title: Inappbrowser description: Open an in-app browser window.
Android | iOS | Windows 8.1 Store | Windows 8.1 Phone | Windows 10 Store | Travis CI |
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cordova-plugin-inappbrowser
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');
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 it's 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");
}
Report issues with this plugin on the Apache Cordova issue tracker
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 theInAppBrowser
._blank
: Opens in theInAppBrowser
._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 the value below:- location: Set to
yes
orno
to turn theInAppBrowser
's location bar on or off.
Android only:
- 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 tono
(default) to have the browser open and load normally. - 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 - zoom: set to
yes
to show Android browser's zoom controls, set tono
to hide them. Default value isyes
. - hardwareback: set to
yes
to use the hardware back button to navigate backwards through theInAppBrowser
's history. If there is no previous page, theInAppBrowser
will close. The default value isyes
, so you must set it tono
if you want the back button to simply close the InAppBrowser. - mediaPlaybackRequiresUserAction: Set to
yes
to prevent HTML5 audio or video from autoplaying (defaults tono
).
iOS only:
- 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
orno
(default isno
). Turns on/off the UIWebViewBounce property. - 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 tono
(default) to have the browser open and load normally. - 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 - toolbar: set to
yes
orno
to turn the toolbar on or off for the InAppBrowser (defaults toyes
) - enableViewportScale: Set to
yes
orno
to prevent viewport scaling through a meta tag (defaults tono
). - mediaPlaybackRequiresUserAction: Set to
yes
to prevent HTML5 audio or video from autoplaying (defaults tono
). - allowInlineMediaPlayback: Set to
yes
orno
to allow in-line HTML5 media playback, displaying within the browser window rather than a device-specific playback interface. The HTML'svideo
element must also include thewebkit-playsinline
attribute (defaults tono
) - keyboardDisplayRequiresUserAction: Set to
yes
orno
to open the keyboard when form elements receive focus via JavaScript'sfocus()
call (defaults toyes
). - suppressesIncrementalRendering: Set to
yes
orno
to wait until all new view content is received before being rendered (defaults tono
). - presentationstyle: Set to
pagesheet
,formsheet
orfullscreen
to set the presentation style (defaults tofullscreen
). - transitionstyle: Set to
fliphorizontal
,crossdissolve
orcoververtical
to set the transition style (defaults tocoververtical
). - toolbarposition: Set to
top
orbottom
(default isbottom
). Causes the toolbar to be at the top or bottom of the window.
Windows only:
- 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 tono
(default) to have the browser open and load normally. - 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.
- location: Set to
Supported Platforms
- Amazon Fire OS
- Android
- BlackBerry 10
- Firefox OS
- iOS
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Windows Phone 7 and 8
- Browser
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');
Firefox OS Quirks
As plugin doesn't enforce any design there is a need to add some CSS rules if
opened with target='_blank'
. The rules might look like these
Windows Quirks
Windows 8.0, 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 don't support remote urls to be opened in the Cordova WebView so remote urls are always showed in the system's web browser if opened with target='_self'
.
On Windows 10 if the URL is NOT in the white list and is opened with target='_self'
it will be showed in the system's web browser instead of InAppBrowser popup.
Similar to Firefox OS IAB window visual behaviour can be overridden via inAppBrowserWrap
/inAppBrowserWrapFullscreen
CSS classes
Browser Quirks
-
Plugin is implemented via iframe,
-
Navigation history (
back
andforward
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
- executeScript
- insertCSS
InAppBrowser.addEventListener
Adds a listener for an event from the
InAppBrowser
.
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.
- loadstart: event fires when the
-
callback: the function that executes when the event fires. The function is passed an
InAppBrowserEvent
object as a parameter.
Example
var inAppBrowserRef; { var target = "_blank"; var options = "location=yes,hidden=yes"; inAppBrowserRef = cordovaInAppBrowser; inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef; } { text"loading please wait ..."; } { if inAppBrowserRef != undefined inAppBrowserRef; text""; inAppBrowserRef; } { text""; var scriptErrorMesssage = "alert('Sorry we cannot open that page. Message from the server is : " + paramsmessage + "');" inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef = undefined; } { if params0 == null text "Sorry we couldn't open that page. Message from the server is : '" + paramsmessage + "'"; }
InAppBrowserEvent Properties
-
type: the eventname, either
loadstart
,loadstop
,loaderror
, orexit
. (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)
Supported Platforms
- Amazon Fire OS
- Android
- iOS
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Windows Phone 7 and 8
- Browser
Browser Quirks
loadstart
and loaderror
events are not being 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
.
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.
- loadstart: event fires when the
-
callback: the function to execute when the event fires. The function is passed an
InAppBrowserEvent
object.
Supported Platforms
- Amazon Fire OS
- Android
- iOS
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Windows Phone 7 and 8
- Browser
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
- Amazon Fire OS
- Android
- Firefox OS
- iOS
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Windows Phone 7 and 8
- Browser
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
- Amazon Fire OS
- Android
- iOS
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Browser
Quick Example
var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('http://apache.org', '_blank', 'hidden=yes');
// some time later...
ref.show();
InAppBrowser.executeScript
Injects JavaScript code into the
InAppBrowser
window
ref.executeScript(details, callback);
-
ref: reference to the
InAppBrowser
window. (InAppBrowser) -
injectDetails: details of the script to run, specifying either a
file
orcode
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 anArray
. For multi-line scripts, this is the return value of the last statement, or the last expression evaluated.
- If the injected script is of type
Supported Platforms
- Amazon Fire OS
- Android
- iOS
- Windows 8 and 8.1
- Browser
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.
ref.insertCSS(details, callback);
-
ref: reference to the
InAppBrowser
window (InAppBrowser) -
injectDetails: details of the script to run, specifying either a
file
orcode
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
- Amazon Fire OS
- 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.
- Load a help page.
- Let users know that you're getting their page ready.
- Show the help page.
- Handle page errors.
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.
Need help? Show me a helpful article Show me a helpful video Search for other topics
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.
;
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.
{ var target = "_blank"; var options = "location=yes,hidden=yes"; inAppBrowserRef = cordovaInAppBrowser; inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef; }
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.
{ 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.
{ if inAppBrowserRef != undefined inAppBrowserRef; text""; inAppBrowserRef; }
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.
{ text""; var scriptErrorMesssage = "alert('Sorry we cannot open that page. Message from the server is : " + paramsmessage + "');" inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef; inAppBrowserRef = undefined; } { if params0 == null text "Sorry we couldn't open that page. Message from the server is : '" + paramsmessage + "'"; }
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