WKWebView on link click listener? - ios

Question

Does there exist something like a onLinkClickListener in the WKWebView class? I tried googling it but found nothing, I also found some unanswered questions on stackoverflow of simillar type.
The reason I need a linkClickListener is that, when I click on a link and the page did not load yet, it does not load the website. I also could create a fancy loading screen, when the page is loading with the listener.

Answer 1

You can do it like this
add WKNavigationDelegate to your class
class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate
set a navigation delegate
yourWKWebview.navigationDelegate = self
after that you will be able to use decidePolicyFor navigationAction function
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: #escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
if navigationAction.navigationType == WKNavigationType.linkActivated {
print("link")
decisionHandler(WKNavigationActionPolicy.cancel)
return
}
print("no link")
decisionHandler(WKNavigationActionPolicy.allow)
}

Answer 2

Here is the solution you were looking for
Original answer from Bala: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44408807/8661382
Create WkNavigationDelegate to your class:
class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate {
}
Override the method loadView and add an observer like this:
override func loadView() {
webView = WKWebView()
webView.navigationDelegate = self
webView.addObserver(self, forKeyPath: "URL", options: [.new, .old], context: nil)
view = webView
}
In viewDidLoad add an url to your webView.:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.navigationController?.setNavigationBarHidden(false, animated: true)
let url = URL(string: "https://www.hackingwithswift.com")!
webView.load(URLRequest(url: url))
webView.allowsBackForwardNavigationGestures = true
}
Finally, most importantly override observerValue method like this:
override func observeValue(forKeyPath keyPath: String?, of object: Any?,
change: [NSKeyValueChangeKey : Any]?, context: UnsafeMutableRawPointer?) {
if let newValue = change?[.newKey] as? Int, let oldValue = change?
[.oldKey] as? Int, newValue != oldValue {
//Value Changed
print(change?[.newKey] as Any)
}else{
//Value not Changed
print(change?[.oldKey] as Any)
}
}
This will print the link you click on webView before loading the link.