webViewDidFinishLoad not working? - ios

Question

In my app, I am trying to make a splash image appear as my UIWebView loads so it is not just a blank screen. However my webViewDidFinishLoad method will not work. This means that the splash image appears but does not disappear from the screen once the UIWebView has loaded.
My code for the method is:
- (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView {
NSLog(#"content loading finished");
[loadingImageView removeFromSuperview];
}
Any help on why the method will not work would be appreciated greatly.
My .h:
#interface ViewController : UIViewController
-(IBAction)makePhoneCall:(id)sender;
#property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UIWebView *webView;
#property(nonatomic, strong) UIImageView *loadingImageView;
#end
My ViewDidLoad and webViewDidFinishLoading:
- (void)viewDidLoad {
UIWebView *mWebView = [[UIWebView alloc] init];
mWebView.delegate = self;
mWebView.scalesPageToFit = YES;
[super viewDidLoad];
}
//**************** Set website URL for UIWebView
[webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.sleafordpizza.com/food"]]];
//**************** Add Static loading image to prevent white "flash" ****************/
UIImage *loadingImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"LittleItalyLogo.png"];
loadingImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:loadingImage];
loadingImageView.animationImages = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
[UIImage imageNamed:#"LittleItalyLogo.png"],
nil];
[self.view addSubview:loadingImageView];
}
- (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView {
NSLog(#"content loading finished");
// Remove loading image from view
[loadingImageView removeFromSuperview];
}

Answer 1

Hi probably you do not set proper delegate.
This is small code tip for you.
-(void)viewDidLoad {
mWebView = [[UIWebView alloc] init];
mWebView.delegate = self;
mWebView.scalesPageToFit = YES;
}
-(void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView {
[loadingImageView removeFromSuperview];
NSLog(#"finish");
}
In you're .h file add.
#interface MyView: UIViewController <UIWebViewDelegate> {
UIWebView *webView;
}
Code fixes.
For .h file
#interface ViewController : UIViewController<UIWebViewDelegate>
-(IBAction)makePhoneCall:(id)sender;
#property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UIWebView *webView;
#property(nonatomic, strong) UIImageView *loadingImageView;
#end
For .m file
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
webView.delegate = self;
//**************** Set website URL for UIWebView
[webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.sleafordpizza.com/food"]]];
//**************** Add Static loading image to prevent white "flash" ****************/
UIImage *loadingImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"LittleItalyLogo.png"];
loadingImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:loadingImage];
loadingImageView.animationImages = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
[UIImage imageNamed:#"LittleItalyLogo.png"],
nil];
[self.view addSubview:loadingImageView];
}

Answer 2

At certain times, this delegate method actually never gets fired. I have had severe problems with the same thing in some of my projects.
At one occasion, I actually had to solve it with a timer, checking the state of the web view every second or so to see if I could proceed.
In that particular case, I just needed a certain element to be present. Still, the view did not trigger the finish loading event, due to external script errors being injected.
So, I just started a trigger when the web view begun loading, then called a method every now and then to see if the web view contained the element in question.
- (void)methodCalledByTimer {
if (<I still do not have what I need>) {
//The web view has not yet finished loading; keep checking
} else {
//The web view has finished loading; stop the timer, hide spinners and proceed
}
}
You could also check if the web view is actually loading, if that is absolutely necessary:
- (void)methodCalledByTimer {
if (self.webView.isLoading) {
//The web view has not yet finished loading; keep checking
} else {
//The web view has finished loading; stop the timer, hide spinners and proceed
}
}
Then, naturally, I'd check for the finishedLoading event as well, just to be sure. Remember to also implement the webView:didFailLoadWithError: method as well.
When waiting for a web page to finish loading, there are some things to keep in mind.
For instance, do you really need it to stop loading, or is there anything else you can do? In my case, I needed an element. Being able to properly execute a script is another thing that may be required.
Second, is the loading page using any external resources? I once had external script errors causing the webViewDidFinishLoad: method to not being called at all. If I removed the external scripts, it worked.
Third, if the page is using external resources, you are exposed not only to the loading capacity of your own resources, but that of the external resources as well. Tracking scripts, ads etc...if one resource provider is delivering content sloooowly (or not at all), you could page could be stuck in loading state forever.
So, I'd go with checking for something else. :)

Answer 3

I see you aren't handling errors. If there is an error, all subsequent delegate calls will not happen. I was surprised to find that this is true when the webview uses a plugin too. It calls this error method telling you that the webview handed off to the delegate, in my case the movie player.
implement this and see if that is it.
-(void) webView:(UIWebView *)webView didFailLoadWithError:(NSError *)error
{
if (error.code == 204) {
//request was handled by a plugin instead of by the webview directly
...
}
else
{
NSLog(#"didFailLoadWithError. ERROR: %#", error);
}
}
I was able to do all the remaining loading work in this method instead of the webviewdidfinishLoad