WKWebView: mailto links in html content not opening mail app

Question

I created a very simple iOS app (Swift 5). It's just a WKWebView that loads my PWA url.

Everything works fine except all <a href="mailto:[email protected]">Mail me</a> links. When I click them, nothing happens, my mail app doesn't open.

This is the code of my ViewController.swift:

//
//  ViewController.swift
//  panel
//
//  Created by kevin on 25/07/2019.
//  Copyright © 2019 umono. All rights reserved.
//

import UIKit
import WebKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, WKUIDelegate {
    
    var webView: WKWebView!
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        let myURL = URL(string:"https://someUrlToMyApp.appspot.com")
        let myRequest = URLRequest(url: myURL!)
        webView.load(myRequest)
        
        if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
            webView.scrollView.contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior = .never;
        }
        
    }
    
    override func loadView() {
        
        let webConfiguration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
        webConfiguration.dataDetectorTypes = [.all]
        webView = WKWebView(frame: .zero, configuration: webConfiguration)
        webView.uiDelegate = self
        view = webView
        
    }

}

EDIT:

Thx guy's, here is my working code:

//
//  ViewController.swift
//  panel
//
//  Created by kevin on 25/07/2019.
//  Copyright © 2019 umono. All rights reserved.
//

import UIKit
import WebKit

class ViewController: UIViewController, WKUIDelegate {
    
    var webView: WKWebView!
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        let myURL = URL(string:"https://someUrlToMyApp.appspot.com")
        let myRequest = URLRequest(url: myURL!)
        webView.load(myRequest)
        
        if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
            webView.scrollView.contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior = .never;
        }
        
        webView.navigationDelegate = self
        
    }
    
    override func loadView() {
        
        let webConfiguration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
        webConfiguration.dataDetectorTypes = [.all]
        webView = WKWebView(frame: .zero, configuration: webConfiguration)
        webView.uiDelegate = self
        view = webView
        
    }

}

extension ViewController: WKNavigationDelegate {
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
                 decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
        guard
            let url = navigationAction.request.url else {
                decisionHandler(.cancel)
                return
        }
        
        let string = url.absoluteString
        if (string.contains("mailto:")) {
            UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
            decisionHandler(.cancel)

            return
        }
        decisionHandler(.allow)
    }
}

Do you mean in my own iphone device? Or is this a setting in my IOS app project? — kevinius
@kevinius In real device open this page in safari and click on Mail Me. If it does not open the email composer then go to device settings and check if mail is configured or not. — TheTiger

Mihai Erős Mihai Erős · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-25T12:21:02

One way to do what you want would be to implement WKNavigationDelegate:

import UIKit
import WebKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var webView: WKWebView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        guard
            let file = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "test", ofType: "html"),
            let html = try? String(contentsOfFile: file) else {
                return
        }

        webView.navigationDelegate = self
        webView.loadHTMLString(html, baseURL: nil)
    }

    @IBAction func didTapButton(_ sender: Any) {
        let email = "[email protected]"
        guard
            let url = URL(string: "mailto:\(email)") else {
                return
        }

        UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
    }
}

extension ViewController: WKNavigationDelegate {
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
                 decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
        guard
            let url = navigationAction.request.url,
            let scheme = url.scheme else {
                decisionHandler(.cancel)
                return
        }

        if (scheme.lowercased() == "mailto") {
            UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
            // here I decide to .cancel, do as you wish
            decisionHandler(.cancel)
            return
        }
        decisionHandler(.allow)
    }
}

Here you have a ViewController that has webView as an outlet, this WKWebView would load an html file like this:

<a href="mailto:[email protected]">Mail me</a>

And I also added in storyboard a button just for reference, which would have the IBAction didTapButton described above.

The key here is:

func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
                 decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void)

Which would give you the URL and let you decide what policy is suitable for it. Here I check if it contains mailto: as I already know this is what you're interested in so if it does, I simply open the URL as I would do if the user presses an UIButton visible on screen.

Hope it helps, cheers!

LE: Make sure you run on a real device (simulators don't have Mail app installed), also make sure you have the Mail app installed, cause I didn't..

WKWebView: mailto links in html content not opening mail app

1 Answers