WKWebView links not working

Question

I have build a Swift iOS app with the only purpose to display a website with the help of WKWebView.

This works fine, but pressing on links (e.g. on an [mailto:] button) doesn't work because it can't open anything!

Does anybody have a solution for this?

I have read a lot about solving this, but I don't know where to start.

Thanks for the help

[UPDATE: ]

The code below shows the solution

import UIKit
import WebKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, WKNavigationDelegate {

    @IBOutlet var containerView : UIView! = nil
    var webView: WKWebView?

    override func loadView() {
        super.loadView()

        self.webView = WKWebView()
        self.view = self.webView!
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        webView?.navigationDelegate = self
        let url = NSURL(string:"https://google.de")
        let req = NSURLRequest (URL: url!)
        self.webView!.loadRequest(req)
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
    }

    override func prefersStatusBarHidden() -> Bool {
        return true
    }

    func webView(webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyForNavigationAction navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {

        let url = navigationAction.request.URL?.absoluteString
        let url_elements = url!.componentsSeparatedByString(":")

        switch url_elements[0] {
        case "mailto":
            openCustomApp("mailto://", additional_info: url_elements[1])
            decisionHandler(.Cancel)

        default:

        }

        decisionHandler(.Allow)
    }

    func openCustomApp(urlScheme:String, additional_info:String){

        if let requestUrl:NSURL = NSURL(string:"\(urlScheme)"+"\(additional_info)") {
            let application:UIApplication = UIApplication.sharedApplication()
            if application.canOpenURL(requestUrl) {
                application.openURL(requestUrl)
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You have to implement the following method (part of WebKit), which can be used to parse such URLs:

func webView(webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyForNavigationAction navigationAction: WKNavigationAction, decisionHandler: (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void)

The idea is to write if-statements to check for certain URL types before passing the decision. More info here:

• GitHub example
• SO thread
• Awesome tutorials for beginners with WKWebView at hackingwithswift

Keep in mind that some of the syntax for delegates has changed slightly in Swift 3 - something to keep in mind when using tutorials. If you have already found this but you ran into an error - post your code.

EDIT: just an update for others who stumble upon this question. Keep in mind that you need the right formatting for mailto e.g. mailto://[email protected] (as mentioned by OhadM in the comments of the OP)