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Inappbrowser - OSVLABS
Open an in-app browser window.
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cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

You can show helpful articles, videos, and web resources inside of your app. Users can view web pages without leaving your app.

To get a few ideas, check out the sample at the bottom of this page or go straight to the reference content.

This plugin provides a web browser view that displays when calling cordova.InAppBrowser.open().

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');

window.open

The cordova.InAppBrowser.open() function is defined to be a drop-in replacement for the window.open() function. Existing window.open() calls can use the InAppBrowser window, by replacing window.open:

window.open = cordova.InAppBrowser.open;

The InAppBrowser window behaves like a standard web browser, and can't access Cordova APIs. For this reason, the InAppBrowser is recommended if you need to load third-party (untrusted) content, instead of loading that into the main Cordova webview. The InAppBrowser is not subject to the whitelist, nor is opening links in the system browser.

The InAppBrowser provides by default its own GUI controls for the user (back, forward, done).

For backwards compatibility, this plugin also hooks window.open. However, the plugin-installed hook of window.open can have unintended side effects (especially if this plugin is included only as a dependency of another plugin). The hook of window.open will be removed in a future major release. Until the hook is removed from the plugin, apps can manually restore the default behaviour:

delete window.open // Reverts the call back to its prototype's default

Although window.open is in the global scope, InAppBrowser is not available until after the deviceready event.

document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
function onDeviceReady() {
    console.log("window.open works well");
}

Installation

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

If you want all page loads in your app to go through the InAppBrowser, you can simply hook window.open during initialization. For example:

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

cordova.InAppBrowser.open

Opens a URL in a new InAppBrowser instance, the current browser instance, or the system browser.

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open(url, target, options);

  • ref: Reference to the InAppBrowser window when the target is set to '_blank'. (InAppBrowser)

  • url: The URL to load (String). Call encodeURI() on this if the URL contains Unicode characters.

  • target: The target in which to load the URL, an optional parameter that defaults to _self. (String)

    • _self: Opens in the Cordova WebView if the URL is in the white list, otherwise it opens in the InAppBrowser.
    • _blank: Opens in the InAppBrowser.
    • _system: Opens in the system's web browser.

  • options: Options for the InAppBrowser. Optional, defaulting to: location=yes. (String)

    The options string must not contain any blank space, and each feature's name/value pairs must be separated by a comma. Feature names are case insensitive.

    All platforms support:

    • location: Set to yes or no to turn the InAppBrowser's location bar on or off.

    Android supports these additional options:

    • hidden: set to yes to create the browser and load the page, but not show it. The loadstop event fires when loading is complete. Omit or set to no (default) to have the browser open and load normally.
    • beforeload: set to enable the beforeload event to modify which pages are actually loaded in the browser. Accepted values are get to intercept only GET requests, post to intercept on POST requests or yes to intercept both GET & POST requests. Note that POST requests are not currently supported and will be ignored (if you set beforeload=post it will raise an error).
    • clearcache: set to yes to have the browser's cookie cache cleared before the new window is opened
    • clearsessioncache: set to yes to have the session cookie cache cleared before the new window is opened
    • closebuttoncaption: set to a string to use as the close button's caption instead of a X. Note that you need to localize this value yourself.
    • closebuttoncolor: set to a valid hex color string, for example: #00ff00, and it will change the close button color from default, regardless of being a text or default X. Only has effect if user has location set to yes.
    • footer: set to yes to show a close button in the footer similar to the iOS Done button. The close button will appear the same as for the header hence use closebuttoncaption and closebuttoncolor to set its properties.
    • footercolor: set to a valid hex color string, for example #00ff00 or #CC00ff00 (#aarrggbb) , and it will change the footer color from default. Only has effect if user has footer set to yes.
    • hardwareback: set to yes to use the hardware back button to navigate backwards through the InAppBrowser's history. If there is no previous page, the InAppBrowser will close. The default value is yes, so you must set it to no if you want the back button to simply close the InAppBrowser.
    • hidenavigationbuttons: set to yes to hide the navigation buttons on the location toolbar, only has effect if user has location set to yes. The default value is no.
    • hideurlbar: set to yes to hide the url bar on the location toolbar, only has effect if user has location set to yes. The default value is no.
    • navigationbuttoncolor: set to a valid hex color string, for example: #00ff00, and it will change the color of both navigation buttons from default. Only has effect if user has location set to yes and not hidenavigationbuttons set to yes.
    • toolbarcolor: set to a valid hex color string, for example: #00ff00, and it will change the color the toolbar from default. Only has effect if user has location set to yes.
    • lefttoright: Set to yes to swap positions of the navigation buttons and the close button. Specifically, navigation buttons go to the left and close button to the right.
    • zoom: set to yes to show Android browser's zoom controls, set to no to hide them. Default value is yes.
    • mediaPlaybackRequiresUserAction: Set to yes to prevent HTML5 audio or video from autoplaying (defaults to no).
    • shouldPauseOnSuspend: Set to yes to make InAppBrowser WebView to pause/resume with the app to stop background audio (this may be required to avoid Google Play issues like described in CB-11013).
    • useWideViewPort: Sets whether the WebView should enable support for the "viewport" HTML meta tag or should use a wide viewport. When the value of the setting is no, the layout width is always set to the width of the WebView control in device-independent (CSS) pixels. When the value is yes and the page contains the viewport meta tag, the value of the width specified in the tag is used. If the page does not contain the tag or does not provide a width, then a wide viewport will be used. (defaults to yes).

