You are here: Creating a Browser Using a Constructor: voltmx.ui.Browser

Browser Widget

The Browser widget is a container that displays URL content in your application. A Browser widget can also display HTML/ JavaScript content.

Using Browser widget you can view HTML/JavaScript content without navigating away from the application. Browser widgets also allow you to enable third-party cookies, and enable communication to the native platforms for using platform-specific capabilities.

The three key ways to load the content of a Browser widget are as follows:

• HTML content: Load the content of a Browser widget with HTML code by using this method. For example, if you want to load a YouTube URL in your application, you must use the iframe tag to embed it to the HTML script. You can then add this HTML script in the required Browser widget to view the URL.
• Javascript file: Access several JavaScript capabilities that are not supported in Volt MX Iris. You can write your code in a JavaScript file and add it to the Localfiles section of your application. You can then execute the JavaScript content by using a Browser widget. For example, you can use external JavaScript files to capture signatures in your application.
• URL: Use this method when the content that is to be loaded in a Browser widget is susceptible to a lot of changes. You should publish the content to a server and then load that URL to the Browser widget. A perfect example for this is the Terms and Conditions page. As the terms and conditions of an organization are susceptible to a lot of changes, you need not republish your application whenever there is a change in the terms and conditions.

Note: In previous versions of iOS applications, Browser widget uses UIWebView class in UIKit framework by default to display its contents. Apple has deprecated UIWebView class and recommends using the WKWebView class in WebKit framework.
As UIWebView class has been deprecated and its support will be removed from Apple, you must change the Browser Type of Browser widget to WKWebView class.

Widgets are normally added to your application using Volt MX Iris, but can also be added from code. For general information on using widgets in Iris, see Designing an Application in the Iris User Guide.

For general information on the Browser widget see the Browser topic in the Volt MX Iris User Guide.

Note: For a more hands-on approach on the functionality of Browser widget, import and preview the Browser Feature sample app by using Volt MX Iris.

The Browser widget capabilities can be broadly categorized into the following:

• 3D Touch
• Animations
• Data Management
• Layout
• Navigation Features
• User Input Handling
• Enabling RTL
• Miscellaneous
• Configurations Common To All Widgets

3D Touch

Animations

Data Management

Layout

Navigation Features

User Input Handling

Enabling RTL

Miscellaneous

Configurations common to all widgets

Browser Widget Basics

In This Section information on how to program with the Browser Widget.

Creating a Browser Using a Constructor: voltmx.ui.Browser

You can dynamically create an instance of the Browser widget as follows.

var webtemp = new voltmx.ui.Browser(basicConf, layoutConf, pspConf);

• basicConf is an object with basic properties.
• layoutConf is an object with layout properties.
• pspConf is an object with platform specific properties.

Note: The configuration properties should be passed only in the respective configuration objects otherwise they are ignored

1. Use the requestURLConfig property to specify the HTML content (static HTML content or a URL), as in the following example.

    var urlConf = {
        URL: "help/index.html",
        requestMethod: constants.BROWSER_REQUEST_METHOD_GET
    };
    
    var webBasic = {
        id: "browserID",
        isVisible: true,
        requestURLConfig: UrlConf
    };
    var webLayout = {
        containerHeight: 100
    };
    var webPsp = {};
    var browserID = new voltmx.ui.Browser(webBasic, webLayout, webPsp);
    frm1.add(browserID);
    

1. (Optional) If you choose to display HTML content from a URL, specify onfailure and onsuccess Events.
2. (Optional) You can choose to display a loading screen while the content is being loaded from a URL. For more information about the loading screen, see the Windows Library section of the API Reference Guide.
3. (Optional) On iPhone platform, you can move back and forward through the web page history using the Browser Methods.

Changing the Text Size through the Larger Text option in iOS

You can now change the text size of Browser widget through the Larger Text option from Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Larger Text in iOS.

To support this feature, you must implement the ‘dynamicTypeList’ dictionary in the voltmx.application.setApplicationBehaviors function as follows:

voltmx.application.setApplicationBehaviors({
    dynamicTypeList: {
        enableChangeTextSizeFromAccessibility: true,
        fontTextStyle: constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_BODY
    }
});

Input Parameters

• enableChangeTextSizeFromAccessibility (BOOL): If set to true, you can change the text size through the Larger Text option from Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Larger Text in iOS. Otherwise, the text size will not be changed.

