Access requested URL in webViewDidFinishLoad? - ios

Question

I'm very new to iOS development so please be gentle.
I understand that webViewDidFinishLoad will fire for each <iframe> plus the original html page.
I'm trying to find the URL of the request that resulted in that webViewDidFinishLoad. As far as I can tell, I can only access webView.request.mainDocumentURL.
I find this perplexing. Inside the shouldStartLoadWithRequest method, which fires also for each <iframe> and the original html request, you can access the URL in question, be it the iframe or the parent page.
- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType
{
NSLog(#"Parent page request: %#", request.mainDocumentURL);
NSLog(#"Actual URL request: %#", [request URL]); // This returns what I want.
return YES;
}
That first log statement will output the url.
However, inside webViewDidFinishLoad
- (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView
{
NSURLRequest* request = [webView request];
NSLog(#"Parent page request: %#", request.mainDocumentURL);
NSLog(#"Request outputs the parent, not the iframe: %#", [request URL]);
// how do I access the <iframe> url?
}
Help me StackOverflow. My google-fu is weak and your wisdom is strong.
EDIT: I should be clear on the goal of this. I want to Do Stuff™ when the load event of the parent page fires, not for iframes. I want this to happen as soon as possible, so I don't want to wait until everything finishes.

Answer 1

Think of the UIWebView as your browser. The scope of the object you are interrogating is at the browser level, the iFrames are more granular than that. The URL that populates the iFrame is used to stream content for that section of the page, but for the purposes of the UIWebView, you only need to remember the main URL so the page can be managed (reloaded, etc...) as that URL clearly brings with it instructions as to how to manage the iFrame's content.
If you really need to those iFrame source URLS, simply extendeding UIWebView to hold an array of links (populate the array inside "shouldStartLoadWithRequest"). You can then do whatever you want with that list of links.
Good Luck.