How to force the browser not to open a new page each time?

Question

I'd like to thank in advance all the people who will take the time to read my post (and maybe answer it :p)

I'm developping a very simple Android application, which aims at displaying a website. Of course, I've read the documentation, and I'm using the following code to display the page :

Uri uriUrl = Uri.parse("http://example.com");
Intent launchBrowser = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uriUrl);
startActivity(launchBrowser);

The site is correctly displaying, I'm on heaven :) But.. If i quit the application by pressing the HOME button (I know it doesn't really quit, but nervermind) and launches it again, the web browser opens a new tab containing my page. What I would like is the browser not creating a new tab, but keep the one that was created during first launch.

I'd rather not use Webviews since it implies more code, and I want a very simple application.

I'm new to Android development, so please be kind with me :D I apologize for the errors, I know my English is bad.

Thank you guys !

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 06 '11 at 15:21

I'm fairly new to android dev too but from what I understand when you're calling the browser the way you are, you're just opening the URL in the default browser. Using a WebView is ideal because it is then specific to your application (isolated, or at least this is the impression I am under). Using a webview isn't incredibly difficult. Here's some code that should have you well under-way:

    public void initWebView() {         

        WebView wview;  

        wview = new WebView(getApplicationContext());

        //Add the WebView to the current window
        ((WindowManager)getApplicationContext().getSystemService("window")).addView(wview, new WindowManager.LayoutParams(300, 300));

        wview.clearHistory();
        wview.clearCache(true);

        wview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
        wview.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
        wview.getSettings().setPluginState(WebSettings.PluginState.ON);

        wview.getSettings().setRenderPriority(RenderPriority.HIGH);


        wview.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient()
        {
            public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url)
            {                               
                //Callback for when pages are finished loading
                wview.layout(0, 0, (int)DESIRED_WIDTH, (int)DESIRED_HEIGHT);
            }

            public void onPageStarted(WebView view, String url, Bitmap favicon)
            {
                //Callback for when pages are being loaded

            }
         });

        wview.loadUrl("http://blog.ascensionsystems.ca/");
    }

Thank you for your quick answer Ascension, I'm trying to setup this Webview, but I'm quite disapointed, especially when trying to display a progress bar (so that the user experience is not too bad), I'm taking the reference on android developers but doesn't work for me :( By the way your post is really helpful, I'l come back here with a working solution as soon as it is ready ;) — dev59, Apr 07 '11 at 08:32
To be honest from what I've learned so far it's a beast of it's own class (android) and it has a bit of a learning curve. Patience, you'll figure it out. :) — , Apr 07 '11 at 11:45

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 08 '11 at 07:36

I've been dealing with WebViews, and they do the work :) It's a bit tricky to set them up when new to Android development, but they are very configurable, and so can be adapted to all situations.

So the answer to my question could be : USE WEBVIEW !

Your code was a big help Ascension, it allowed me not to start from scratch and to see some "core" methods required to have a functionnal WebView.

Small note for you : some methods you use here are noted as "Deprecated" on the documentation (I'm thinking of setPluginsEnabled() for instance).

Last but not least, for those who wonder : if you take Ascension sample code, you'll notice that your page is reloaded on every screen rotation. This was a little pain for me to figure out why this happened, but it's normal, see http://www.devdiv.com/android/docs/guide/topics/resources/runtime-changes.html

How to force the browser not to open a new page each time?

2 Answers2