\'d like to deploy to iOS 7 as well. Is that possible? When we set the deployment target of the project t

Answer 1

If you need to support iOS7, you cannot use WebKit2 (WK*) classes, or you need to implement twice the logic, once for iOS8 using WK* and once using UIWeb*, and at runtime choose according to the operating system version.

Answer 2

You will need to check if WKWebView is available, and fall back to UIWebView if its not.

Make sure you weak link WebKit.framework (set to optional)

Objective-C:

WKWebView *wkWebView = nil;
UIWebView *uiWebView = nil;

Class wkWebViewClass = NSClassFromString(@"WKWebView");
if(wkWebViewClass) {
    WKWebViewConfiguration *config = [[WKWebViewConfiguration alloc] init];
    // ...
    wkWebView = [[wkWebViewClass alloc] initWithFrame:frame configuration:config];
    [self.view addSubview:wkWebView];
}
else {
    uiWebView = [[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
    [self.view addSubview:uiWebView];
}

Swift:

var wkWebView : WKWebView?
var uiWebView : UIWebView?

if NSClassFromString("WKWebView") {
    let config = WKWebViewConfiguration()
    // ...
    wkWebView = WKWebView(frame: frame, configuration: config)
    self.view.addSubview(wkWebView)
}
else {
    uiWebView = UIWebView(frame: frame)
    self.view.addSubview(uiWebView)
}

Then elsewhere in your code:

Objective-C:

if(wkWebView) {
    // WKWebView specific code
}
else {
    // UIWebView specific code
}

Swift:

if let w=wkWebView {
    // WKWebView specific code
}
else if let w=uiWebView {
    // UIWebView specific code
}