WKWebview won't load certain websites properly - ios

Question

I need to load a wide assortment of website URLS (which come from a webservice) into a WKWebview.
Some websites, behave quite well, and load properly just by replacing "http" for "https" in the URL:
http://www.yahoo.com/news -> loads blank
**https://www.yahoo.com/news -> loads OK!!**
URLs without the https:// prefix will NOT load at all.
http://www.google.com -> blank
**https://www.google.com -> Loads OK!!!**
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news (no .plist Exception) -> blank
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news (no .plist Exception) -> blank
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news (WITH .plist Exception) -> blank
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news (WITH .plist Exception) -> blank
(I pasted https://www.bbc.co.uk/news on MAC OS browser, and got redirected to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news, so I tried them as well:)
https://www.bbc.com/news (WITH .plist Exception) -> Images and text are loaded in a messy, unformatted, basic way.
http://www.bbc.com/news (WITH .plist Exception) -> Images and text are loaded in a messy, unformatted, basic way.
https://www.bbc.com/news (WITHOUT .plist Exception) -> blank
http://www.bbc.com/news (WITHOUT .plist Exception) -> blank
Other urls behave just like the BBC, or, Yahoo examples above.
This is the sort of exception I use on the .plist file.
This is my code:
- (void)viewDidLoad{
[super viewDidLoad];
CGRect wkFrame = _wios10container.frame;
NSLog(#"WPVC - viewDidLoad, wkFrame: %#",NSStringFromCGRect(wkFrame));
WKWebViewConfiguration *wkConfiguration = [[WKWebViewConfiguration alloc] init];
_webviewIOS10 = [[WKWebView alloc] initWithFrame:_wios10container.frame configuration:wkConfiguration];
_webviewIOS10.navigationDelegate = self;
[_wios10container addSubview:_webviewIOS10];
}
My questions are:
How can I properly load websites such as the BBC?
How can I prepare my app to load any URL without needing a huge list
of exceptions?
The app works fine if I set NSAppTransportSecurity.NSAllowsArbitraryLoads to YES, but I dont like that at all.
What alternative to that do I have for the sake of Security and App Store approval?

Answer 1

A more robust way to do this would be using the WKNavigationDelegate and in your case evaluate the URL. To handle with a huge list (without no more knowledge about that list) I would do a regular expression evaluation to perform based on it. Also you could create a redirection policy based on your needs.
For instance:
class WebNavigationHandler: NSObject, WKNavigationDelegate {
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: #escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Swift.Void) {
//Based on the navigation action decide what to do.
if canINavigate {
decisionHandler(.allow)
} else {
decisionHandler(.cancel)
}
}
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationResponse: WKNavigationResponse, decisionHandler: #escaping (WKNavigationResponsePolicy) -> Swift.Void) {
// Base on the navigationResponse
if canINavigate {
decisionHandler(.allow)
} else {
decisionHandler(.cancel)
}
}
}
let webview = WKWebView()
webview.navigationDelegate = WebNavigationHandler()
Hope it answer your question.

Answer 2

I think you're looking for the NSAllowArbitraryLoadsInWebContent setting for NSAppTransportSecurity. See this Apple document: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/CocoaKeys.html

Answer 3

After much trial and error, this is the formula that worked for me:
Do NOT replace http: for https: in the URL string
Add individual domain exceptions for each domain you want to
support. My app requires to display only 8 websites, so this
combination works fine!:
<key>bbc.co.uk</key>
<dict>
<key>NSIncludesSubdomains</key>
<true/>
<key>NSExceptionAllowsInsecureHTTPLoads</key>
<true/>
<key>NSExceptionRequiresForwardSecrecy</key>
<true/>
<key>NSExceptionMinimumTLSVersion</key>
<string>TLSv1.2</string>
<key>NSThirdPartyExceptionAllowsInsecureHTTPLoads</key>
<false/>
<key>NSThirdPartyExceptionRequiresForwardSecrecy</key>
<true/>
<key>NSThirdPartyExceptionMinimumTLSVersion</key>
<string>TLSv1.2</string>
<key>NSRequiresCertificateTransparency</key>
<false/>
</dict>
Optional, the former also applies for this other approach, loading the URL on a SFSafariViewController. I will settle for this approach, which is quite reliable and even has back, next, refresh, and share buttons in a built in nav. bar. Here is the code:
NSURL *wkURL = [NSURL URLWithString:wkURLstring];
SFSafariViewController *safariVC = [[SFSafariViewController alloc] initWithURL:wkURL];
[self.view.window.rootViewController presentViewController:safariVC animated:YES completion:^{
NSLog(#"Full Safari Webview Launched");
}];