Reference.md

React Native WebView API Reference

This document lays out the current public properties and methods for the React Native WebView.

Props Index

• source
• automaticallyAdjustContentInsets
• injectedJavaScript
• injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoaded
• injectedJavaScriptForMainFrameOnly
• injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoadedForMainFrameOnly
• mediaPlaybackRequiresUserAction
• nativeConfig
• onError
• onLoad
• onLoadEnd
• onLoadStart
• onLoadProgress
• onHttpError
• onMessage
• onNavigationStateChange
• onContentProcessDidTerminate
• originWhitelist
• renderError
• renderLoading
• scalesPageToFit
• onShouldStartLoadWithRequest
• startInLoadingState
• style
• containerStyle
• decelerationRate
• domStorageEnabled
• javaScriptEnabled
• androidHardwareAccelerationDisabled
• mixedContentMode
• thirdPartyCookiesEnabled
• userAgent
• applicationNameForUserAgent
• allowsFullscreenVideo
• allowsInlineMediaPlayback
• bounces
• overScrollMode
• contentInset
• contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior
• dataDetectorTypes
• scrollEnabled
• directionalLockEnabled
• geolocationEnabled
• allowFileAccessFromFileURLs
• allowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs
• allowingReadAccessToURL
• url
• html
• keyboardDisplayRequiresUserAction
• hideKeyboardAccessoryView
• allowsBackForwardNavigationGestures
• incognito
• allowFileAccess
• saveFormDataDisabled
• cacheEnabled
• cacheMode
• pagingEnabled
• allowsLinkPreview
• sharedCookiesEnabled
• textZoom
• ignoreSilentHardwareSwitch
• onFileDownload

Methods Index

• extraNativeComponentConfig
• goForward
• goBack
• reload
• stopLoading
• injectJavaScript
• clearFormData
• clearCache
• clearHistory
• requestFocus

---

Reference

Props

source

Loads static HTML or a URI (with optional headers) in the WebView. Note that static HTML will require setting originWhitelist to ["*"].

The object passed to source can have either of the following shapes:

Load uri

• uri (string) - The URI to load in the WebView. Can be a local or remote file, and can be changed with React state or props to navigate to a new page.
• method (string) - The HTTP Method to use. Defaults to GET if not specified. On Android, the only supported methods are GET and POST.
• headers (object) - Additional HTTP headers to send with the request. On Android, this can only be used with GET requests. See the Guide for more information on setting custom headers.
• body (string) - The HTTP body to send with the request. This must be a valid UTF-8 string, and will be sent exactly as specified, with no additional encoding (e.g. URL-escaping or base64) applied. On Android, this can only be used with POST requests.

Static HTML

Note that using static HTML requires the WebView property originWhiteList to ['*']. For some content, such as video embeds (e.g. Twitter or Facebook posts with video), the baseUrl needs to be set for the video playback to work

• html (string) - A static HTML page to display in the WebView.
• baseUrl (string) - The base URL to be used for any relative links in the HTML. This is also used for the origin header with CORS requests made from the WebView. See Android WebView Docs

Type	Required
object	No

---

automaticallyAdjustContentInsets

Controls whether to adjust the content inset for web views that are placed behind a navigation bar, tab bar, or toolbar. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

---

injectedJavaScript

Set this to provide JavaScript that will be injected into the web page after the document finishes loading, but before other subresources finish loading.

Make sure the string evaluates to a valid type (true works) and doesn't otherwise throw an exception.

On iOS, see WKUserScriptInjectionTimeAtDocumentEnd

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS, Android, macOS

To learn more, read the Communicating between JS and Native guide.

Example:

Post message a JSON object of window.location to be handled by onMessage

const INJECTED_JAVASCRIPT = `(function() {
    window.ReactNativeWebView.postMessage(JSON.stringify(window.location));
})();`;

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  injectedJavaScript={INJECTED_JAVASCRIPT}
  onMessage={this.onMessage}
/>;

---

injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoaded

Set this to provide JavaScript that will be injected into the web page after the document element is created, but before other subresources finish loading.

Make sure the string evaluates to a valid type (true works) and doesn't otherwise throw an exception.

