Android Webview Anchor Link (Jump link) not working

Question

I have a WebView in my Android App that is loading an HTML string using the loadDataWithBaseURL() method. The problem is that local anchor links (<a href="#link">...) are not working correctly. When the link is clicked, it becomes highlighted, but does not scroll to the corresponding anchor.

This also does not work if I use the WebView's loadUrl() method to load a page that contains anchor links. However, if I load the same URL in the browser, the anchor links do work.

Is there any special handling required to get these to work for a WebView?

I am using API v4 (1.6).

There isn't much to the code, here are the relevant parts of some test code I've been working with:

WebView detailBody = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.article_detail_body); String s = "<a href=\"#link\">LINK!</a><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><a name=\"link\"></a>Testing!"; detailBody.loadDataWithBaseURL(API.HomeURL(this), s, "text/html", "utf-8", ""); 

Answer 1

It looks like the problem is that I had a WebView within a ScrollView. The WebView isn't able to scroll to an anchor link when configured like this. After refactoring my layout to eliminate the ScrollView, the anchor links work correctly.

Answer 2

Android Webview Anchor Link (Jump link) Not Working

True, WebView Anchor Links, or Jump Links initiated through the #LINK extension to the URL will not work when the WebView is inside of a ScrollView(*).

Still, the problem for me and apparently others is that the #LINK does work when launched from a touch in an href, but is ignored when launched via the URL. Other symptoms include navigating to the link only on the first time in a session or navigating to the bottom of the html file.

The Solution is to load the url after a short delay.

Here is an example:

My html is saved in assets: res/assets/help.html

With anchors like this:

<a name="helplinkcontacts"/> 

And loaded like this:

final String baseUrl = "file:///android_asset/help.html#helplinkcontacts"; final WebView helpTextView = (WebView)findViewById(R.id.help_dialog_text); helpTextView.loadUrl(baseUrl); // Ignores Anchor!! 

I added the timer like this:

final String baseUrl = "file:///android_asset/help.html#helplinkcontacts"; final WebView helpTextView = (WebView)findViewById(R.id.help_dialog_text); Timer timer = new Timer(); timer.schedule(new TimerTask() {     @Override     public void run() {         helpTextView.loadUrl(baseUrl);     } }, 400); 

Note: Shorter delays, such as 100ms failed to navigate to the link.

(*) It turns out that so many of us have our WebViews inside of ScrollViews because we started out with a TextView rendering Spannable text which both supports some HTML and requires a ScrollView. Anyways, remove the ScrollView as soon as you convert your TextView into a WebView.