I created an incredibly basic app which includes a SFSafariViewController pointing at the URL http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_cookies.asp . This is a test website for reading and writing cookies.
I then loaded the same website into Mobile Safari, and added one cookie. I switched to my app, read the cookie, it's there. I go back to Safari, add another cookie, go back to my app, but the second cookie hasn't appeared. I refresh the pages, no difference. Go back to Safari and read the cookies, they are both read successfully.
Is there anything I need to do between apps in order for the cookies to be written and read properly?
A user on the Apple Dev Forums suggested that it might only work for "persisted cookies" not "session cookies". I wasn't setting an expiry date on my cookies. I changed that by getting a time in the future:
const expireTime = new Date(Date.now() + 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24).toGMTString();
And then setting it in the header:
"Set-Cookie":`query=${uri.query}; path=/; expires=${expireTime}`
And now the cookie value appears in SFSafariViewController.
You could enforce the SFSarfariViewController to dismiss when the app closes. This would ensure the webpage gets refreshed along with any new cookies.
In ViewDidLoad:
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(shouldDismiss:) name:UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification object:nil];
then:
- (void)shouldDismiss:(NSNotification*)notification {
[self.safariViewContollerName dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil]
}
Hope this helps,
Liam
As Apple's document said:
The SFSafariViewController class provides a standard interface for browsing the web. The view controller includes Safari features such as Reader, AutoFill, Fraudulent Website Detection, and content blocking. It shares cookies and other website data with Safari. The user's activity and interaction with SFSafariViewController are not visible to your app, which cannot access AutoFill data, browsing history, or website data. You do not need to secure data between your app and Safari.
By default it's shares cookies and other website data with Safari. You don't have to do anything.
Related
I have an app that logs you in via opening safari and redirecting you back to the app - however on "Log out" I need to open safari in order to log you out - is there a way to do this in the background instead?
For Log in:
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:[DataService loginURL]]];
However, I would like to not have to do the same for Logout - and simply get safari to run in the background or something similar. The problem is that the cookies are saved, and I need to get rid of them. Can I get safari to open a website without having to open Safari through the application?
Can you open Safari in the background? I'm pretty certain that the answer to that is no. In any case, if your main concern is to delete the cookies then you may not get the chance - the user could just kill the app, and the cookies would sit in Safari.
Is it an option to use a UIWebView or WKWebView to perform authentication? So rather than taking them off to Safari, the user would see the browser content actually inside the app.
That might improve the user experience, and you'd get a lot more control. For example, you could point the web view to your log out url when the time came for it. That might save you some cookie hassles too.
Besides which, I think openURL: is now deprecated because it was involved in some shenanigans.
I am developing iOS app that loads a webpage using UIWebView
The web page sets four cookies:
Two for Google Analytics, _ga and _gat
One for my web application unique vistors counter
One for my webpage to detect whether user has voted or not.
If this cookie available then display the poll results.
From Firefox's Storage Inspector I see all my cookies as expected, see screenshot:
However, from iOS I printed NSHTTPCookieStorage.sharedHTTPCookieStorage().cookies from inside webViewDidFinishLoad and there is only two of four expected cookies, also iOS users can vote as many times as they wanted because cookies are not detected (or not stored in iOS device):
if let cookies = NSHTTPCookieStorage.sharedHTTPCookieStorage().cookies {
for c in cookies {
print("*******************")
print("name: \(c.name)")
print("domain: \(c.domain)")
print("value: \(c.value)")
print("path: \(c.path)")
print("expiresDate: \(c.expiresDate)")
}
}
Why my iOS app does not detect my custom cookies and only detects my Google Analytics ones?
NOTE 1: I have also added this code to my app:
func applicationDidBecomeActive(application: UIApplication) {
NSHTTPCookieStorage.sharedHTTPCookieStorage().cookieAcceptPolicy = NSHTTPCookieAcceptPolicy.Always
}
NOTE 2: My backend is SharePoint web application
A few ideas:
The device's Safari "Block Cookies" settings override any changes to the cookieAcceptPolicy. The default policy of this setting on the device is "Allow from Websites I Visit," which depending on your iOS device's version, allows third-party cookies. Testing with iOS 9.3.x shows that third party cookies are persisted in a UIWebView with the default settings, but do not persist with the settings "Allow from Current Website Only" or "Always Block."
Check if the device persists your cookie with the different Safari cookie settings.
Additionally, does your cookie have an expiration date set? I've found that cookies without an expiration date set are treated as session cookies in a UIWebView, which only persist with the lifecycle of the web view that received it.
I am building an iOS app that is using facebook to gain traction. I would like to invite some friends, that user selects from list, but without showing facebook confirmation dialog, i want that to happen behind the scenes.
Reading documentation there is property frictionlessRequestsEnabled, but even that shows dialog, where i have option to disable showing dialog in the future. Is there some other way to do this?
Many apps invite all of your friends without showing the Facebook Dialog Box. It is possible by modifying the FBSDK. Simply clone the FBSDK repository to your local machine, edit in Xcode and Command+B to build the framework for your own use. The following classes are relevant to inviting in the FBSDK for iOS:
FBSDKWebDialogView
FBSDKWebDialog
FBSDKGameRequestDialog
To get the URL Generated for the dialog view:
In FBSDKWebDialog.m in -(BOOL)show:
NSURL *URL = [self _generateURL:&error];
This is the URL generated to load the web view. It is possible to use this URL without the web dialog view, as long as it is only generated once (access token gets reset every time the URL is generated) and is used on a mobile browser.