On iOS, see WKUserScriptInjectionTimeAtDocumentStart

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS, macOS

To learn more, read the Communicating between JS and Native guide.

Example:

Post message a JSON object of window.location to be handled by onMessage. window.ReactNativeWebView.postMessage will be available at this time.

const INJECTED_JAVASCRIPT = `(function() {
    window.ReactNativeWebView.postMessage(JSON.stringify(window.location));
})();`;

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoaded={INJECTED_JAVASCRIPT}
  onMessage={this.onMessage}
/>;

---

injectedJavaScriptForMainFrameOnly

If true (default), loads the injectedJavaScript only into the main frame.

If false, loads it into all frames (e.g. iframes).

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, macOS

---

injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoadedForMainFrameOnly

If true (default), loads the injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoaded only into the main frame.

If false, loads it into all frames (e.g. iframes).

Warning: although support for injectedJavaScriptBeforeContentLoadedForMainFrameOnly: false has been implemented for iOS and macOS, it is not clear that it is actually possible to inject JS into iframes at this point in the page lifecycle, and so relying on the expected behaviour of this prop when set to false is not recommended.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, macOS

---

mediaPlaybackRequiresUserAction

Boolean that determines whether HTML5 audio and video requires the user to tap them before they start playing. The default value is true. (Android API minimum version 17).

NOTE: the default true value might cause some videos to hang loading on iOS. Setting it to false could fix this issue.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

nativeConfig

Override the native component used to render the WebView. Enables a custom native WebView which uses the same JavaScript as the original WebView.

The nativeConfig prop expects an object with the following keys:

• component (any)
• props (object)
• viewManager (object)

Type	Required	Platform
object	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

onError

Function that is invoked when the WebView load fails.

Type	Required
function	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onError={syntheticEvent => {
    const { nativeEvent } = syntheticEvent;
    console.warn('WebView error: ', nativeEvent);
  }}
/>

Function passed to onError is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
code
description
didFailProvisionalNavigation
domain
loading
target
title
url

Note Domain is only used on iOS

---

onLoad

Function that is invoked when the WebView has finished loading.

Type	Required
function	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onLoad={syntheticEvent => {
    const { nativeEvent } = syntheticEvent;
    this.url = nativeEvent.url;
  }}
/>

Function passed to onLoad is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
loading
target
title
url

---

onLoadEnd

Function that is invoked when the WebView load succeeds or fails.

Type	Required
function	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onLoadEnd={syntheticEvent => {
    // update component to be aware of loading status
    const { nativeEvent } = syntheticEvent;
    this.isLoading = nativeEvent.loading;
  }}
/>

Function passed to onLoadEnd is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
loading
target
title
url

---

onLoadStart

Function that is invoked when the WebView starts loading.

Type	Required
function	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev/=' }}
  onLoadStart={syntheticEvent => {
    // update component to be aware of loading status
    const { nativeEvent } = syntheticEvent;
    this.isLoading = nativeEvent.loading;
  }}
/>

Function passed to onLoadStart is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
loading
target
title
url

---

onLoadProgress

Function that is invoked when the WebView is loading.

Type	Required	Platform
function	No	iOS, Android, macOS

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onLoadProgress={({ nativeEvent }) => {
    this.loadingProgress = nativeEvent.progress;
  }}
/>

Function passed to onLoadProgress is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
loading
progress
target
title
url

---

onHttpError

Function that is invoked when the WebView receives an http error.

Note Android API minimum level 23.

Type	Required
function	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onHttpError={syntheticEvent => {
    const { nativeEvent } = syntheticEvent;
    console.warn(
      'WebView received error status code: ',
      nativeEvent.statusCode,
    );
  }}
/>

Function passed to onHttpError is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
description
loading
statusCode
target
title
url

Note Description is only used on Android

---

onMessage

Function that is invoked when the webview calls window.ReactNativeWebView.postMessage. Setting this property will inject this global into your webview.

window.ReactNativeWebView.postMessage accepts one argument, data, which will be available on the event object, event.nativeEvent.data. data must be a string.

Type	Required
function	No

To learn more, read the Communicating between JS and Native guide.

---

onNavigationStateChange

Function that is invoked when the WebView loading starts or ends.

