CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneuiwebview
RK-
RK-

Reputation: 12211

Can UIWebView replace a Safari?

Can we build an Application using UIWebView that will entirely mimic the Safari Browser?

Are there any cases where UIWebview can not do what that can be done in Safari?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 660

Answers (3)

Pranav Jaiswal
Pranav Jaiswal

Reputation: 3752

Rendering content in UIWebView will be much slower than it is in Safari.

Safari's Javascript engine uses a "just in time" compiler. It takes the incoming Javascript code and transforms it on the fly into machine code that can run directly on the iOS device's ARM CPU. This allows Javascript code to run at a speed similar to a native app's code.

The problem is that Apple doesn't trust third-party developers with this power. If a third-party app had the power to convert Javascript into machine code and run it, that app would also have the power to download and run other pieces of machine code—and Apple would never get the chance to review that code. Once App Review approved it, (developers/hackers) can change the downloaded code into something that logs your passwords or something. And there's no way to grant this power only to UIWebView and not to other parts of an app, because UIWebView runs in the same process as the developer's code.

So basically Apple forbids this because allowing it would break the security provided by the App Store and make iOS more vulnerable to attack. They can allow it for Safari because they control what Safari does, but they can't trust others not to abuse that ability.

Upvotes: 0

Mihnea Ovidenie
Mihnea Ovidenie

Reputation: 11

You cannot easily build an application that mimics the Safari browser using the public API exposed by UIWebView component. For one thing, please look at the UIWebView delegate methods. When you have frames inside the page you want to load, you may have a hard time telling if a user has clicked inside an iframe/frame or clicked on a link in the main document.

Dealing with authentication to site with invalid certificates is also hard with the UIWebView component, especially when the site with invalid certificate is reached by clicking a link inside an iframe.

Upvotes: 0

mvds
mvds

Reputation: 47044

For one thing, you have a separate cookie storage per app. So if a user has some preferences at site X within Safari, it won't have those preferences at site X within your browser, and vice versa. Apart from that a UIWebView is very much like the real thing.

Upvotes: 2

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