    iOS supports these additional options:

    • usewkwebview: set to yes to use WKWebView engine for the InappBrowser. Omit or set to no (default) to use UIWebView. Note: Using usewkwebview=yes requires that a WKWebView engine plugin be installed in the Cordova project (e.g. cordova-plugin-wkwebview-engine or cordova-plugin-ionic-webview).
    • hidden: set to yes to create the browser and load the page, but not show it. The loadstop event fires when loading is complete. Omit or set to no (default) to have the browser open and load normally.
    • beforeload: set to enable the beforeload event to modify which pages are actually loaded in the browser. Accepted values are get to intercept only GET requests, post to intercept on POST requests or yes to intercept both GET & POST requests. Note that POST requests are not currently supported and will be ignored (if you set beforeload=post it will raise an error).
    • clearcache: set to yes to have the browser's cookie cache cleared before the new window is opened
    • clearsessioncache: set to yes to have the session cookie cache cleared before the new window is opened. For WKWebView, requires iOS 11+ on target device.
    • cleardata: set to yes to have the browser's entire local storage cleared (cookies, HTML5 local storage, IndexedDB, etc.) before the new window is opened
    • closebuttoncolor: set as a valid hex color string, for example: #00ff00, to change from the default Done button's color. Only applicable if toolbar is not disabled.
    • closebuttoncaption: set to a string to use as the Done button's caption. Note that you need to localize this value yourself.
    • disallowoverscroll: Set to yes or no (default is no). Turns on/off the UIWebViewBounce property.
    • hidenavigationbuttons: set to yes or no to turn the toolbar navigation buttons on or off (defaults to no). Only applicable if toolbar is not disabled.
    • navigationbuttoncolor: set as a valid hex color string, for example: #00ff00, to change from the default color. Only applicable if navigation buttons are visible.
    • toolbar: set to yes or no to turn the toolbar on or off for the InAppBrowser (defaults to yes)
    • toolbarcolor: set as a valid hex color string, for example: #00ff00, to change from the default color of the toolbar. Only applicable if toolbar is not disabled.
    • toolbartranslucent: set to yes or no to make the toolbar translucent(semi-transparent) (defaults to yes). Only applicable if toolbar is not disabled.
    • lefttoright: Set to yes to swap positions of the navigation buttons and the close button. Specifically, close button goes to the right and navigation buttons to the left.
    • enableViewportScale: Set to yes or no to prevent viewport scaling through a meta tag (defaults to no). Only applicable to UIWebView (usewkwebview=no) and WKWebView (usewkwebview=yes) on iOS 10+.
    • mediaPlaybackRequiresUserAction: Set to yes to prevent HTML5 audio or video from autoplaying (defaults to no). Applicable to UIWebView (usewkwebview=no) and WKWebView (usewkwebview=yes).
    • allowInlineMediaPlayback: Set to yes or no to allow in-line HTML5 media playback, displaying within the browser window rather than a device-specific playback interface. The HTML's video element must also include the webkit-playsinline attribute (defaults to no). Applicable to UIWebView (usewkwebview=no) and WKWebView (usewkwebview=yes).
    • keyboardDisplayRequiresUserAction: Set to yes or no to open the keyboard when form elements receive focus via JavaScript's focus() call (defaults to yes). Only applicable to UIWebView (usewkwebview=no).
    • suppressesIncrementalRendering: Set to yes or no to wait until all new view content is received before being rendered (defaults to no). Only applicable to UIWebView (usewkwebview=no).
    • presentationstyle: Set to pagesheet, formsheet or fullscreen to set the presentation style (defaults to fullscreen).
    • transitionstyle: Set to fliphorizontal, crossdissolve or coververtical to set the transition style (defaults to coververtical).
    • toolbarposition: Set to top or bottom (default is bottom). Causes the toolbar to be at the top or bottom of the window.
    • hidespinner: Set to yes or no to change the visibility of the loading indicator (defaults to no).