Type	Required
function	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onNavigationStateChange={navState => {
    // Keep track of going back navigation within component
    this.canGoBack = navState.canGoBack;
  }}
/>

The navState object includes these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
loading
navigationType
target
title
url

Note that this method will not be invoked on hash URL changes (e.g. from https://example.com/users#list to https://example.com/users#help). There is a workaround for this that is described in the Guide.

---

onContentProcessDidTerminate

Function that is invoked when the WebView content process is terminated.

Type	Required	Platform
function	No	iOS and macOS WKWebView

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onContentProcessDidTerminate={syntheticEvent => {
    const { nativeEvent } = syntheticEvent;
    console.warn('Content process terminated, reloading', nativeEvent);
    this.refs.webview.reload();
  }}
/>

Function passed to onContentProcessDidTerminate is called with a SyntheticEvent wrapping a nativeEvent with these properties:

canGoBack
canGoForward
loading
target
title
url

---

originWhitelist

List of origin strings to allow being navigated to. The strings allow wildcards and get matched against just the origin (not the full URL). If the user taps to navigate to a new page but the new page is not in this whitelist, the URL will be handled by the OS. The default whitelisted origins are "http://" and "https://".

Type	Required	Platform
array of strings	No	iOS, Android, macOS

Example:

//only allow URIs that begin with https:// or git://
<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  originWhitelist={['https://*', 'git://*']}
/>

---

renderError

Function that returns a view to show if there's an error.

Type	Required	Platform
function	No	iOS, Android, macOS

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  renderError={errorName => <Error name={errorName} />}
/>

The function passed to renderError will be called with the name of the error

---

renderLoading

Function that returns a loading indicator. The startInLoadingState prop must be set to true in order to use this prop.

Type	Required	Platform
function	No	iOS, Android, macOS

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  startInLoadingState={true}
  renderLoading={() => <Loading />}
/>

---

scalesPageToFit

Boolean that controls whether the web content is scaled to fit the view and enables the user to change the scale. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

onShouldStartLoadWithRequest

Function that allows custom handling of any web view requests. Return true from the function to continue loading the request and false to stop loading.

On Android, is not called on the first load.

Type	Required	Platform
function	No	iOS, Android, macOS

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onShouldStartLoadWithRequest={request => {
    // Only allow navigating within this website
    return request.url.startsWith('https://reactnative.dev');
  }}
/>

The request object includes these properties:

title
url
loading
target
canGoBack
canGoForward
lockIdentifier
mainDocumentURL (iOS only)
navigationType

---

startInLoadingState

Boolean value that forces the WebView to show the loading view on the first load. This prop must be set to true in order for the renderLoading prop to work.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

style

A style object that allow you to customize the WebView style. Please note that there are default styles (example: you need to add flex: 0 to the style if you want to use height property).

Type	Required
style	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  style={{ marginTop: 20 }}
/>

---

containerStyle

A style object that allow you to customize the WebView container style. Please note that there are default styles (example: you need to add flex: 0 to the style if you want to use height property).

Type	Required
style	No

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  containerStyle={{ marginTop: 20 }}
/>

---

decelerationRate

A floating-point number that determines how quickly the scroll view decelerates after the user lifts their finger. You may also use the string shortcuts "normal" and "fast" which match the underlying iOS settings for UIScrollViewDecelerationRateNormal and UIScrollViewDecelerationRateFast respectively:

• normal: 0.998
• fast: 0.99 (the default for iOS web view)

Type	Required	Platform
number	No	iOS

---

domStorageEnabled

Boolean value to control whether DOM Storage is enabled. Used only in Android.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

javaScriptEnabled

Boolean value to enable JavaScript in the WebView. The default value is true.

Type	Required
bool	No

---

androidHardwareAccelerationDisabled

Boolean value to disable Hardware Acceleration in the WebView. Used on Android only as Hardware Acceleration is a feature only for Android. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

mixedContentMode

Specifies the mixed content mode. i.e WebView will allow a secure origin to load content from any other origin.

