Android’s WebView allows you to open an own windows for viewing URL or custom html markup page.

In this tutorial, you will create two pages, a page with a single button, when you clicked on it, it will navigate to another page and display URL “google.com” in WebView component.

P.S This project is developed in Eclipse 3.7, and tested with Android 2.3.3.

1. Android Layout Files

Create two Android layout files – “res/layout/main.xml” and “res/layout/webview.xml“.

File : res/layout/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" >
 
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonUrl"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Go to http://www.google.com" />
 
</LinearLayout>

File : res/layout/main.xml – WebView example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<WebView  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/webView1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
/>

2. Activity

Two activity classes, an activity to display a button, another activity display the WebView with predefined URL.

File : MainActivity.java

package com.mkyong.android;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
 
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
 
	private Button button;
 
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		final Context context = this;
 
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.main);
 
		button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonUrl);
 
		button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
 
		  @Override
		  public void onClick(View arg0) {
		    Intent intent = new Intent(context, WebViewActivity.class);
		    startActivity(intent);
		  }
 
		});
 
	}
 
}

File : WebViewActivity.java

package com.mkyong.android;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.webkit.WebView;
 
public class WebViewActivity extends Activity {
 
	private WebView webView;
 
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.webview);
 
		webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView1);
		webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
		webView.loadUrl("http://www.google.com");
 
	}
 
}

3. Android Manifest

WebView required INTERNET permission, add below into AndroidManifest.xml.

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

File : AndroidManifest.xml – See full example.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.mkyong.android"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >
 
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" />
 
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
 
    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <activity
            android:name=".WebViewActivity"
            android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar" />
 
        <activity
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:name=".MainActivity" >
            <intent-filter >
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
 
</manifest>

4. Demo

By default, just display a button.

android webview example

Click on button, WebView is display.

android webview example

5. Demo, Again

WebView allow you to manually load custom HTML markup, via webView.loadData(), see modified version :

package com.mkyong.android;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.webkit.WebView;
 
public class WebViewActivity extends Activity {
 
	private WebView webView;
 
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
	   super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
	   setContentView(R.layout.webview);
 
	   webView = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webView1);
	   webView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
	   //webView.loadUrl("http://www.google.com");
 
	   String customHtml = "<html><body><h1>Hello, WebView</h1></body></html>";
	   webView.loadData(customHtml, "text/html", "UTF-8");
 
	}
 
}

Now, when button is clicked, a custom html page is displayed.

android webview example

Download Source Code

Download it – Android-WebView-Example.zip (16 KB)

References

  1. Official Android webView example
  2. Android WebView Javadoc
  3. Switching Android activity
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