I have a simple web app that I want to use locally (i.e. I don't want it to ever access the network). All the code is packaged according to the Safari Web Content Guide. I was successful in downloading my web app to my iPhone. I noticed, though, that even though my web app doesn't connect to anything remotely, there will be a network access (the network access indicator fires).
I suspect that iOS is checking to see if the web app is fresh (i.e. checking the cache manifest to see if it needs to update any files). Is there a way to prevent this? It really screws up the user experience.
The never-ending network spinner is a bug in iOS; you won't be able to get around it with a web app:
http://www.devthought.com/2012/09/22/understanding-the-ios6-ajax-bugs/
Related
I am making a chrome app. It is for a kiosk type application. At times the computer will be offline when it starts up. So I'm looking to make an application that a user can navigate to a website and then the entire website is cached. Then when they turn on the Chromebox/Chromebook the website will come up as it was. Including JS/CSS/dynamically loaded content.
Overall I'm looking to save the state of the entire webview and have it keep going after the machine reboots. I looked into saving the JS/CSS/HTML but then the dynamically loaded content (ajax calls) is not available. Is there a higher level function for saving the ENTIRE state of the webview in a google chrome app?
Zebradog's Kiosk Chrome App recently added "Serve local content" support. It works by using Web Server for Chrome in the background. It loads the content in a webview. You may not want a whole kiosk app, but this could at least be a starting point for you to use as reference.
One way of actually getting all the files, if you don't have them already, would be to use wget -r -k
My problem
I'm working on a project where Cordova is being used to display a remote website within the app. Cordova.js is being run from the remote server, etc., and this works pretty well.
I do have one issue though, especially on iOS devices.
If the device lose connection at the same time as I press a link on the website, the page will turn blank, as if to load the next page - but since the connection is lost nothing will be loaded into this blank page. Given iOS devices lack of back-buttons or such there's no way to navigate from this blank page except by closing the app and re-opening it.
My attempted, and failed, sollution
So, given that I can use Cordova.js to check for connection issues, I figured that I could use an iframe to display the remote website. If the connection goes bye-bye I'd just display a simple error message inside the iframe.
And well, this does work.
BUT. And this is a big but. InAppBrowser will not run from an iframe. And I can't live without the InAppBrowser, since it's used to display quite a few important features within the app.
So
Does anyone know a way to either:
a) Handle connection issues when running only remote content in the Cordova app?
b) Run the InAppBrowser from within an iframe? (I suppose I could use PostMessage etc. between the frames, but since I'm already sending/receiving data from the InAppBrowser I would love to avoid this in order to limit complexity).
c) Solve this issue in another fancy manner?
I have an application built using XPages' mobile controls. On an ipHone the application behaves as I would like in the standard Safari browser. When I take the url and add it to the Home Page as an icon and use the application from there every time an action I take invokes a native application (Maps, Contacts, Phone, attachment viewers etc.) when I switch back to my application I am immediately asked for my userid and password again. Is there a way to control the behavior to not lose the login credentials the same way that the standard Safari application seems to.
This is a limitation in iOS. If you save it to the home page like that it works, but it will NOT multi-task. That's the problem. So it doesn't remember where you were or anything like that.
As David mentions it starts all over again when you switch back.... The problem is not only the credentials - it is also all the information you may have entered or where you have navigated to in the "app".
This is why I am changing to another approach. I am starting to write apps as web-apps that run locally (i.e. cache the ressources and run on the cached versions of the JS-files, CSS and images). Then I implement a localstorage where you can track where in the app you are - and return to that place again. This way you do not need the authentication for running the app - only for synchronizing the information with the server. My approach is to save data locally and sync them to the server (as a sort of replication). This obviously gives more work - but it also gives a better user experience since you can run the "app" without being connected.
I have tried to control the caching locally using a cache.manifest file. This can be done, however, it is a pain. Therefore, I am now using Sencha Touch which really does this nicely.
/John
PS. I think you may be able to handle the login issue by using the XPage Dojo login custom control (http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?action=openDocument&name=Xpages%20Dojo%20Login%20Custom%20Control) - however, it does not solve the issue with reloading the page...
It seems the secret to success here is NOT to tell Safari the XPage is capable of acting as a mobile web app. Add the following code inside for the XPage to ensure this is the case.
<xp:metaData
name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable"
content="no">
</xp:metaData>
Note: You can still provide an icon for the home screen, its just that icon will now act more like a bookmark with the Safari controls and (more importantly) you can switch between applications and when you return to Safari it will display your Xpages app just as you left it.
I have a client that needed to abandon their very poor native app and needs a temporary solution immediately. They have a mobile optimized website and we'd like to deploy an app in the store to replace the current one, and design it such that as soon as you launch it, it either hosts the site within a web browser control, or just redirects the user to a website in the iPhone Safari app. I realize there are subtle differences between the browser control and the actual Safari browsers.
Are there any tools or products that auto create such simple apps, and are there any problems with getting such simple apps approved by Apple?
Sounds like you want to make a hybrid app.
http://www.cocoacontrols.com/posts/a-primer-on-hybrid-apps-for-ios
Your app could just be a UIWebView that shows the website. It's possible that Apple might reject ithe app if there is nothing to it except a web view -- do some research on that possibility.
Let's say I have a web app that calls out to a native app via a custom URL scheme, and after the native app has done its thing it returns to my web app by opening a callback URL.
This all works fine when my web app is running in Safari. But what happens if a user saves the web app to the home screen (creating a "Web Clip")? In that case it runs in a separate process from regular safari, and has separate cookies and cache.
So when the native app tries to return to the web app, the URL will presumably get opened by Safari, not by the Web Clip, and the session will be lost. (And not just the session -- all the page state, which in a rich Javascript-based web app can be a lot of stuff with non-trivial startup time.)
Is this assumption correct? And if so, is there any way around it? Is there some way to get iOS to try to open the URL with a web clip if installed?
In order to have something launch via a custom url scheme on iOS, you must have an application register this information via the Info.plist built into the app.
It is not possible to have a webapp/webclip register this information system-level.
So, to answer your main question, you cannot do this.
Here is the information on implementing custom URL schemes in native applications.