WebKit

WebKit is available as an API as of Safari 1.0. Safari 1.0 installs a new version of Foundation with some URL loading gubbins. You'll need the WebKit SDK from http://connect.apple.com/ and, of course, your users will need to have Safari installed. I suspect Safari and WebKit will be included in the system in the next major release, and the headers/docs will be in the developer tools, but you never can tell.

WebKit builds upon two lower-level frameworks:

• DOMCore - HTML/XML element/node model
• JavaScriptCore
• WebCore

I figured out how to get WebKit to render something...

[[myWebView mainFrame] loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString?:myUrlString]]];

where myWebView is an instance of WebView, and myUrlString is just an NSString containing the URL to load. That renders it, and basically, it works fine. I've also figured out some of the other delegate interfaces and stuff to control JavaScript and the status bar and things like that. I wrote a test app for this, I have a screenshot at http://atommic.com/images/WebKitTest.jpg.html

-- AdamAtlas

If you don't want to use NSURL loading (as your blog says), try these methods:

/*!
    @method loadData:MIMEType:textEncodingName:baseURL:
    @param data The data to use for the main page of the document.
    @param MIMEType The MIME type of the data.
    @param encodingName The encoding of the data.
    @param URL The base URL to apply to relative URLs within the document.
*/
- (void)loadData:(NSData *)data MIMEType:(NSString *)MIMEType
    textEncodingName:(NSString *)encodingName baseURL:(NSURL *)URL;

/*!
    @method loadHTMLString:baseURL:
    @param string The string to use for the main page of the document.
    @param URL The base URL to apply to relative URLs within the document.
*/
- (void)loadHTMLString:(NSString *)string baseURL:(NSURL *)URL;

But I should note that the new NSURL loading classes look very extensive. It's kinda weird there are so many; it doesn't really seem to fit into the Cocoa idea of having a small number of classes. --QuiSait?

What is WebCore and what is WebKit? How do I inlcude to WebKit simply, #import <WebKit/WebKit.h> ? -- EnglaBenny

Here's the basic description of a WebView from the WebKit headers:

/*!
    @class WebView
    WebView manages the interaction between WebFrameViews and WebDataSources.  Modification
    of the policies and behavior of the WebKit is largely managed by WebViews and their
    delegates.
    
    Typical usage:

    WebView *webView;
    WebFrame *mainFrame;
    
    webView  = [[WebView alloc] initWithFrame: NSMakeRect (0,0,640,480)];
    mainFrame = [webView mainFrame];
    [mainFrame loadRequest:request];
    
    WebViews have the following delegates:  WebUIDelegate, WebResourceLoadDelegate,
    WebFrameLoadDelegate, and WebPolicyDelegate.
    
    WebKit depends on the WebView's WebUIDelegate for all window
    related management, including opening new windows and controlling the user interface
    elements in those windows.
    
    WebResourceLoadDelegate is used to monitor the progress of resources as they are
    loaded.  This delegate may be used to present users with a progress monitor.
    
    The WebFrameLoadDelegate receives messages when the URL in a WebFrame is
    changed.
    
    WebView's WebPolicyDelegate can make determinations about how
    content should be handled, based on the resource's URL and MIME type.
*/

Note that it has the following convenient IB action methods:

@interface WebView (WebIBActions) <NSUserInterfaceValidations>
- (IBAction)takeStringURLFrom:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)stopLoading:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)reload:(id)sender;
- (BOOL)canGoBack;
- (IBAction)goBack:(id)sender;
- (BOOL)canGoForward;
- (IBAction)goForward:(id)sender;
- (BOOL)canMakeTextLarger;
- (IBAction)makeTextLarger:(id)sender;
- (BOOL)canMakeTextSmaller;
- (IBAction)makeTextSmaller:(id)sender;
@end

There's also HIWebView? for Carbon applications, which is simply a HIToolbox wrapper for WebView, and its only functions are HIWebViewCreate?() and HIWebViewGetNSView?(). You have to call InitWebKitForCarbon?() first.

The headers are:

• CarbonUtils?.h
• HIWebView?.h
• WebBackForwardList?.h
• WebDataSource?.h
• WebDocument?.h
• WebDownload?.h
• WebFrame.h
• WebFrameLoadDelegate?.h
• WebFrameView?.h
• WebHistory?.h
• WebHistoryItem?.h
• WebKit.h
• WebKitErrors?.h
• WebPolicyDelegate?.h
• WebPreferences?.h
• WebResourceLoadDelegate?.h
• WebUIDelegate?.h
• WebView.h

Should we remove the classdump as it's now essentially useless?