Possible values for mixedContentMode are:

• never (default) - WebView will not allow a secure origin to load content from an insecure origin.
• always - WebView will allow a secure origin to load content from any other origin, even if that origin is insecure.
• compatibility - WebView will attempt to be compatible with the approach of a modern web browser with regard to mixed content.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	Android

---

thirdPartyCookiesEnabled

Boolean value to enable third party cookies in the WebView. Used on Android Lollipop and above only as third party cookies are enabled by default on Android Kitkat and below and on iOS. The default value is true. For more on cookies, read the Guide

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

userAgent

Sets the user-agent for the WebView.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

applicationNameForUserAgent

Append to the existing user-agent. Setting userAgent will override this.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS, Android, macOS

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  applicationNameForUserAgent={'DemoApp/1.1.0'}
/>
// Resulting User-Agent will look like:
// Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 8.1.0; Android SDK built for x86 Build/OSM1.180201.021; wv) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/61.0.3163.98 Mobile Safari/537.36 DemoApp/1.1.0
// Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 12_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/15E148 DemoApp/1.1.0

allowsFullscreenVideo

Boolean that determines whether videos are allowed to be played in fullscreen. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

allowsInlineMediaPlayback

Boolean that determines whether HTML5 videos play inline or use the native full-screen controller. The default value is false.

NOTE

In order for video to play inline, not only does this property need to be set to true, but the video element in the HTML document must also include the webkit-playsinline attribute.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

---

bounces

Boolean value that determines whether the web view bounces when it reaches the edge of the content. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

---

overScrollMode

Specifies the over scroll mode.

Possible values for overScrollMode are:

• always (default) - Always allow a user to over-scroll this view, provided it is a view that can scroll.
• content - Allow a user to over-scroll this view only if the content is large enough to meaningfully scroll, provided it is a view that can scroll.
• never - Never allow a user to over-scroll this view.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	Android

---

contentInset

The amount by which the web view content is inset from the edges of the scroll view. Defaults to {top: 0, left: 0, bottom: 0, right: 0}.

Type	Required	Platform
object: {top: number, left: number, bottom: number, right: number}	No	iOS

---

contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior

This property specifies how the safe area insets are used to modify the content area of the scroll view. The default value of this property is "never". Available on iOS 11 and later. Defaults to never.

Possible values:

• automatic
• scrollableAxes
• never
• always

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS

---

dataDetectorTypes

Determines the types of data converted to clickable URLs in the web view's content. By default only phone numbers are detected.

You can provide one type or an array of many types.

Possible values for dataDetectorTypes are:

• phoneNumber
• link
• address
• calendarEvent
• none
• all
• trackingNumber
• flightNumber
• lookupSuggestion

Type	Required	Platform
string, or array	No	iOS

---

scrollEnabled

Boolean value that determines whether scrolling is enabled in the WebView. The default value is true. Setting this to false will prevent the webview from moving the document body when the keyboard appears over an input.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS and macOS

---

directionalLockEnabled

A Boolean value that determines whether scrolling is disabled in a particular direction. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

---

showsHorizontalScrollIndicator

Boolean value that determines whether a horizontal scroll indicator is shown in the WebView. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

showsVerticalScrollIndicator

Boolean value that determines whether a vertical scroll indicator is shown in the WebView. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

geolocationEnabled

Set whether Geolocation is enabled in the WebView. The default value is false. Used only in Android.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

allowFileAccessFromFileURLs

Boolean that sets whether JavaScript running in the context of a file scheme URL should be allowed to access content from other file scheme URLs. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

allowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs

Boolean that sets whether JavaScript running in the context of a file scheme URL should be allowed to access content from any origin. Including accessing content from other file scheme URLs. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

---

allowingReadAccessToURL

A String value that indicates which URLs the WebView's file can then reference in scripts, AJAX requests, and CSS imports. This is only used in for WebViews that are loaded with a source.uri set to a 'file://' URL. If not provided, the default is to only allow read access to the URL provided in source.uri itself.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS and macOS

---

url

Deprecated. Use the source prop instead.

Type	Required
string	No

---

html

Deprecated. Use the source prop instead.

Type	Required
string	No

---

keyboardDisplayRequiresUserAction

If false, web content can programmatically display the keyboard. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS

---

hideKeyboardAccessoryView

If true, this will hide the keyboard accessory view (< > and Done).