• fontTextStyle: This is the font style applied on the Browser widget. If you pass only the enableChangeTextSizeFromAccessibility key-value pair in the dictionary and don’t send the fontTextStyle key-value pair, the default value for fontTextStyle will be constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_BODY. The values for fontTextStyle are as follows:

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_BODY

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_HEADLINE

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_SUBHEADLINE

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_FOOTNOTE

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_CAPTION1

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_CAPTION2

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_TITLE1 (available in iOS 9.0 and later)

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_TITLE2 (available in iOS 9.0 and later)

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_TITLE3 (available in iOS 9.0 and later)

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_CALLOUT (available in iOS 9.0 and later)

  • constants.FONT_TEXT_STYLE_LARGETITLE (available in iOS 11.0 and later)

To make the Browser widget compatible with this feature, you must set the font in the css or modify the inline style as follows:

Inline Style

<h1 style=”font:-apple-system-body”>

In CSS

h1

{font: -apple-system-headline;}

The following values are supported for the font in the Browser widget:

• -apple-system-body

• -apple-system-headline

• -apple-system-subheadline

• -apple-system-caption1

• -apple-system-caption2

• -apple-system-footnote

• -apple-system-short-body

• -apple-system-short-headline

• -apple-system-short-subheadline

• -apple-system-short-caption1

• -apple-system-short-footnote

• -apple-system-tall-body

Platform Availability

• iOS

Limitations

• If you enable this feature, the font size and font family from the respective skin is not respected.

• This feature is available only in iOS.

Accessing Native Functionality

For security reasons it is important that web apps in the Browser widget do not have access to native capabilities by default. Therefore, when your app starts, this access is disabled. However, you can enable it by setting the Browser widget’s enableNativeCommunication property. Your app can only set this property in the Browser widget’s constructor. After the constructor executes, this property is read-only.

Executing JavaScript in the Native Context

If your app sets the enableNativeCommunication property to true when it starts, then your app can call the voltmx.evaluateJavaScriptInNativeContext API to execute JavaScript functions within the context of your web app’s JavaScript modules.

JavaScript modules within your web app are the JavaScript modules in the LocalFiles folder, or one of its subfolders.

Your app can also include JavaScript modules that are executed in the native context. These modules are located in the Modules folder in your project, or one of its subfolders. JavaScript modules in the Modules folder generally contain event handlers for form events, functions to help process application data. So your app can be a hybrid app that uses widgets, JavaScript, and other Volt MX Iris capabilities together with bundled web content that is hosted in a Browser widget.

If your app is a hybrid app that contains JavaScript modules that are executed in the native context (i.e., modules located in Modules folder, or one of its subfolders), it can call globally available functions and execute them within the web app’s context by invoking the Browser widget’s evaluateJavaScript method. The call would look similar to the following example.

browserWidget.evaluateJavaScript("displayAlert(‘Hello World’)");  

Security Considerations

Volt MX Iris recommends that you only enable the enableNativeCommunication property for local packaged content, not for dynamically downloaded content.

There is a known security risk on the Android operating system for versions 4.1 (API 16) or earlier. Volt MX Iris highly recommends that you not enable the enableNativeCommunication property on any version of Android prior to 4.2 (API 17).

Push Notifications

When using push notifications with the Browser widget, your app should never bypass push notifications to use Cordova push notifications. This will cause an error. Always use the push notifications rather than the Cordova push notifications.

Important Considerations

The Browser widget has the following important considerations:

• On iOS and Android platforms, when the Browser widget is set as non-screen level widget and you keep some widgets before browser and after browser then double scrolling issue will be seen which is native iOS issue. You should use the browser widget as screen level widget and move other widgets to header or footer of the form.
• The Browser widget, unlike other widgets, is considered to be “heavy” widget as far as memory and performance is considered.
• The Browser widget uses a lot of initial RAM. The RAM usage grows in proportion to the number of images and static text rendered.
• If there are multiple instances of the Browser widget in the same application, there may be issues related to sharing of information. For example, cookies etc.
• You must not place multiple Browser widgets in a screen. As a guideline, you must not have more than two Browser widgets in an application.
• You must not use the Browser widget as a RichText widget. It should only be used to display large HTML content.
• You must avoid using the Browser widget to create an application which looks and behaves like a mini web browser. Users normally expect to use the native browser to browse web content. Replicating this functionality within your application is not recommended.
• On Android, for 4.2 and below the browser widget does not clip correctly to the bounds of a parent flex container with rounded edges. This is a native Android limitation. Clipping works correctly in API Level 18(4.3 and above).
• On SPA platform,
• On SPA (Windows) platform, content is rendered using a URL, opening a new tab is not technically possible. It opens in the current tab itself.

i18N Keys

The Android platform has introduced a set of i18N keys to configure the Geo Location Alert as per the end-user’s choice. The following are the platform-defined i18N keys with default values. You can override the default values.

• GEO_LOCATION_ALERT_TITLE =”Location”
• GEO_LOCATION_ALERT_DESCRIPTION = URL + “ wants to know your location”
• GEO_LOCATION_ALERT_REMEMBER =” Remember Preference”
• GEO_LOCATION_ALERT_ACCEPT =”Show Location”
• GEO_LOCATION_ALERT_DECLINE =”Decline”

Type

String

Read/Write

Read + Write

Example

voltmx.i18n.updateResourceBundle({
        "platform.web.geolocation.alert.description": "SpanishDescription",
        "platform.web.geolocation.alert.accept": "SpanishAccept",
        "platform.web.geolocation.alert.decline": "SpanishDecline",
        "platform.web.geolocation.alert.title ": "",
        "SpanishTitle ": "",
        "platform.web.geolocation.alert.remember": "SpanishRemember"
    },

    "es_US"
);  

Accessible from IDE

Yes

Platform Availability

Android