CustomBrowserKit

CustomBrowserKit is a library designed to provide ability to open links in browser besides Safari to your awesome app's users. It is written in Objective-C and extended with Swift.

Supported browsers

CustomBrowserKit currently supports:

• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera Mini
• UC Browser
• Puffin Web Browser
• Yandex Browser
• Opening links in SFSafariViewController if iOS version is 9.0+
• Safari

Requirements

• Xcode 8.0+
• iOS 8.0+
• Swift 3.1+

Installation

CustomBrowserKit is available through CocoaPods. To install it, simply add the following line to your Podfile:

pod 'CustomBrowserKit'

Also, starting with iOS 9.0 you must declare the URL schemes of external apps you want to launch. There are only two available browsers you can use without declaring appropriate URL schemes: BKBrowserInAppSafari and BKBrowserSafari. So if you want to use another browsers you must add the LSApplicationQueriesSchemes key to your app's Info.plist file. You are not required to add all of this schemes below, only those you want to let your users to use. But it is important to add BOTH schemes for browsers which have two of them. For example if you want to use Google Chrome, you have to declare both googlechrome and googlechromes URL schemes.

Usage

Make sure to import the framework header: #import <CustomBrowserKit/CustomBrowserKit.h> for Objective-C or import CustomBrowserKit for Swift.

Obtaining information about browser

Objective-C

BKBrowser browser = BKBrowserFirefox;
NSString *browserName = BKBrowserGetName(browser); // @"Firefox"
UIImage *browserLogo = BKBrowserGetThumbnail(browser); // UIImage of size 100x100

Swift

let browser = BKBrowser.firefox
let browserName = browser.name // "Firefox"
let browserLogo = browser.thumbnail // UIImage of size 100x100

Obtaining list of available browsers

Objective-C

for (NSNumber *wrappedBrowser in BKManager.availableBrowsers) {
BKBrowser browser = (BKBrowser)wrappedBrowser.intValue;
NSLog(@"%@ is available", BKBrowserGetName(browser));
}

Swift

for browser in BKManager.availableBrowsers {
print("\(browser.name) is available")
}

Opening links in specific browser

Objective-C

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://google.com/"];

if ([BKManager openURL:url withBrowser:BKBrowserOpera]) {
NSLog(@"did open url successfully");
} else {
NSLog(@"did fail to open url");
}

Swift

let url = URL(string: "https://google.com/")!

if BKManager.open(url, with: .opera) {
print("did open url successfully")
} else {
print("did fail to open url")
}

Opening links in specific browser with fallback to another browser if needed

Objective-C

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://google.com/"];

// BKManager will try to open URL in Opera. If Opera Mini turns out to not be installed or available, BKManager will try to open URL in Google Chrome.
if ([BKManager openURL:url withBrowser:BKBrowserOpera fallbackToBrowser:BKBrowserChrome]) {
NSLog(@"did open url successfully");
} else { // if both Opera Mini and Google Chrome are not available
NSLog(@"did fail to open url");
}

Swift

let url = URL(string: "https://google.com/")!

// BKManager will try to open URL in Opera. If Opera Mini turns out to not be installed or available, BKManager will try to open URL in Google Chrome.
if BKManager.open(url, with: .opera, fallbackTo: .chrome) {
print("did open url successfully")
} else { // if both Opera Mini and Google Chrome are not available
print("did fail to open url")
}

Saving BKBrowser to NSUserDefaults

Objective-C

BKBrowser browser = BKBrowserUCBrowser;
NSUserDefaults *userDefaults = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults;

// saving
[userDefaults setObject:BKBrowserGetIdentifier(browser) forKey:@"savedBrowser"];

// restoring
NSString *browserIdentifier = [userDefaults stringForKey:@"savedBrowser"];
BKBrowser savedBrowser;
if (browserIdentifier) {
savedBrowser = BKBrowserFromIdentifier(browserIdentifier);
} else {
savedBrowser = BKBrowserInAppSafari;
}

Swift

let browser = BKBrowser.ucBrowser
let userDefault = UserDefaults.standard

// saving
userDefault.set(browser.identifier, forKey: "savedBrowser")

// restoring
let savedBrowser: BKBrowser
if let browserIdentifier = userDefault.string(forKey: savedBrowser) {
savedBrowser = BKBrowser(identifier: browserIdentifier)
} else {
savedBrowser = .inAppSafari
}

Example

To run the example project, clone the repo, and run pod install from the Example directory first. Example project includes both Objective-C and Swift versions.

License

CustomBrowserKit is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.