If someone would like to know more about methods or documentation for a class, it can be published here.

Something which I find very interesting when examining both the WebKit public classes and the new NSURL loading classes is that instead of listing the ivars in the main header file, they have created a *extra* class, which contains all the ivars and usually a dealloc and sometimes an init method. Examples:

@interface WebFrame : NSObject
{
@private
    WebFramePrivate *_private;
}

@interface WebHistory : NSObject {
@private
    WebHistoryPrivate *_historyPrivate;
}

@interface NSURLDownload : NSObject
{
    @private
    NSURLDownloadInternal *_internal;
}

The WebKit uses ?Private, while NSURL uses ?Internal. What do you think about this? I think it's useless effort and pretty stupid, as instead of accessing ivars with something as simple as _name, you would have to use _private->name. I can only hope that this doesn't start a trend.

It's actually a solution to the "Fragile Base Class Problem". By putting the instance variables into a different memory block, you can add/remove ivars without affecting binary compatibility. If you add an instance variable to a class, anyone that subclasses from it will need to be recompiled. If you add an instance variable to one of these _private blocks, you don't need to do that. ++MarkDalrymple

Woah...smart :). So would you recommend that people to this? Could you use a struct...or wouldn't that fix the problem? So you have, for example, void *_private in your header, and in the implementation file:

typedef struct __ClassNameIvars {
    NSString *_name;
    id _delegate;
    ...
} _ClassNameIvars;

and then just alloc each of the variables within the struct, but not malloc the struct itself to avoid having to use sizeof(_ClassNameIvars), which I assume would prevent compatibility. Or am I just way off?

Way off :) Remember that this struct, being hidden behind proprietary code and a pointer, does not affect any user code. Obviously, something will have to malloc it, or else it won't exist! But that something is the proprietary code - the implementation file. This will need to be recompiled when more headers are added.

The other solution to the fragile base class problem is ClassClusters, which seem a much more Cocoa-ish way to do things, but who are we to question Apple?

And...is this what's up with all the void *_reserved1; void *_reserved2 declarations in Apple's header files?

Possibly. Another possibility is that they're padding out whether for compatibility (I think the various [and mutually contradictory] zone systems do this) or something else--maybe they're just reserving them in case they might want a couple of bytes around. I would personally never, ever want to use this sort of thing in my code; ClassClusters would indeed be preferable. But hey, it's not my code.

The _reserved# things are another technique. They're some extra space allocated for potential future use. You can stick your ivars into the class (thereby avoiding an extra malloc, and the pointer dereferences to get to the instance variable data), and then tack on a couple of pointers to the end of your object. If you discover you need more ivars down the road, you can then hang an allocated structure off of your _reserved1 pointer (and probably renaming it to something more meaningful), so you can be flexible and still maintain binary compatibility. ++MarkDalrymple

Oh, it can also be a performance optimziation. Like you have a class that do things in a simple way that 90% of your customers will be using (say, a scrolling list of strings), and it can do things in a complex way (a 2-D scrolling table of images). Your object can have instance variables that are used in the common case. When someone starts using the complex case, you can alloc a block with the extra data needed, so you only pay the price for the compex behavior when you actually use it. (of course, it's usually better to break such stuff into multiple classes or class clusters in the first place; but I've worked on systems that used this particular pattern before) ++MarkDalrymple

HowToDoYourOwnBrowserWithWebCore

[[webView mainFrame] loadHTMLString:[textView string] baseURL:nil]

--JoshaChapmanDodson

By RTFM - [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/DisplayWebContent/Tasks/LocationChanges.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20002027/117641]

 - (WebView *)webView:(WebView *)sender createWebViewWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request
{
    id myApp = [[NSDocumentController sharedDocumentController] openUntitledDocumentOfType:@"Web Page" display:YES];
    [[[myApp webView] mainFrame] loadRequest:request];
    return [myApp webView];
}
- (void)webViewShow:(WebView *)sender
{	
    id myApp = [[NSDocumentController sharedDocumentController] documentForWindow:[sender window]];
    [myApp showWindows];
} 

I have a webView outlet connected to the webView in MyDocument?.nib. When I run the program and try to open a new window, the new window's webView just loads the homepage, and the "Run" window says:

Web Browser[3076] *** -[MyDocument? webView]: selector not recognized Web Browser[3076] *** -[MyDocument? webView]: selector not recognized. Does anyone know what might be wrong?