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS

---

allowsBackForwardNavigationGestures

If true, this will be able horizontal swipe gestures. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS and macOS

---

incognito

Does not store any data within the lifetime of the WebView.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS, Android, macOS

---

allowFileAccess

If true, this will allow access to the file system via file:// URI's. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	Android

---

saveFormDataDisabled

Sets whether the WebView should disable saving form data. The default value is false. This function does not have any effect from Android API level 26 onwards as there is an Autofill feature which stores form data.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	Android

---

cacheEnabled

Sets whether WebView should use browser caching.

Type	Required	Default	Platform
boolean	No	true	iOS, Android, macOS

---

cacheMode

Overrides the way the cache is used. The way the cache is used is based on the navigation type. For a normal page load, the cache is checked and content is re-validated as needed. When navigating back, content is not revalidated, instead the content is just retrieved from the cache. This property allows the client to override this behavior.

Possible values are:

• LOAD_DEFAULT - Default cache usage mode. If the navigation type doesn't impose any specific behavior, use cached resources when they are available and not expired, otherwise load resources from the network.
• LOAD_CACHE_ELSE_NETWORK - Use cached resources when they are available, even if they have expired. Otherwise load resources from the network.
• LOAD_NO_CACHE - Don't use the cache, load from the network.
• LOAD_CACHE_ONLY - Don't use the network, load from the cache.

Type	Required	Default	Platform
string	No	LOAD_DEFAULT	Android

---

pagingEnabled

If the value of this property is true, the scroll view stops on multiples of the scroll view’s bounds when the user scrolls. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS

---

allowsLinkPreview

A Boolean value that determines whether pressing on a link displays a preview of the destination for the link. In iOS this property is available on devices that support 3D Touch. In iOS 10 and later, the default value is true; before that, the default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS and macOS

---

sharedCookiesEnabled

Set true if shared cookies from [NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage] should used for every load request in the WebView. The default value is false. For more on cookies, read the Guide

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS and macOS

---

textZoom

If the user has set a custom font size in the Android system, an undesirable scale of the site interface in WebView occurs.

When setting the standard textZoom (100) parameter size, this undesirable effect disappears.

Type	Required	Platform
number	No	Android

Example:

<WebView textZoom={100} />

ignoreSilentHardwareSwitch

(ios only)

When set to true the hardware silent switch is ignored. Default: false

Type	Required	Platform
boolean	No	iOS

onFileDownload

This property is iOS-only.

Function that is invoked when the client needs to download a file.

iOS 13+ only: If the webview navigates to a URL that results in an HTTP response with a Content-Disposition header 'attachment...', then this will be called.

iOS 8+: If the MIME type indicates that the content is not renderable by the webview, that will also cause this to be called. On iOS versions before 13, this is the only condition that will cause this function to be called.

The application will need to provide its own code to actually download the file.

If not provided, the default is to let the webview try to render the file.

Example:

<WebView
  source={{ uri: 'https://reactnative.dev' }}
  onFileDownload={ ( { nativeEvent: { downloadUrl } } ) => {
    // You use downloadUrl which is a string to download files however you want.
  }}
  />

Type	Required	Platform
function	No	iOS

Methods

extraNativeComponentConfig()

static extraNativeComponentConfig()

goForward()

goForward();

Go forward one page in the web view's history.

goBack()

goBack();

Go back one page in the web view's history.

reload()

reload();

Reloads the current page.

stopLoading()

stopLoading();

Stop loading the current page.

injectJavaScript(str)

injectJavaScript('... javascript string ...');

Executes the JavaScript string.

To learn more, read the Communicating between JS and Native guide.

requestFocus()

requestFocus();

Request the webView to ask for focus. (People working on TV apps might want having a look at this!)

clearFormData()

(android only)

clearFormData();

Removes the autocomplete popup from the currently focused form field, if present. developer.android.com reference

clearCache(bool)

(android only)

clearCache(true);

Clears the resource cache. Note that the cache is per-application, so this will clear the cache for all WebViews used. developer.android.com reference

clearHistory()

(android only)

clearHistory();

Tells this WebView to clear its internal back/forward list. developer.android.com reference

Other Docs

Also check out our Getting Started Guide and In-Depth Guide.