[TIMOB-27644] Android: Webview opens new window with webview if link target is "_blank"

GitHub Issue	n/a
Type	Bug
Priority	Critical
Status	Open
Resolution	Unresolved
Affected Version/s	Release 8.3.0
Fix Version/s	n/a
Components	Android
Labels	engTriage
Reporter	Hans Knöchel
Assignee	Yordan Banev
Created	2019-12-06T19:58:13.000+0000
Updated	2019-12-09T16:32:57.000+0000

Description

On Android, a webview opens new window with webview if link target is "_blank". This does not happen on iOS and should not happen except the developer explicitly wants a new window. Example:

var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({ title: 'Test Window' });
var webView = Ti.UI.createWebView({
    html: '<html><body><a href="https://google.com" target="_blank">Click me!</a></body></html>'
});
webView.addEventListener('beforeload', function (event) {
    if (event.url.includes('google.com')) {
        alert('STOP LOADING');
        webView.stopLoading();
    }
});
win.add(webView);
win.open();

Any workaround is appreciated. The blacklistedURLs property also does not help. *EDIT*: There is an old [onCreateWindow](https://docs.appcelerator.com/platform/latest/#!/api/Titanium.UI.WebView-property-onCreateWindow) property which is meant to handle _blank links, but unfortunately, returning null there does also not stop the new window from popping up. Same for returning false in the onLink property.

Comments

Michael Gangolf 2019-12-06

I think this should help: http://docs.appcelerator.com/platform/latest/#!/api/Titanium.UI.WebView-property-onCreateWindow webView.onCreateWindow = function(e) { return null; // don't open popup links }; or expose this property: https://github.com/appcelerator/titanium_mobile/blob/13658500189a8de1c8fa9773518fbe0ee7947036/android/modules/ui/src/java/ti/modules/titanium/ui/widget/webview/TiUIWebView.java#L318 and set it to false (which would be a good idea)
Hans Knöchel 2019-12-06

Just tried that and unfortunately it does not work. Disabling the above property will probably help, will build a custom SDK again. For parity with iOS, it should even be disabled by property, preventing multiple windows from being opened. *EDIT*: Holy moly. Assigning the property after creation works. De-escalated, thanks Michael! But hopefully this can be properly fixed in 9.0.0. *EDIT 2*: Unfortunately this does also not work, because the beforeload event does not fire anymore at all.

Michael Gangolf 2019-12-06

   var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({
   	title: 'Test Window'
   });
   
   var webView = Ti.UI.createWebView({
   	html: '<html><body><a href="https://google.com" target="_blank">external link</a> - <a href="https://google.de" >internal link</a></body></html>'
   });
   
   webView.addEventListener('beforeload', function(event) {
   	if (event.url.includes('google.com')) {
   		alert('STOP LOADING');
   		webView.stopLoading();
   	}
   });
   
   var tmpWebView = Ti.UI.createWebView({
   	visible:false
   });
   
   webView.onCreateWindow = function(e) {
   	return tmpWebView;
   };
   
   win.add(webView);
   win.open();

That will trigger the alert for the external link.

Hans Knöchel 2019-12-06

Mhhh, but what to do with the webview? I want to handle the URL with an external browser and return to the app, so I feel this could lead into a memory leak. *EDIT*: Manually disabling the native property doesn't help btw. I compiled a new SDK and it works with the first click and fails for all additional clicks.

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