Electron webview new-window event returning `about:blank` as Url

6
votes

I have a Electron based browser like application which uses Electron's tag to render client urls. I have my own custom tabs setup using multiple webview tags.

As mentioned in the electron documents, I was using the new-window event to handle page requests to open urls in a new tab. It could be requested by window.open or an external link like <a target='_blank'>.

My code which was working fine in most cases when the url is specified and not dynamically added later on.

const webview = document.querySelector('webview')

webview.addEventListener('new-window', (e) => {
  const url = e.url;
  // used url to render new tabs.
})

Lately i have a client login url which when loaded has a button. The button does not have an anchor tag and no predefined urls specified. When opened in chrome, the button click leads to external link opening in a completely new window. The new window briefly shows 'about:blank' in the url bar but then redirects to the actual url.
When i tried to intercept the same external url using new-window event in my electron webview, the event returned url which was about:blank and i couldn't access the redirected url. Has anybody else faced the same issue ?

2
javascriptelectron
Maybe you could do something with webview.addEventListener('did-stop-loading', loadstop) instead of immediatly looking for the url? Reference - Elias
I just tested this and it seems to work fine and give me the correct url. I tested here: Link. Can you try it out with that website? - Elias
I have edited my question a bit. The link you tested works fine in my case too but my problem is a bit different. The target url in my case is somehow only being added after the button is clicked and it opens in a new window. The new window briefly shows "about:blank" and then redirects to a different url. My new-window event however is triggered immediately after the button is clicked so the url i get is "about:blank". @Elias - Gaurab Kc
I'm not able to test this due I have no website currently in mind that takes a bit time to load. Are you in any shape or form able to provide the website you need to access? - Elias
I'm having the same problem. Any updates so far? - cwirz

2 Answers

0
votes

I had the same issue with a BrowserWindow and I solved by using the nativeWindowOpen flag (experimental at this time)

It is also available for webviews

https://electronjs.org/docs/all#using-chromes-windowopen-implementation

0
votes

In my case, I was able to find the eventually-opened url by adding a will-navigate listener for the popup window's web-contents:

app.on("web-contents-created", (webContentsCreatedEvent, contents)=>{
    contents.on("will-navigate", function(e, reqUrl) {
        console.log(`Popup is navigating to: ${reqUrl}`);
    });
});