To Invite Without The Dialog Box
You can use javascript to simulate clicking the go button by doing something like this (assuming you have specified your parameters and recipients properly and your app is already set up through Facebook)
In FBSDKWebDialogView.m in - (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView :
[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:.1 target:[NSBlockOperation blockOperationWithBlock:^{ NSString * jsCallBack = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"document.getElementById(\"u_0_0\").click();"];
[webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:jsCallBack];
[webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:#"document.getElementById(\"u_0_0\").click();"]; }] selector:#selector(main) userInfo:nil repeats:NO ];
As long as the webView is present somewhere, you may be able to do these actions with little interference for the user. You could set the webView frame to be very small, or potentially hide the view altogether.
Facebook is however, policing hard against this sort of thing and it likely that that there will be more protection against this in the future.
FBSDK Repo Here:
https://github.com/facebook/facebook-ios-sdk
We have an ad partner that is redirecting users to the app store after an ad in our app is tapped. We load an in-app browser which does the redirect. Nothing in the browser ever loads, it is just a white screen. Once the user returns to our app they are looking at that empty browser. Is there anyway to dismiss or close that browser once the redirect is completed?
We don't have any control over the server side.
What kind of in-app browser you are using in your app? Like a library or an UIWebView? If it's an UIWebView, there's a callback method when the webpage is loaded (and probably, redirected the link):
- (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView;
If you're using a library, I'm pretty sure it also has a method like that.
I fixed this by skipping the in-app browser and used Safari instead. App store re-directs are happening without showing the browser window and all the other ads are working as expected.
Plus I got to delete a bunch of old code.
We are having an issue on our network with iOS devices (ipads, iphones etc): After connecting to the SSID, the iphone / ipad immediately opens the Captive Network Assistant (CNA) - it is like a scaled-down browser without navigation buttons etc - that displays our welcome page (ready for the user to authenticate his MAC in the network to give him internet). This CNA is a functin of iOS, and happens automatically.
I was looking around on this forum how to make the user open his Safari browser by clicking a link (while in the CNA), thus sending him away from the CNA and into Safari (which is where I would prefer him to be).
I searched phrases such as: "How to set a link to open in safari", but I get results about people using phonegap to do such a thing...
One user talked about using
window.open(myURL, '_system')
but I don't know if that is solving my issue.
Basically my plan is to:
- Have my Welcome Page (the page displayed after the user connected to my SSID) detect what type of browser the user's device has. My Welcome Page is hosted at a site which is in the Walled Garden of my controller, so every device can see that Welcome page (whether they have full internet access or not).
- If the user has an iOS device, the CNA browser opens automatically. My controller detects the device has a CNA browser and loads a simple page with the message (like): "click here to start to navigate"
- During the next few seconds (while the user is digesting the message), my controller gives the user's MAC full internet access
- When the user clicks that link in the CNA browser, the CNA closes and then opens Safari, and also forces Safari to open the destination Welcome Page (where I want my user to be, depending on the antenna to which he connected).
I really hope that all makes sense...
I found this link about the CNA browser in this forum:
Bypasses Apple Captive Network Assistant Login in iOS 7
But it talks having the user open Safari right from the start (disabling the CNA function), "hoping" that the user opens Safari (rather then going directly to one of his apps). I prefer that the user has to "click to continue", which makes Safari open and he sees my Welcome Page.
EDIT : this solution doesn't work after iOS 10.3. Not sure if that's a feature or a bug : https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/75498
EDIT2 : Apparently it works again on iOS 11
There is a simple way to do that, if you have control over the captive portal server.
When connecting to a wifi network, iOS devices send a GET request to a bunch of predefined urls (http://www.apple.com/library/test/success.html, ...) , to see if there is Internet connectivity (wispr requests). The iOS device expects the answer <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Success</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>Success</BODY></HTML>. If the request succeeds, but the answer is different (for example your captive portal page), it triggers the CNA to open.
At this stage, the CNA thinks you are not connected and will show a Cancel button at the top. Every link will open inside the CNA and not in a Safari window, no matter what you do. The CNA is done so that you can get your user through the log-in process. In order to see if the log-in process is done and connection is finally established, the iOS device will now and then send another wispr request. This happens every 40 seconds, or whenever an HTTP request is emitted (navigation within the CNA).
When your server finally answers Success to a wispr request, the CNA will mark as connected, the button at the top will change into Done. At this stage, any link to an external url will close the CNA and open in Safari :)
So to summarize, you can achieve what you want with the following connection steps :
server answers initial wispr request with your CNA page.
the page opens in CNA. In that page, have some JavaScript that immediately triggers navigation within the CNA, for example : <script>window.location.reload(true)</script> this will trigger the iOS device to immediately send another wispr request
server answers this second wispr request with <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Success</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>Success</BODY></HTML>, this will trigger the CNA to mark as connected
have your CNA page to show a link to an external url
Extracted from an answer by Ryan at How can I open an external link in Safari not the app's UIWebView?
To have a specific link switch to Safari, simply add target="_system" to the link, as in
Link Text
Or to catch all links in your javascript that have target="_blank", include jQuery and pass them to window.open with the '_system' param. This will work on both iOS and Android.
$(document).on('click', 'a[target="_blank"]', function(ev) {
var url;
ev.preventDefault();
url = $(this).attr('href');
window.open(url, '_system');
});
Javascript does NOT work fully in CNA, it is disabled for security reason.
target="_system" is a safari feature, not a CNA one.
==> briefly, _system fails in CNA.