-- MattBall

Nevermind. I figured it out. I was missing

 - (id)webView
{
    return webView;
} 

I knew it had to be something simple like that.

-- MattBall

Hi, i have to display a javascript form in a webView, that works fine. But i have too to access to the data given by the user in the form. Can I do that and how ?

Well I have succeed to acces JavaScript vars with this code :

_script = [[NSString alloc] initWithString: @"return myVar"];
_result = [[NSString alloc] initWithString: [webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString: _script]];
 

It's cool, but i would have the possibility to have an action beginning when the user hit a JavaScript button. Any idea on how to do that ?

TIA --Elfi

Why don't you just do this? Much less code, same result.. no leaks.

_result = [webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:@"return myVar"];
 

- (void)webView:(WebView *)sender decidePolicyForNavigationAction:(NSDictionary *)actionInformation 
        request:(NSURLRequest *)request frame:(WebFrame *)frame decisionListener:(id<WebPolicyDecisionListener>)listener
{	
	if( [actionInformation objectForKey:@"WebActionNavigationTypeKey"] != nil )
	{		
		if([[[actionInformation objectForKey:@"WebActionOriginalURLKey"] description] isEqualToString:@"blabla:cancel"])
			[NSApp terminate: self];
	}
	[listener use];
}

I put a WebView onto an NSWindow in IB, and I #include <WebKit/WebKit.h> and <WebKit/WebView.h>, but I keep getting -[NSKeyedUnarchiver? decodeObjectForKey:]: cannot decode object of class (WebView). Can anyone help?

Have you added WebKit.framework to your project? And use #import, not #include

I'd like to make some sort of chat view using WebKit, similar to what AdiumX? or Colloquy does. I have browsed the WebKit documentation a bit, but I don't know how to get started with this stuff. Any ideas?

You'd do it the same way you'd do it in a web browser. If you don't already know a great deal about HTML, JavaScript, and the DOM, then start reading.

Does anyone know how to go about capturing mouseup events in a WebView? I would like to create an app that displays the xpath of whatever the user clicks on. There is a delegate for mouseovers, but not clicks. The mouseup method in WebHTMLView? doesn't have any "hooks." I thought of perhaps making a class that poses as NSControl. The other thing I thought of is, perhaps there is some way to have javascript event handlers call me? (another user was asking about that above) There is no way to do this in the public API, and I haven't dug far enough in the code to figure it out. Has anyone already done something like this?

Yep, I've check the right folder, and it's not there. And I am running a very new dual G5 with Tiger, of course, with the latest Safari. That's what's throwing me off. I've even Spotlighted webkit.framework and nothing comes up.

It could be that the finder isn't showing it to you for some reason. Try repairing permissions, and to see if the finder thinks it's hidden or something, open up the Terminal (/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type this command "file /System/Library/Frameworks/Webkit.framework", and then enter. All that does is give you info about the given file path and it should return: "/System/Library/Frameworks/Webkit.framework: directory". If it says something about it not existing, I suggest either re-installing OS X or trying to get direct support from the ADC.

I'm ashamed to say that I must have been automatically thinking "System/" meant my "Macintosh HD/" folder. With opening up the minibrowser project, I opened up the Webkit framework in the Finder from there, and quickly realized that I needed to go to Macintosh HD/System/Library instead of Macintosh HD/Library. Thanks for the simple help. I still find it interesting that SpotLight does not return any results from "webkit.framework". I almost want to delete this thread from the page, but I guess I won't mess with it. If someone else thinks it to be worthless and feels at liberty to do so, then by all means, delete it. Thanks!

How do I force my web view to use the stored resources instead of loading them from the web? Thanks in advance for any help!

-- StevenHuey

#import <WebKit/WebView.h>

@interface PGPlugin : NSObject
{
}

@end



WebView *webView;
webView = [[WebView alloc] initWithFrame:[[[self window] contentView] bounds]
frameName:nil
groupName:nil];

id win = [webView windowScriptObject];

[win setValue:myview forKey:@"ActionMethod"];

I'm getting a number of compile errors. Any comments?