Unlock the Power of Flutter: Building Apps with WebView
Are you tired of juggling multiple codebases for different platforms? Google’s Flutter is here to revolutionize the way we create apps, making it possible to run on various platforms without rewriting code. But, did you know that Flutter’s configurability allows plugins to be developed by other developers? One such plugin is webview_flutter, which enables us to load web pages within our Flutter app.
What is Flutter WebView?
webview_flutter is a Flutter plugin that provides a WebView widget on Android and iOS, allowing us to display web pages on both platforms. This plugin is essential for loading webpages from a URL or a local source.
Getting Started with Flutter WebView
To use Flutter WebView, you’ll need to have the following tools installed on your machine:
- Flutter SDK (select the correct version based on your operating system: Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS)
- VS Code (with the Flutter extension installed)
- Android Studio (with the Flutter and Dart plugins installed)
Setting Up a Flutter Project
Create a new Flutter project using the flutter CLI tool. Name your project “webviewprj” and run the command to create the project. Open the project in VS Code and add the webview_flutter dependency to your pubspec.yaml file.
Adding the WebView Dependency
Add the webviewflutter dependency to your project by running the command flutter pub get in your terminal. Then, set the minimum SDK version needed for the webviewflutter plugin in your android/app/build.gradle file.
Using WebView in Your App
To render the WebView widget, import the webview_flutter package and create a new WebView instance. You can then load a webpage by passing the URL to the WebView widget.
Customizing Your WebView
There are several parameters you can pass to the WebView widget to customize its behavior, such as:
- onWebViewCreated: a function that is invoked once the web view is created
- initialUrl: the URL of the webpage to be loaded and rendered
- javascriptMode: whether JavaScript is enabled in the WebView
- navigationDelegate: a delegate function that decides how to handle navigation actions
Controlling the WebView
Use the WebViewController to control the WebView and perform actions such as going back, going forward, reloading the page, and more.
Creating Widget Pages
Create two widget pages in your app: HomePage and WebViewPage. The HomePage will hold two buttons that, when clicked, will open the WebViewPage and render a WebView with the specified URL.
Running the App
Run the app using the command flutter run in your terminal or by clicking on “Run Without Debugging” or “Start Debugging” in VS Code. Make sure you have your emulator running.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we explored the power of Flutter WebView and learned how to set up a Flutter project, install the webview_flutter dependency, and create widgets to render and display web pages in a Flutter app. With this knowledge, you can now build apps that seamlessly integrate web pages, enhancing the user experience.