WebView for Flutter: Enhance Your Mobile App with Web Content

WebView for Flutter is a potent plugin that allows developers to seamlessly integrate web content into their Flutter applications. This plugin leverages the native WebView component on both Android and iOS, providing a reliable and consistent web browsing experience within a Flutter app.

Usage

Integrating WebView into your Flutter app is straightforward. Begin by adding the dependency to your pubspec.yaml file:

dependencies:
  webview_flutter: ^latest_version

To display a WebView, follow these steps:

1. Instantiate a WebViewController:

final controller = WebViewController();
controller.setJavaScriptMode(JavaScriptMode.unrestricted);
controller.setBackgroundColor(const Color(0x00000000));
controller.setNavigationDelegate(NavigationDelegate(...));

1. Load a URL:

controller.loadRequest(Uri.parse('https://flutter.dev'));

1. Create a WebViewWidget and pass the controller:

@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return Scaffold(
    appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Flutter Simple Example')),
    body: WebViewWidget(controller: controller),
  );
}

Platform-Specific Features

WebView for Flutter offers platform-specific features to enhance the user experience on each platform. To access these features, include the following packages:

• Android: webview_flutter_android
• iOS: webview_flutter_wkwebview

Android Platform Views

WebView for Flutter utilizes Platform Views to embed the Android WebView. Ensure that the correct minSdkVersion is set in android/app/build.gradle.

API Changes

Version 4.0 of WebView for Flutter introduced several API changes. Here's a summary:

• Instantiating WebViewController:
  • In previous versions, WebViewController was retrieved after adding the WebView to the widget tree. Now, it must be instantiated before adding.
• Replacing WebView Functionality:
  • The WebView class has been replaced by WebViewController and WebViewWidget.
  • WebViewController handles web view functionality like loading URLs and managing cache.
  • WebViewWidget handles Flutter widget-related tasks like layout and gestures.
• API Changes:
  • WebViewController.clearCache no longer clears local storage or reloads the page.
  • WebViewController.evaluateJavascript has been replaced by WebViewController.runJavaScript.
  • WebViewController.runJavaScriptReturningResult now returns an Object, attempting to parse the return value as a bool or num.
  • WebView.initialCookies has been removed. Use WebViewCookieManager.setCookie before loading requests.
  • NavigationDelegate now includes callbacks for handling navigation events.
  • Features like debugging and media playback policies have been moved to platform-specific implementation classes.

Conclusion

WebView for Flutter is a powerful plugin that allows developers to enhance their apps with web content. Its platform-specific features and recent API changes provide greater flexibility and control. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, you can seamlessly integrate WebView into your Flutter apps and deliver a robust and engaging user experience.