What's the difference between setWebViewClient vs. setWebChromeClient?

Question

What's the difference between setWebViewClient vs. setWebChromeClient in Android?

Answer 1

From the source code:

// Instance of WebViewClient that is the client callback. private volatile WebViewClient mWebViewClient; // Instance of WebChromeClient for handling all chrome functions. private volatile WebChromeClient mWebChromeClient;  // SOME OTHER SUTFFF.......  /**  * Set the WebViewClient.  * @param client An implementation of WebViewClient.  */ public void setWebViewClient(WebViewClient client) {     mWebViewClient = client; }  /**  * Set the WebChromeClient.  * @param client An implementation of WebChromeClient.  */ public void setWebChromeClient(WebChromeClient client) {     mWebChromeClient = client; } 

Using WebChromeClient allows you to handle Javascript dialogs, favicons, titles, and the progress. Take a look of this example: Adding alert() support to a WebView

At first glance, there are too many differences WebViewClient & WebChromeClient. But, basically: if you are developing a WebView that won't require too many features but rendering HTML, you can just use a WebViewClient. On the other hand, if you want to (for instance) load the favicon of the page you are rendering, you should use a WebChromeClient object and override the onReceivedIcon(WebView view, Bitmap icon).

Most of the times, if you don't want to worry about those things... you can just do this:

webView= (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);  webView.setWebChromeClient(new WebChromeClient());  webView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient());  webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);  webView.loadUrl(url);  

And your WebView will (in theory) have all features implemented (as the android native browser).