Ghazi Khan
Ghazi Khan I am an open source developer and I love building simple solutions for complex technical problems.

Introduction to Smart WebView

Introduction to Smart WebView

SWV is a framework built to develop advanced hybrid webview applications with ease.

A small build with features working out of the box: Live GPS Location, Notifications with FCM, AdMob, Chrome Tabs, Process Camera Input, Upload/Download Files, Custom Rating System, Multiple User Interfaces and more.

GETTING STARTED

These instructions will help you get your Smart WebView copy up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Prerequisites

Project was built on Android Studio and requires minimum Android API 21+ (5.0 Lollipop) SDK to test run.

Setup

  • Download repo or clone the project git clone https://github.com/mgks/Android-SmartWebView
  • Download google-services.json file from Firebase (instructions)
  • Load project in Android Studio File > Open > Browse to Project and Select
  • Let Android Studio process the project and download support libraries and dependencies
  • Just to make sure, try cleaning and rebuilding project before run Build > Clean Project then Build > Rebuild Project
  • Got any error? You better fasten you seatbelt. It’s going be a bumpy night

CONFIGURATIONS

Device Permissions

You can remove any of the following requests if you do not need them, you can also disable features with permission variables. For default setup, following permissions are required.

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INTERNET
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE
ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
CAMERA
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
VIBRATE

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c2dm.permission.RECEIVE

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hardware.location.gps
hardware.touchscreen

INTERNET permission is required for any webview to work.

WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is required for camera file processing: if you have ASWP_FUPLOAD and ASWP_CAMUPLOAD enabled to upload image/video files.

Config Variables

Complete webpage URL or load local file as file:///android_res/dir/file.html

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ASWV_URL   = "https://github.com/mgks"   // domain or directory or address to any root file

Permission Variables

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ASWP_JSCRIPT     = true     // enable JavaScript for webview
ASWP_FUPLOAD     = true     // upload files from local device
ASWP_MULFILE     = true     // upload multiple files
ASWP_CAMUPLOAD   = true     // enable camera file upload
ASWP_ONLYCAM     = false    // incase you want only camera for input files

ASWP_LOCATION    = true     // track GPS locations

ASWP_RATINGS     = true     // show ratings dialog; auto configured, edit method get_rating() for customizations
ASWP_PULLFRESH   = true     // pull to refresh feature
ASWP_PBAR        = true     // show progress bar
ASWP_ZOOM        = false    // zoom control for webpages
ASWP_SFORM       = false    // save form data and auto-fill information
ASWP_OFFLINE     = false    // whether the loading webpages are offline or online
ASWP_EXTURL      = true     // open external url with default browser instead of app webview

ASWP_TAB         = true;    // instead of default browser, open external URLs in chrome tab
ASWP_ADMOB       = false;   // enabled Google AdMob

Security Variables

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ASWP_CERT_VERIFICATION   = true   // verify whether HTTPS port needs certificate verification

Other Variables

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ASWV_LAYOUT      = 0;   // default=0; for clear fullscreen layout and 1 to add drawer and navigation bar

// custom settings if layout `1` with search bar is set.
ASWV_SEARCH      = "https://www.google.com/search?q=";   // search query will start by the end of the present string

ASWV_SHARE_URL   = ASWV_URL+"?share=";   // URL where you process external content shared with the app
ASWV_EXC_LIST    = "";                   // domains allowed to be opened inside webview, separate domains with a comma (,)

ASWV_ADMOB       = "ca-app-pub-9276682923792397~7957851075";   // your unique publishers ID; this one is temporary

ASWV_F_TYPE      = "*/*"   // use `image/*` for image files only; check file type references for custom file type

POSTFIX_USER_AGENT      = true;     // set to true to append USER_AGENT_POSTFIX to user agent
OVERRIDE_USER_AGENT     = false;    // set to true to use USER_AGENT instead of default one
USER_AGENT_POSTFIX      = "SWVAndroid";    // useful for identifying traffic, e.g. in Google Analytics
CUSTOM_USER_AGENT       = "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 6.0; Nexus 5 Build/MRA58N) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/59.0.3071.115 Mobile Safari/537.36";    // custom user-agent

FEATURES

GPS Location

If ASWP_LOCATION = true then the app will start requesting GPS locations of the device on regular basis and all of the recorded data will be sent to the webpage in form of cookies, with updated live GPS locations.

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COOKIE "lat" for latitude
COOKIE "long" for longitude

Camera Input

You can either select to get input from both file manager and camera or can just choose camera to get image/video input. To get video input, add file type condition in your html input video/* and image/* for camera photos. By default ASWV_F_TYPE is set to */* and suggested not to change instead file type should be provided on web pages end.

Firebase Messaging

You need a firebase account to get started then download google-services.json and put it in the app level directory. Then you can create a POST request as below. See detailed steps to download firebase config file.

To URL: https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send

Header:

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content-type:application/json
authorization:key=____server_key_here___ (Firebase > Settings > Cloud Messaging)

Data:

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{ "notification": {
    "title": "___title_string___",
    "text": "___text_string___",
     "click_action": "Open_URI"
  },
    "data": {
    "uri": "___the_URL_where_you_want_users_to_send__"
    },
  "to" : "___user_token___"
}

You can get _user_token_ from COOKIE fcm_token.

Google AdMob

Enable ASWP_ADMOB to show ads, and get your App ID from AdMob to replace ASWV_ADMOB.

Chrome Tab

With ASWP_TAB you handle external links to be opened in the chrome tab or external browser. More chrome tab customizations are available inside MainActivity.

Content Sharing

User can share external content with your app like text, link or image. You can received data on your end by proving ASWV_SHARE_URL, an endpoint that can handle such requests. You can disable it by removing .ShareActivity from Manifest.

User Interfaces

You can switch between clean and native interface with ASWV_LAYOUT where 0 represents full screen interface and 1 as a complete drawer layout with search option and navigation bar.

To customize drawer bar, you can look into onNavigationItemSelected() method in MainActivity and activity_main_drawer.xml for menu items.

Rating System

Rating dialogue is enabled by default and can be handled by ASWP_RATINGS.

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ASWR_DAYS            = 3;           // after how many days of usage would you like to show the dialog
ASWR_TIMES           = 10;          // overall request launch times being ignored
ASWR_INTERVAL        = 2;           // reminding users to rate after days interval

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