    Windows supports these additional options:

    • hidden: set to yes to create the browser and load the page, but not show it. The loadstop event fires when loading is complete. Omit or set to no (default) to have the browser open and load normally.
    • hardwareback: works the same way as on Android platform.
    • fullscreen: set to yes to create the browser control without a border around it. Please note that if location=no is also specified, there will be no control presented to user to close IAB window.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • Browser
  • iOS
  • OSX
  • Windows

Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');
var ref2 = cordova.InAppBrowser.open(encodeURI('http://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ハングル'), '_blank', 'location=yes');

OSX Quirks

At the moment the only supported target in OSX is _system.

_blank and _self targets are not yet implemented and are ignored silently. Pull requests and patches to get these to work are greatly appreciated.

Browser Quirks

  • Plugin is implemented via iframe,

  • Navigation history (back and forward buttons in LocationBar) is not implemented.

InAppBrowser

The object returned from a call to cordova.InAppBrowser.open when the target is set to '_blank'.

Methods

  • addEventListener
  • removeEventListener
  • close
  • show
  • hide
  • executeScript
  • insertCSS

InAppBrowser.addEventListener

Adds a listener for an event from the InAppBrowser. (Only available when the target is set to '_blank')

ref.addEventListener(eventname, callback);

  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window (InAppBrowser)

  • eventname: the event to listen for (String)

    • loadstart: event fires when the InAppBrowser starts to load a URL.
    • loadstop: event fires when the InAppBrowser finishes loading a URL.
    • loaderror: event fires when the InAppBrowser encounters an error when loading a URL.
    • exit: event fires when the InAppBrowser window is closed.
    • beforeload: event fires when the InAppBrowser decides whether to load an URL or not (only with option beforeload set).
    • message: event fires when the InAppBrowser receives a message posted from the page loaded inside the InAppBrowser Webview.

  • callback: the function that executes when the event fires. The function is passed an InAppBrowserEvent object as a parameter.

Example

var inAppBrowserRef;

function showHelp(url) {

    var target = "_blank";

    var options = "location=yes,hidden=yes,beforeload=yes";

    inAppBrowserRef = cordova.InAppBrowser.open(url, target, options);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('loadstart', loadStartCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('loadstop', loadStopCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('loaderror', loadErrorCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('beforeload', beforeloadCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('message', messageCallBack);
}

function loadStartCallBack() {

    $('#status-message').text("loading please wait ...");

}

function loadStopCallBack() {

    if (inAppBrowserRef != undefined) {

        inAppBrowserRef.insertCSS({ code: "body{font-size: 25px;}" });

        inAppBrowserRef.executeScript({ code: "\
            var message = 'this is the message';\
            var messageObj = {my_message: message};\
            var stringifiedMessageObj = JSON.stringify(messageObj);\
            webkit.messageHandlers.cordova_iab.postMessage(stringifiedMessageObj);"
        });

        $('#status-message').text("");

        inAppBrowserRef.show();
    }

}

function loadErrorCallBack(params) {

    $('#status-message').text("");

    var scriptErrorMesssage =
       "alert('Sorry we cannot open that page. Message from the server is : "
       + params.message + "');"

    inAppBrowserRef.executeScript({ code: scriptErrorMesssage }, executeScriptCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.close();

    inAppBrowserRef = undefined;

}

function executeScriptCallBack(params) {

    if (params[0] == null) {

        $('#status-message').text(
           "Sorry we couldn't open that page. Message from the server is : '"
           + params.message + "'");
    }

}

function beforeloadCallBack(params, callback) {

    if (params.url.startsWith("http://www.example.com/")) {

        // Load this URL in the inAppBrowser.
        callback(params.url);
    } else {

        // The callback is not invoked, so the page will not be loaded.
        $('#status-message').text("This browser only opens pages on http://www.example.com/");
    }

}

function messageCallBack(params){
    $('#status-message').text("message received: "+params.data.my_message);
}

InAppBrowserEvent Properties

  • type: the eventname, either loadstart, loadstop, loaderror, message or exit. (String)

  • url: the URL that was loaded. (String)

  • code: the error code, only in the case of loaderror. (Number)

  • message: the error message, only in the case of loaderror. (String)

  • data: the message contents , only in the case of message. A stringified JSON object. (String)

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • Browser
  • iOS
  • Windows
  • OSX

Browser Quirks

loadstart, loaderror, message events are not fired.

