WebViews! What are they? 🐦
A WebView is an embeddable browser that our native applications can use to display web content. Think of a WebView as a really powerful iframe that lives inside the container of our native mobile or desktop app:
Just like with an iframe, we have the ability to load web content from anywhere into it. This means we can seamlessly blend content in our app that is a mixture of web and native content. That may sound a bit bizarre, but there is a very good chance that almost all of your favorite apps rely on a WebView somewhere to bring in this HTML/CSS/JS rendering goodness to their overall experience.
Below is an example of Microsoft Word using a WebView to display content from Wikipedia:
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, your preferred banking app, and more all do something similar.
The reason WebViews are so popular has to do with code reuse. If you already have a great/responsive web experience, why re-create all of that again for a native mobile or desktop app? You can use a WebView to have a single app that scales across all of the various form factors you are trying to target:
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, your preferred banking app, and more all do something similar.
The reason WebViews are so popular has to do with code reuse. If you already have a great/responsive web experience, why re-create all of that again for a native mobile or desktop app? You can use a WebView to have a single app that scales across all of the various form factors you are trying to target:
Beyond just code re-use, WebViews are designed in a way to allow scripts loaded inside them to access native app APIs and capabilities that provide deeper integration that a regular web app loaded inside a browser won’t be able to pull off. If all of this sounds really awesome, we’ve just scratched the surface of what WebViews can do!
To learn more about WebViews and the technical architecture that makes them so versatile, check out the Understanding WebViews article that is a part of the Web FUNdamentals series.
Video Version
If you would prefer watching a video of me explaining why WebViews are awesome, click below:
There are a bunch of other videos on web development topics that you can find on this site’s Youtube channel, so head on over and subscribe if you haven’t.
Arrays: The Book
If you are looking for a fun and easy-to-follow guide to learn about Arrays in JavaScript, look no further!
Till Next Time
All right! This marks another installment of our once-in-a-whenever newsletter on web development topics. If you ever have ideas for topics you’d like me to consider writing about or just want to chat about anything web development related, drop by the forums…just like it is 1999!
Oh, and follow me on Twitter as well. You’ll thank me one day.
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