Use WKWebView instead of UIWebView

[ckknight]

It would be nice if there were a way to use WKWebView instead of UIWebView when using the <WebView> component, as WKWebView has substantial performance benefits.

[drkibitz]

It also comes with problems. Would like to differentiate between the 2 as separate components.

[LinusU]

@drkibitz What kinds of problem? The only thing I can think of is that it requires iOS 8. Maybe we can choose UIWebView when on iOS 7 and lower, otherwise use WKWebKit.

[gabro]

WKWebView is known to be "broken" or at least unfinished. Here's a relevant thread about why (for instance) Google Chrome for iOS still uses UIWebView: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=423444

A relevant fragment of the discussion:

A partial list of regressions relative to UIWebView that we’re currently aware of:

• There is no cookie management API, which means there is no obvious way to clear/manage cookies
• Protocol handlers no longer work, which breaks several very important features
• POST bodies are missing from delegate callbacks, which breaks certain aspects of form handling

[vjeux]

We should have WebViewIOS and WKWebViewIOS instead of a generic WebView component. Anyone up for the renaming and providing both implementations?

[chandlervdw]

While still buggy, it looks like Telerik has implemented a WKWebView plugin for Cordova that gracefully degrades to UIWebView in <= iOS 7. I agree with @vjeux that we could go ahead and split the components, setting the stage for a working WKWebView.

[jaygarcia]

+1 on @vjeux's suggestion.

[sophiebits]

Why do we need both?

[vjeux]

@spicyj we should be able to expose all the platform features and let the developer pick the one that makes sense for their use case.

[sophiebits]

I agree in principle but my understanding is that UIWebView is preferable only if you need a synchronous API (or need to do low-level configuration), neither of which are super compelling reasons from the JS side. I'm okay either way I guess but the UIWebView/WKWebView vs WebViewIOS/WKWebViewIOS suggested naming is odd to me.

[joewood]

Isn't there still an issue with WKWebView in that it cannot load from a local resource, it has to load over http? Telerik included a mini-http server in the Cordova plugin to workaround this issue, as far as I remember. Just mentioning, as it may not be as simple as a drop-in replacement.

[mydearxym]

+1 I use Semantic-ui to build my mobile app on iOS , and it kind of slow , maybe the WKWebView will speed it up

[koenbok]

Does anyone happen to know if the JIT is enabled in JSContext on desktop?

[brentvatne]

^ cc @ide