Does WebView need a WebViewClient to work?

Question

I was going through android tutorials and tried out the WebView example. This is what I ended up with:

WebAppActivity

public class WebAppActivity extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        WebView wv = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView1);
        wv.loadUrl("http://www.google.com");

    }
}

main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <WebView
        android:id="@+id/webView1"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
    </WebView>

</LinearLayout>

But instead of loading the page in the application itself, as soon as the application starts the default android browser opens and the page loads in the browser instead of the application. When I press back I return to the application activity which displays a blank screen.

Does anyone know why this is happening?

Edit:

manifest

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

<application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name" >
    <activity
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:name=".WebAppActivity" >
        <intent-filter >
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
</application>

This was just to show that I have added the INTERNET permission

Edit :

As soon as I add a WebViewClient,

wv.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {});

the page loads in the application. Is this expected behaviour? Does an Android WebView require a WebViewClient? (couldn't find any documentation on it)

Edit :

I noticed that this problem occurs when I install the apk in an emulator which has the Google APIs. On a normal emulator (without the Google APIs) it behaves as expected.

Answer 1

Yes, you have to set a WebViewClient that returns true on the overridden method 'shouldOverrideUrlLoading' so that your webview loads the URL in your app.

Let me know if you want an example.

---

Edit

@Aki WebViewClient.shouldOverrideUrlLoading Documentation

Give the host application a chance to take over the control when a new url is about to be loaded in the current WebView. If WebViewClient is not provided, by default WebView will ask Activity Manager to choose the proper handler for the url. If WebViewClient is provided, return true means the host application handles the url, while return false means the current WebView handles the url.

Answer 2

For loading a webpage from url into a webview, there is no need to setting webview client. Without webview client you can load a webpage into your webview. But WebViewClient brings many advantages for handling the webview. Sample usage for loading webpage from url,

webView.loadUrl(yoururl);