Windows Quirks

message event is not fired.

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');
ref.addEventListener('loadstart', function(event) { alert(event.url); });

InAppBrowser.removeEventListener

Removes a listener for an event from the InAppBrowser. (Only available when the target is set to '_blank')

ref.removeEventListener(eventname, callback);

  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window. (InAppBrowser)

  • eventname: the event to stop listening for. (String)

    • loadstart: event fires when the InAppBrowser starts to load a URL.
    • loadstop: event fires when the InAppBrowser finishes loading a URL.
    • loaderror: event fires when the InAppBrowser encounters an error loading a URL.
    • exit: event fires when the InAppBrowser window is closed.
    • message: event fires when the InAppBrowser receives a message posted from the page loaded inside the InAppBrowser Webview.

  • callback: the function to execute when the event fires. The function is passed an InAppBrowserEvent object.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • Browser
  • iOS
  • Windows

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');
var myCallback = function(event) { alert(event.url); }
ref.addEventListener('loadstart', myCallback);
ref.removeEventListener('loadstart', myCallback);

InAppBrowser.close

Closes the InAppBrowser window.

ref.close();
  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window (InAppBrowser)

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • Browser
  • iOS
  • Windows

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');
ref.close();

InAppBrowser.show

Displays an InAppBrowser window that was opened hidden. Calling this has no effect if the InAppBrowser was already visible.

ref.show();
  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window (InAppBrowser)

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • Browser
  • iOS
  • Windows

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'hidden=yes');
// some time later...
ref.show();

InAppBrowser.hide

Hides the InAppBrowser window. Calling this has no effect if the InAppBrowser was already hidden.

ref.hide();
  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window (InAppBrowser)

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • iOS
  • Windows

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank');
// some time later...
ref.hide();

InAppBrowser.executeScript

Injects JavaScript code into the InAppBrowser window. (Only available when the target is set to '_blank')

ref.executeScript(details, callback);

  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window. (InAppBrowser)

  • injectDetails: details of the script to run, specifying either a file or code key. (Object)

    • file: URL of the script to inject.
    • code: Text of the script to inject.

  • callback: the function that executes after the JavaScript code is injected.

    • If the injected script is of type code, the callback executes with a single parameter, which is the return value of the script, wrapped in an Array. For multi-line scripts, this is the return value of the last statement, or the last expression evaluated.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • Browser
  • iOS
  • Windows

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');
ref.addEventListener('loadstop', function() {
    ref.executeScript({file: "myscript.js"});
});

Browser Quirks

  • only code key is supported.

Windows Quirks

Due to MSDN docs the invoked script can return only string values, otherwise the parameter, passed to callback will be [null].

InAppBrowser.insertCSS

Injects CSS into the InAppBrowser window. (Only available when the target is set to '_blank')

ref.insertCSS(details, callback);

  • ref: reference to the InAppBrowser window (InAppBrowser)

  • injectDetails: details of the script to run, specifying either a file or code key. (Object)

    • file: URL of the stylesheet to inject.
    • code: Text of the stylesheet to inject.

  • callback: the function that executes after the CSS is injected.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • iOS
  • Windows

Quick Example

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'location=yes');
ref.addEventListener('loadstop', function() {
    ref.insertCSS({file: "mystyles.css"});
});

__

Sample: Show help pages with an InAppBrowser

You can use this plugin to show helpful documentation pages within your app. Users can view online help documents and then close them without leaving the app.

Here's a few snippets that show how you do this.

Give users a way to ask for help

There's lots of ways to do this in your app. A drop down list is a simple way to do that.

<select id="help-select">
    <option value="default">Need help?</option>
    <option value="article">Show me a helpful article</option>
    <option value="video">Show me a helpful video</option>
    <option value="search">Search for other topics</option>
</select>

Gather the users choice in the onDeviceReady function of the page and then send an appropriate URL to a helper function in some shared library file. Our helper function is named showHelp() and we'll write that function next.

$('#help-select').on('change', function (e) {

    var url;

    switch (this.value) {

        case "article":
            url = "https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/"
                        + "reference/cordova-plugin-inappbrowser/index.html";
            break;

        case "video":
            url = "https://youtu.be/F-GlVrTaeH0";
            break;

        case "search":
            url = "https://www.google.com/#q=inAppBrowser+plugin";
            break;
    }

    showHelp(url);

});

Load a help page

We'll use the open function to load the help page. We're setting the hidden property to yes so that we can show the browser only after the page content has loaded. That way, users don't see a blank browser while they wait for content to appear. When the loadstop event is raised, we'll know when the content has loaded. We'll handle that event shortly.

function showHelp(url) {

    var target = "_blank";

    var options = "location=yes,hidden=yes";

    inAppBrowserRef = cordova.InAppBrowser.open(url, target, options);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('loadstart', loadStartCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('loadstop', loadStopCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.addEventListener('loaderror', loadErrorCallBack);

}

Let users know that you're getting their page ready

Because the browser doesn't immediately appear, we can use the loadstart event to show a status message, progress bar, or other indicator. This assures users that content is on the way.

function loadStartCallBack() {

    $('#status-message').text("loading please wait ...");

}

Show the help page

When the loadstopcallback event is raised, we know that the content has loaded and we can make the browser visible. This sort of trick can create the impression of better performance. The truth is that whether you show the browser before content loads or not, the load times are exactly the same.

function loadStopCallBack() {

    if (inAppBrowserRef != undefined) {

        inAppBrowserRef.insertCSS({ code: "body{font-size: 25px;}" });

        $('#status-message').text("");

        inAppBrowserRef.show();
    }

}

You might have noticed the call to the insertCSS function. This serves no particular purpose in our scenario. But it gives you an idea of why you might use it. In this case, we're just making sure that the font size of your pages have a certain size. You can use this function to insert any CSS style elements. You can even point to a CSS file in your project.

Handle page errors

Sometimes a page no longer exists, a script error occurs, or a user lacks permission to view the resource. How or if you handle that situation is completely up to you and your design. You can let the browser show that message or you can present it in another way.

We'll try to show that error in a message box. We can do that by injecting a script that calls the alert function. That said, this won't work in browsers on Windows devices so we'll have to look at the parameter of the executeScript callback function to see if our attempt worked. If it didn't work out for us, we'll just show the error message in a <div> on the page.

function loadErrorCallBack(params) {

    $('#status-message').text("");

    var scriptErrorMesssage =
       "alert('Sorry we cannot open that page. Message from the server is : "
       + params.message + "');"

    inAppBrowserRef.executeScript({ code: scriptErrorMesssage }, executeScriptCallBack);

    inAppBrowserRef.close();

    inAppBrowserRef = undefined;

}

function executeScriptCallBack(params) {

    if (params[0] == null) {

        $('#status-message').text(
           "Sorry we couldn't open that page. Message from the server is : '"
           + params.message + "'");
    }

}

More Usage Info

Local Urls ( source is in the app package )

var iab = cordova.InAppBrowser;

iab.open('local-url.html');                  // loads in the Cordova WebView
iab.open('local-url.html', '_self');         // loads in the Cordova WebView
iab.open('local-url.html', '_system');       // Security error: system browser, but url will not load (iOS)
iab.open('local-url.html', '_blank');        // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('local-url.html', 'random_string'); // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('local-url.html', 'random_string', 'location=no'); // loads in the InAppBrowser, no location bar

Whitelisted Content

var iab = cordova.InAppBrowser;

iab.open('http://whitelisted-url.com');                  // loads in the Cordova WebView
iab.open('http://whitelisted-url.com', '_self');         // loads in the Cordova WebView
iab.open('http://whitelisted-url.com', '_system');       // loads in the system browser
iab.open('http://whitelisted-url.com', '_blank');        // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('http://whitelisted-url.com', 'random_string'); // loads in the InAppBrowser

iab.open('http://whitelisted-url.com', 'random_string', 'location=no'); // loads in the InAppBrowser, no location bar

Urls that are not white-listed

var iab = cordova.InAppBrowser;

iab.open('http://url-that-fails-whitelist.com');                  // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('http://url-that-fails-whitelist.com', '_self');         // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('http://url-that-fails-whitelist.com', '_system');       // loads in the system browser
iab.open('http://url-that-fails-whitelist.com', '_blank');        // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('http://url-that-fails-whitelist.com', 'random_string'); // loads in the InAppBrowser
iab.open('http://url-that-fails-whitelist.com', 'random_string', 'location=no'); // loads in the InAppBrowser, no location bar